| rev:text
| - I live in Scarborough so I was familiar with the old location of Fantasy Eatery. In fact, I was so familiar with it because my father had an obsession with the place and we'd find ourselves dining there biweekly. I was never a fan of the food there. To me, it was lackluster and bland, it had the problem every Chinese food restaurants seems to have (you know... when the majority of the food tastes the same and drenched in some brown sauce). Leftovers often became indistinguible come the following day. Fantasy Eatery to me didn't stand out at all; it was a cheap joint that had mediocre food.
Upon learning that the Scarborough location was closed, my father was heartbroken. After some researching online (thanks Yelp!), I was informed that there was a Richmond Hill location. For Father's day (we were a few days late), my brother and I decided to surprise my dad with a one hour car ride to try out this familiar unfamiliar joint.
We walked into a bright, colourful but small room which hosted about 20-30 tables. We were quickly seated and given menus. Talking to our waitress, she later informed us that they were in fact the same company as previously nested in Scarborough. The menus seemed different yet held lots of the same dishes as the Scarborough location. We glanced through and found quite a few dishes we wanted to sink our teeth into. In the Chef's Recommendations category, the Ice-Quake Sweet and Sour Pork drew our attention. Flipping through we order a noodle dish, a fried rice, Beef Rib with Teriyaki sauce, Tofu & Fish, Green Onion & Ginger Oyster and Deep Fried Pumpkin. We had 7 dishes (+soup & dessert) for 5 people and it way more than enough.
The first dish that appeared at the table was the Beef Rib with Teriyaki sauce. I'm generally not a fan of beef ribs because they tend to be really chewy and hard to eat. However, the meat was super tender and didn't have the tough pull that you usually struggle with eating beef ribs. The sauce wasn't overdone and the amount of teriyaki on the plate was a nice glaze rather than a heavy thick sauce. I got really excited after this first dish, I didn't have much expectation for Fantasy Eatery in the beginning but this place was starting to look up.
The Tofu & Fish came at the same time as the Shrimp Fried Rice, I had a small bite of fish and it just wasn't my cup of tea. It wasn't bad but it wasn't a dish I particularly enjoyed. The fried rice was nothing special so moving on.
Next we got the famous Ice-Quake Sweet and Sour pork. I was real excited for this one since I had never had it served this way. Ice cubes were placed onto of the cooked pork so that the temperature brings out the crispiness of the pork. It worked. The pork was nice and crispy while the inside stayed juicy. My only complaint was that the temperature differences between the pork that didn't touch ice compared to the pork directly touching the ice confused my mouth a bit. My brain wasn't sure if I was having a cold dish or a warm dish which threw me off a little. However, the dish was brilliantly done, and very delicious.
The Fried pumpkin was a new dish that I wasn't familiar with at all, I actually wasn't aware it was ordered until it came to our table. But when it landed, I was eager to try it. It was lightly battered, well-seasoned and pleasant to taste. The texture of the seasoning felt strange on my palette as it had grittiness to the bite. It was a new sensation but it wasn't bad. I did enjoy this dish and I would like to have it again. Oysters are usually a staple that my family orders when we're out celebrating. So the Green Onion & Ginger Oysters was definitely not a new dish to try. Fantasy Eatery's version was delicious. A little more battered than I like but overall the taste and texture was fairly delicious.
All throughout our meal we had absolutely fantastic service, good food, and an enjoyable meal. The price had definitely gone up since the previous restaurant but so has the quality of the food. I do wish that when Fantasy Eatery was in Scarborough, it tasted like this. Even though it's a really far trek up North for this place, I'm sure I'll be back... one day.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)