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| - Asian Legend has become a go-to restaurant for my family. We've been coming here for well over 10 years and I am happy to say that the quality of food has not gone down. It is impressive how consistent it has been, especially across all the restaurant locations.
Family favourites:
- Soup Filled Dumplings ($5.99): ah XLB... while I wouldn't say it's the best that you can get in the city, it is way above average
- Steamed Chicken Dumplings ($5.99): juicy and plump
- Rolled Onion Pancake with Sliced Beef ($5.99): portions have been shrinking over the years, but it's a great way to have your sliced beef and green onion pancake all at once
- Deep Fried Tofu with Garlic Sauce ($3.99): actually ordered this by accident once, but what a great mistake. It has a good combination of saltiness, crunchiness and sharpness that comes from the garlic.
- Peking Duck ($39.99): not my #1 spot for peking duck, but it's pretty good and the duck is leaner than other places if you're health conscious
- Braised Beef Noodle Soup ($9.95): I have yet to find a place in Toronto that does this better than Asian Legend. The price has been going up on this dish and portions have been shrinking... but it still tastes good after all these years.
- Cold Noodles with Shredded Chicken & Spicy Peanut Sauce ($6.99): the noodles are a little chewy which makes it great. Make sure you mix it all up before eating it and it does have quite a bit of garlic, so I wouldn't probably order it if you're dining for lunch on a weekday.
- Fried Rice Cakes with Pork & Pickled Vegetables ($10.99): rice cakes are properly prepared, they aren't soggy or overly hard to chew. Note, rice cakes in general are hard to reheat as they stick together and become quite hard - try to finish this dish and not take it home.
I would stay away from the Westernized dishes (e.g. beef w/ broccoli, sweat & sour pork, etc.) as I haven't found them to be any good. Desserts are average.
The service here is a bit chaotic, but you will never have an empty teapot. There's a dedicated person that just walks around every 5 min or so to check if you need more hot water (props to that guy).
I have been to the original Din Tai Fung in Taipei and other locations in Shanghai, Hong Kong and LA. While Asian Legend isn't at that level (yet), I'm still quite satisfied with the food that comes out here.
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