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| - From tons of great Chinese restaurants to choose from in China Town (go figure), on a whim, we chose to drop in Lee Garden. A typical Chinese restaurant which looks the part inside and out. They've been sitting on Spadina forever and are still pretty busy all the time. Strolling in on Wednesday night at 8PM, was no different. Almost all tables were taken but the turnover seemed quick so waiting wouldn't have been so bad either.
Outside, the stand-up board displayed their $12 dinner menu. Included was a soup (wonton or hot and sour), an entree ranging from chicken, beef to tofu and 4 other options, followed by dessert (like typical red bean/green bean soup or something with banana, I forgot). I went with the garlic, ginger and green onion beef with hot and sour soup. My friend opted for the pork loin in sweet and sour sauce, while my other padre ordered off their everyday menu and had steamed cod with black bean sauce ($18).
The restaurant was large, enough room for everyone and very lively. Filled with mostly middle aged couples, families and business men. Some teens, and then there was us. Everything was clean and well-lit and although the service was friendly, it was very slow. The dishes came out one at a time with 5 min intervals in between each. It felt like we entered an eating relay race because one of us finished our dinner before the other came out, with the last dish arriving 20 minutes after the first (and that was with a lot of reminding, hand raising and prodding).
On the food side, everything tasted great. The beef I ordered was super tender, flavors were on point and with rice, it was even better. Portions are reasonable but not large. The Cod came as two fillets and they were silky, coming with a ton of flavor even for a steamed dish. The pork loins were tender beyond belief and the sauce wasn't super gloppy and corn starch latent. Maybe the tenderness came from 15 minutes of hammering and pounding... idk.
Overall, Lee Garden was tasty, the service time was iffy and the atmosphere feels like any other Chinese restaurant. Come here if you want a good meal that will satisfy your Chinese food cravings but not surpass them by any stretch,
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