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| - Susur, what happened?!!!
I was very excited and had high hopes for Lee Lounge but was incredibly disappointed.
I was there Saturday evening for dinner. Lee Lounge doesn't take reservations so when we arrived there I mentioned that we were there for dinner and was seated at Lee Restaurant instead. I didn't see the "Pedestal of Susur's favorite plates" on the menu (which was one of the reasons I was there for), so when I asked the server he said that it is only served in the lounge area and asked if I wanted to be moved to the lounge area, which we did.
The menu was trying to hard, it seems. It was an interesting of fusion of traditional dim sum dishes and bar food appetizers. Susur is known for his Asian fusions but this was not executed very well and the food just fell flat. You could go to one of the better Chinese restaurants in Markham and have much better modern dim sum dishes, and at a fraction of the price.
First plate:
"The Pedestal" - this is a sample collection of "Susur's favorite dishes" nicely presented on a 2-tiered dessert pedestal.
It consisted of:
"Hunan chicken wings" - Cooked in a sauce similarly used to simmer chicken feet dim sum. Nicely done, but really nothing special.
"Whipped chickpea dip" - Basically hummus served with potato chips. Decent hummus but I had much better.
"Cheeseburger spring rolls" - the stuffing of wet mushy ground beef and some indistinguishable sauce reminds me of bad frozen appetizers or banquet food. If Gerber made cheeseburger baby food, this would be it.
"Salmon Ceviche" - I wouldn't call this ceviche, it was simply cubes of salmon sashimi sitting in a sweet and tangy citrus soy sauce. A nice sashimi bite, but definitely not ceviche.
"Peking Duck rolls with fois gras mousse" - couldn't taste the fois gras and the Peking duck was a little tough and over cooked and didn't have the succulent piece of crispy skin that a Peking duck is known for. It too was over-sauced inside which made for messy eating.
"Edamame steamed in lotus leaf and mustard salt" - tasted just like regular edamame.
Second plate:
"Assam Shrimp" - Plump shrimp in a tangy-smokey-spicy sauce, very nice flavors and one of the better plates on the menu. The small cube of dried pineapple on top was the perfect touch.
Third plate:
"Dim sum shrimp" - This is basically a Chinese doughnut fritter with minced shrimp piped inside of it and cut into bite sized pieces. The shrimp was very bland and the texture was not very appealing. The fried greasy flavor was dominating. It was nicely presented in a bamboo steamer, but there was way too much of it. More sweet soy sauce was served with it, which at this point I was sick of it.
The service was excellent. The staff was very nice and accomodating. The restaurant itself is nicely designed, cosy and very comfortable (with a great and random collection of Asian collectables and artifacts), though the music was very loud. Later on in the evening they had problems with their music as the songs were played repeatedly with long breaks of silence in between.
As the night progressed there were a hoarde of douchey guys that took over a part of the lounge which was really annoying. I am aware that this is in the club area and unfortunately attracts a lot of unsophisticated/immature types, especially on the weekends, but it was a real turnoff seeing part of the restaurant taken over by a bunch of Jersey Shore DB types that lack any class or manners.
We quickly got the check and left, as the scene got irratating and we had enough greasy dim sum bar food and went for dessert elsewhere.
In hindsight we should have stayed in the restaurant and enjoyed Susur's more solid dishes (I really wanted his signature Singapore slaw) instead of paying $100 for a couple glasses of wine and a few appetizers in the lounge.
Lee Lounge is not a great place to eat -- head straight to Lee Restaurant instead.
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