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| - My absolute favorite place to go to in Chinatown, especially when the weather gets chilly. Walking down into this tiny basement dumpling house is a cozy experience, and the windows steam up in this lovely way that makes it feel like you're crawling into the warm belly of one of their dumplings.
To be frank, Mother's Dumplings isn't really the best designed restaurant in Toronto. I'm secretly hoping that one of these days they will be featured on Restaurant Makeover, because yes, the interior leaves something to be desired. But in a way, it's that much more charming: the near-patio style furniture, the funny little decorative arrangements and the oddly captivating DVDs that constantly play seemingly incongruent still images with what seem to be Chinese ballads playing in the background. Seriously, I've seen buildings, flowers, puppies, babies and robots on those DVDs before.
The main rule when you go to Mother's Dumpling (as with all of Toronto's sweetheart downmarket eateries) is that you need to put your patience cap on. The following is the list of suggestions I give to all first time visitors to the eatery:
Have a snack on the way over so you don't get that crazy hunger rage waiting for your food. Yes, be prepared to wait extraordinary amounts of time for your food. Be prepared to share your food as nothing will come out of the kitchen at the same time, and your hungry friends will give you the cut eye if you don't share. Be prepared for them to be out of what you really want. If you're a vegetarian, let them know up front and be sure to ask if they have the (sadly few) veggie options available that night. Eat the hot sauce. Order the green onion pancake on the side, honestly you will never, ever regret that choice (esp since they are pretty much the cheapest thing on the menu). Be ambitious and try something even if it sounds weird, the food is all delicious and cheap enough that you can afford to make a misstep. Most of all, be patient, flexible, and tip big.
The back story on this place is a husband and wife duo opened up the restaurant with the mother-in-law on hand to supervise the kitchen. Everything about the place proves it to be a family-run place with heart. When I was subletting near Chinatown last year I would often see the husband running around the neighborhood picking up ingredients. It's one popular little place, and boy do all the staff bust their asses there. So be nice, tip big and come back lots. Although once you have a bellyful of warm delicious dumplings you will planning your next trip anyway.
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