*3.5/5
98 Aroma is the new Chinese restaurant that offers fine dining Northern Chinese cuisine at the heart of Toronto's downtown Chinatown.
Travelling Foodie Tip: They have free parking!
COCKTAILS
For cocktails, I liked the Long Island Iced Tea here because you can actually taste how strong the alcohol is and it's not overly sweet like in other places.
APPETIZERS
Since it's Northern Chinese, you MUST order their buns/dumplings. The Pan Fried Pork Buns were amazing and I highly recommend. They remind me of Xiao Long Bao but using buns with crispy exterior and chewy interior.
I highly recommend their addicting Signature Handmade Pancake!
MAINS
I found the mains to be delicious overall. I'd say my most favorite here was the Steamed Tilapia Fish. Perfectly steamed and slathered in chili sauce, the tilapia was very fresh and juicy but it can be quite spicy depending on your tolerance.
One thing I was surprised to find out was that the The Lion Head Meatball is made of pork and not beef, though I found it tasted like beef.
Fried Salt & Pepper Calamari isn't your typical fried salt & pepper calamari as the calamari wasn't dry batter, though it was still crispy.
DESSERTS
Dessert was the most underwhelming for me especially after the enjoyable appetizers and mains.
The Coconut Milk with Sweet Rice was a bit off for me. I didn't really taste much coconut flavour, which is what I was looking for.
I liked the Rice Dumpling the most as it is as I expected it to be. And the Rice Dumpling was really good.
OVERALL
Being new to the scene, there is so much potential to this place especially being one of the more unique Chinese restaurants in Chinatown.
Service was pretty good here which is generally uncommon for Chinese restaurants. Food is well deservingly good though having issues with dessert.