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| - Wow, it's a good thing this place has good food to compensate, because the decor looks like elton john designed it on crack without his glasses.
I was excited to try this place after the reviews on Yelp. I got the opportunity to today when my friend had suggested that we go there. Sadly, we didn't take advatange of the before 11 AM special because nobody got up early enough after a full night of post-halloween drink-fest.
Anyways, the food was great, one of the best for downtown dim sum, for sure. It is more on the upscale side (more than bright pearl, less than dynasty) but it wasn't as bad as people had said - it's FINE DINING. And they hired ELTON JOHN to decorate it...
We had a little bit of everything. The HAR GOW was steamed to perfection, the BBQ PORK BUNS and PASTRY were sweet and savoury all at once, the SHRIMP ROLLS with SPINACH was divine and different than other dim sum restaurants, and the CHICKEN FEET had wondeful flavourful and succulent right off the bone.
The mediocre things about the food were, the TURNIP CAKES (although tasty), were very flaky. There was a HAR GOW with LEEKS and PEANUT, which for some who like peanut in their food may have enjoyed, but I didn't care for the crunchy texture in my har gow. The STEAMED PORK BONES was fatty, so that was ok. The selection, although the key basics were there, was quite limited to the traditional stuff. They had some variations on some oldies, which we didn't try.
Now, for your personal interest about the decor... all I have to say is, how much did they spend decorating this place??? They have marbles walls, and marble art framed with....marble. Purple velvet walls with bling bling to the max. Beautiful chandeliers (there were like 5 in one room) overdone. Gaugy, tacky, and over-oppulent, made the dining experience a very bright one.
Overall, the food was great, everything had very fresh and distinct flavour. I have enjoyed the best dim sum in Vancouver, and I have to say, this is somewhat comparable.
Now, I hear uptown has some of the best dim sum the GTA has to offer, but in the meantime, I would definately come here again, whether it's before or after 11 AM!
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