My father saw an ad in a Chinese newspaper for Shanghai Dim Sum, the sucker-in point being "99 cent xiao long bao." So I guess it's what daddy wants.
This location is located like so many things in York Region, in a nondescript commercial plaza on Highway 7 one light east of Bayview (had to be said since it is easy to miss whilst blazing at 80km/h through this part of Hwy 7, especially when going westbound). The 99 cent special brightly marketed on the window.
Of course once we entered we learned of the real deal: only the first order of their siu long bao dumpings are charged that special promo sucker-in price; any more are charged their regular--no, scratch that, their special discounted off the regular price price.
That being said, the packed-hot-with-lots-of-soup soup dumplings themselves were not bad at all. They have a few varieties of them, which pretty much makes up the "dim sum" part of the restaurant. Everything else on the menu was mainly Shanghaiese fare; an entertaining mix of not-a-lot-of-much-especially-in-the-vegetables-department and vaguely worded poor English. The rice cake dish was very good, but don't get the "wild vegetables with bean curd." It is just finely chopped mystery greens and stuff with little taste appeal.
The up-and-downness of the food, advertising gimmicks notwithstanding, doesn't make me want to trek up this far for it, or even Scarborough for that matter. It gets packed here nonetheless with folks more local than I. Mandarin is predominantly spoken here.
{YRT/VIVA: Purple/Pink line to Chalmers Road.}