Chris E.
Yelp
I'm pretty sure the 1,000+ reviews of this restaurant have said every single positive thing possible about this restaurant, but, if they haven't, I will be more than happy to fill you in on how AMAZING the food is here.
Let me start by saying, it's almost a rite of passage for Asian tourists (all people are absolutely welcome, but a majority of the customers happen to be Asian) to visit this restaurant when they visit the Greater Toronto Area. I've been to Toronto on a few occasions, but this was my verrrrrry first time here and I will never, everrrr forget how good the food was. This was one meal where I can proudly say was worth every bit of my hard-earned money and that's saying something for a cheapskate like me.
We made reservations a week in advance for an early Tuesday dinner at 6pm and the large parking lot and restaurant were PACKED already! You would think it wouldn't be crazy busy on Tuesday, but it might as well have been a Saturday, although I don't even want to think about how busy they are on weekends. The restaurant is huge and I would say maybe only 2-3 tables were empty, at most, throughout the evening.
Our family of 4 were promptly seated at a large table, that could probably seat 10. Menus were immediately provided to us and off we were!!! Basically, there are 3 menus - Lobster, Crab or Seafood a la carte. The Lobster and Crab menus were all pre-fixe packages, but customers have the option of adding a la carte items (e.g. soups, rices, noodles) to the package they pick. As it's a seafood restaurant, be prepared to spend more than a pretty penny because everything is pricey. Oh, and they ONLY accept US/CAN cash or CAN debit.
We were only a table of 4, really 2 1/2, since we had our little ones with us, so we couldn't "pig out" and order 10 different items, but we were more than satisfied ordering the Lobster HK Style Dinner For 2-3, which came with:
Soup of the Day (Chicken Soup)
Lobster in Hong Kong Style (4 lb.)
Sweet & Sour Pork
Steamed Bass (1.25 lb)
Poached Snow Pea Tips w/Goji Berry
Dessert
Also, we added a Lobster Roe Fried Rice because, well, rice is in our DNA :)
Whatever you order, the restaurant drags over a tub with the lobster or crab you will be eating that evening (pretty cool gimmick) and showcases it to you. Feel free to take any photos with your still living, breathing dinner before it is whisked away to its demise. Sounds grim, but to the "meatarians" out there, it's business as usual.
Before I talk about the food, I do want to say that I LOVEDDDD the pre-fixe style menu because it just saved us a wholeeee lot of time of trying to pick and choose. There were 15 different Lobster dinner choices and 6 different Crab dinner choices, for groups of allll different sizes, so there's something for every group that walks in here.
OK, food time. Food was FREAKIN' DELICIOUS. I mean, OK, I get it, this place has a ton of hype and Instagrammable photos about it, but, damn, the food backs every bit of that hype up...and then some! Everything we ordered was spot on, as in legit Cantonese-style, really tasty. The soup bowl literally had a chicken inside and had about 10 servings of soup in it. The Sweet & Sour Pork, Steamed Bass and Poached Snow Pea Tips were excellent. Our a la carte Lobster Roe Fried Rice was some of the best fried rice I had in a longggg, longggggg time. Yes, it's just fried rice, but DAMN GOOD fried rice. And, the serving sizes of each of these entrees were more than fair and easily could have fed 4 people.
Now, for the 4lbs of lobster???? You can say we ordered the smallest possible dinner choice, which was for just 2-3 people, and the lobster mountain (which is what this restaurant is known for) was the smallest possible one, but, it still looked HUGEEEE. My wife and I absolutely obliterated the mountain. We basically split 4lbs of fried lobster between us since our kids didn't dive in much to it...and it was AMAZING. Some of the best lobster we have ever, ever, ever, ever had.
What more can I say about this mecca of Cantonese-style lobster and crab? The employees were super professional. The waiters were friendly and all spoke English and Chinese. Every employee inside wore a mic and earpiece and the non-waiters looked like they worked at the MIB. It was definitely like a well-oiled machine inside as employees navigated between tables.
This restaurant is more than an Instagram photo opportunity. To say this was a most satisfying experience is an understatement. Definitely one of the best casual dining experiences we have ever had. ANYWHERE. PERIOD.