Tian Xin Place Restaurant

We decided to go to lunch today up in the Thornhill area of Ontario to go eat some authentic Chinese food.  We head to Tian Xin Place Restaurant which is located at Yonge Street just north of Steeles Aveune.  The strip mall houses a lot of Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese supermarkets and restaurants.  We randomly selected this one because we figured we couldn’t go too wrong with the decision. 

We went inside where the place was half full.  The waitresses speak broken English and there were few non-Chinese patrons in there most likely on their lunch break from nearby workplaces.  We sat down for about 5-10 minutes however we were never given any menus to look at.  Finally I snatched a menu from behind us to look at.  As well, there was no tea served.  We looked around and everyone else had tea but not our table.  We noticed they took particular attention to the table next to us but unfortunately not us. 

The restaurant has one of those check mark systems where you just check off what you want.  We decided to do with the Dan Dan noodles, a dozen Steamed Soup Filled Dumpling with Crab Meat and Pork, Sauteed Green Beans, Hot and Sour Soup Noodles and Cha Man Tau or Chinese Fried White Bread. 

Steamed Soup Filled Dumpling with Crab Meat and Pork

Dan Dan Noodles

All the meals arrived rather quickly excepted for the dumplings which took almost 30 minutes to arrive and after we had to remind them off our food.  The Dan Dan noodles were the first things I tried since I love this stuff.  It’s basically noodles mixed into hot spicy sauce and peanut sauce.  The unfortunately part was that they got the peanut sauce right but forgot the spices.  There was not hotness to it at all.  On a scale of 0 to 10 on the spiciness scale I would have given this a 0.5.  Otherwise it’s just peanut sauce in noodle soup. 

The Hot and Sour Noodle Soup was interestingly similar.  Although, it came with some meat strips and tofu, again they got the sour right but not the spiciness.  This too lacked any degree of spiciness.  If you look at the menu, both of these dishes have a pepper beside the name of it indicating spiciness but there was certainly no spiciness to it at all. 

The next to arrive was the Sautéed Green Beans.  The beans were cooked with sautéed beef sauce and some chili peppers.  Now this dish was spicy!!  It actually tasted wonderfully good.  The flavor was nice and it wasn’t overloaded with meat sauce. 

Chinese Fried White Bread

Hot and Sour Soup Noodles

The Chinese Fried White Bread comes with condensed milk and this dish was nicely done.  It is not really too difficult to make fried bread especially when there is nothing else needed to add to the dish, so really nothing remarkable here. 

Sauteed Green Beans

Finally the Steamed Soup Filled Dumpling with Crab Meat and Pork arrived.  Now we decided to go with the extra crab meat since it was only two dollars more but one can certainly just ask for the meat alone.  I have to admit this dish was a little difficult to stomach.  The crab meat by far overwhelmed the entire dumpling.  The crab meat itself wasn’t all that fresh and it was quite “zang” or very fishy tasting.  It certainly leaves a crazy taste in your mouth.  Certainly not what I had expected and not something I would recommend to anyone.  Bottom line, it tasted like cooked sushi. 

Overall it was an interesting experience to say the least.  I couldn’t make heads or tails out of the dishes.  When your best dish is the vegetables green beans, then something is not all right here.  The lack of service I have to admit was appalling.  If the restaurant was full and packed to the rim, I would fully understand, however when there were only 5 tables seated and no tea or menus were given, then this is unforgivable even when there was only 2 waitresses working there.  The food was edible but not the greatest.  For this place I give this a 1.5 out of 5. 

 Tian Xin Place Restaurant

23 B-5 Glen Cameron Road

Thornhill, Ontario

(905) 707-7990