Han Shi Fang Hot Pot Restaurant

Hot pot is a great Asian tradition where people gather around a pot of steaming flavored water especially best on a cold winter night, cooking raw food and consuming it with various types of condiments.  There are a few of these places in Toronto nowadays and after going to a few of the same places over and over again, I decided to venture out and try a new hot pot restaurant.

Han Shi Fang Hot Pot Restaurant opened up approximately a year ago in a new plaza in the heart of Scarborough.  If one was driving on the street, one would not be able to see this place unless they knew beforehand as it is tucked inside a couple of long strips of plazas.  When we got there, there were plenty of free parking spots in front of the restaurant.  The place has about 20 tables or so in which half of them were full on a Saturday night. 

Their entire menu is programmed into an Ipad.  It seems like the more modern thing nowadays where many of the new all you can eat restaurants have Ipads were people could easily click and choose the items they want.  Scanning their menu, it seemed like they had lots of meats and vegetables but seemed a little bit limited on the different types of seafood that were there. 

Once we made our selection, a fancy bowl and BBQ grill apparatus were brought out to us.  There were four of us that evening and all four of us wanted a different soup base.  The restaurant boasted of 8 different soup bases and 12 different sauces however for the four more flavored soup bases, there was an extra $10.00 surcharge to them.  In the middle of this apparatus, was this BBQ grill surrounded by the pots of boiling water where one could grill pork, beef and vegetables like corn on top and have hot pot on the bottom.  The waiter would come by periodically to change the paper towel on the grill as oil would get absorbed quickly and to prevent future pieces of meat from sticking on the grill.  The whole bowl and grill deal was pretty fancy however we were a little disappointed in that the soup base water took a long time to boil.  It seemed all the heat was being channeled into the middle where the grill was located and only when the water had evaporated halfway did the water finally begin to boil. 

Despite the grandness of their tables and fanciness of their paraphernalia, some of the other hot pot places that I have been to provided a greater selection of choices to choose from.  The seafood, meats and vegetables were of the customary type and specialty items, even on a Saturday, were not offered or given.    It would have been great if they had offered us a lobster or oysters or a special meat as an incentive to come in especially on the weekend.  Without it, it felt like just an ordinary hot pot meal with nothing to really special to look forward to despite the fancy hardware.  I do admit that their homemade unique fish and meatballs were pretty tasty as they were very soft and well seasoned but everything else was average at best. 

It was $24.95 per person that evening.  Factoring tax and tips and the extra cost for the soup base and it came out to be about $42 for the evening.  In my mind, I felt it was probably a little bit on the expensive side despite the unique BBQ and hot pot experience.  The lack of special foods made it difficult to justify the price one paid for the evening.  Might wait a while before I come back for round 2.  Overall I give it a 3 out of 5. 

Han Shi Fang  

3250 Midland Avenue

Scarborough, Ontario

647-350-5599

Edo at the Hilton

Edo Japanese Restaurant is a popular restaurant throughout the city of Toronto however there is one more hidden inside the Hilton Hotel up in the heart of Markham.  For this particular evening, we decided to go with their 5-course tasting menu.  There was a deal on one of the Groupon sites and myself, my wife and a couple of our friends decided to take advantage of it.

The five course tasting menu consists of basically 2 starters,  2 entrees and 1 dessert that one could choose from. I pretty much went with an all seafood and fish course this particular evening while my friends went with some meat and sushi.

The first dish to arrive at the table was the Seafood Sunomomo.  It was certainly a very interesting starter to have and one where props definitely should be given to the chef for giving out such a unique dish.   The scallop and shrimp were placed on top of small amount of seaweed and glass noodles.  There were no additives or marination to the seafood and all the taste for the most part came from the vinaigrette sauce.  The seafood tasted fresh but because the vinaigrette was at the bottom of the shooter separated by the glass noodles, there was actually no mixture of the two of them.  It wasn't bad but personally if the shooter was chilled, I think it would have much more tastier and much more amazing.

Seafood Sunomomo

Next to arrive at the table was the Chawan Mushi.  The bisque, albeit a small one, contained a lot of ingredients in it including lobster, egg custard in a tarragon, black peppers, mushrooms and truffle quail.  Despite the numerous ingredients in this dish, the only thing one could taste were a large bits of black peppers in it.  One could not really enjoy or taste the beauty of all the exotic ingredients in it as the black pepper simply overwhelmed the entire dish. It was somewhat disappointing as it looked liked a surefire winner.  All one could taste was the black pepper in the bisque and that was it. 

Chawan Mushi

From here one could order either a Nigiri Moriawase or the Black Dragon Roll.  Scanning the two I decided to go with the Moriawase.  There were nine pieces to the Black Dragon Roll while the Moriawase only contained 5 pieces however the quality of the fish in the Moriawase was a bit better.  My dish contained tiger tuna, hamachi, salmon nanami, botan ebi and wakame nigiri. 

Black Dragon Roll

The head waiter said the beauty of this dish was not in the fish itself but in the sauce.  For the tiger tuna, there was a balsamic sauce that went with it.  I think it was the first time I had any sushi with balsamic sauce so it sure was unique and funky.  Not too sure if I liked it or not as it seemed to be quite sour to me.  The salmon had a dynamite sauce which was actually about the same as the sauce in a spicy salmon roll.  To me, there was nothing really unique about it at all.  I believe the hamachi had some unagi sauce to it which made it a little interesting but that was pretty much about it.  The rest of the dish was as is and had no special uniqueness to it.  I was told the eel in the Black Dragon Roll was pretty good and the eel in it was pretty fresh and tasty.

Nigiri Moriawase

For the second starter one could have chosen the Miso Alaska Black Cod which was what I went with or with the Kobe Sliders.  There were three pieces of sliders on top of a crispy rice patty.  It certainly looked filling.  I had a small piece of the kobe sliders and found it to be a little chewy.  However it did seem to be quite filling as my friend was quite full afterwards. 

Kobe Sliders

The Miso Alaska Black Cod was my favorite for the evening.  The cod was perfectly seared and tasted absolutely amazing.  It was marinated with what appeared to be a little butter and was very easy to cut and to swallow.  There were a few pieces of vegetables that came with the fish that completed the dish.  The dish was more or less perfect when it came to the taste of it all however one could not but feel a little bit cheated seeing how much one got for the kobe sliders and how much was in the black cod plate.  

The desserts arrived last and my daughter who was with us got a green tea mochi.  The rest of us at the table got the Green Tea Panna Cotta.  The Panna Cotta was pretty smooth and had its green tea flavor to it.  It tasted as advertised.  The only thing we all remembered was that the mochi served to my daughter was still pretty frozen and very difficult to bite into and this were the adults that I'm talking about. 

Green Tea Mochi

Green Tea Panna Cotta

It was a satisfactory however with all tasting menus, a snack or two is certainly need afterwards.  The price was $72 per couple with the Groupon Ticket.  Oddly we were told on the phone that the place was packed and that every table was reserved however when we got there, all we saw were a lot of "Reserved" plates on the table and only one-quarter of the restaurant being filled.  The dish that stood out the most was the black cod.  Everything else seemed to be ordinary for me which I thought was disappointing.  Overall I give it a 3.5 out of 5.

Edo at the Hilton
8500 Warden Avenue
Markham, Ontario

647-557-8837

Cafe Hollywood

Cafe Hollywood had its recent relaunch at Hollywood Square just north of where its previous located.  For years it was mainstay at the Market Village but after years gone by and with possible demolition and renovations to be done at Market Village, the owners decided to move their restaurant one block up the street.

We got there on a Saturday afternoon and were fortunate to find a seat right away.  The place was filling in pretty good and shortly after we sat down, a lineup all the way out the door began to form.  The restaurant appears to be slightly larger than the previous restaurant with a nice fireplace at the front entrance with large trophies on the right and Oscar like mannequins on the left.  We took a look at their new menu which feature many of the famous Cha Cha Tang's foods.  I went with the Curry Beef with Rice ($7.50) while my kid had the Ham and Eggs ($5.99) Combo.

All our combos came with some fresh heated buns and a beverage to down our food with.  They were nice simple starters to have and greatly appreciated.  For some of the other combos that were ordered that day, a soup (usually minestrone) was offered to the guests.

The Ham and Eggs arrived soon afterwards and it was well ham and eggs.  Nothing really special with them other than a few extra pieces of vegetables that were added in addition to the ham and eggs. There was really nothing special about the meal as it was simple as it was going to get.

Ham and Eggs

My Malaysian Curry Beef with Rice arrived soon afterwards as well.  The rice and some vegetables were placed on a different dish while my curry beef was placed in a bowl next to it.  I mixed the two up and had tasted the curry.  I have to admit it was one of the better curries I have had in quite some time.  The curry certainly had a distinct spiciness to it.  The pieces of the beef were nicely cut, and the cube potatoes had plenty of flavor to them as well.  There were lots of beef the bowl as they certainly did not skim back on it.

Malaysian Curry Beef with Rice

Overall, we had a pleasant time there.  Despite the long lineups out the door to this place, we were never rushed and never had our bill left discreetly at our table. I know other sites have this place rated quite low and truthfully my experience was almost the complete opposite.  I was thoroughly impressed with the meal that I got.  Others around me had some BBQ pork noodles and also found it to be pretty good.  The ham and eggs I agree might have been too simple.  This is "Hollywood" after all so a higher expectation may be warranted. However with a new location, a new chapter might have emerged here.  The old place was starting to get old and this could be a beginning of something new.  I certainly will give this place a try again somewhere down the road.  No major complaints on my end.  Overall, I give it a 3.75 out of 5.

Cafe Hollywood
7240 Kennedy Road
Markham, Ontario

905-477-8877

Imperial Buffet Ajax

We headed out east to find a buffet place that served plenty of raw oysters, crab legs and raw scallops.  Although this restaurant has plenty of locations within Toronto, not all of them served raw seafood  so since it was my sister in law's birthday, we decided to head east to Ajax and give it a try to see if it was worth the money.

We made reservations for a Sunday evening and got there right at 6pm.  They gave us our table and away we went.  I pretty much tried everything they had to offer, trying everything from prime ribs, to a couple of their salads, all their meats at their meat station, sushi, desserts and of course their seafood.

Their seafood station was manned by a girl who kept close tabs as to the number of seafood items one could take.  On that evening, each patron was only allowed to take 4 oysters and 2 scallops per trip so I took my fair share.  Then I scooped a pile of crab legs, some escargot, some shrimp and mussels at the other seafood station.  Looking at the oysters, I could tell they were rather large and looked like the creamy type.  I'm not too sure which type of oyster I had first (it was actually the non Cherrystone one) but one bite into the first oyster and it was like yikes!  The oyster was bad, really bad, so bad that I actually had to spit it out.  The oyster had a rotten taste to it.  Having woken up to my senses now, I was reluctant but went on and tried the second oyster.  That oyster, albeit better than the first one, was rather bland and tasteless.  I proceeded to the Cherrystone oysters and the scallops and they too were rather bland.  The problem I think was that when the waiters went to put ice on top of the raw seafood, the ice melted and it diluted or watered down the oyster to the point where the raw oyster with no condiments added to it had no flavor to it.  I was rather disappointed as it was my first meal there and that was my first impression of it all.

Crab Legs, Shrimp, Mussels, Escargot (Left) Raw Oysters and Scallops (Right)

What fared better were the crab legs.  There were plenty of hot and cold crab legs available and truthfully they were far better than the raw seafood.  The crab legs were very fresh and plenty of napkins and claw crackers was provided to assist with the opening of the legs.  The cold shrimp was quite fresh as well as they tasted as decent as they could be.

The rest of the food provided was average at best.  One could get a partial good taste of it but never the fulsome of it all.  For example, the roasted pork was freshly brought out however the crunchy skin part was very chewy and not crunchy at all.  The meats at the meat section had plenty of flavor in them as they were well seasoned however the prime rib was a little disappointing in that the server had a hard time find a medium rare piece for yours truly.  Most of the prime rib was medium or pretty close to being well done.  The sushi was a little cold and had either too much rice in them or not enough ingredients.  The sushi that had sprinkles of sesame in them actually tasted the best.  Even the leaves of the romaine salad lacked taste and the creamy Caesar sauce unfortunately was contaminated with French dressing which made the taste of the salad extra funky.  Many of the desserts tasted okay but lacked the true richness of it all.  This included the creme brulee, the honey sticks and the egg custard pie.

Besides the crab legs, the only other decent meal of the night was the lobster and crab bisque.  There was some crab meat and some lobster meat in the soup and one could definitely taste the seafood in it.  The soup was rather creamy and tasted pretty good.

Outside of the crab legs, the seafood was certainly disappointing.  Although the hosts were worried that people would be helping themselves to seconds and thirds, unfortunately one trip to the oysters and scallops station was plenty enough for me. I think throwing ice on top of the oysters and scallops was a big mistake.  It diluted the seafood and made it super bland.  The night was made somewhat worse when an individual behind us was coughing profusely for about an hour.  Needless to say, many people moved to another table or to another part of the restaurant.  That weekend evening it was $28.99 per person with seniors and kids getting a slight discount to it.  I have to admit I was disappointed at the quality of the seafood which was why we drove all the way out there in the first place.  Overall it was a 2 out of 5.

Imperial Buffet
163 Harwood Avenue North
Ajax, Otario

(905) 428-0988