Happy Time Seafood Chinese Restaurant

Out with the old and in with the new should be the new quote of the day.  New Markham Villa which had been a Chinese dim sum restaurant in Markham for quite a number of years went out of business a few months ago and a new owner came in recently, renamed the restaurant to Happy Time Seafood Chinese Restaurant and seems to have been striving since.

The restaurant is tucked inside a building that is located to another long-time landmark, club 300 Bowling alley.  The restaurant is located on the bottom floor while the bowling alley is located upstairs.  The new owner was actually the former part owner of Very Fair Prices Chinese Restaurant in Scarborough.

We had a recent birthday celebration and went with their ten-course meal.  For those who have been to Chinese weddings before, it's more or less the same lineup with Crispy Golden Pork for starters and ends with rice and noodles at the end.  Oddly enough, three days before we went to this restaurant, we were at the old one where the owner use to have his restaurant where we also had a ten course meal.

The Crispy Golden Pork arrived first as usual and it looked pretty good.  Mixed with some jelly fish and as always, being the first meal of the night, everyone was salivating at the juicy meat. Every piece of pork skin on the plate was nice and crispy.  The meat was soft and tender and the cold jelly fish provided a good mixture with the meat.

Crispy Golden Pork

 Scallops mixed with some Beans and Mushroom glistened beautifully as it sat in the dish waiting to be served.  The addition of some celery and garlic to add to the ever dominating flavors really helped bring this every item out.  The scallops were wonderfully cooked and have the perfect bounce in them.  They were very, very soft and had just the perfect taste to them.

Scallops with Beans and Mushroom

Next to arrive were the Deep Fried Crab Claws.  Steaming hot coming out of the oven, these crispy crab claws were also made to perfection.  There was plenty of crab meat and mixed with the traditional vinegar, it was delicious and very appetizing.  The crab claws were pretty fulsome and each one was nice and large.  There were also strips of  shrimp paste on the outside of the crispy claws which also added to the great seafood taste of this item.  This unique idea not seen in many of the other restaurant's crab claws certainly brought an element of uniqueness and taste to the crab claws which in my mind separated this top chef with some of its competitors.  Something so simple yet almost so ground breaking.

Deep Fried Crab Claw

The Shark Fin Soup came with plenty of shark fin in its bowl.  It wasn't overly salty and had plenty of ingredients embedded into the soup. The only thing I found missing that could have really made this shark fin soup to be a top notched soup was if the chef could have some shrimp to it.  It was quite possible that he had done with the crab claws already and didn't want to overdo it but certainly an addition of some extra seafood in this bowl certainly could have turned this into a super bowl. 

Shark Fin Soup

The Pea Shoots with Mushroom dish came soon afterwards and personally it was one of my favorite dishes for the evening.  Since these ten course meals usually don't have a whole lot of vegetables within them, I always look forward to this course as it is the only time that one could get a good healthy dose of vegetables. The pea shoots were completely covered with mushroom and its juices which made them even more tastier.

Pea Shoots with Mushroom

For the Fish course, we opted for the tilapia.  Since we had about 12 people per table, the manager had asked the chefs to steam 2 tilapias instead of one for each plate.  The perfectly steamed fish was delicious and all it took was a little bit of green onions, parsley and soya sauce to make it a wonderful dish.  The meat fell off the bone and the fish was very clean with no dirty tastes to it at all.

The Lobster was made in its traditional method with a mixture of garlic, ginger and green onions mixed with the lobster.  The lobster was well cooked and each piece had plenty of meat in it.  Again because there were 12 of us at the table, the manager made sure that each large plate had 2 medium to large size lobsters to serve all of us.  The lobster tasted great and again was made to perfection.

Lobster

The Kwai Fei Chicken is probably one of the most simplest types of chicken to order.  No special sauces are required and when one dips this into a mixture of ginger and garlic, it is by far one of my all time favorites.  The chicken was just the perfect size and there was plenty of meat on each piece.  Nothing spectacular but still one of the best dishes on the menu.

Kwai Fei Chicken

The Rice and Noodles arrived last and by the time it came, we were pretty much done.  Having said that, both bowls were cleaned out.  I particularly liked the noodles more as there was more flavor to the noodles than the rice.  The rice was a tad bit more drier but still had a good mixture of okra, shrimp and onions to it.

Noodles

Rice

Last to arrive of course had to be the dessert and like most Chinese traditional 10 course meals, the night ended off with a bowl of red bean soup, lotus seed buns and Longan Jello. The red bean soup was not very thick, but it wasn't watered down either.  The lotus seed buns were very sweet and every kid loved them.  The Longan Jello was also very good.

Lotus Seed Buns

Red Bean Soup and Longan Jello

I know people will say that the food is pretty much the same as that of the other restaurant where the previous owner had ownership of but I have to admit it seemed like they kicked it up a notch with some of their more unique approach with some of their dishes.  Although a ten course meal is pretty much standard, just a chef's way of transforming or finding alternative methods of presenting a classic dish is always challenging.  Not messing up tradition but at the same time introducing a new variation of a dish and still maintaining a good taste to it can be quite a task for the chefs but in this case, it seemed like they mastered the feat.  And judging by the packed house that evening, it certainly looked like the relaunch has so far been a success.  I would certainly make a return visit to this place.  The quality is certainly better than before.  Overall I give it a 4 out of 5.

Happy Time Seafood Chinese Restaurant
146 Old Kennedy Road Unit 1
Markham Ontario

905-940-6088