Chinese Dumpling House

This is by far my favourite place to order delicious dumplings in Markham.  If I could come here every week, I would.  I love dumplings.

Location

Chinese Dumpling House is located on the edge of Metro Square, west of Warden Ave. and Steeles Ave. East.  If you enter from Ferrier Street, it's the restaurant with the red sign on your left when driving into the central parking lot.  I've been here a few times and parking isn't too hard to find.

Decor

This a your typical small chinese restaurant.  The isles are basically wide enough for one person to walk through.  If you come during peak time, expect to wait.  I do enjoy the fact that you get to see the making of the dumplings while waiting to be seated.  Also, there isn't really room designated for waiting so it's okay to stand outside.  The place doesn't seem to be in its cleanest state, as in you can feel a oil residue on the tables.  You wouldn't come here for the ambiance, just for the food.

Service

Once you get seated, the service is pretty quick.  But don't expect any exchange of smiles when ordering food.

You will be given two menus, a booklet with some of their items with pictures and english names and a menu sheet to write down your order.  The sheet has all the items the restaurant serves (over 50 items!) where I think the booklet has their best sellers.  Surprisingly, I'm usually given the chinese menu sheet.  If you cannot read chinese, I believe you can request an english version.

Food

Green Onion Pancake ($1.99)

This isn't your typical green onion pancake.  I'm used to the green onion pancake with countless layers of pastry filled with green onion in between and pan fried.  This one was more like dough rolled into a cylinder with green onion in the center.  This version was definitely not salty and buttery enough.  However, for $1.99, it's an alright appetizer.

Pork and Leek Dumplings ($4.99 - 15 pieces)

The dumplings were delicious.  It's juicy and flavourful.  The dumpling wrappers were homemade to perfection!  When biting into the dumpling, beware because the soup inside is burning hot.  I have no complaints.  It's simply delicious.  This is always my go to dish.

Pot Stickers ($3.99 - 6 pieces)

I'm not a huge fan of pot stickers.  They were alright.  I don't think they were the best pot stickers I every had.  They weren't terrible as well.  They were crunchy and filled with juices inside.

There were 6 pieces!

Price

The prices are pretty reasonable.  Cash only!

Verdict?

Of course!  I think for the price and quality of the food, it is totally worth coming here again and again for a fresh, hot, tasty, and inexpensive meal.

Cheers,

achoo

Aka Teppan

So the new hype around Markhan recently is that the infamous foodcourt chain from Asia, Pepper Lunch, has arrived!

I'm pretty sure this is NOT a franchise of the actual Pepper Lunch but it's the closest thing we have here!

I first tried Pepper Lunch in Mongkok in Hong Kong. It was a food court restaurant that served meals on hot plates or "Teppanyaki".

Aka Teppan follows this trend.

Location:

It's located at First Markhan Place on HWY7 and Woodbine. Fairly accessible by YRT or driving and not difficult to find.

Decor:

The decor was clean and simple with white tables, white walls with a few posters of their specials and when we were there, they were playing Avril Lavigne songs lol. Later the music changed to canto pop.

Food:

They had many different Teppanyaki options, the two main being pasta or rice. Different kinds of meat were available such as beef, duck breast, salmon or chicken.

I ordered the Atlantic Salmon Teppanyaki with rice while Angela ordered the Supreme beef with rice.

The food came on hot plates with the meat surrounding a little mount of rice and we were advised to mix quickly to cook the meat. As we broke apart the rice, we discovered there was a clump of butter and terriyaki sauce inside.

The food was very flavourful and had lots of pepper - very reminiscent of Pepper Lunch indeed. I must say it's the closest I've tried in Toronto to the original Pepper Lunch! However, we found ourselves quite thirsty after the meal.

Sevice: 

We were seated promptly and served tea. Although as we left there was a small crowd waiting for tables. The servers could all speak English. One thing I didn't quite like was that the food came individually so one person could be awkwardly waiting for their food while watching their friend devour their dish.

Price:

It was fairly reasonable for a lunch. Both of our dishes were $8.99+tax.

Verdict:

I'd definitely come back to try their pasta Teppanyaki! If you're a fan of Pepper Lunch, definitely come try Aka if you're ever in the area!

-M