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

Sunrise House

Once again, we find ourselves at a Korean Restaurant on a cold day in Toronto.  This time, we went to Sunrise House found in Koreatown on Bloor.

Decor
The walls were painted in a shade of lime green, perfectly matching our St. Patty's Day's outfits.  The restaurant immediately gave us a nice and cozy atmosphere as there were many cute miniature figures around the room.  There were about six tables that seated 4 to 6 people and two smaller tables on the side that only seated two.

Food
We almost instantly decide to order the Pork Bone Soup for two as this is usually the case at every Korean restaurant we go to (we're an old fashion couple). Just like every other Korean restaurant, they serve us six side dishes that includes japchae, bean sprouts, spicy pickled tofu and cucumbers, kimchi, pickled seaweed, and potatoes.  I enjoyed the dishes that were not spicy the most as they had great flavours.

The pork bone soup hot pot came in a wok placed on top of a gas stove.  We were not impressed by this dish.  The meat on the pork bones were under seasoned and the soup was just spicy.  It seemed like the soup was just chili powder mixed with water.  It didn't seem salty nor loaded with MSG.  Also, we expected that there would be korean rice cakes or mandu (Korea dumplings) included.

Service
When we arrived, we were the only customers and were greeted with a warm welcome.  However, the restaurant filled up quickly as it supper time.  They graciously refilled our sides when requested.  We had to ask twice for our tea to be refilled but since the restaurant was packed at the time, we understand that they forgot as there were multiple requests.

Price
The pork bone soup (gamjatang) for two was $14.99 and with tax, it was $16.95.  Note that Sunrise House only accepts cash.

Verdict
Sunrise House has 4 out of 5 stars on yelp.  I expected more, especially as gamjatang is a staple Korean dish.  We would not recommend coming here for the Pork Bone Soup.