Grass Mountain Villa

The food is decent but the service really brings the whole dining experience down.
Our group of 30 had booked the private room in the back. Apparently the management has a different meaning of private room, as we shared it with 3 other walk in tables.
We had booked the typical ten course meal of assorted BBQ meats, fried chicken, Peking duck, lettuce wrap with minced duck, seafood egg drop soup, lobster, fried fish, veggies, fried rice, fried noodles, and dessert.

I think the reviews portray this restaurant accurately. While it’s always packed during the weekends and weekdays sometimes, their price point is high for the quality of food. However, that’s probably more due to a lack of dim sum competition in the area. When I used to work in this area, our team would always go here for a monthly lunch (and while fun, it’s weird being the only Asian guy and trying to translate everything!!!).
Pros:
–for a business lunch, you can order what you want and aren’t left guessing what to eat. –Egg tarts, taro spiky triangle things, deep fried shrimp dumplings and any fried food comes out piping hot so you know it’s freshly made.
–Siu Mai is very good
–Any of the BBQ pork or chicken buns have good filling.
Cons:
–Pricey. I don’t find it superb quality (like Casa Victoria) or quantity.
–Sometimes it takes forever to get the bill.
Verdict: Great introductory dim sum meal for those new to it, good if you are in the area (within 10 minute drive), but you have much more options if you drive an extra 15 – 20 minutes east or north.

Had dim sum here by chance due to everywhere else being closed before 11 am. I actually really enjoyed the food and the service. Despite the reviews for the bad service… I didn’t experience any. They were very attentive when they saw you with your hand up, ofc if they don’t make eye contact they were busy doing something else. But they were all very accommodating and helpful. Food was very good imo. The shui mai had big pcs of shrimp in it… which was a nice surprise. Everything came out hot and fresh. I would definitely come back. The atmosphere was busy but quiet to talk comfortably.

Dinner with family for table for 7. As we got seated, the manager did a great job in suggesting us the evening Chef’s special. Most of what we agreed to order.
We had the fish maw soup, crispy roasted pork, and lobster stir fry with green onions and ginger to name a few. Dessert every one had choice of sesame soup or red bean soup.
Pros: Food were decent in price and every dish was good in taste and proportions. The waiters were quite tentative in collecting empty dishes as well as exchanging the plates full of lobster shells with clean plates. Though the waiter spilt the teapot water in front of friend, didn’t get mad. He had a long evening, luckily nobody got hurt. He appologized and all was Forgiven. :)
Con:
In the beginning after 10 mins the waiter wrote down what we order, came back twice to tell us 2 of the items were sold out. You figure they keep track.
Scallops were a bit on the small side and the roasted quails were a bit over roasted.
Needed to recheck bill since they overcharge on an item that we order to begin with but they previously said it was sold out. Waited 10 mins for the correction.
Biggest CON After we had paid and as we started to walk away, the cashier walked next to my Dad in saying how skimpy the tips were?
Really 11% was not good on a $ 200 dinner?
Wanted to give 4 stars but the last Con is just ended a good dinner with a foul taste. I’ll give another chance later and hope the cashier has her attitude adjusted by then.

Service was bloody horrible! Very difficult to get the attention of the staff. Had to ask 3 times for water & hot sauce. The food was decent once it came; had to get a manager to get the last of our four items. Never again.

Good dim-​sum for this gwai lo :)

I’ve been to this restaurant a few times due to its location and can honestly say that other than that, I don’t know why I keep going back.
Dim Sum there is about par for the course in offerings with a few different options, but the menu seems to change quite often. Deep fried mushrooms and pumpkin with salt is a favourite of mine, but the staple dishes are average. Prices drop for a few hours, but so does the food quality: dishes will normally arrive cold. This place stopped using carts to wheel dishes around the restaurant in favour of order cards years ago.
Dinner menu is the same old Cantonese cuisine with the addition of some abalone and shark fin soup (knowing that some are morally against it, I’m pointing it out). The food in general is bland, and the service is sub-​par at best. Even with the must-​flag-​to-​get-​service system in place, my table has been ignored multiple times.
The washrooms were completely flooded the last time I was there and wait staff in rubber boots and with plastic bags tied around their shoes were a bad indicator. Take away food seems to be even more bland than eating in. Long line ups at the door do usually move quickly.

This place might have dim sum but its a very dated place. The décor is old and seems dirty. The food is plan with no taste. They used to have really good dinners with special dishes from northern China. I guess their chef left and they just serve the dishes that all other Chinese restaurant serves. They really need a better chef.
Their Dim sum is cheap after 2pm but they have a very small selection of food. The staff is rude. I rather go down the street to Paradise at Finch and Leslie. Do yourself and favour and don’t waste your money on this dump.

OK place for dim sum, if before 11:00am or after 2:00pm where a 20% discount applies. Otherwise on the pricey side for the quality. I found their beef tripe dish a bit chewy.

This hidden joint is tucked away in the corner of an old plaza, so when my parents said they wanted dim sum here I was like «where is that?! really??»
But lo and behold, there was a dim sum place. I was fairly worried that the place would be crazy run down since the outside doesn’t look like much, but the inside of the restaurant is actually very homey. I can see why a lot of people like to come here, the ambiance is very reminiscent of really old dim sum places I used to visit in Hong Kong.
We ordered a few random things that I don’t normally see on dim sum menus: the vegetarian pig kidneys and plain rice rolls. I really wanted the steamed bun with sesame + egg yolk, but was too full by the end to even put pencil to paper to order. Overall the food is good, but a bit pricy. If you like rice rolls, then the plain rice rolls are fantastic, they’re silky smooth and well-​made (as opposed to made somewhere else and shipped over frozen).

The only reason I was here for dim sum at Grass Mountain Villa, because of the 20% off for early bird before 11 AM and afternoon tea after 2 PM.
I would NOT have pay full prices for dim sum here. Prices point is quite high for the quality of food and the level of services IMHO.
S ($ 2.60)/M ($ 3.60)/L ($ 4.60)/ XL (5.60) regular priced.
— Steamed Shrimp Rice Noodle definitely doesn’t worth $ 4.60.
— Chicken Feet MEH! Skip! Not tender and the skin were tough
— Deep fried Shrimp Dumplings though is L but fresh shrimps and not oily even it was fried in oil
— Beef Balls
— Steamed Beef Ribs
— Sai Mui
— Steamed bun with Sesame and Egg Yolk (the to order item in the menu)
— Durian Tart!!! Oh Durian Tart! I ate all 3 of them. has strong flavour and if you can’t stand the smell, you will not even touch it! (my friends did not want ANY!!)
We all agreed the dim sum were decently good. but the service here really suck! The wait staffs have this talent of pretending they don’t see you even if you wave your hands like crazy. The restaurant was not even that busy. My friend commented that they seems being pay to be just standing there… doing nothing!

We were here for a family reunion dinner on a monday evening. The restaurant had decent number of tables filled for a monday night. We had some really tasty food yet standard chinese dishes. We had green bean and pork; steamed pork and salty egg yolk; garlic bok choy; beef stew; roasted garlic chicken; fish with bamboo and sugar snap, taro duck and sweet and sour pork.
This place is decent in terms of food, but it is rather far from downtown Toronto and if it wasn’t for a reunion, I would have never noticed the restaurant existed. The restaurant itself is tucked away in a corner of a mall beside a giant No Frills.
Overall, if you are nearby and need a decent chinese restaurant to eat at then this is for you, but its not worth it go out of your way to find the place.

I’ve been for dimsum countless times. But I realized I’ve only ever gone in tow, usually with someone who can speak Cantonese. I just sit there, try to look cute, and figure out how to eat more of the little dumplings than anyone else without looking like I’m eating more than anyone else.
Anyway, when a fellow Unilocaler mentioned she (at this point my inner Susan C says «A female? Well, color me surprised!») had never been for dimsum I quickly volunteered («gosh, very noble of you!» quips Inner Susan C.) to introduce her to the wonderful and mystying world of Chinese tapas («It’s going to end in tears,» warns Inner Susan C.). I forgot beyond having a vague idea which of the little dimsum delights you put the spicy mustard on and which you dip into the red watery sauce, I really had no clue.
After a bit of hand wringing over the little order paper, I managed to order what usually approximates what people in the know seem to order (sans squid and chickens feet). I managed to get the pink ones and the green ones and the longish ones. I think I missed the ones that seem to leave half of themselves on the rice paper when you try to pull them away with your chopsticks. My fellow Unilocaler subbed in for the role of looking cute and owned the role. (Inner Susan C. *facepalm*)
Pro:
— good dim sum
— fast
— clean, spacious restaurant
— Just off the 404 on Finch
Con
— They’re not always sure which dishes go to which table
— On the higher end in terms of prices
— Parking bites
— No push carts giving you a look see

Grass Mountain Villa is in the corner of a very busy plaza at a major intersection. With its small entrance tucked in the corner amid many other attention grabbing visuals, this restaurant could be easily bypassed just by virtue of being nearly invisible.
Tip: Its hard to spot the roadside sign on Finch. Instead, seek out the screaming yellow No Frills façade, and stop! GMV is along the same strip of that plaza.
Service and dining room set-​up caters to patrons of all ages and purposes. Staff was attentive, available, and didn’t hover. Many (!) menus in both English and Chinese (e.g. lunch specials, dim sum, dinner, etc.). Tables are white-​clothed and adequately spaced for elbow room and semi-​private conversations. Some tables are round for larger parties, and square for fewer guests. Chairs are cushioned, but quite low, and could be uncomfortable for diners taller than 5’8″. Judging from the «double happiness» symbol mounted on the wall, Grass Mountain Villa also does banquets. I reckon the space would allow for an intimate wedding reception of approximately 80 guests. This aspect gets = 3.5 stars
With that out of the way, now, FOOD!:
dim sum: 4.5 stars
noodles: 1.5 stars (but not really dim sum, anyway)

Grass Mountain Villa serves a range of good to excellent items for dim sum. Personally, I think they hit the mark for each item when it comes to showcasing cooking ingredients, tastes, and styles. The variables that must be kept in mind, however, when ordering is time and technique.
Here’s what to expect:
— Standard ‘fast’ dim sum items were served absolutely piping hot and fresh. The steamed curry cuttlefish and shrimp paste with squid were cooked perfectly and the squid was cut in big rectangles. While served hot and fresh, slower/​harder standards are not stellar with respect to technique. For instance, the steamed rice rolls (pulverized rice liquid steamed into a flat sheet, wrapped around shrimp or other ingredients and then re-​steamed) were sticky and thick.
— Costly/​unique ingredients (e.g. baby yu-​choy) are cooked using basic preparations (e.g. just boiled or steamed and served straight-​up) and ordered only «by chance» (i.e. not on the menu) as waitstaff walk with trays of plastic bowl-​covered plates. As a result, items are not always super hot. Ingredient quality is the key here, and the taste still shines though I prefer my hot items hot and cold to be cold.
— Items that are time-​consuming and technique heavy tend to occupy the «large» or «special» price boxes on the dim sum card, where they may be considered «medium» at other joints. To justify this, I suppose, GMV puts a practical and tasty twist on these items. For instance, if you like duck tongues (mother dearest does) a plate comes with marinated duck gizzards too. Oh, and my favourite item was the steamed chicken with thick pickled ginger.
$ 55 for 8 items is not cheap when it comes to dim sum, but very reasonable at Grass Mountain Villa.

Ever since a friend mine introduced me to this place, I can’t stop coming back. This place never disappoints, one of my favourite places for dim sum. You can normally judge how well a restaurant does dim sum by ordering their haw gows and siu mai’s, and this place does them well. If you like bbq pork buns (chai siu bow) a better option in my opinion is the bbq pork pastry. They don’t come piping hot like the pork buns but the flaky exterior layer simply makes them oh soo good.
This place is not one of those traditional dim sum places where they are push carts, you’ll have to order from a menu. Which I prefer — most of the food is cooked/​steamed fresh to order.

Just had a quick lunch at this neighborhood restaurant. It serves Dim Sum at lunch and has an extensive a la carte menu. Everything was delicious, in particular the steamed tripe. The shu mai were outstanding. It is curious that living a few blocks away, we had never visited this restaurant.
Their menu features a number of meal specials, which appear reasonably priced for family or group dining.
We will be back!