Legend Chinese Restaurant

This is my family’s go-​to dim sum and dinner restaurant. There are few great Chinese restaurants in the Thornhill area.
Although the dim sum is not fancy like the Casa Victoria chain, the dim sum is consistent, the food comes out hot and the servers are friendly.
Some stand out dim sum dishes include the egg custard bun, curry pot pies with minced meat and egg tarts.
I’ve been here several times for dinner and for banquet functions. I had my daughter’s One Month party here, and it was a breeze working with the Managers to organize the event. They were organized and accommodating. The 10 course dinner was delicious and included whole roasted pig, twin lobster and steamed sea bass.
The restaurant is beautiful, well maintained and looks clean.

Food and atmosphere in the restaurant was good. Customer service is just as bad as other restaurants. Sometimes hard to get their attention

My second time at a dim sum place and I quite enjoyed it. It wasn’t however fantastic. I would still like to try more dim sum but I’ve had better asian food. Go for dim sum and not speciality or plate foods. The soya rice noodles and deep fried octopus were underwhelming. The shrimp dishes were better.
Food: 3/​5, quite a bit of collection and they all tasted fine
Service: 3/​5, just ok. Kind of slow for asian food.
Ambience: 3/​5, not bad either, nice and wide restaurant with large round tables.
Price: 2/​5, I thought it was a bit pricy for asian food, at around $ 20+ per person.

Three and a half stars. Came here for dim sum based on the Unilocal reviews. Dim sum here is ok. Gave the extra half stars as the service is quick and attentive and washrooms here are actually clean — rare bonuses for Chinese restaurants :-) Ordered about 7 dishes and the bill came just over $ 40 –a little more expensive given the quality of food was just ok. The fried turnip cake was not pan fried long enough resulting in a soggy texture −3÷5. The shrimp dumpling (har gow) was good but I’ve had better 3.5÷5. We ordered 2 soup dumplings (price was XL) which unfortunately did not have much taste — ²⁄₅. The pork dumplings (siu mi) were ok 3.5÷5. Spring rolls were good and actually had whole pieces of shrimp — ⁴⁄₅. Best dish was the rice rolls with shrimp (har cheung fun) ⁵⁄₅. Will return if I’m in the neighbourhood, but there are so many dim sum restaurants in the Scarborough/​Markham area that I would like to explore further. Worth a try for those who live close by.

I give it four stars overall because menu includes all my favorite dim sum dishes. Crispy octopus fingers were good. The only thing I would say is that some dishes were salty. A bit on the pricey side.

Best dimsum I’ve ever had in Toronto area. Quick service, delicious food, decent amount of waiting time and again, delicious food!

We love trying different dim sum places and heard mixed reviews and decided to give it a shot. Food lacked flavour however the staff were very efficient and place was super clean.

One of the best dim sum I have ever had!
This is my third time here, unfortunately, they did not have any specials anymore, but I’m glad I came, because the dim sum is THAT great. Coming in at 9:30am, we thought that seats will be taken already, but we were one of the earliest ones there.
Prices are:
S– $ 2.90
SM– $ 3.50
M– $ 3.95
L — $ 4.95
XL-​$ 5.75
SP– $ 6.99
Food:
11) Steamed Pork Wrapped Bean Curd in Soup
Delicious rolls. The bean curd was soft and soaked with delicious soup. There were three rolls in here, a little smaller in size than other dim sum restaurants, but definitely great quality. I think I tasted a piece of pork skin in there as well.
15) Steamed Sticky Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf
There were two medium to small sized sticky rices in here. I thought this dish was sort of average, but I didn’t think it was very fattening, which is a bonus.
18) Steam Shrimp Dumpling with Coriander and Chives
This was delicious. I can’t believe the chef BLENDED the coriander and mixed it as the skin of the dumpling, making the colour of the dumpling green. The skin was not think and the filling was fairly full with DELICIOUS shrimps. This didn’t taste very oily either.
28) Steamed Vegetarian Rice Roll
This was delicious as well, I loved the greens that were added. They were young greens, not hard to chew. I do wish that the soya sauce was warmed up before this is served though.
34) Baked Chicken Pie with Portuguese Sauce
MY FAVOURITE dish. The chicken pie was delicious, not overbaked with cute fork lines on the top. The filling was my favourite park. This was FILLED with scrumptious and savoury Chinese styled Portuguese sauce. I was so surprised because the chicken pie wasn’t very thick and yet this pie did not leak any sauce out.
36) Deep Fried Pork Mashed Taro Puff
This was another one of their stuffed fillings. Absoloutely delighted to see fillings that are stuffed. It wasn’t too oily, the taste is not too sweet or salty either, one of the more average dishes.
Heard that this place is owned by the TVB star, Aimee Chan (陳茵媺).

Legend for day time Dim Sum — is A-​OK.
It didn’t wow me and the group of friends I was with, but this place is far from terrible.
Why not, it does the job for a dim sum spot in the afternoon, during the week.
Great dim sum fix for anyone in the Yonge/​Sheppard/​Finch/​Steeles area, saves from going to Scarborough, Markham, Downtown.

I love legend and am a regular here, I’ve been here for dim sum over a dozen times and I always leave happy. This place doesn’t have any of the stereotypical Chinese restaurant issues like dirty dishes or rude staff and the washrooms are usually well maintained. Staff is friendly but as with most places finding someone fluent in English can be tricky but they get the gist of most requests without too much issue. One thing I really like about legend is you will usually find a multicultural and diverse crowd eating here regularly because they treat everyone with respect and equality unlike many other dim sum places I’ve been too that can be quite rude and shitty with non-​Chinese patrons.
The food here is priced in the mid range but I think it is well worth it, good sized portions and fairly quick, the food is always delicious. One thing I think they do better than most places that I’ve grown to love is the sago pudding, a nice sweet custard type dessert with some cashews, it’s a big bowl, enough for 3 or 4 and a nice finisher after a delicious dim sum meal!

First time here, so I decided on giving them the litmus test for dim sum restaurants. There are foods in every culture where you base the restaurant’s worthiness upon first visits.
With dim sum places a good reference point would be as follows:
1. Har Gow — steamed shrimp dumpling.
— this one failed on the dumpling cover as it was tough and broke apart very easily upon manipulating with the chopsticks. Taste wise it was a little on the bland side but would rate ³⁄₅.
2. Siu Mai — traditionally a steamed pork dumpling but in this case shrimp was added.
— again a little bland and close to undercooked.
Rating at ²⁄₃.
3. Steamed sticky rice in lotus leaf. I really hate to slay the dead horse but this was bland and uninspired. Where is the flavour? Rating ³⁄₅.
The dining room is beautifully decorated, the washrooms are clean (rare for Chinese Restaurants), it is family oriented which is a plus for those with children, and a living hell for those who want to dine without kids using their dishes and chopsticks as a drum kit. The service is also efficient.
Unfortunately, in a city so full of good competitors it would seem Legend only survives based upon their relative distance away from real competition. They simply need to bring in a good head chef.
Overall — ³⁄₅

Worst Chinese dim sum ever. Very overpriced and doesn’t taste good at all.
I’ll stick with dragon boat.

After four years in Singapore, this is the most authentic Chinese restaurant I’ve ever been to so far in Toronto. The food is awesome if you like it on the Cantonese side and the prices are reasonable. The vegetables with bird’s nest is a delight. The sizzling beef in X. O is a mind-​blower. The fried rice with beef and the Chow Mein brought me back to my time in South Ease Asia. The spring rolls were decent and what I liked the least.
On the down side, because this place is so authentic, you might feel lost if you’re not familiar with that type of cuisine and dishes. This is not your average Mandarin or even Asian Legend. There’s just a simple English translation in the menu (no pictures) and the staff speaks English as a second language. We never had a problem, but some folks may have a culture shock. However, if you’re willing to try the adventure, this is great Chinese cuisine for the price.

Legend Chinese Restaurant has always been the go to dim sum restaurant for my family. The food is always delicious and the servers and hosts are all very accommodating. The prices are a bit steep though but that’s only because of the quality of food they they serve to their customers.

Came on a Sunday at 9am right when they open and it was empty. Even by the time we left about an hour later, there were plenty of open tables.
They give a 13% cash discount.
The omassa was probably my favorite dish here. The texture was perfect. It’s pretty hard to get the texture right, and this was probably the best one I’ve ever had.
The shrimp rice roll was too chewy and not enjoyable. Don’t get the turnip cake, it was very rubbery. The egg yolk bun was super hard on outside and the inside wasn’t runny.
The other dishes were all very average. I wouldn’t make a special trek to come back.

This place is pretty popular for dim sum, and they are pretty good — since there isn’t as many options for dim sum in that area in particular, but overall this place is ok.
I just wish the dim sum quality is more consistent, because on some days it really is quite good and on other visits,… they are not very good at all.
The service is decent and is what I expect for a large format Chinese place that offers banquet style dining.
Once again their specialization is Cantonese-​style (Hong Kong-​style) cooking.
Skip the XO fried turnip cakes, I keep getting suckered into ordering them, and every single time after the dish arrives — I get that light bulb moment of «oh crap, I forgot this dish wasn’t one of their strengths»
Their XO steamed rice roll, along with their taro stuffed puffs are decent; also, their tofu fa is pretty good as well.
Overall, they would be a 3 star, but with the inconsistent food quality from the kitchen, Legend is a two star for me.

Our monthly dim sum meetup group had a great turnout for Legend Chinese. The food was was good (egg tarts!) with the opinion that certain dishes were lackluster (turnip cake) and some items were better at Sky Dragon (green beans) or Rol San (buns). You order off cards. The service was good and fast. The tab was $ 17.50 each, all in.
Visited: April 20, 2014

Came here for dim sum with my brother and his girlfriend on a Saturday morning.
Right around 9.15−9.30 am, we were the first customers. However, by 9.45 the restaurant was packed! Would definitely suggest going early to avoid the rush.
The food was good, like you’d find at any Chinese restaurant. There wasn’t anything overly special about it, but it was good quality. Very spacious, and the service was good too. We got the egg tarts for dessert — light and not overly sweet, I would suggest trying it.
If you’re going earlier (I believe they said before 11 or 12), be sure to bring cash! You get a discount (:

Dinner was not good.
Lobster was disappointing.
The tables look nice.

Did I come here on their off-​day? Doesn’t really matter if they can’t provide consistency, right?
I came here for dim sum Sunday morning at 11:00a.m. — apparently they give a discount before 11:30a.m., which I found out later that you have to PAY before 11:30a.m. to receive this cash discount.
So, aside from the price confusion, let’s get down to business — the food was pretty bad.
1. Shrimp Dumpling (Har Gow) — The skin was cold and the shrimp inside was detached. and tasted sour.
2. Beef Tendons — Overcooked, resulting in lack of texture. I wanted some chewy tendons *insert sad face*
3. XLB Soup Dumplings — Refer to picture of raw pork fillings. I rather get food poisoning from a Cronut burger — that would have tasted better than this.
The above three items were among the most disappointing items we ordered, and everything else was meh (ie. rice rolls, beef balls). The egg tarts are delicious though! I think that was the freshest item on our table.
In summary, this place is not a cheap option for dim sum AND not recommended for quality & freshness.