Lai Toh Heen

Ok. this is postmortem review of one of the hidden gem in GTA.
I started going to its sister restaurant in downtown, and I had been going to this one on a regular basis since it opened. it was a boutique Chinese restaurant with limited seats, beautiful environment and nice food presentation. I went there to enjoy some authentic and fancy Chinese food.
I liked to enjoy a slow meal in this usually under half-​filled and quiet restaurant, but i guess they didn’t have enough customer to flow the business. They were running groupon deal when I was there the last time, and it was really bad.
LTH, RIP. I hope there I can find a replacement soon. I will have to drive all the way down to LWH until then.

This place knows how to do summerlicious right. Tasting menu was well thought out, offering a sample of what their restaurant can offer. Tried several summerlicious restaurants to date, this one’s the best so far.
Good Chinese food made by chefs who care.
Recommended and would come again.

It is with regret that Lai Toh Heen will be closing very shortly… in fact, I just saw on Toronto Life’s website that the date of closure will be September 18^th, 2011. I have heard of this speculation months before, but since it is official, I can now post it here.
I was very sad to hear this as the little restaurant was cozy and intimate and unlike many of the conventional Chinese restaurants of noise, bark, and grind. I suspect there will be another location… not sure if it will be called LTH or another ‘.heen’, but I think it will be almost a year until we see something new.
THANK GOODESS we still have LWH.

So I had no idea that Lai Toh Heen even existed until an unfortunate double-​click mishap left me with an extra groupon to a restaurant I’d already been to. Thank god for Marie F. to the rescue who swapped with me and the hubs and I got a chance to have some upscale Chinese on the north side of town.
Now — let me set something straight: hubs and I don’t actually think that «upscale» and «Chinese food» go together. It’s an oxymoron really. For $ 100 we can fill our bellies lazy-​susan style at many dirty but delicious restaurants in Chinatown and be no less happy. We even LIKE the plastic table cloths — that shit picks up drippin’s!
But Lai Toh Heen is a bit out of our comfort zone. First of all they took our jackets and we were all like: what? And then they seated us and DIDN’T take my chopsticks automatically away (you know, cause I’m brown).
The thing that was really hard to get around however was the prices. $ 4 for ONE piece of dim sum? I’m sorry? Now that bacon-​wrapped deep fried shrimp/​scallop thingy was cardiac inducing delicious but seriously not worth $ 4. We also sampled the lobster/​mango roll ($ 4/​1pc), Saffron fried rice with mixed seafood ($ 22/​lrg!!!), Deep-​fried boneless chicken with honey and sesame seed ($ 18), Wok-​fried diced beef tenderloin with peppers and orange peels ($ 18), puerh tea ($ 3) and dragonwell tea ($ 2.5).
OUCH. The best part was that apparently we had ordered so much food (and we usually order more at Chinese — what? We’re hungry in an hour! No that joke never gets old!) that they actually had to remove our teapots to make room and still our plates were almost off the table.
For the most part the meal was meh, but the beef was definitely the star of the evening and was absolutely DELICIOUS. But one dish does not a good experience make. Oh and the service was superb… in a way. Our dishes were on our table in less than 10min which leads me to believe that they were made well in advance and just reheated — blah.
If it wasn’t for the groupon I’d probably have pitched a fit in the restaurant, but in the end we walked out $ 35 short and with full enough bellies to keep me going for 45 min until I made the hubs get me ice cream.
Maple Bacon Ice cream solves all restaurant woes.

Presentation is important and Lai Toh Heen does it wonderfully… and totally great in portion control (also better for their business as they charge more for the show while serving you less — that’s good restaurant management)!!!
Went there on Winterlicious and had a 4 course meal… started with dim sum (nice), foie gras a la china style (not too shabby), mushroom fiesta w/​truffle (sweet!!) and noodle (just like at Chinese weddings)!!
L’ambiance was quite good. Nicely decorated, high ceiling, but one thing which, for me, just killed it… the washrooms!!! They failed on that for sure. If I were the Resto Manager, I’d use the money I save on smaller portions to renovate the washrooms. Make it CLEAN and as fancy as the rest of the resto… What do you think?!?

«The importance of Valentine’s day is being together.» Yep. Um, huh. That’s nice. But I think spending a quality time while pigging out at a romantic and sophisticated restaurant works too.
After checking dinner menus at various restaurants around town, we decided to give Lai Toh Heen a try.
Our first course was pan-​seared sea scallop with conpoy chili soya sauce. I had a lot of awesome, melt in your mouth, seared sea scallops in the past. This one was right up there. Talking about cooked to perfection.
Jumbo prawn wok-​fried with salty duck yolk was the second course. The prawn was massive and juicy! The batter was crunchy and tasty. Salty duck yolk complimented the succulent prawn nicely.
The third course, a papaya bowl of double-​boiled seafood consommé was delicious and accompanied by a large crab claw. I loved the contrast between the savory broth and the fruity taste and smell of papaya. I have never had anything like this before. That was superb!
Next course was braised chicken breast with mushrooms. This was our least favorite. It wasn’t a bad dish, just not to our liking.
One of our favorites was Oolong tea smoked duck breast slices, with perfectly caramelized smoked oysters and Chinese broccoli. The duck breast slices had just the right amount of fat on them. They were perfectly seasoned and, oh so, tender!
Wait, there’s more.
Vegetable fried rice and seared beef slices. Oh my god. The beef was to die for! It was sprinkled with salty deep fried garlic, now that was the combination I never had.
The desert was beautifully presented. Pear stuffed with pistachio and warm pumpkin mouse with bird’s nest. I loved the pumpkin mouse. It was creamy with a hint of pumpkin and lovely for a cold winter night.
We love the first-​rate service. Staff were extremely accommodating and attentive. The ambience was exactly what we had in mind for the evening. We can’t wait to take our parents there for dinner.

The presentation of the food is very good. You can think of this restaurant as a Chinese restaurant fusion in western style and cooking. We order the Drunken Chicken as the appetizer. I expect this to be Chicken wings traditionally soaked in wine. However the dish is with drunken chicken sausage cut into pieces. I don’t taste too much wine in the sausage. The Papaya Seafood Consommé is very delicious in a whole papaya. The Sea bass roll is something very different. The Smoked Duck Breast once again has different taste than any other Chinese restaurant that I have ordered the dish. It is more of a French duck. Each dish is really well presented. Both of us feel very thirsty after the meal. There is lots of MSG in the food. I can see its sister restaurant Lai Wah Heen is more for its business client and this is more for those looking for fusion food, not authentic Chinese food.
The waitress and the manager are very polite. Like any other first class restaurant, they come and change your plates often. The decoration is good. Each section of a few tables is separated for privacy. When we leave the restaurant, they do not forget to say bye and thank you.
For service and presentation, it is a very good restaurant but not for those looking for top tier Chinese food for its price.

I would rather take $ 100 and throw it in the garbage than eat here again. Service is great, but for me, food is the important part of going to any restaurant. On top of that, they charge $ 2.50 per head for tea. I would expect that a high class restaurant such as this would not be nickeling and diming for petty tea money. We had the Deluxe Tasting Menu, and everything was disappointing. For starters was the dim sum platter, and the food was pretty bland. Next was the Lobster «Bisque» which was basically really thick chicken broth with 2 pieces of lobster in it. It definitely lacked the smokyness of a real bisque. Next (and the most disappointing of all) was Foie Gras, and it was way over done, not the melt-​in-​your-​mouth gooeyness that you could find at places like the Hoof Café or Auberge du Pommier. Then was their «Surf ‘n Turf» which was basically a small serving of beef stir-​fry and 2 panko-​crusted shrimp. That was followed by a noodle dish that was bland and tasteless. To finish it off was their dessert trio which was mediocre at best. I won’t ever eat here again!

Nice Dim Sum. Not a huge selection of options but everything was super tasty. The food was not greasy either like other Dim Sum joints. Service was excellent. Restaurant is super nicely done up but of course this is a North Toronto located restaurant. Loved the Eggplant dish. Only complaint was that they didnt have the curtains pulled aside to see outside the restaurant. Nice big windows and they are hiding the place. There was no cart service. This is a order straight from a menu establishment. I’d definately go back

Delicious dim sum. Inspired tastes with some delicate ingredients. Including truffle and thousand year old eggs. Can’t wait to have my sister’s bridal shower here. There’s a private room on the airy second floor! What a great idea!

Well it’s Summerlicious time again and I’m on my usual restaurant marathon.
I have always wanted to go this restaurant. I love asian food and I have heard great things about this place. So I gathered 3 girlfriends and off we went on a Thursday night.
The first thing you notice when you arrive is how lovely the interior of the restaurant is. It really is beautiful. We had a great table right at the front by the window. My excitement didn’t last long unfortunately. Our waitress was less than pleasant.
We were starving so we immediately decided to order extra appetizers and a bottle of wine. The Summerlicious menus were on the table but they had 2 options rather than 1. One was $ 35 and the other $ 45. The only difference between the two was a shrimp dumpling. I’m sorry but no shrimp dumpling is worth $ 10.
We had ordered spring rolls, sliced pork belly and beef short rib in a crispy cone. The spring rolls were meh but the short rib cones were pretty yummy. The pork belly was dry and the sauce was very salty.
I was pleasantly surprised by the complimentary dim sum that arrived next. A lovely chicken dumpling and this little breaded brick of minced seafood I believe on a stick. Pretty good.
Our Summerlicious appetizers arrived next. My friends ordered the deep fried prawn and the dumplings in ham hock broth. Both looked pretty good. My other friend and I ordered the tofu brick or so I thought. Apparrently there was some confusion between the two Summerlicious menus and what I actually ordered was deep fried tofu cubes with salad. Meh. Very dissapointing.
All but one of us ordered the wok fried lobster which was pretty messy but good. My other friend ordered the duck confit with fois gras which she enjoyed.
Okay here is where we all got a little confused and annoyed. With your main course you selected a starch — noodles or rice. I would assume that it would come with the main dish but it didn’t. It came 10 mins after the main was cleared away. We started to think we weren’t getting our rice and noodles. If finally did arrive and it was unexciting as well.
The dessert was not as advertised online. It was a tiny trio of desserts. A chocolate brownie, seasme ball with red bean paste and some jelly like thing. It was alright.
We were busy talking away after dinner and not in a hurry to leave. I saw our waitress bringing tea to a number of tables and I really wanted some. Usually you are offered tea after a meal. Not here. I had to flag down our waitress and ask for it.
Needless to say I won’t be going back. Who knows maybe if you go outside of Summerlicious you get better service.

Lai Toh Heen is located at the site of the former Oliver & Bonacini restaurant Square on Mount Pleasant Avenue.
And a pleasant restaurant indeed. The sister restaurant to Lai Wah Heen at The Metropolitan Hotel downtown, Lai Toh Heen serves similar fare at slightly cheaper prices.
The menu changes frequently depending on the season and specials are introduced frequently although the appearance of the same «specials» numerous times means they should just be added to the regular menu. There are no push carts here, items are selected from a menu and marked on a separate sheet.
The requisite har gow and siew mai are tender dumplings without leaving behind the greasy feeling. The bbq pork buns were nothing to write home about, but the bbq pork and pineapple pastries were delightfully filled with sweet meat and chunks of pineapple. Other highlights include the shrimp spring rolls — tall spring rolls filled with the star ingredient served with a side of sweet + sour sauce and sticky rice with chicken and mushroom — tender chunks of chicken enveloped in sticky rice (the only downside being there was only one mushroom per package) was kindly unwrapped from its banana leaf package before serving.
Desserts run a gamut of the traditional Chinese desserts to cakes from Senses bakery. The traditional Chinese desserts are done with a twist. The obligatory egg tart is actually an egg white milk tart with a flaky pastry while the sesame balls filled with lotus paste were flavoured with a pleasant hint of ginger. With these selections, if I wanted Senses dessert, I would have gone to Senses.
The service is solicitous without being snobby. The lack of lines, even on a Saturday afternoon and the absence of the normal loud Chinese dim sum atmosphere will keep me coming back even though prices are at a slight premium.

It’s a nice change to have excellent Dim Sum in an upscale atmosphere. For the feel of the place and the excellent service, it’s surprisingly affordable, though obviously not as cheap as the big dim sum spots. I’ve been here 3 times and always had excellent food — the items come out piping hot and fresh — cooked to order for you. They have some great specials that are a bit more innovative than the typical fare. This is perfect for a «fancy» Sunday brunch.

The «sister» restaurant to Lai Wah Heen… this one is on Mount Pleasant… the other down in Chinatown.
Lai Toh Heem is without a doubt the nicest (in terms of décor) and finest (in terms of food) Chinese restaurant in Toronto.
The décor is gorgeous… the food universally excellent and beautifully served… and the staff extremely pleasant and competent.

This was my first Toronto Dim Sum experience. I literally dropped my bag off at my hotel and went to the restaurant in the same cab. I am traditional not a fan of a la carte dim sum, that being said, I have warmed up to the idea primarily because of how good Dim Sum Go Go in NYC is. The food overall was very good, a few very inventive dishes, however I am again a traditional guy, so the fancy items arent really my taste. First the great items:
— Ha Gow (shrimp dumplings)
–Sin Jo Guen (bean curd roll with pork)
–Ha Cheurn Fan (shrimp rice nnodle
The Cha Siu Bao (Roast Pork bun) were OK.
The Seafood dunpling and the Shiu Mai were bad.
On a side note the service was wonderful.
THis is a must if you want great dim sum in Toronto.