Phoenix squid balls are made in house I believe, definitely one of the best in Toronto (and possibly a contender in HK).

I've never encountered a good pack at T&T, but another possible option would be buying them from the shops that do make their own. Perhaps Wonton Hut?

swatow's never actually been that great whenever i went. maybe i'm spoiled by markham chinese food.

japanese love MSG... instant dashi is like made of it.

been going to Ju regularly, still one of the best locations uptown for lunch or dinner. best yakitori in toronto no doubt.

the only time i've been there was to get breakfast to cure a hangover and i actually felt a bit worse after.

1 hour lineup for 4 people last night. i thought grand electric had better tacos (at a much better price.. $3.5 vs $5). i found the tortillas cold and way too thick

highlight was the salted graham cracker lime popsicle & tongue tostada

seating & atmosphere is better, music is not as loud but i will go to GE (or just make the stupid things at home) for my taco fix

we asked on our visit after they switched and they just said they had to switch suppliers. the waitress even said "yea, it's not as good.." im guessing something happened to the old, better variety

had one tonight after dinner (burgers are a bad addiction)..

had the normal burger cooked medium. 2 guys working and one was being trained. the newbie was poking the burgers with toothpicks, picking off crust and flipping the burger every 10 seconds and smashing it into the grill. luckily when i mentioned i wanted mine medium the other guy working cooked it.

unfortunately whatever blend they use is too lean. the burger crumbles, the patty was thin and it was fairly dry to be honest. toppings were fresh and the bun was a fairly typical burger bun with some butter on it. i'd rank five guys and stockyards over this.. burger's priest doesn't have much to worry about. to be honest i'd probably have to think long and hard before choosing moe's over harvey's too.

not really a BBQ spot but the samgyupsal at Song Cook's (yonge/steeles near galleria) is great. order the veggies to wrap ssams seperately. they have a great seafood pancake as well =)

for dim sum there's a lot of options already mentioned.. at the end of the day i'd just pick the one where you have the best chance to get a seat because the dim sum is fairly consistent for any of the restaurants making good turnover during that time (casa victoria, ambassador, etc.)

sushi.. better luck driving to Zen/Cafe Michi/Aoyama. the ichiban at leslie/16th isn't bad though. AYCE i go to sushi on 7 just out of convenience but i try to avoid eating AYCE as much as possible. japanese food there's j-town food court for curry/katsu rice, niwatei ramen and izakaya ju are pretty good too (but pricy). ju has some exceptional yakitori.

congee queen on mccowan/7 is my preferred congee/noodle location at the moment. for a bowl of rice and some other dishes i find Top Choice inside the Peachtree plaza @ Kennedy/7 pretty decent. reasonable prices, all dishes come hot and their tofu fa dessert is actually one of the best i've had

north american i'd echo that bluestone is alright. usually go downtown for this kind of stuff though.

thai i also recommend little bangkok.

unfortunately for vietnamese most places are run by chinese and do the same mediocre lipton chicken broth pho. if anyone knows a spot with that dank pho broth let me know =)

korean i always drive out to north york. there's simply no reason not to. Song Cook's @ Yonge/Steeles is probably the most impressive korean joint in the city right now for a dinner. then you have specialty restaurants (joon's for tabletop cooking, owl 24hr, buk chang soon tofu)

hope this helps. i probably eat out around half my meals a week around this area so if anyone knows of better alternatives to my choices i'd be more than willing to give it a shot ^^

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Top Choice Restaurant
8362 Kennedy Rd, Unionville, ON L3R9W5, CA

Asian Legend is alright but it's nothing special. It isn't really comparable to what you could find in HK for Shanghai style food with a 5 minute search online. It's a good spot to just satisfy your craving (:

went in for about 5 minutes before leaving

no thanks on waiting for 1 hour for mediocre asian street food while being pushed and shoved by masses of people that smell like stinky tofu.

i can think of 4 congee wongs off the top of my head (first markham, promenade, finch/leslie and peachtree)

i'd probably rate them in that order too. the lobster e-fu noodle is pretty good as long as your lobster expectations are low. good noodles, good sauce, lobster is tiny and not a lot of meat but for the price it's decent. just throw some chili oil on there and it gets even better.

zen has a lunch menu, i don't think michi does but i'm not 100% sure.

disagree on the black sesame ice cream ever since they switched suppliers. the new one is just plain black sesame ice cream... not as intense as the one they had last year.

recommend their tempura, cod, hamachi neck & the mandarin orange pie is a must.

there's a nguyen huong beside the T&T @ markham & steeles. they premake the assorted one but you can ask for it fresh. all the other sandwiches are made fresh. pretty decent, not too far off from the ones downtown in my opinion.