Asian Legend 味香村 (Scarborough)

Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 4452 Sheppard Avenue East
Website: http://www.asianlegend.ca/
Type of Meal: Dinner



Asian Legend is a chain specializing in Northern Chinese dishes. They’ve been around for over 20 years – likely thanks to their reasonable prices and extensive menu. In my books, they are not known to be the “best” for anything; you can get better Peking duck or stir fried dishes at other places. But, their dishes are consistent and they are always a decent version of it (I have never had a horrible one).

A popular dish is the steamed soup filled dumplings with ground pork ($5.96 for 6). Asian Legend’s is good but eat them quickly as the wrapper can sometimes split if left too long. Each dumplings holds a fair amount of soup and the dough is thin enough.


Their chicken potstickers ($4.95 for four) is a nice change from the typical pork ones. With diced black mushrooms mixed throughout there’s a bit of a contrasting texture. Although it’s not as juicy, the wrapper does seem crispier with a beautiful developed crust.



My aunt likes the rolled onion pancake with sliced beef ($5.95; two orders shown below). Personally, I prefer the green onion pancake plain. Normally, it’s pan fried so a nice crust develops and contrasts against the soft inside while making the green onion taste more pronounced. Whereas, in the wrap it’s not pan fried and thus seems a little plain. Plus, I find the beef a bit dry – not my favourite but plenty of people order it.


With a variety of cold appetizers to choose from, with larger groups we order the preserved pork ($6.95). The meat is shredded, well salted and then mixed into a savoury gelatin.  Once cooled and solidified it is sliced. It can be eaten plain or dipped into the Chinese vinegar which accompanies it. I prefer the version where the pork is compressed on the bottom and the gelatin is on top (forming two layers), but Asian Legend’s isn’t bad either.


The freshly made Taiwanese street-style deep fried tofu with garlic sauce ($3.95; two orders shown below) was delicious. I know, you may be thinking … tofu really? But it’s the combination of the crispy crust, soft airy inside and flavourful sweet soy sauce that makes it great for snacking on.


Like most places, the Peking duck ($34.95) is served two ways. With plenty of wraps (about fourteen), the main dish is wrapping the crispy pieces of skin into a thin flour crepe. I like to slather on the hoisin sauce, cucumbers and green onions, while others may like it plain. Asian Legend’s Peking duck could use more flavour as I found the skin and meat by itself was rather bland.


The second dish is simply the remaining carcass chopped into pieces; unfortunately, not the most photogenic. There is the option to pay $8.95 and have the second dish as lettuce wraps, sautéed duck with vegetables or as a soup but we prefer to keep it simple. Plus, since we also ordered moo shu pork, no more wrapping dishes were required.

The moo shu pork ($10.95) arrives with six pancakes ($0.60/each for extra wraps). It’s one of my favourite dishes from Asian Legend. There’s a great combination of crunchy textures from the black fungus, napa cabbage and bamboo shoots. Plus, the scrambled egg works well at soaking up the various juices. All wrapped into a thin crepe with hoisin sauce this is full of flavour.


We normally don’t order the shredded chicken noodle soup ($7.95) but seemed to be a good choice for my grandmother. The noodles are doughy, soft and soaks in the thick flavourful soup. Simply accompanied with pieces of chicken and Shanghai bok choy it’s decent but not really a must-have dish.


A noodle in soup we order often is the braised beef noodles ($8.95). The dish is aromatic and although the broth looks like simple soy sauce there’s a much richer taste to it. Asian Legend’s version of this dish is decent and the beef tender and excellent quality. The chunks of pickled preserved vegetables on top are also a nice addition.


If you want a starchy dish try the stir fried Shanghai rice cakes ($10.95). It is traditional yet not normally found outside of Northern Chinese restaurants. The rice cakes are nothing like the light styrofoam version found in the chip aisle, rather they have a soft chewy texture. Stir fried with pork, shrimp, napa cabbage and a light sauce it’s well worth trying.


The Shanghai noodles with seafood ($11.95) is a safe crowd friendly dish. The thick yellow noodles are soft with a slight bite to it. Mixed throughout are crunchy bean sprouts, shrimp, scallop and a simple soy sauce. Asian Legend’s is fine but needs to be cooked longer to develop that wonderful wok essence.


Wanting some vegetables, we order the sautéed water spinach with fermented tofu and shredded chili ($10.95). In my Day and Day Soup review I’ve wrote a bit about this hollow vegetable and condiments if you want a further description. Overall, it’s an average version of the dish and could benefit from more fermented tofu.




If you plan on visiting regularly, their VIP membership ($20) could be a good investment. Valid for a year, it can be used at the time of purchase providing card holders 10% off food items.  Additionally, you earn points that can be used for future purchases. As they were celebrating an anniversary, I even received a coupon for a surprise gift. Now that I’m a “VIP” cardholder, who knows I may be returning more often.


Overall mark - 7.5 out of 10

Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog

____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System

  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!



CLOSED: Montecito (Toronto)

Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 299 Adelaide Street West
Type of Meal: Dinner



Amongst all the construction and scaffolding along Adelaide, Montecito’s window filled building is an oasis of calm. With its two stories and a covered patio there’s plenty to observe. Even the faux “windows” on the back wall kept us entertained. Each showcases a video display with footage of views from co-owner Ivan Reitman’s home in Montecito, California. Every movement is subtle and you don’t fully realize it’s a video until a bird flies by or it switches to the traffic scene.

The Californian theme continues on their menu, which has plenty of meat, vegetables and Italian creations. And Italian seems to be what they do well as the meatballs ($19) were fantastic! The dish was so nicely balanced – the meatballs fairly dense but still tender and the polenta, tomato sauce and parmesan complementing each other. Serving them with creamy and buttery polenta was such a great idea; I loved slathering it and the smooth tomato sauce onto the meatball.


The prosciutto, peaches and mozzarella salad ($14) is a nice lighter dish for the summer time. It’s simple but allows the eater to focus on quality ingredients – paper thin cured prosciutto, sweet peaches and soft fresh mozzarella. Don’t be afraid to get a bit of everything in each bite. It’s when all the tastes and textures work together; especially if you like the sweet and salty elements.


I rarely order roasted chicken ($24) at a restaurant. But, when its owner Chef Jonathan Waxman’s signature dish it’s hard to resist. What makes it so special? Well, for one it’s unbelievably juicy! My knife glided through it as easily as cutting through scallop (of course it helps that the chicken was deboned). But, the tenderness comes at a price – the middle of the chicken breast was ever so slightly pink. By no means was it raw, but being a little squeamish about under-cooked poultry, I decided not to chance it. Luckily, the portion was huge – you receive half a chicken – so leaving a bit behind didn’t matter.


The chicken’s skin was crispy and the salsa verde flavourful but not overpowering. Served with a frisee salad it’s good for mixing into the salsa verde oils and chicken juices that leak onto the plate. If you haven’t had the jw chicken before, it’s well worth a try.

My friend allowed me to try an ample piece of his Muscovy duck confit ($28), which would have been what I’d normally order. Also very tender, flavourful and having an extremely crispy skin, it was a good duck confit. I would have preferred less duck fat left under the skin as it was a little glutenous for my taste.


To end, we did not order the baked Alaska, which is served with a big Stay Puft marshmallow figurine (a homage to Ivan Reitman’s Ghostbuster films). Instead, we opted for a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich ($10) which arrived quickly without the fanfare (although our friendly waiter did offer to bring us the doll anyways if we wanted).


The cookies were chewy and soft. Sandwiched in between was pistachio ice cream which became overpowered by the chocolate syrup so ended up tasting more like almond. But, it was still delicious and I liked that Montecito makes the sandwich ahead of time and refreezes it so it doesn’t melt too quickly.

All in all, Montecito is a welcomed addition to Adelaide. Prices are reasonable, the dishes delicious and portions a good size. They have plenty of different sized tables and areas to accommodate larger groups. It already proved itself to be a popular destination during TIFF.  I sense that as the holidays start arriving, it will be popular with the corporate crowd as well.


Overall mark - 7.5 out of 10


Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog

____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System

  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!

CLOSED: Scaddabush on Yonge (Toronto)

Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 382 Yonge Street
Type of Meal: Dinner



When I first heard about Scaddabush the name was intriguing … perhaps it's Australian or some other exotic cuisine, I thought. Much to my surprise they are an Italian restaurant and their name means “a bit of everything”. The restaurant is enormous with two floors and tons of tables – sort of like Jack Astors but with much nicer light fixtures and décor. Despite its size, it was filled and there was even a queue when we left.

All the staff members I encountered were very warm and welcoming. One person actually stopped and made sure I was served water before my waitress could arrive! A small suggestion is to encourage staff to make normal conversation. It seemed like they were all trained to ask if “it’s the first time you’re visiting Scaddabush”, which is fine, but when you’re asked three times in a span of five minutes it ends up feeling rehearsed. Perhaps limiting it to just the person serving the table is best, since it was really our waitress who ended up adding that if it is our first visit we should know that the pasta and mozzarella is made fresh in-house.

But, introducing the restaurant is important as after hearing about the pasta and made-to-order mozzarella, we couldn’t resist trying it. For the cheese, we ordered the caprese salad ($19; includes a supplementary $5 for grilled shrimp). Note, the portion size is actually slightly larger, I started eating before realizing I forgot to take a picture.



It certainly had plenty of mozzarella. Admittedly, I may have been thinking about buffalo mozzarella, which is different, but I found Scaddabush’s cheese a bit soft and lumpy. Don’t get me wrong, it was still delicious, just not to that creamy buffalo mozzarella level I was imagining. Mixed with the cheese were Campari tomatoes, baby arugula, a sweet balsamic glaze and a very liberal dousing of herbed olive oil. For the size of the salad, there was quite a number of shrimp included. If you order this with some of the charity bread, it could be a satisfying meal.

To try the fresh pasta, we ordered the pesto pollo ($18.17 for a large) made with fettuccine. Although the pasta could have been more al danté, the basil and pesto cream sauce was fragrant and delicious. It also included plenty of sautéed chicken, semi sun-dried tomatoes and sprinkles of baby spinach adding some colour and freshness to the dish. 



All in all, the lively atmosphere and large family style tables makes this a great hangout for big groups. And with their reasonable price points and big potions, this could be a student friendly place as well. 


Overall mark - 7 out of 10


Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog

____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System

  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!