Orient Express

 Feb 5, 2021 @ 4271 Sheppard Ave E

$11.99 for two with the Ubereats BOGO deal

Classic Noodles with beef slices

Thin Flat Noodles with beef brisket (+$3)

The beef brisket was tastier and more flavourful than the beef slices (and extra cost), but the soup bases and toppings like green onions and cilantro were the same. Personally I like the flat noodles (and even more when they're wide since they're hand-pulled), but the thin noodles and classic noodles are tastier since they absorb flavour quicker from the soup and meat. Definitely one of the better noodle soup places in Toronto!

Jan 28, 2021 @ 4271 Sheppard Ave E

BOGO Lanzhou Beef Noodle on Ubereats? Gotta Try It!

Lanzhou Noodles ($11.99 for two) and Clip Bun (2 for $5.99)

The clip bun had slightly game-y marinated beef with coriander in a bun and while it was okay, the seasoning had a lot of cumin (and other spices you would use with lamb meat). 

Lanzhou noodles were pretty good for a takeout version. The noodles were a tad congealed in the takeout container, but once you heated it up, it was pretty quickly fixed. The broth was a simple radish vegetable broth and you could choose how spicy you could make it with the chili oil on the side. The chili oil was pretty tasty too and having it on the side made it great for moderating the spiciness of the soup. 

Overall: The noodle dish was pretty good, but it didn't have a lot of beef though. 

Website: https://orientexpresstoronto.com/

Phoenix Restaurant

Jan 31, 2021

Ubereats BOGO deals!

Cuttlefish Ball in Fish Soup ($10.90 for 2) and Baked Chicken Steak with red curry cream sauce on rice ($15.25 for 2) and HK Milk tea ($3.45 for 2) 

The cuttlefish balls were hand made with pieces of cuttlefish in a fish ball (you could tell the harder gummy chewy pieces of the balls were cuttlefish) and the soup also had yummy tofu pockets. The broth itself was pretty good too and the whole dish felt like it missed noodles, but it was still really good. 

For the baked chicken steak with red curry cream sauce, we added in the comments for it to be spaghetti instead of rice - and they delivered! (I'm a huge noodle fan rather than rice, so this was perfect!) The spaghetti with chicken had a nice spicy curry flavour which was tempered by the cream sauce and one of the best parts too was that the chicken breast was all meat and no bone. 

The milk tea was great! A good HK style milk tea with strong tea flavour and perfect ratio of milk/evaporated milk/condensed milk (whatever makes it taste like HK milk tea). 

Sept 15, 2018

Chicken steak with tomato sauce

It's a decent portion size, but I'm not really a fan of their tomato sauce. 

Clubhouse sandwich with steak

I find it really cute that they cut off the crusts and I like that they toasted the bread.

Yunnan Vermicelli in fish broth

This dish is probably one of the best things to get at Phoenix restaurant. The fish broth is really good and the fish balls and deep fried tofu fish cakes are delicious. 

Seafood spaghetti with cream sauce

The cream sauce by itself either isn't that great - the best combination here is to combine the tomato and cream sauces (if you like that kind of thing). 

July 8, 2017

Yunnan Rice Noodle and Pork chop with gravy sauce spaghetti

The rice noodle was delicious as always - it has nice subtle flavours and this really yummy spongy fish ball. The pork chop was a lot of meat, but probably not as much sauce as I would have liked since there was also the spaghetti to absorb some of the sauce. 

Half tomato sauce and half cream sauce baked spaghetti with pork

I really like these HK style spaghetti meals - you can always decide to eat the tomato side first, or the cream side first or mix them together for an extra yummy sauce with spaghetti. The pork was really good too. 

June 18, 2016

I was craving some HK style spaghetti, so we came to Phoenix for big plates of spaghetti. 

Beef with spaghetti and Garlic and honey breaded pork with spaghetti

Both dishes had gravy sauce and interestingly enough, you could still taste the garlic and honey of the breaded pork despite the gravy sauce. The food was okay for the most part and filling. 

Jan 10, 2016

Hainan Chicken and Yunnan fish and tofu with rice noodles

Both were as delicious as I remember them - you can always count on Phoenix for consistently great meals with great value-for-money! 

November 8, 2014

We came for a quick lunch before hitting Markville Mall for some Christmas shopping. 

The service is fast and the food is reasonably priced and they serve a mean cup of Hong Kong Milk Tea.

Malaysian Beef Curry with Rice and Hong Kong Milk Tea

The beef curry was delicious! A little on the spicier side, but the steamed rice and cucumber helped to cut the spiciness down. Really hearty and delicious curry with huge chunks of beef. 

Baked Pork Chop with Cream and Tomato sauce on Fried Rice with HK Milk Tea

I didn't even realize I got the same thing that I ordered almost exactly two years ago - I guess I'm more of a creature of habit than I thought. The pork chops were still huge! I also figured out that the sauces individually aren't the best, but together the mix of the sauces works pretty well with the tomato adding a slightly stronger flavour to the lighter cream sauce and the combined sauces makes the fried rice taste better. So in the future - order this with fried rice not spaghetti. 

November 11, 2012

I love Chinese Afternoon Tea. It's great on weekends - especially if you grab dim sum early in the morning and skip lunch, then you're usually starving by 2:30pm which is when afternoon tea specials kick in! It's that perfect time between lunch and dinner when you can grab food. Some Chinese restaurants serve a special afternoon tea menu, while others serve the same dishes at dinner but at a discounted price as an afternoon tea special.

Hainan Chicken with rice

This is probably the most popular dish on the menu at Phoenix Restaurant. They're well known for their Hai nan Chicken with rice. The chicken is super tender and juicy - the best part is that there are no bones! My second favourite part of the plate is the rice (which is amazing). It's really fragrant and you can tell that it was steamed with chicken oil. 

Yunnan fish and tofu with rice noodles (mi xian)

I really like Yunnan rice noodles. The noodles are soft, thin and tasty and with the clear and simple broth - it's yummy. The fish, tofu and winter melon were great complements to the noodle soup. Even though the fish looked like it was fried, it actually wasn't - instead it was lightly battered and a little soggy which I thought was a great way to cook the fish.

Yunnan preserved vegetables and shredded pork with rice noodles 

Whereas the fish and tofu had a simple and clean taste, I thought the preserved vegetables and shredded pork overwhelmed the noodle soup since they were so strongly flavoured. The vegetables added more of a saltiness to the broth which took away from the tastiness of the noodle soup.

Baked pork chop with tomato and cream sauce on spaghetti

I found the ketchup sauce was too sweet for my liking and the cream sauce was a like a watered down version of cream of mushroom. I didn't like either of the sauces. However, they did serve us two gigantic pork chops (which was a lot of meat) and it was quite good. 

Overall: Phoenix Restaurant serves one of the best Hainan Chicken rice dishes I've ever tried and the accompanying steamed rice is also delicious. However, I found that the quality of the dishes has decreased over the years - it used to be much better. The service was insanely fast though - we were in and out in 40 minutes. 

Freshii

Dec 15, 2020 @ Yonge & Sheppard

Freshii's Ubereats BOGO promotion didn't quite register on my radar, since I'm not a huge salad person. Turns out, it looks like they're expanding into bowls and noodle soups and they're BOGO: 

Spicy Lemongrass Soup $9.59 (x2), Teriyaki Twist Bowl $10.19 (x2) and Coconut Chia Pudding $5.99 (x2)

No protein in either bowl or soup

The teriyaki bowl had a really sweet sauce, but it didn't have the strong savoury flavour of teriyaki. The brown rice and veggies were good - my favourite part was definitely the crunchy bits. It did seem like it was lacking some kind of distinct profile flavour though (or maybe I was missing the protein). 

The spicy lemongrass soup wasn't that spicy, but it needed more salt to really bring the flavours out - the chicken broth and noodles were good otherwise. 

Coconut Chia Pudding 

Chia seeds are gelatinous seeds or seeds with an outer jelly-like gluey layer, which makes their texture pretty interesting with the jelly outside layer and cracking seed inside. The pudding was okay with more coconut flavour from the shredded coconut than the sweet strawberries or crunchy apple mango. 

January 22, 2016 @ 861 York Mills

I've passed by quite a few Freshii's downtown, but I've never actually tried one.  I was feeling a little sick and I didn't want to eat anything heavy for dinner, so I grabbed a salad. 

 

Mediterranean Salad

Quinoa, greens, feta cheese, walnuts, almonds, red pepper sauce

Pretty good! Probably not worth the $10 I paid for it though - these salads are pricey! 

Website: https://www.freshii.com/ca

Hongxing Kitchen

Nov 29, 2020

Hongxing is on Ubereats with a BOGO promotion!

Noodles with Beef Balls and Tofu and soup

The beef balls were made with a lot of work since the tofu skin was a super thin layer on top of the densely packed beef. Very yummy and the noodles were great too - especially all the toppings like seaweed and green onions on top. 

Noodles with scallions and oil

It seems like a simple dish, but it was really good with lots of flavour and it was really filling. 

September 13, 2020

Shanghai fried noodles and pan fried dumplings

The take out version is as good as the eat-in version (even though the dumplings aren't as crisp - they're still super tasty and delicious with hot soup inside).

Beef noodle soup with the noodles, choy and egg packaged separately from the beef and beef broth

It was a nice DIY package for take-out since the noodles and soup wouldn't get soggy on the journey home. Everything was really good and super affordable! If you haven't tried Hongxing Kitchen, definitely check it out for yummy Shanghainese food!

May 16, 2020

Hongxing Kitchen Menu

Shanghai Chives and Pork Dumplings

Since the food court hasn't been open for eating in, we had to grab the dumplings to go (and they prepare the dumplings separate from the soup - so you have to cook the dumplings again). The dumplings are so worth it though! There's so much meat inside and they're so tasty with the clear broth.

Apr 11, 2020

Hongxing is open for take-out and now they're also on Uber Eats!

Fish-flavoured shredded pork with vegetables and rice and Shanghai Fried Noodles

I love the strong flavour of the fish-flavoured shredded pork, but it's not for everyone since it has a strong smell. It's one of my favourite dishes at Hongxing and I've really been craving it!

Pan fried dumplings

Since the stay-at-home orders started, I really miss fried food - so this meal hit the spot! Tasty fried noodles with vegetables and dumplings with a slightly crispy layer on the bottom. Yummy!

Mar 5, 2020

Steamed Shanghai Vegetarian Dumplings (with egg)

We saw someone at the food court eating these and it seemed really good. There's a lot of delicious ingredients inside the dumplings like glass noodles, assorted vegetables, egg and more. 

Inside

Mapo tofu on rice and Fish-flavoured shredded pork with vegetables and rice

Delicious! Really Flavourful and huge portions of tofu and fish-flavoured shredded pork (even though it looks small in the box). Both of these dishes taste amazing with white rice since they have such strong flavours. The fish-flavoured shredded pork is one of my favourite dishes here! 

Mar 2, 2019

Shanghai dumplings with noodle soup

6 huge dumplings and noodles with soup. 

Chicken cutlet, soup and Shanghai fried noodles

The Shanghai fried noodles are really good, I think they worked out their recipe and now it tastes much better. Hongxing Kitchen has now become my go-to place for Shanghai fried noodles! 

April 29, 2018

Pork belly in noodle soup

Yummy as usual!

June 17, 2017

Summer menu!

 Cold dumplings with peanut sauce

The wontons were pretty good and it was a different experience eating them cold rather than in hot or in a bowl of soup. The peanut sauce was pretty good too! 

Shanghai Seaweed salad, potato salad with ham and cold noodles 

The seaweed salad was really good since it was cool and refreshing. The cold noodles had the same peanut sauce as the cold dumplings and it was pretty good too. 

 

Braised Beef Noodle Soup

A really hearty bowl of tender satisfying beef with soy sauce egg and choy on top of Shanghai noodles in dark beef broth. It was really yummy, but I prefer the Taiwanese spicy version. 

February 23, 2017 

The chef had a Thursday special: Shanghai Style Salty Soy Milk

Shanghai Pork and Chives Wonton and Shanghai Style Salty Soy Milk

The wontons come in pork and vegetable or pork and chives. Personally, I prefer the pork and chives version - it has great flavour! The broth is also really good with seaweed, egg, green onions, cilantro and chicken broth. It's so good that when I finish my wontons, I will drink the entire bowl of broth. I'm used to sweet soy milk so this took me a while to get used to. Overall, I would say the salty soy milk was different in a good way since there was so much going on in the soy milk with fried dough, cilantro, green onions and other salty ingredients. Unfortunately, I kept thinking that it needed something like noodles to absorb some of the liquid and to dilute the strong salty flavour. This might be an acquired taste or I have to shatter my conventional belief that soy milk is always sweet.

February 14, 2017

Shanghai Noodles in soup with preserved vegetables, bamboo shoots and beef
They do an amazing noodle in soup. The soup is really flavourful and the noodles are really tasty.


Chicken Katsu (comes with the noodles in soup above)
Crispy fried chicken breast and there's a spicy mayo dip for the katsu (which makes it even better).

Shanghai Beef and Vegetable Wontons
The wontons are delicious! They're wrapped when you order and then made on the spot while you wait. There's a huge difference between fresh wontons and leftover wontons and you can really taste the difference. The wonton wrappers are thicker and tastier than day-old wonton wrappers.

February 4, 2017 

Shanghai Fried Noodles

The fried noodles reminded me of the best Shanghai Fried Noodles I've ever had. My favourite Shanghai fried noodle place closed down years ago - but it was my favourite food when I was a kid (we went there all the time). This was pretty close, but there was a tad too much vinegar. (Update: you can ask them to put less vinegar in). 

Pan fried dumplings and beef noodle soup

The pan fried dumplings were okay, but they were a little too doughy for me. The beef noodle soup was delightful and more strongly flavoured than the usual preserved vegetable noodle soup. However, I like the regular preserved vegetable and bamboo shoot soup base more. 

January 15, 2017

A new Shanghainese place opened in the food court at 4227 Sheppard Avenue East. It's run by a family from Shanghai: the oldest sister does the majority of the cooking with her younger sister taking orders and their parents helping out. I've been here a few times now and it's become a favourite since their food is consistently really good and reasonably priced. Also, the chef mixes things up every once in a while to keep it interesting (like creating a summer menu or adding in Shanghai specialties on certain days of the week). 

There's a great Chinese food court located in the Midtown Plaza at the corner of Midland and Finch. There's good Chinese BBQ at Lung Tung BBQ, great Cantonese dish food at Shing Kee Kitchen and now a Shanghainese food stall called Hongxing Kitchen. 

Shanghai Noodles with beancurd sheet rolls and meatballs in soup
The Shanghai noodles in soup were REALLY GOOD! The noodles were perfect - not too soggy and they were great at absorbing the flavour from the soup. The soup was this delicious pork, preserved vegetables, green onions, seaweed and bamboo shoots soup. This was some great traditional Shanghainese cooking!

Shanghai Pork and Vegetable Wontons
These were more like the Chinese dumplings than wontons, but instead of the typical Cantonese filling of shrimp, these had pork and vegetable. The wonton skins were pretty papery thin and it was almost amazing that they held together so well. The wontons were fantastic and the soup base had a lot of delectable ingredients including egg strips, green onions, cilantro, seaweed and a yummy chicken stock base. Everything was homemade and it was SO GOOD!

Overall: I would REALLY recommend this Shanghainese place - the food is delicious and super affordable. The family working here speaks Shanghainese, Mandarin, English and Cantonese and they're super nice. Definitely go try it out!