Hakka Legend Asian Cuisine Markham — Restaurant in Markham

So I was in Markham for a doctors appointment, after my appointment I was feel hungry and slightly starved when I just decided to Google and find something close to me so I can pick up and take home for a late lunch. Exactly 0.7KM away was Hakka Legend, with a 4.1 review on Google. With high hopes I decided to venture 0.7KM to the highly glorified restaurant. I was looking at the menu for a while, slightly confusing and was shocked, when I noticed that steam rice isn’t included with entrées. I gladly should’ve taken that as a warning, but nevertheless, I proceeded to order. I ordered the Guyanese chicken on fried rice. It smelled amazing! The car ride back to Pickering was mouthwatering, and extremely tantalizing. I arrived home with nothing but the amazing smelling food on my mind, And it quickly went downhill. And I just paid $20 for the worst meal I have gotten from any restaurant in the last two years. I don’t have a dog and if I did have a dog, I wouldn’t feed this to them. It was just a pound of rice saturated in oil and red chicken on top that was also deeply covered oil. Hakka/Chinese food is supposed to be greasy and everything is fried but I don’t know if this was fried, or left to soak in a deep fryer for 45 minutes. The race was so salty it instantly hurt my stomach. They were so much chicken, which usually isn’t a bad thing, but it made me question why they gave me so much only to realize that it was a mixture of stale and fresh chicken. In a time where, standing at the gas station requires you to make life decisions I just wasted $20 on literal garbage because that’s exactly where it went down the garbage chute. I’m basing my review off of what I ordered there might be stuff there that is good and actually edible but if you want Caribbean fusion, you should probably go somewhere else. I could’ve taken the $20 got $10 in gas went to no-frills got chicken for five dollars a small thing of rice for $3.99 and go home to make my own chicken and rice, that wouldn’t leave me with congestive heart failure!...

I am writing this review while still sitting at the restaurant because I feel compelled to share my encounter in order to provide potential diners to provide my experience. I came to Hakka Legend in Markham with high expectations, only to be met with a deeply disappointing experience. The overall quality of the food was far below what I had anticipated, and the service I received was nothing short of unpleasant.

The most glaring issue arose when I ordered the Manchurian balls, only to find them uncooked and entirely inedible. When I approached the server about the problem, I was taken aback by their defensive and rude response. He touched the fork I was eating with and used it to break open the manchurian ball to show us how it’s perfectly cooked - this is a major health concern. Rather than acknowledging the issue and working towards a solution, they insisted that the balls were indeed cooked and that I was mistaken. To make matters worse, the server who we found out was in fact the owner, arrogantly claimed that even if they were replaced, the outcome would be the same, and I would be charged for both orders.

This blatant disregard for customer satisfaction and the lack of professionalism in handling the situation left me greatly disappointed. It is the responsibility of any reputable establishment to uphold high standards in food preparation and to address customer concerns with care and respect. Regrettably, Hakka Legend failed to meet these basic expectations.

In addition to the poor food quality and unprofessional service, the overall ambiance of the restaurant left much to be desired. This unfortunate experience has left me with little desire to revisit Hakka Legend in the future.

I would not recommend Hakka Legend in Markham to those seeking a pleasant dining experience. Given how most of the reviews are similar to this one I don’t expect the management of Hakka Legend to take this feedback seriously and make the necessary improvements in their food quality and...

CUSTOMER WARNING! This restaurant charges gratuity even for 2 people, and this is nowhere mentioned on their website. We were shocked when we saw this at the time of billing, as no other restaurant in Toronto that we've been to in our 15 years here has ever charged gratuity for a party of less than 6. The gratuity amount came out to be higher than the HST and we had only 1 appetizer and 2 mains. Anyhow, if the customer service was excellent, I would've happily agreed to this, but it was far from excellent. Not once did anyone bother to come and ask how the food was or if we needed anything - we had to get up and go to the centre if we needed anything. Their terrible customer service ruined the dine-in experience for me. We started with sweet corn chicken soup, which we order at almost every hakka place. We usually never provide feedback if something is slightly off, but in this soup all the chicken pieces were dry and rubbery, hence I chose to tell them. Leave aside asking us for details or understanding the issue, the guy almost cut me off and in a very defensive tone said "we use white meat" to which I said that "we love white meat but it shouldn't be dry and rubbery of course" and he just looked in dismissal, not a sign of acknowledging what we're saying, leave aside offering to replace the dish. Before he came we had mentioned it to the waitress very politely, whose reply was "it could be because of cornstarch" which made no sense at all. And she just stood there as if that was it! The mutton dish could have been very good but the salt level was almost double of normal standards (and by no means do I eat less salt). Hence I added a lot of vinegar to cut the salt to make it edible, but of course I didn't bother to tell them as they didn't seem to care at all. Not worthy of the compulsory gratuity one bit - you guys should make sure your services do justice to your policies! And you should definitely take a training course on...