Lobster Port — Restaurant in Markham

It was one-of-a-kind experience, but in a pretty bad way.

I booked a wedding dinner here because this place was recommended by friend who says it provides quality presentation and service that is worth its higher prices. The menu and website also looked trustworthy. Tried pre-ordering several days ahead when I booked the table, but was told to order when we arrive. Explicitly told the server multiple times that the bride has a pretty severe onion allergy, and was promised that there will be no onion in any of the dishes. The first dish arrives 10minutes after order, and 2nd/3rd dish each took 15min to arrive after we finished the previous dish and on the small side. The bride also started getting a small allergic reaction, but it is very difficult to completely avoid contact with onions when eating Chinese cuisine. Understandable.

However, the table beside us completed two rotation of customers with full course meals similar to ours while we were still waiting for our 4th dish, something started not adding up. Our server had checked in on us only 4 times during our wait: once to take our order, and the other three times when our dishes arrived. our teapots were empty long ago and the bride and groom were obviously concerned about the wait, but did not ask questions. Finally at around 10pm one of the groom's relatives couldn't take it anymore and walked to the front desk to discuss our situation. Several servers immediately arrived to "check" the situation but inadvertently lost our order recipt in the process. At this point, all the other tables around us has pretty much finished their meals and we were the only table left in the vicinty.

Our 4th dish (AAA beef) finally arrived at 10:10pm, but was covered in onions. We immediately requested them to take the dish away and reminded them of our allergy but the strong smell of onion had already triggered a mild allergic reaction from the bride. The server also finally brought out the lobsters for us to confirm its weight and looks, but also requested we pay our bill because the front desk is closing. When I double checked the bill, there was an extra charge for additional pounds of lobster despite the fact that they confirmed the weight of the lobster with us literally minutes ago. They immediately erased the charge when I confronted them about it. I gave them less tips than typical due to the accumulation of these experiences, but the server immediately returned after checking the bill and proceeded to loudly complain to me in front of the table about the tip I gave, unapologetically requesting for a higher tip and left the bill at the table. Any attempts at the table to keep a joyous atmosphere fell dead at this point, and we ate quickly whatever was served while the the staff were rolling up tables, filling garbage bags, and dissembling barriers/walls all around us. The rest of the 8 dishes arrived within 15minutes of the lobster being shown. To throw a final wrench into things, the server notified us that one of the desserts from our menu was not available anymore because the dessert chef has left. Since we already paid, there really wasn't much we could do but accept. I apologized profusely to the bride and groom after the meal. Not sure if they will trust me with food ever again.

Would I go back, or recommend anyone to this experience? No.

Did I mention that we were shown 3 lobsters to be prepared, but our lobster dish had 4 lobster tails and 2 heads? Also, Google maps photos has a tab of sashimi photos, which they do not have.

TL;dr: Waited 2 hours for food that ignored allergy concerns, missing foods and attempts to charge for extra items. Had to pay before all the dishes arrive, ate while the restaurant closed up, hassled publicly to pay more tips to "help servers survive...

Darn Delicious Dinner!

This is a follow-up to a recent review I posted a couple of days ago pertaining to a Dim Sum luncheon at this popular venue. The overall culinary experience was an unforeseen pleasant and positive one. As such, a decision was made to check-out their dinner offering. Even with an early reservation made for 5.45 pm, we were told beforehand that a 2 hours time limit will be imposed for our seating due to our dinner-date falling on a busy Saturday weekend.

Apart from a “ Crispy skin, stuffed whole deboned Chicken with Seasoned Sticky Rice “, pre-ordered in advance. The rest of our meal was chosen from an extensive a-la-carte menu that featured some intriguing offerings.

The following dishes were added to complete our menu composition tailored for a party of 6:

Roasted crispy skin suckling Piglet with seasoned shredded Seaweed & Jellyfish Pan seared AAA Filet Mignon cubes with premium Top Soy, Pine Nuts and Walnuts Stirred fry mixed Wild Mushrooms with Lotus Root slices Fried crispy BC Jumbo Oysters with Osmanthus fragrance honey-pepper glaze Steamed minced Pork patty with Chinese sun dried preserved salted-fish

( Complimentary desserts of : Lychee and Osmanthus Jello, Almond Cookies and Coconut Milk, Taro and Tapioca Dessert Soup )

This mouth-watering assemblage of sumptuous, umami-saturated Cantonese delicacies was lovingly prepared and beautifully plated by a skilled kitchen resulting in some wondrously tasty fare.

Hands down stand-out dish of the evening goes to the least attractive looking, classic yet simple, house-special steamed pork patty dish….. exquisite, light, spongy-soft and airy! So ambrosial and delicious, thanks to the salted fish contribution, one could easily get hooked and devour a couple bowls of rice with it alone!! The younger attendees, with their huge appetite, were great fans of the awesome looking crispy skin sticky rice stuffed chicken. The gossamer thin and crispy skin coupled with the delectable stuffing created a most attractive taste and textural mouth feel. The ever popular Cantonese style wok-seared Beef steak cubes were perfectly caramelized, exuding a wondrous aromatic and mesmerizing flavor profile……if only I knew how to make it at home?! The plumb and moist Jumbo Oysters, crispy and nicely sauced. The wafer textured suckling piglet’s skin, crunchy and crispy!

Overall, every dish excelled in their own special way, and can easily rub-shoulder or even bested similar creations from other well known competitors in the area.

This near faultless feast must rank as one of the best and most gratifying Cantonese meal I have had in Toronto this year!

And, contrary to some ‘less-than-positive’ reviews/reports I came across, service tonight was extremely friendly and attentive!

By the time we asked for our bill, the place was indeed packed to the rim with a few waiting customers forming lines that spilled partially out onto the parking lot. A testament of this restaurant’s high quality standard and popularity?

Amazed and perplexed as to how I managed to overlook this fine, neighborhood gem all this time. I will borrow Arnold Schwarzenegger's famous immortal “ Terminator “ movie remark by saying to “Lobster Port 1”…..… “...

Friend had her wedding dinner here. The 1 star rating goes to the service and restaurant overall. It's a shame because the food wasn't that bad.

We were told to arrive at 4pm so we could start setting up for the wedding. When we arrived, the restaurant was still cleaning up from the previous party. We lost 1 hour of time that could have been used to setup for the wedding. If you're gonna tell your client to show up at a specific time, then make sure your restaurant is ready. Talk about poor time management.

The bridal party was helping with setting up things that the restaurant should have been doing - moving tables around. Unacceptable.

Everyone that worked at this restaurant was extremely rude. You ask them a question and they shrug you off, turn around and whisper to one another. Unprofessional.

The restaurant agreed they would cut the fruit. My friend supplied them with everything. When we showed up with the fruit, they said they will not cut it. They even said if we had our own knife, we can cut the fruit ourselves. EXCUSE ME?! I never heard of this before. With all the chaos going on because the restaurant was being uncooperative, 2 members from the bridal party had to step into the kitchen and cut the fruit themselves. They did a good job. Better than what the restaurant can do.

The head table for the bridal party was SO SMALL. It was like sitting at a children's table. On top of that, they set up 10 plates on the table but only had 8 chairs. We only realized chairs were missing when we got to the table trying to find empty chairs while guests were already in their seats watching us.

Wine bottles went missing. My friend bought extra wine bottles to supply her guests with drinks. Red and white wine. Only a 1/4 of the glasses were full with white. Where was the rest? Why did the restaurant take away the wine bottles when they were for guests? Very suspicious.

It was SO HOT. Do they not have A/C? No ventilation whatsoever. Had to step outside so many times throughout the night to cool off.

Many more things happened. The service at this restaurant is absolutely horrible. Unprofessional and rude. If you're looking to book for a wedding or any sort of event, look elsewhere. The absolute worst restaurant I have ever been to for a wedding. Two...