Mabu Generation — Restaurant in Markham

Located in the plaza of First Markham Place.

They have a huge menu. They have one menu for food and one menu for desserts. They also serve alcoholic drinks. I'm surprised by how large of a selection of desserts they have. The prices of the desserts though... seem to be a little too high.... I mean the desserts are wayyyy overpriced.

Some of the cakes cost ($14.95)... this is for a single slice of cake... ummmkayy... they also have Mille crepe cakes. These were prices at $12.99. This is like $5 more expensive than Millie's creperie. The portion is probably not that big either. You're probably better off getting a crepe cake else where, or maybe two.. Another thing that seems pretty overpriced is the molten tarts. These tarts are priced at $11.99 for two and they are not that big either... ummmm not worth. But pretty much most of their desserts are overpriced. But they have a nice variety.

Food wise, the price seems more reasonably priced. Some things are better priced than others.

I ordered the beef sukiyaki hot pot, peach green tea and the chocolate mochi waffle.

Taiwanese beef sukiyaki hot pot ($17.95) - the broth was on the sweeter side, it doesn't taste that heavy. The portion of the meat was really little. Probably about 5 pieces. The meat was decent. The udon was good. The udon didn't taste plain. It was chewy and flavourful. The hot pot also came with a few other items like imitated crab meat, pork balls, fish tofu, tofu and mushrooms. It also came with an egg on the side. Make sure you cook the egg in the beginning otherwise it will not cook later. The taste was ok but not really filling. The presentation was nice. It came in a nice pot on top of a fire.

Peach green tea ($4.99) - this was just a plain peach green tea with no tapioca or anything for $4.99. Kinda not worth it. It was pretty small. You're better off getting a large drink from chatime or gong cha instead for the same price. Flavour wise, it has a odd peach flavour. I prefer Chatime a peach green tea better.

Chocolate mochi waffle ($10.99) - pictures are deceiving. I was expecting my chocolate mochi waffle to be actually chocolate flavour mochi. But it was just the regular plain flavours mochi. The texture of the mochi was chewy as it's rice cake. But I expecting the crust of the waffle to be crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside but it wasn't. It was all chewy. Besides that, in the picture the chocolate mochi waffle was supposed to come with chocolate ice cream. But in my order it was vanilla instead. Besides Besides that, there was bananas on my waffle. This was something that I was totally not expecting because it wasn't in the descriptions. Besides besides besides that, there was chocolate and caramel sauce on my waffle. The menu never showed two different sauces in the waffle. It only showed chocolate sauce. Both theses sauces combined made the dessert extremely sweet. It was pretty disappointing.

As for service. Service is extremely slow. The waiters most of the time would ignore you. It's so hard to get a hold of the waiters here.

Design wise. The place looks pretty nice and cozy. The lighting is kinda dim. It was a nice looking place.

Overall, food is okay, food price is ok. Dessert is meh. Dessert price is...

Had experienced this place twice. First time via take out and tried a second time in person.

TLDR: Go for the experience but keep expectations low when it comes to the food. If you like HK Cafe style food this place is just average and the younger waitstaff are not all fluent in Cantonese or HK Food ordering terms. You'll have to be patient and speak in English or if you're lucky they will send the auntie who is fluent in HK Cantonese to wait on your table.

1. take out

E14 Peanut Butter Condensed Milk Toast Believe the pictures - for $5.99 CAD you get ONE square slice of white bread covered in PB and condensed milk as you'd ordered. I was floored and thought my BF ate half of it but turns out it's no lie when I saw the menu ...that photo is ONE SINGLE slice of bread.... A real HK Cafe would have it as a sandwich meaning two slices of bread with the spreadables inside..

2. dine in for four

H03 Pepper with Hog Maw and Chicken Hot pot This came tepid at best and was sitting over a small flame which burnt out before the soup could come to a boil. Taste is great for this if you like lots of peppercorns but sadly the soup gets cold very quickly. Also the waitress was struggling to place the dish down so becafeful.

H01 Crispy Grilled Steak w/ Black Truffle (黑松露+牛排+白醬) The HK Cafe version of a Beef Wellington I suppose. This was seasoned well and piping hot so overall a good dish. Couldn't taste the truffle and did not even expect that realistically, this is a cafe so maintain a reasonable set of expectations.

C11 Baked Cheese Pork Chop w/spaghetti *Pork chop was cooked well, reasonably seasoned and crispy on the outside. Although, the cheese spaghetti was just warm inside and tasted bland.

C03 Cheese Curry Beef in Baked Bread Bowl (with Baked Rice) *This came out hot and was glad the rice inside was also hot.

No issues with the desserts. Good job on that one. No expectations but it tasted as expected. You can see in the pictures -F03 Coconut Milk with Grass Jelly Sago & Taro Ball (椰汁芋圓涼粉西米露 ） -F08 Bunny Milk Pudding

Coffee that came with one of the dishes was also cold - had to ask for them to reheat it 🤣. Also the waitstaff 1 of 3 that night could speak canto and sounded right but didn't know the term for black coffee in Chinese "齋啡" when receiving the order so we had to explain in english...

Overall I had no diarrhea so lucky me, but I'd rather go to a less flashy place with well prepared and hot cooked HK Cafe dishes. There is no reason to return to this location. The sugar water cafe beside this place also serves lukewarm dishes if you like that...

An Asian restaurant serves Ving allanner of Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese food.

If you're in a group and can't decide on one type of dish, this should be a great choice as there is all manner of traditional Taiwanese dishes, donburi, sizzling plates, noodle soups, and hot pots available. The interior is very large, however be warned on the weekends there will be a wait and loud on the inside.

I started with the Taiwanese style grilled Angus beef steak egg pancake. The inside also included corn, and a tangy sauce. I'm used to this dish being served with just the pancake, beef, and a hoisin sauce, so I was interested in Mabu's take. I think the egg and corn made it harder to eat each portion on its own, and made the dish fall apart more easily while eating, which was exacerbated by a large amount of sauce, causing the dish to be very messy while eating.

I also had the grilled beef tongue (forgot to take a picture...). The meat was served medium well, and was extremely tender, with a green onion oil on the side to dip. The meat was cooked to perfection, and was juicy and flavourful on its own, with the oil just bring it all to the next level. Highly recommended!

For the first main, I tried the Taiwanese style stewed beef ramen. The broth was the.savoury.beef broth you would expect from a Taiwanese beef soup, and the ramen was pleasantly supple and chewy, with the beef brisket extremely tender due to a longer stewing process.

Finally I had the pork belly on rice, served as a donburi with shredded pork floss, a Taiwanese stewed egg, and pickled vegetables. When I first got this dish it looked.deceptivrly small. However at the halfway point I realized how wrong I was... This is a hearty dish, with the pork belly having a perfect blend of fat and pork belly meat, with the pork floss providing a certain sweetness to the dish that complete Ted the other flavours.

Overall I really enjoyed the restaurant. Expect to wait a bit to get a table during the dinner time, and short of the egg pancake, the meal...