New Century Restaurant — Restaurant in Markham

We came here as a group of 25+ people after a funeral service. We were seated within the special VVIP room for people who've just come from a funeral service. Located inside the strip mall.

The restaurant is very fancy, high end/high scale kind of place. The interior is very fancy as heck. The chandeliers are very pretty, the decor are like abstract and fancy stuff. The tables and chairs are like super fancy fancy banquet styled stuff. Yeah, probably the most fanciest banquets styled Chinese restaurant I've ever been to. The exterior or the front entrance of the restaurant is very... Gaudy. Fancy gaudy. There are TV screens all over the restaurant, either they're off or they're on, advertising their food deals.

Normally, if you've come after a funeral service and everyone is wearing black, you're not allowed to sit with all the other customers. Why? As you'll bring bad luck to them, cause funeral= death = bad luck. I assume it's Chinese superstition. It'll be bad for their business if you sat with their regular customers, basically. So, instead, you'll get your very own VVIP room! Oh, and we also get our personal washroom (it's only for 1 person to use). There's also this remote controller that only has Chinese text on it. It's purpose is to move/speed up/slow down/change the direction of the turn table in the center of the table.

Alright, into the food! I don't know what was ordered, as all the food seems to be pre-ordered. I can only guess what they are.

There seems to be 2 kinds of tea (not too sure what). There are these red thermos type hot water kettle/bottles to refill the teapots. There are these 2 sets of these sauces (some Chinese vinegar, ginger/green onions/oil saucy dip for chicken, some sweet ish sauce, some salt, some spicy Chinese mustard, and some spicy hot sauce?).

The 1st dish was crispy pork with it's very crispy, crunchy skin. There's a lot of fat on it. But also very salty. The 2nd dish was some sort of light, cleansing tofu, broccoli, shrimp soup. The soup itself was thick. The third dish was some sort of seafood, tofu, broccoli dish. The seafood being scallops, squid and shrimp. The 3rd dish is just simply... Rice. A huge bowl of heaping, hot rice. The 4th dish was a vegetable dish. Full of mushrooms and a Chinese vegetable's name I can't recall right now. The 5th dish is a cold chicken dish. This dish was salty and kind of tasted raw at times (in my opinion). Some of the meat near the bone was still rather red... So it was concerning to me. The 6th dish was sweet and sour pork. Really powerful in flavor. It does however, have a lot of fat on it. The 7th dish was some sort of weird fish dish. It had slices of ham and mushrooms in an alternating pattern between each slice of fish. And the Chinese vegetable kind of divided the rows of the weird fish. The plate was shaped like a fish. And the final dish, the 8th dish was a dessert dish. It seemed to be like a milk based sago pearls Chinese dessert soup. It's the simpler version of the other one which had some Chinese like potato in it (it's not a potato, but I don't know what it's called).

They provided a lot of napkins and toothpicks. The toothpicks are found inside these pouches which has, conveniently, the restaurant's name and contact info/address on it.

The main and big washrooms are large and somewhat clean. I say somewhat, as they left their mop and bucket of water inside. The sinks are fancy looking and the paper towels are under the mirrors (hidden, there are signs).

Overall, the restaurant is really fancy. Slightly gaudy fancy. Food is good. Some of the food was either too fatty, or a bit too raw, or tasted a bit questionable (but everyone else seemed fine with it).

The service of the waitress bringing in the food was kind of weird. Staggered? Fast all at once near the end? It was good I guess. They let me take pictures for this review before they started serving the food and stuff. Thank you very much.

I heard this whole thing costed around $1600. Red pocket money...

I have many fond memories of this restaurant growing up in the area, as it has been a staple location for dim sum with my family and we celebrated some wonderful milestones in their space.

Despite this, today's visit will be my last.

As expected for dim sum on a weekend/holiday, the restaurant was very busy. However, this does not excuse that our table was missing one of the dishes we ordered, and this was reflected on our order sheet with this dish still not marked off and accounted for. This was not a problem, of course--we brought it to the attention of one of our servers.

This is where the issue arose: instead of either bringing the dish (again, it was not marked off in accordance with it not arriving at the table), the server returned with 2 other serving staff and told us that the dish had already arrived, and had marked the dish as "served" while they had conferred in the back of the restaurant. We expressed again that the dish was not brought to us; all 3 serving staff then began to accuse us of eating the dish, saying they had watched us eat it and then cleared the empty dish afterward. We reiterated that the dish did not come to us, we did not eat it, and we are more than happy to just have the dish cancelled. The staff then escalated this further to tell us they would check the security cameras to "prove" we had eaten this dish that never arrived at our table--we invited them to do so, as we had NOT received this dish and would be more than happy to see the evidence of this on video.

Eventually, the manager came to our table and told us they would cancel the order as we requested, because they "trusted us" and "it [wasn't] up to the waitresses to decide". At this point, we were very frustrated with the accusations and expressed this, and further expressed that we would like to see the supposed video footage of us consuming this dish per the false accusations; we were then brushed off with a statement that the manager "didn't have access" to the video footage. We expressed our frustration with the situation and we were again brushed off as, "it's okay, we cancelled the order for you, it's okay."

I do not at all appreciate being accused of thievery nor having my integrity questioned over a dish that may have been delivered to the wrong table, or otherwise lost in the shuffle of a busy restaurant. If the video footage is indeed reviewed at some point, I would caution the staff against baseless accusations--the video footage will surely reveal more errors from the serving staff that I would have been more than happy to forgive had they not attempted to blame me for their mistake, threaten us with reviewing a security video they "don't have access to", and gaslight us with absolutely ludicrous statements (really? How can you be so certain you watched any given table/customer consume a dish among over a hundred tables in the restaurant?).

The food, at...

UPDATE October 13th 2021

Alright folks, I am back to try their Dim Sum offerings today to see what all the fuss is about because many people are raving about the Dim Sum ever since the NEW Management / Ownership happened.

And wow, I am impressed. The Dim Sum dishes in general were fabulous with the exception of one of my favs which is Chiu Chow dumplings. The skin and texture were perfect. But the filling inside lacked any flavour or seasoning. Quite a let down.

Otherwise, all the other dishes ( My party ordered 22 dishes ...And we were a party of 4 People !!! ) were delicious and fresh.

The service was stellar and attentive. Extra brownie points here.

Please give them a try and then let us all know what you think. My family and I decided to celebrate my fathers birthday by having dinner here this evening.

This "new / renovated / With New Management " restaurant was recommended to us by many friends and family because the dinner selections and dishes are simply outstanding after New Ownership arrived and completed extensive major renovations to this restaurant which has stood here for decades.

The restaurant looks AMAZING. The decor looks tasteful, very clean, fresh and a touch of "High Class".

And the food matches the new decor.It is High Class and delicious. It really was outstanding. My hats off to the chef(s).

All of our dishes were perfectly cooked and the flavours were outstanding because they have all been properly seasoned and prepped. I am impressed.

Dishes Ordered:

1. Cooked Oysters
2. SpareRibs
3. A Whole Crispy Chicken
4. Fresh Steamed Fish ( Per Weight)
5. Beef and Chinese Broccoli
6. Stir Fry Beef and Rice Noodles

The service also matches the high levels attained by its cuisine. The staff and managers were extremely helpful and attentive. All COVID protocols were followed here.

I wish to thank the Staff for making this dining experience and a Birthday celebration one to remember. Kudos to you all.

I will return for some Dim Sum and dinner to check on its consistency. Otherwise I am already certain that a 5 STAR rating is just around the corner.

Please treat yourselves to some fabulous and delectable Cantonese cuisine and then let us all know what your thoughts are.

Update December 2023

I am back for dim sum🥟. The dim sum is fresh and piping hot 🥵. The service is very attentive and helpful. The place is packed as per usual on a Sunday. And that is always good news. That means that the dim sum is popular.

Happy...