Ox Club (潮牛殿) — Restaurant in Markham

“Trying out a brand new Dim Sum restaurant addition to the Markham food scene, featuring an appealing and interesting business model!

Taking advantage of the gorgeous 20c Spring weather, my wife and I decided to enjoy this rarity by having a Dim Sum lunch at this brand new eatery.

Offering Dim Sum luncheon from 9.30am to 3.00pm and transforming to a Hot-Pot restaurant in the evening. This interesting formula coupled with a ‘week-day, early bird special that extends up to 3.00 pm’......( only $5.28 for all small, medium and large dishes), combined to create a most unique and appealing business model.

A spacious front-of-house was occupied with generously separated round tables and stand-alone private booths. Interior decor using refined and tasteful artwork, subdued lighting offers the patrons a cozy, welcoming and relaxing environment.

For this initial trial of ours, the two of us ordered the following: Dried Stock Fish, Peanuts and Salted Pork Bones Rice Congee ( What a delicious creation packed full of umami goodness. The distinctive aroma of the dried fish and the well seasoned bone bones were a masterful addition to a perfectly cooked congee. The velvety smooth texture and consistency was spot-on! ) Fried ‘ Woo-Gok ‘ taro croquettes ( Just when I thought I had encountered one of GTA’s best Woo-Gok at Providential 9, last week?! Along came this near perfect rendition! The crispy shell, super, smooth and delicate taro paste cocoon plus the saucy and delicious filling combined to create some uber-delicious bites! :D An exceptional and praise worthy product!) Steamed Har Gow Shrimp dumplings ( Middle-of-the-road fare. Your typical Har Gow specimen as featured in most, above average GTA Dim Sum Restaurants. Juicy, well seasoned, all prawns filling, with the usual thickish, chewy skin. Acceptable but nothing to write home about! ) #1 Bun Under the Sky ( When first introduced, this award winning freshly baked BBQ Pork Bun creation from Hong Kong was everyone’s favorite. However, the initial rave is now clearly over and it has become a staple feature in most Dim Sum menus. OXclub version has a rough with an edge appearance. The piping hot buns with sweet crusty caps and fairly generous juicy BBQ pork filling were good but far from exceptional

Desserts of: Osmanthus and Red Bean Jello Cake and Multi-Layer chewy mochi cake infused with ginger juices. Both enjoyable though a touch overly sweet for my taste.

All in all, a good enough place with friendly service, attractive pricing and a huge, varied menu to warrant additional...

OXCLUB was a bit of a mixed experience for me — the kind of place where you really want to like it, but the reality just doesn’t fully deliver.

We pre-booked their Buddha Jumps Over the Wall (佛跳墙) set meal, which came with lobster, shrimp balls, vegetables, and a claypot rice dish. You can also add meat (like beef or lamb) to cook in the pot, so it becomes a bit like a hotpot setup. I think the set was around $288–$300, and for five people, with extras and drinks, we ended up spending around $500. For a Lunar New Year meal, that felt reasonable.

Now, the 佛跳墙 broth was pretty good, flavorful and warming — I’d say that was the highlight. But the rest?

The lobster was underwhelming, with barely any meat.

The shrimp balls were average.

The claypot rice (煲仔饭) was honestly disappointing — the minced meat had a strange taste, slightly off or even a bit gamey, and we barely touched it.

If you're just looking for hotpot, I wouldn't recommend this place — it’s clearly not their strength.

Service was also frustrating. The restaurant is large, but there aren’t enough staff, and it’s hard to get anyone’s attention. I had trouble finding a server even when I needed help with something simple. There is a QR code system for ordering, which works fine for à la carte items, but because we pre-booked a set meal, I couldn’t find our order in the system, and no one was around to help. So it’s not that the system is bad — just that human service is very limited.

As for the environment:

The space is big, and decor is okay, nothing fancy.

Parking during peak hours is tough, so plan ahead.

Final thoughts: ✅ Buddha Jumps Over the Wall soup: Worth trying

❌ Claypot rice & lobster: Skip

⚠️ Service: Very limited — expect to rely on QR code ordering

💡 Better as a one-time festive meal than a regular go-to hotpot spot

Overall, I’d give it around 3 out of 5 — okay for the occasion, but there’s room for improvement in food consistency and...

Mediocre, worth to try those featured beef dish, but may not pay a second visit any time soon.

The location used to be JiuDingXiang (九鼎香). It's been a while since I visited it last time, and this time when my friend gathered us here, it's Ox Club now. They are currently in their soft opening.

Given the increased price tag, food is no where close to what it used to be, in terms of freshness and tastiness. The variety does have a huge step up, because instead of doing the standard AYCE, now they serve featured menu with the cuts from all sorts of the parts of the cow, which is a great idea, but just was executed in a disappointing way.

We ordered probably 5 of those dishes and were really excited to try them because it was all new to us. Surprisingly we were not impressed by any of them...I personally even think the beef tongue they used to serve in JiuDingXiang was even better than its current version (un-marinated). For the rest of the dishes that we ordered (veges and toufu skin and etc), I kind of feel they were just those ordinary stuff taken out of the box from the grocery that you can get from the T&T next door, and I'm pretty sure that I myself must have bought the same toufu skin and the spinach leaf in the past from the store. Oh yea, they serve you "spinach leaf", which is common in salads, instead of the real spinach, which is used more commonly for the hotpot. This is a major no-no to me. Imaging trying to use chopsticks in the boiling water for that small spinach leaf, a bit too much work even for a native chopstick user...

Again, it's a great idea and you get to try all sorts of beef from different parts of the cow, but with that price tag and the food quality, I can hardly give it a second visit.

Good To Try though. Hope it gets better after the...