MA Chinese Cuisine — Restaurant in St. Catharines

We took a group of 10 there for 3 birthdays. The venue is lovely inside (outside not so much) and the food was fairly tasty, so I'm not going to give them a negative review. However, there were a number of issues I think they could use feedback on, so I'm going to give it here. Service - they put us in a private room, which was lovely, but the sound echoed so much that it was hard to hear one another. Every server who came in and out left the door open behind them, and being nearest the door I spent my evening closing it. Half the group was seated before the other half arrived, but nobody had offered to take a drinks order. When the second half arrived, the server was there to take our food order, but we still hadn't had a chance to request any drinks. They brought us water, but getting drinks was somewhat like pulling teeth. That's crazy with a group this size, they lost a lot of bar money because by the time we ordered only 3 people went for drinks.

Food: In spite of taking all the orders at once, the food came out one plateful at a time. This ultimately meant we didn't eat together, but everyone ate one by one. Given that we were hoping to share and taste, it didn't work too well. The menu is extensive and visually very nice, as is their website, but like it doesn't explain well. So when you order a dish you have no idea what you're actually going to get. My partner ordered the Pork Slices with Mashed Garlic (016), which was delicious but definitely wasn’t a full-sized entrée. Since it was listed under cold dishes and not appetizers, we didn’t realize that. It comes with nothing, unless you ask for (and pay extra for) steamed rice, which I find unusual because in other Chinese restaurants they bring you steamed rice as a matter of course. I asked for steamed rice for the table and it took three return visits by servers and ordering two separate portions just to get hold of some (!) I had the Deep Fried Tofu appetizer (003) which shows one chili beside it, while someone else had the Deep Fried Tofu with Salt and Pepper (005), which shows two chillis beside it. First, 003 was about one third of the size of 006 (maybe the price should have been a clue, but I wasn’t looking for hidden clues at the time) and in spite of supposedly being milder it was much, much hotter. The 006 dish was actually delicious, it was the best thing served all night and the entire table ate from it while we waited for other plates to arrive. My entrée was the MaMa’s House Fried Chicken (082) which in spite of the write-up was bone-dry to eat. The glazing was dry, the skin was dry, it came with zero sauce or moisture and – of course – served with nothing at all. Fortunately, I asked for steamed rice and “borrowed” some sauce from someone else’s lemon chicken to get it all down. Overall, the diners seemed happy with the food although I think we were all a bit mystified as to why it came with nothing. One diner ordered one of the rice dishes and it was a whole meal on its own. Perhaps this is the Chinese way but since it’s located in a non-Chinese community it would helpful to state “entrees not served with any sides, if you want rice you have to order it individually.”

Dessert: Desserts aren’t on the menu, so you don’t know until afterwards whether they have any or not. We ended up with some awfully cute custard bunnies and almond bees, which were pretty much the highlight of the evening although not spectacularly delicious. Several items on the dessert menu were named “cake” and when ordered, the server told us they weren’t cake but some kind of jello. That was disconcerting to say the least.

Washrooms appeared to be downstairs and not accessible, although to be fair I didn’t ask. The entrance has a wheelchair lift so it’s accessible from the parking, so chances are good the washrooms have access somehow too. Overall, an interesting experience but not one I will likely be...

2nd visit: March 9, 2025 dinner 5/5 stars We came back to MA Chinese Cuisine to try out their main dishes since the dim sum was awesome. The main dishes did not disappoint and were awesome as well :)

The Chicken Fried Rice with Pineapple was good. The pineapple was fresh and the fried rice was flavourful and delicious. However, the fried rice was a bit on the dry side.

The Stir Fried Assorted Vegetables were perfectly cooked and delicious.

The DongPo Pork was awesome. The pork was soft, tender and flavourful. The bok choy was good too. Would definitely recommend.

The Mapo Tofu en Casserole (Minced Beef) was awesome. The Mapo Tofu was nicely seasoned with a bit of a spice kick. They make a good Mapo Tofu here. Would definitely recommend.

The Red Bean & Coconut Pudding dessert was awesome. The dessert was not too sweet and delicious.

The Oolong Tea was good. The Oolong tea was more fragrant than the Black tea (Lapsang souchong). Of the two teas, we preferred the Black Tea.

— 1st visit: March 8, 2025 morning 5/5 stars The dim sum at MA Chinese Cuisine was awesome!

We had the following: The Crispy Squid Tentacles was good. It was perfectly cooked and seasoned.

The Ma Spiced Pepper Salt Ribs were awesome. The ribs were soft, tender and savoury.

The Snow Pea Shoots & Mushroom Dumplings were good. There was great texture and flavour in this dumpling.

The Xiaolongbao (Shanghai Style Pork Dumpling) was okay. The flavour was good but size was tiny to get any soup inside the dumpling. It also had a bit of a strong pork gamey smell to it.

The Cuttlefish in Curry Sauce was good. The cuttlefish had great texture and soaked up that curry sauce well.

The Char Siu Bao (Special BBQ Pork Bun) was awesome. They make a good Char Siu Bao here :)

The Su Er (Tofu Skin Roll with Shiitake Mushrooms & Enoki Mushrooms) was good. The tofu skin was delicious and went well the savoury shiitake and enoki mushrooms.

The Osmanthus Jelly, Goji & Lychee dessert was awesome. It had great texture and was not too sweet. Would definitely recommend.

The Black Tea (Lapsang souchong) was awesome. They use good quality tea here. Would...

Can’t speak highly enough about this place. I was looking for a place in the area to take my family for NYE while I was in town visiting from Montreal and we were all blown away by our visit.

First, we received a call a few days in advance by Jenessa to let us know that our booking time was still reserved but that she wanted to let us know that it would be very busy and that service might be a bit slow and offered to book us at an earlier time to ensure faster service. I’ve never had a single restaurant reach out to me in advance before in this way and I was thoroughly impressed.

We had Na (apologies if spelled wrong) as our server and was incredibly helpful, attentive and kind. When I ordered a particular beer, he offered to bring a sample for me to try which was thoughtful. He managed a perfect order despite us ordering about 12 different dishes and even advised us that the non dim sum dishes might take more time.

The food was incredible. We ordered an array of dim sum dishes, as well as a veggie fried rice, stir fried garlic broccoli and a general tao chicken for the less adventurous people at our table. The dim sum dishes and the rice were the crowd favourite, with the MVP dishes going to the pork rolls in tofu skin, the congee, the char siu bao and the siu mai. The food was an 11/10 all around.

The restaurant itself is beautiful. I didn’t see photos ahead of time and was not expecting the level of class and tasteful design we walked into. One of the people I dined with noted “this looks like a place that would be in a scene in a John Wick movie”.

Had an incredible experience from start to finish - we ate with three non adventurous eaters and all three of them loved the dim sum dishes and all mentioned how much they’d like to come back. Not to mention that the pricing was phenomenal for such an upscale restaurant. We’ll definitely be back the next time...