Asian Legend — Restaurant in Toronto

TLDR: It's average dim sum at a price well above average. Won't visit again. If you're thinking about it: do yourself a favour and walk across the street to Rosewood Chinese Cuisine.

Service: 3/5 Food: 2/5 Atmosphere: 3.5/5 Price: 1/5

My friend and I went to this place for dim sum. It had a decent review on yelp so we decided to try it out. We ordered 8 dim sum items, which amounted to approximately $60 after tax (that's ridiculous if you've ever had dim sum anywhere. It shouldn't be more than $15 per person in most Asian places). I'd gladly fork over $30 - $40 for a decent meal, however their food can be considered average at best.

Highlight dishes: The pork and onion pancake thing wrapped in foil- that was good. I think it was about $5 or $6. A little pricey for the quantity but worth it. We got a medium bowl of congee, crab meat and mushrooms or something, $12. Way too much starch, and I think a little heavy-handed on the MSG. The pan fried buns (sheng jian bao). Those things were awful. Tasted undercooked, looked undercooked, and the too-thick dough didn't rise at all. Terrible. $5 Shrimp Dumplings: $5 or $6. Edible compared to the buns, even a little above average in taste, but again, not quite worth it.

The other dishes weren't even memorable, just some steamed bun or dumpling with something or other. Generally things you can find anywhere, and this place is starch-heavy on EVERYTHING. The dough is always too thick, even though the filling is seasoned nicely, it gets overpowered by a mouthful of dough. Honestly there's a place across the street called Rosewood Chinese Cuisine. Dim sum is $2/dish during happy hour, and the food is so much better than here.

Service: waiter looked like he didn't want to be there, mumbled the dishes' names as he put them down, so we had to ask him to repeat it. Twice. Depressing man.

The only thing that prevented me from giving it 1 star is the furnishing. The wall panels are quite beautiful. And the dipping sauce, but I mixed it myself so that doesn't really count. Though another thing: Their tables are quite small, so the two of us took up 2 of the...

Visited Asian Legend in a cold chilly night looking for a steaming bowl of noodle soup...

Ambiance is better than most other restaurants in nearby Dundas Street. The awkward part is the going up/downstairs. On their site, they say they will accommodate people with disabilities, though I wonder myself how that is accomplished.

In terms of the menu, it is extensive enough covering several bases: from soup to rice dishes to dumplings and so on. In a way, several bases are covered, the question is whether they were able to deliver. Now, a caveat, as per their site, they focus on Chinese northern style cuisine, which is somewhat different to the better known Cantonese cuisine.

We started off with the assorted seafood with tofu casserole. It was a good attempt but there was something lacking. Vegetables were crunchy, while the fried tofu puffs soaked some of the sauce. The seafood was somewhat bland. Next was the rolled onion pancake with sliced beef. Once again, there was something lacking: the texture was there, the beef was visibly there but you couldn't really taste it.

Next was the braised beef noodle soup. The beef was tender and the noodle had enough bite I was hoping for. But, once again, the broth disappointed as it lacked depth. Finally, we had some fried chicken wings. Fried through? Check. Crispy? Check. But, once again, I wished they seasoned it with something extra. For example, some garlic?

Overall, the food was acceptable but given it is slightly higher priced that other nearby establishments I was hoping for it to be better. Alas, it...

Beware this place! Non-existent service and demanding a higher tip?! (so many reviews about this) This place has gone down the toilet.

Service was non-existent and food was just terrible. Our tea was never re-filled and the waitress never checked on our table. There was only 2 other tables so they were not busy at all but the second dish took forever to arrive. The fried dumpling special was not even crispy and very soft. The steamed buns were very dry and flavourless. I still provided a 10% tip but the waiter SHOVED the payment back in my face and demanded I tip more. I was feeling pressured and he embarrassed me in front of my guest. I reached for my wallet and topped it up. But even after doing that he just took the payments back and didn't acknowledge it or say thanks!! I regret topping up the tip or giving any at all.

At this point I was pretty angry that he had the audacity to demand a HIGHER TIP when I didn't receive any service. All they did was set the food on the table and made us feel very uncomfortable.

Restaurant not only left me with a bad taste but many negative emotions. Needless to say after going here for many years with friends and family, I will not be recommending this...