China Cottage — Restaurant in Toronto

Date visited : Saturday April 02, 2022 Overall Rating for experience : 4/5

Comments : We've been coming to China Cottage even before pandemic, just getting around to the review now tho lol. We came for lunch special after we finished our grocery haul for the coming week. They are now accepting Dine-In business again woohoo!!

Service : 4/5 On this visit we did have an attentive server. Checking on us at regular intervals, checking water levels etc.

Food : 3/5 Normally I would rate the dishes we have at China Cottage more at 4/5 but this visit, was leaning more towards a 3/5. For this specific visit, we ordered off the Lunch specials menu : Ginger Beef, Chicken Teppanyaki & Chimken Hakka Noodles. The Ginger Beef was so red in color, no idea what they added to make it dark red. Also, there was barely any Ginger flavor also was lacking the spicy as the server had told us. As for the Chicken Teppanyaki, it was just okay, I had forgotten that I had ordered the dish before in 2019. The Chicken Hakka Noodles were also more from meh-okay. My wife likes Hakka noodles. So we had enough leftovers of the noodles for her to bring to work. Likely we won't be ordering their Ginger Beef and Teppanyaki Chicken again. There are other Chicken lunch offerings I have tried in the past and have enjoyed more. I'm kinda stuck with Chimken offerings due to beef and pork are an avoid due to managing gout.

Drinks : The lunch specials come with the option for a soft drink. Tho I did make a recommendation that at least for those customers that are diabetic there should be a different option than a soft drink. Appears that they do have an option for Chinese Tea.

Portion Size Value for Money Spent : 4/5 For a Lunch special at $9.99 CAD you get a good amount of rice + the entree ordered.

Worth a repeat visit : Of course! As mentioned we've been somewhat regular diners here...

I’ve been a loyal customer at China Cottage for a long time, but after this recent experience, I’m extremely disappointed and won’t be returning. I called to let them know that I found a piece of chicken in my vegetarian dish. I wasn’t demanding anything, I just wanted to inform them in case it was a kitchen mistake. At first, I spoke with a polite young woman who said she would pass the message along to the manager and that he would call me back. When the manager did call, I was met with immediate yelling, accusations, and disrespect. He repeatedly called me a liar at least 20 times and insisted there was no way chicken could have been in the dish. He said he looked at camera footage and was adamant that I was trying to get free food, which was never my intention. I explained that I wasn’t lying and even sent him a picture of the chicken I found. After that, he changed his tone slightly and said, "If you can come in, we can sort this out," but he still continued to argue and be defensive. He claimed I said there were "chunks of chicken" in the food which I never said. I clarified that there may have been a miscommunication between him and the girl I originally spoke to, and instead of moving on, he kept saying, “Why did you say that then?” over and over again, completely ignoring me when I told him multiple times that I never said that. It felt like he just wanted to be right, no matter what even after being proven wrong with the photo I sent. His attitude was aggressive, dismissive, and completely unprofessional. Again, I’ve been coming here for a long time, and I was truly shocked to be treated like this  especially when I approached the situation politely and reasonably. Totally unacceptable behaviour from someone in a...

I have been to this restaurant many times and can tell you it has changed. I have tried practically everything they have to offer on their menu.

The portions are the same which are considerably decent sized. The quality of food has in all honesty gotten a little worse from its previous years. I used to be able to pack food up and eat it later in the day or even the following day by reheating it, but considering the quality change that is no longer a possibility as the rice becomes hard, noodles/chowmein becomes stale, meat dishes develop a smell. So I highly suggest eating the food at the restaurant and avoid packing. The food quality for dine in feels like each dish no longer is unique meaning I cant tell the difference between the "Manchurian" or "Szechuan" as they taste identical. Not sure what the change is that has caused this effect on the restaurant? New management? New chef? But the change has definitely been noticed over the years.

The services from the waiters and waitresses is good but can be greatly improved by offering suggestions to the customers who dont understand things on the menu, explain dishes more thoroughly, and double checking on if the customer is satisfied or needs anything else. They still maintain a level of professionalism and kindness which can overlook the minor problems. I would like to give a higher review of the restaurant but unfortunately it has dropped since its...