Congee Queen - North York(Lawrence/Don Mills) — Restaurant in Toronto

ENTITLED SERVERS! Let’s start of with tipping in Ontario Canada IS NOT MANDATORY OR A LAW as it is considered a voluntary payment to show appreciation for good service!!! This is our second time at this location and will be our LAST and will never go back!!

We have been to other locations before like the Mississauga and Thornhill and have never experienced servers DEMANDING MORE TIPS for the bare minimum of service they give! My fiance and I decided to eat lunch here for the second time on October 1, 2025. What service did they give us? Took the orders we wanted, dropped the food on our table and my fiance had to ask for another sprite and that was it. These servers never asked if we needed anything else or refilled our glass of water BUT we still gave them tip despite them not even doing anything else or providing good service! At the end a female server with glasses who could barely speak English comes back with the money we gave as tips trying to communicate about the receipt, we initially thought she was trying to say that the tip was included in the receipt but realized she was trying to say $11 tip is not enough and we should give more! She had to call another server who was a male to say “the tip is not enough and it should be 10 percent or higher as it is a thing in here”. We/I NEVER leave a restaurant without tipping and have never felt embarrassed about giving an $11 tip for what service? Putting the food on the table and giving us another sprite we asked for? We paid for the bill and still tipped, should I go to the back and help your cooks/chef prep my food too? The first time we were there it was a weekend in September 2025 and the servers were so nice and attentive. My fiance still gave another $5 on top of the $11 but explained to them that it’s not right and said we will never come back here again. The audacity to demand more tips is beyond crazy!!!

This location should tell the customers that a gratuity is directly charged on the bill/an automatic service charge instead of making the customers feel like shit after they already gave tips, at least then the customer are aware about the tipping situation even though it’s not a law or mandatory in Ontario Canada! Or better yet ask the employer of congee queen to increase your wage. If you want better wages so you don’t have to complain about tips go work in construction, health...

My family loves going to Congee Queen for almost every occasion, I do not. While you have great food, you have horrible wait times and some terrible attitudes. I hate giving you 2 stars, and for today (mothers day) you honestly deserve no stars, so I feel I am being generous here.

1: We were a group of 5 people. I called hours ahead to try to get a reservation. They said they only take first come first served. Which makes NO SENSE. The wait times were 1.5+ hours long. RESERVATIONS FIX THIS.

2: when we were finally seated, they gave us a booth with an extra chair at the end. As we were seated, several of the much larger tables began to empty and yet we were not offered to move, something that is very common when you initially give someone a terrible option for dining. We ended up getting many dishes and nothing fit. I WONDER WHY.

3: we got a set meal good for 6 people. This is an authentic Asian restaurant. Yet none of the set meals come with rice. These set meals are in the $114* range. It is common courtesy in all East Asian/ south East Asian cultures that dishes like these come with rice, as part of the set. I may sound like I am being picky but this is a common thing. Something I am sure was a money grab, on a $200 meal no less.

4: the waiter we had seemed like an ok guy. But the waiter that gave us the bill was some other guy with no shame. My bother tipped 10% on a $200+ bill. A tip that considering the wait time and horrible table, was warranted. The waiter then looks at it, says it’s only 10%, says “Canadians tip 15%” and then reluctantly says ok when my brother confusingly responds “yes?” How dare you? You want a better tip? Make your service match the price you want to put on the machine. The tip was still over $30 and you act like you deserve more. There are so many terrible reviews for this day in particular and they all seem to be referencing the same terrible waiter what has the AUDACITY to shame the customer for not tipping enough. I wish we had replied “oh, would you rather not have a tip?” Instead of being nice and letting that comment go by. I want someone to tell him, the food being good isn’t the only reason people tip. You made us wait ages for a garbage table and then proceed to insult us on Mother’s Day. The only reason we didn’t leave is because my parents are creatures of habit and they stubbornly refused to go...

Honestly they are so inconsistent with their food. You can order the same item 10 times and you’ll receive 10 different things. I didn’t stop by this location in a while after a bad experience but I just happened to be in the area and I picked up my order as soon as it was ready. I got a specialty congee and instead of telling me it was not available, they simply decided to give me another one instead, without telling me. Their udons are so thick and doughy that it’s very heavy to eat them and they can’t point out allergens even upon request, not to mention that they are also impossibile to locate on their huge menu. Not sure why, but this place is a surprise every time and not a good one.

Let me save you a bad experience. Do not EVER come to this location for dinner at 9pm when the restaurant closes at 10. You’ll be treated like an animal. I happened to come here with a friend at 9pm, fully aware they close at 10 but also fully aware they are extremely fast with the orders, so we were not concerned. As we walked in, they were already cleaning the place and we were told they were about to close. No, you close at 10, so they could not refuse us. If you wanna close at 9, update your hours. We sat down and we were told multiple times to order fast and through the app, as that would have been faster. We were also told we had to pay by 9.30pm. By 9.30, my friend did not receive his food yet but he was asked to pay. He of course refused until he received the food. Not even 30 seconds later the same rude waitress came back to make us pay. They never brought us water, they forgot my friend’s drink, cutlery was DIRTY and while we were eating already in a rush we were given the takeout boxes. While we were trying to pack our food to leave (this happened before 10pm) they were already cleaning our table while we were still sitting. Absolutely ridiculous and unprofessional. You deserve zero tips for this service. The hours clearly say that this restaurant is open until 10pm. You want to refuse or treat paying customers like this from 9pm? Update your hours. They are extremely nice in the location downtown but here they don’t deserve your tips at all, a whole other level of rudeness.

Since all negative reviews are pointing out the rudeness of the staff, is the manager even interested in addressing this...