Flaming Kitchen 一伙堂（Scarborough） — Restaurant in Toronto

I've been here twice. Once during their soft opening and again during their grand opening weekend for their buy one get one free promotion.I suspect that this is Aka Teppan rebranded as the the menu is basically the same.

On our first trip, we came on a Tuesday night and there were not a lot of people in the restaurant. Service was quick and efficient and the food was pretty good. We got the Mentaiko Beef #Udon ($12.99) and the Supreme Beef #Rice ($9.99).

The Udon was spot on with nice soft chewy noodles. It was also quite tasty as it was coated with a cheesy, spicy sauce. The Supreme Beef had several rolls of thinly sliced beef surrounding a mountain of rice which is topped with corn and green onions. I also added garlic bits (+$0.99) which is key as it mixes perfectly with the sauce that is hidden inside the rice. On the sizzling plate, the rice develops a "skin" with a wonderful crunchy and chewy texture. My only complaint was that there was not enough sauce in the middle as it it could have used a little more flavour. I ended up using the sauce left over from the udon on the rice and it was absolutely divine.

For dessert, we got the Mango Parfait and the Durian Parfait ($8.49). The mango parfait was ok. It came with granola, mango ice cream, whip cream and some cereal. Nothing special. I liked the durian parfait though - but I love anything durian and may be a little biased. Like the mango parfait, there was cereal and whipped cream layered at the bottom of the cup. I found the cereal a little too sweet (probably Frosted Flakes) but it was tempered a little by the cream. There were two scoops of durian ice cream topped with some boba as well as some fresh durian on top. The ice cream cone on top looks interesting but was a little messy to eat.

I thought the food was ok and therefore went back for a second time with friends for their grand opening buy one get one free special a week later.

The restaurant was much busier that night. We were quoted a 30 minute wait but it was probably around 45 minutes. Upon seating we ordered a variety of different plates and even considered getting two plates each since it seemed like great value (basically half off).

We started off with the shake shake fries which were pretty bad. They were basically mediocre fries with some seasoning that you shake into a brown paper bag. The seasoning wasn't very flavourful and I would say this was more gimmicky than anything else.

Our main dishes came out staggered (probably about 4-5 minutes apart) which is not ideal if you have a larger party since dishes get cold or meats can get overcooked if you do the whole waiting for everyone's dish to arrive before eating. Given that it was the grand opening, and it was pretty busy, I can understand but I thought it was worth mentioning.

This time, in addition to the dishes we had last time, we also tried a few new dishes. The Popcorn Chicken Rice ($9.99) is fairly simple but that isn't always a bad thing. The chicken was juicy inside and crunchy on the outside. There was more sauce inside the rice this time which was good.

The Angus Steak Rice was the least impressive value wise. Unlike the picture on the menu, the steak comes delivered already cooked in the sizzling platter. This would suck for someone like me who prefers her steak medium rare and juicy. It comes with some veggies and rice on the side as well as your choice of black pepper or tepanyaki sauce. At $19.99, I would say this is not worth it... Even with the BOGO Free promo.

The Flaming Chicken Spicy Noodles ($11.99) seemed to be just some instant noodles with cheese sauce and some chicken thrown in. Not incredibly impressed with this dish.

This was an ok place to eat given the grand opening promo. Dishes are a hit and miss here and if I were to return, I would probably stick to the beef Supreme, the mentaiko udon or the popcorn chicken. The portions are not particularly big though and at full price, I would say that it's not a...

2024-12-08, 9:46 PM

To be honest this is favorite go-to place to eat, and I even recommended it to my friends but today we encountered a very unacceptable attitude from all of the servers that was on duty.

We were a group of seven, but the servers told us we would be charged a 15% service fee. So we decided to split into two tables (they agreed) —one for our family of four and another for the rest of the group because the table they offered for 7 people was too small, and it was uncomfortable, especially since we were wearing coats.

Throughout the meal, the staff was giving us “attitude”. They kept gossiping and giving us side-eye, which made the whole experience unpleasant and uncomfortable.

When it was time to settle the bill, we were shocked to see that the 15% service charge was still added to our bill. I pointed out that our table consisted of only four people, and we were seated separately with a different table and QR code. We didn’t even talked to the other table.

On top of that, there was absolutely no service worth charging for—our water was never refilled, and the overall experience was far below basic expectations.

Instead of addressing our concerns professionally, the staff argued with us and were incredibly rude. They ended up removing the 15% charge, but not without warning us that they would enforce it “next time.” I made it very clear there won’t be a next time. That doesn’t end there yet. After we settled the bill, another server came to us just to say that they will charge ‘next time,’ as if we didn’t already understand what the first server had explained.

Having worked in customer service myself, I know how customers should be treated, and this kind of dismissive, rude attitude is entirely unacceptable. It’s disappointing because they treat customers this way. I’ll be sharing this experience...

I'm a regular at this restaurant for years now, but my visit today was pretty much disappointing. I dined with my parents and the service was okay at first. I just don't appreciate how a staff tried to grab our plates when we were still eating. At first she asked if she can get the empty plates and we agreed since there's no point in keeping those in our table, however, she started asking if we needed a to-go container for the remaining popcorn chicken on my dad's plate. We said no because me and my dad were still eating given that we're literally still chewing and I have my hands in my cutleries. However, when they said no she was about to grab the plate and we had to tell her that we don't need a container because we're still eating. She did apologize, but I just don't understand why she would do that too when we didn't even ask for the bill yet. Sure, me and my parents were having a conversation, but if we're done or needed a to-go container we would've asked or called their attention. I'm starting to think that it's because there was suddenly a line-up at the door and maybe they were rushing us, but why our table? There were other groups who were there before us... My parents felt like it was done to us because they were wearing simple outfits compared to the other customers. It just doesn't help that all three of us came from long shifts at work and that's the experience they get when I was the one who's excited to dine here with them as I usually visit here with my friends. I don't really complain as working in customer service is a tiring role, nonetheless food was still great, I just didn't appreciate this encounter and how it made my...