Lee Chen Asian Bistro — Restaurant in Toronto

Lee Chen Asian Bistro is a restaurant I’ve visited multiple times, and it never fails to impress me. Whether it’s the downtown Toronto location or the newer branch in Aurora, every visit reflects the restaurant’s consistent attention to ambiance, food quality, and service. The interior design is elegant and tasteful, blending traditional Chinese elements with a modern aesthetic. The wooden furniture, warm lighting, and carefully curated decor create an atmosphere that feels both stylish and welcoming. One standout feature is the open kitchen, which allows diners to see the chefs at work. It adds transparency and boosts confidence in the freshness and cleanliness of the food preparation. As for the dishes, Lee Chen specializes in Jiangnan-style cuisine, and the flavors are consistently authentic and satisfying. Their savory soy milk is rich and flavorful, with a hint of spice, topped with crispy dough sticks and pickled vegetables — a must-try breakfast item for me every time. The soup dumplings are thin-skinned, juicy, and filled with tender pork — perfectly paired with ginger and vinegar, and best enjoyed fresh out of the steamer. Their braised pork belly (Dong Po Rou) is another highlight — soft, melt-in-your-mouth layers of pork belly in a sweet and savory glaze, served with rice for a truly comforting meal. The Wuxi-style spare ribs are also highly recommended — tender, rich in flavor, and cooked to perfection with a well-balanced sauce. Other favorites include stir-fried rice cakes with preserved vegetables and bamboo shoots, steamed pork ribs with rice flour, and almond-crusted fish — all well-executed with attention to detail. Even their desserts leave a lasting impression. The black sesame rice balls are chewy on the outside with smooth, nutty filling inside — a simple yet satisfying way to end the meal. On the service side, the staff are well-trained, friendly, and knowledgeable about the menu. They’re happy to make recommendations based on your preferences, and even during peak hours, service remains efficient with minimal waiting time. Across all my visits, the experience has remained consistently high-quality, and it’s clear they’re committed to maintaining and improving their standards. In terms of pricing, while Lee Chen positions itself as a mid-to-high-end restaurant, the prices remain quite reasonable for what they offer. A dinner for two typically costs around $60 to $80 CAD, which is very fair considering the environment, flavors, and service. They also offer special holiday menus, such as Lunar New Year dinner sets or beautifully packaged mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival — all thoughtfully prepared and worth trying. Overall, Lee Chen is a restaurant that excels in flavor, presentation, and atmosphere. Whether you’re hosting out-of-town guests, having a casual dinner, or looking for an upscale yet approachable Chinese dining experience, this is one of the best options in the city. If you’re looking for a place that captures authentic Chinese tastes in a refined and relaxing setting, Lee Chen should be at the top...

From the outside, it doesn't look like a very big place, but once you walk in, you'll see that it's very spacious inside.

Everything looks pretty clean. Washrooms are clean. They've even got small trays of grass in the washrooms which is something you don't see often. Some of the decor is kind of interesting to say the least...

We came with a group of 8, and received 5 menus. Well, other chinese places usually just give you 2 menus for a group of 8 so this isn't so bad. It's also a pretty expensive-looking menu compared to sheets of laminated paper with string bindings.

Our server briefly walked us through the menu.

All sorts of dishes that you would expect at a chinese restaurant: veggie, meats, noodle soups, fried rice/noodle. There are some dimsum dishes as well if you'd like to try some of those on the side.

At the back of the menu there are lunch combos that come with white rice, spring roll, and a salad. You can substitute the rice for brown rice, fried rice, or chow mein for an extra $1.

5 different bubble teas are available. For dessert you can order passion fruit custard, fried sesame balls, or tang yuan.

You don't get free tea. It comes as a drink order for $2.50. However, they give you this massive thermos with a tea bag, which is good for 3 or 4 people.

The servers will check up on you from time to time, seeing if you would like re-fills on any beverages. Not sure if they charge extra for re-fills.

I ordered the "Crystal pork belly" lunch combo, black milk tea with tapioca, and fried sesame balls. The pork belly dish comes with 5 pieces of pork belly inside an edible bowl along with the combo items. It was very tender and juicy, and the soy sauce/sugar flavor wasn't too overpowering.

The bubble tea was just ok. It comes in a mug and is about the size of a large cup from other bubble tea places.

I liked the fried sesame balls. The inside was quite chewy, with a somewhat crisp exterior.

It's a nice place to go if you're looking for a chinese restaurant in...

This place has become so cheap. I ordered take out and ate there many times over the last few years. Hot and sour soup noodles was my favourite takeout. But sometime last year when I ordered hot and sour soup noodles for takeout, they cut the size of the soup more than half and it was not enough to make soup noodles anymore, it was more like dry noodles with a little bit gravy on top. So I stopped ordering online. And today I decided to give them another chance and ordered the soup noodles in store and thought I could ask for more soup if the same thing happened again. So the same thing happened again, they gave me the soup for the same small size. So I said this was not enough and it used to be a much bigger size. They asked me to order another soup??? You call it noodle soup but gave me the soup only in the size of like dipping source? Can you really make soup noodles using that amount of soup if I dine in? And if I dined it and told you the soup is not enough and not even covering the noodles, are you going to ask me to order another soup? It's like I order a latte and it doesn't come with enough milk but I'm asked to order more milk separately? Regretted giving them a second chance and never going back again!

Forgot the mention the price which was $16.94 for take out. I mean $16.94 for a noodle soup is not cheap already but at least I need to have enough soup in the soup noodle right? As long as I get that, I wouldn't be complaining...But now for $16,94, I got some soup for a very small size like a small cappuccino and a bowl of boiled noodles, which was insane. I could get a large size of hot and sour soup for only $10 from some...