New Northern Dumplings — Restaurant in Toronto

We came here on a recommendation via email from Yelp. We arrived at a slow time, they weren't very busy. Be prepared to have some patience since English is a challenge for the staff. Just asking if they accept debit payment took me 2 minutes.

We are still relatively new to Northern Chinese cuisine. So kinda went in without have too many expectations. After some quick perusing of Google foodie reviews and Yelper reviews. Apparently the Scallion pancakes are a must have item.

So we ordered the scallion pancakes (aka green onion pancakes, 1 large piece), an order of the chive & egg pancakes (3 pieces), steamed dumplings (pork, shrimp & leeks) arrived in a large steamer with 15 pieces, deep fried prawns with salt & spicy. We also ordered the #41 shredded pork w/garlic & chili sauce, but it never arrived, I mentioned to the staff they should look on both sides of the order sheet when I went up to the cashier to settle our bill. Thankfully the missed item didn't arrive, since odds were that would have been take home. Since there was sooo much dough and pastry with what we ate..I nearly had a food coma from all that dough.

Service : I'd rate this around 2/5 for the the language barrier part and missing our last item that we ordered.

Food : the star of our meal my wife and I agreed upon was the deep fried prawns with salt & spicy (#80). Runner up would be the scallion (green onion) pancake (#138), chive & egg pancakes (#134) last the steamed pork/shrimp/leek dumplings (#102).

Food comments : the scallion pancake was really heavy but had a lot of fresh scallions (try to eat this quickly as the dough becomes rubbery when it gets cold). Same goes for the chive & egg pancake, (pastry wrap for this was more thin and crispy) and loaded with chives & scrambled egg. The shrimps within the dumplings were not fresh, they were kinda dry, but the dumplings themselves were soup type dumplings (enough soup to fill about 1/2 a chinese soup spoon).

A lot of the available dishes on the menu I had to screen due to me having to manage gout..so no beef dishes, nothing with cabbage, and my wife and I prefer a level of spice between mild and super spicy. Lamb is considered a red meat, so usually we try to shy away from Lamb, but I wouldn't mind trying their lamb skewers with cumin in the future. Sadly they didn't seem to have much by means of rice dishes, more on the "main entree" type of dishes and small handful of noodle dishes.

Final thoughts : is it worth a repeat visit? Perhaps yes, for the scallion pancake and the deep fried prawns. Possibly also to try their Ma Po Tofu dish (hopefully they provide steam rice...

Food: 8/10 -- Value: 9/10 -- Service: 7/10 -- Ambiance/Décor: 6/10

There's nothing groundbreaking about the food here, but it's dependably good.

The "Meat balls in pot" were a favourite at our table. The meatballs are soft and break apart easily and the soup is flavourful enough to go well with the meatballs, veggies, and vermicelli. The dish is perfect for a colder day. You'll warm right up. The "pan fried green onion cake" was also a favourite because it was piping hot and crispy.

Their fried dumplings (called "guotie pork") were good, but a little moist by my standards. I like my pan fried dumplings to be on the crispier side. The regular dumplings (we got a few different types) were all good, with wrapping that is the perfect thickness.

The most unique dish we had was the "Julienne potatoes wire". It was a cold appetizer dish of thin strings of potato covered in a lightly sour sauce. It was crisp to the bite, maybe softer than a biting into a raw vegetable, but with not as much give as boiled veggies. It was an interesting texture and taste, but very enjoyable.

Food and service are both quick, which is great. The restaurant's biggest downfall is the atmosphere. It's a little rough around the edges with an exposed ceiling, plastic tablecloths, and dull colours. The exposed ceiling only serves to give some of its loud Mandarin customers' voices more room to echo. While it's not a big deal, sometimes it's a little off-putting to have people yelling while you eat. This is no fault of the restaurant's, but it's something you might expect with the style of food and the...

Long story before the meal details... So it's Thursday night 10 p.m. and we didn't have dinner yet. So we went searching for a restaurant that closes right at 10 p.m. just our luck, the first restaurants parking lot is full (Perfect Restaurant). Next one (Liwan Kitchen), closed but open light is still on. Went to SkyCity (big mistake), jammed packed. Next, just north of it, Majic Noodle, too cold to sit outside and line up for inside table. Our last chance before I totally give up and go home to eat cereal for dinner. Drove up to to Silver Star north of Passmore. Korean looked promising until we walked in the door and literally the open sign closed on us... LOL. LAST chance.. next door, The hours open said til 9:30 but it was past 10:10. We asked the nice lady said we still open.. Hallelujah!!! We sat and ordered right away... We ordered cucumber with jellyfish in vinegar sesame dressing, pork potstickers and glass noodles soup that had no food Napa in a pork broth. I'm not sure if we were just really hungry or it just tasted really good and we ate everything!!! Totally Happy, totally Full and very momorable night to remember... Definitely will be back at an earlier time to have...