Rosewood Asian Cuisine — Restaurant in Toronto

I don't usually post, but I feel like I have to speak out about my experience.

I came for the all you can eat dimsum. I would suggest that anyone interested in AYCE here should reconsider.

All the dishes were consistently and horribly oversalted. I assume this is to make you eat less during AYCE to save money. At first, we didn't notice this because we were hungry. After a while, the salt started to kick in, and we had to drink a copious amount of water. We ordered an amount of food that we would normally finish for dim sum, but the salt and extra water we had to drink made it unbearable. I distinctly remember trying to eat some dim sum after taking a water break and almost having to spit it out because of the salt. I'm pretty sure all the salt has damaged the surface of my tongue at this point. They ask you if you want tea or water before you sit down, without mentioning that tea costs $2.50 per person. I feel like the tea is usually complimentary, but it struck me as odd that we didn't at least receive a heads up when we opted for tea. Maybe this is the norm, so I'm uninformed on this. Because we weren't able to finish the food as outlined earlier, we were charged for the extra. While I fully understand that, all I want to say is that if we were at a sushi, kbbq, or hotpot AYCE, we wouldn't have been charged for the amount of food we left. Secondly, after we asked for the bill, it seems that all the waiters and servers would take their turn walking over to our table, conspicuously looking at the food on our table, and then walking away. They would also walk to the front, talk amongst themselves, and occasionally glance and gesture over in our direction. This happened over 4 times, making us feel like we were in trouble or something. The mandatory 18% gratuity for groups of 4 or more seems a bit strict. Usually, this rule is implemented for large groups, but I've never seen it for such small groups.

All in all, I think the over salting of the food left a bad taste in my mouth. It would be more economical for everyone to just order dishes separately or go elsewhere. I would rather pay more for a proper AYCE dim sum experience rather than to be forced to limit the amount I eat due to the salt. At this price point, I would 100% recommend AYCE sushi, hotpot, or kbbq instead.

Also, if you have hypertension, try to...

Food was delicious and surprisingly not too busy on a Saturday lunch hour during Caribana weekend. But the service wasn’t great. My cousin is allergic to shrimp so we specifically ordered items that had no shrimp (which the menu was very limited to begin with when it came to no shrimp items). We told the servers this making sure we ordered no shrimp items.

We were pleasently surprised when food came out within 10 mins of ordering. Everything smelled and looked delicious.

A different server placed all the food on the table without explaining which is what. Hargow was placed directly in front of my cousin. My aunt who is a nurse made sure to check what’s inside (since no server was around to track down). It was shrimp inside (a common ingredient you find in hargow). We quickly put it on the other side of the table away from my cousin. After a few tries of getting their attention, the same server eventually came 10 mins later. We proceeded to explain that we did not order hargow bc it had shrimp inside and yet they proceeded to serve it to our table and left. She gave a questionable look of like “you dont think you ordered it, yet proceeded to open and breakdown the food with your utensils” kind of impression.

Finally she went to double check our list at the front of the house (not even taking the dish with her). After a few mins of discussion with her colleagues, she came back and finally grabbed the container and said yeah you didnt order it. no apology whatsover.

Fine whatever, my cousin could have gotten an allergic reaction if my aunt didnt do her due dilligence in checking. but the food is delicious.

But what stump me even more is that the same server came back 15 mins later (after a few weird looks) and took away two additional dishes, saying we didnt order them either. like you couldn’t have done that from the start before placing down the orders on our table?? didn’t apologize again for the inconvenience. I know people make mistakes but what terrible service.

And when the bill came, we asked to see it to make sure they didn’t charge us for the dishes they mistakenly placed on our table and took away. Then they said firmly, “no we made sure it’s not on the bill” but like how can we trust your word after all...

My boyfriend and I recently visited Rosewood Asian Cuisine for the first time to get a quick midnight snack in downtown Toronto. Unfortunately, our experience was far from what we had hoped for, and we left feeling very disappointed.

We started our meal with the shrimp rice rolls and shrimp har gow. Both dishes were incredibly disappointing. The shrimp rice rolls were chewy and lacked the delicate texture and fresh flavour that we expect from this dish. Similarly, the shrimp har gow had a chewy texture and lacked the vibrant taste of fresh shrimp, making them taste more like they came from a frozen package than from a kitchen.

The pork siu mai was another letdown. These dumplings are usually packed with flavour, but the ones we had at Rosewood Asian Cuisine were bland and unremarkable. The pork filling was devoid of the savoury, umami taste that we look forward to in siu mai, making the experience quite forgettable.

The BBQ pork bun was slightly better than the other dishes but still failed to impress. The bun itself was mid and the BBQ pork filling was acceptable, but it didn’t stand out. We've had much better BBQ pork buns elsewhere, where the filling is flavourful and the bun perfectly soft and slightly sweet.

Our dessert choice was the plain sweet silken tofu, which turned out to be the worst part of our meal. The tofu was not smooth at all; instead, it had a grainy texture that was very off-putting. The sweetness was also lacking, making it a very unsatisfactory end to our meal.

To be completely honest, our experience at Rosewood Asian Cuisine was a major disappointment. As individuals of East Asian descent who have enjoyed authentic dim sum countless times, the food here did not come close to meeting our expectations. Everything we tried was flavourless and tasted like frozen dim sum, far from the fresh and flavorful dishes we were hoping for. The ambiance and location in downtown Toronto initially seemed promising, but the quality of the food left much to be desired.

Overall, we would rate our experience 2 out of 5 stars. If you are looking for authentic Asian dim sum, we recommend seeking out other establishments in the area. Unfortunately, we will not be returning to Rosewood...