The Queen Seafood Cuisine — Restaurant in Toronto

My family and I have been regulars at Congee Queen North York since it opened 16+ yrs ago. Recently I dined 3 times at The Queen Seafood for lunch. I don’t plan on going again. Service was rough and food was not good value. Dinner is apparently better. Hopefully, the owners will read my review and make improvements.

KNOW YOUR CLIENTS: these are 1st time customers who will hopefully become loyal regular customers through their appreciation of your products and services.

KNOW YOUR EMPLOYEES: are they going to attract and keep customers OR are they going to destroy your business? If you have sincere and friendly waitstaff like Kenneth or Stephen at Congee Queen North York, you will attract regular customers who will bring family and friends. It will become an established multi-generational business. If you have managers like those at CQ, they will choose good helpers and train them in customer service. A bad manager will be a bully and create a toxic environment.

KNOW YOUR PRODUCTS: a black suited manager should NOT need to stick his face into MY plate of rice noodles to see what it is in order to help customers at an adjacent table! His actions were so sudden and abrupt that he interrupted our conversation but he didn’t even excuse himself. Such poor manners. After he departed, I told the other table the name of the dish because that manager got it wrong. It was not the Lunch Special black bean beef rice noodle. It came from the big menu book and was beef noodles with satay sauce. Ironically, our waitress knew better. When I ordered it, she specifically made sure that we knew that one noodle dish had no sauce and one had satay sauce. Too bad the manager didn’t know! Bad manners and misinformation. PS. Lunch menu black bean beef noodles has - BLACK BEANS. Anyone should be able to see those from a distance without sticking their face in someone else’s food. And if you want to be polite and make sure, ask politely.

The Queen Seafood is piggybacking off the reputation of Congee Queen. CQ is well-known for its congee, noodles and variety of consistent, traditional and modern Chinese dishes. So it’s very disappointing that The Queen Seafood serves a MEDIOCRE CONGEE. You must be cheating, chopping rice with a blender and adding corn starch. The texture was like cut grains of rice, not slowly cooked until melting. And the leftover congee was thick when cold but immediately liquefied when heated. If you can’t be bothered to make congee properly, just bring a few pots of cooked plain congee from CQ （白粥）and add your own ingredients.

皇后是靠粥面起家，不要忘记你的优点！

On 3 occasions, I ordered dim sum and it was just okay. Not good value for the money. The wrappers were super thick and the fillings were meh. Asian Queen, Starchiva, Skyview, The One, The Pearl, Joyful, even Jumbo Lobster dim sum were all cheaper and better.

GRATITUDE, RESPECT & HUMILITY GRATITUDE: thank your customers for choosing your restaurant; encourage them to come again RESPECT: make your customers feel like The Queen! Don’t make them feel like YOU are The Queen. HUMILITY: if customers ask for your help taking a picture of the dragon, do so with pleasure and pride in your job. Don’t give them a snobby look, jab your finger at where they should stand or throw the camera...

I had many recommendations about The Queen Seafood Cuisine from friends and colleagues, so my family and I arrived with high expectations. Unfortunately, our experience fell short on multiple levels and turned out to be one of the worst dining experiences we’ve ever had.

We had a reservation at 1pm and even arrived 20 minutes early to account for potential delays, yet we were not seated until almost 1:20pm. Once seated, the service only declined further. The food service was slow and inconsistent, with dishes arriving one by one over an extended period of time. Requests for water had to be made 3 to 4 times, and it was only brought to our table when we were nearly finished with our meal.

What pushed this experience from disappointing to unacceptable was the manager’s behavior. While my family typically tip generously, we left a lower tip on this occasion as a reflection of the poor service, hoping it might prompt the staff to reflect on the extremely poor service. However, instead of handling this professionally, the manager confronted us rudely, asking, “Huh? Why only this much for tip?” When I attempted to explain the issues, he seemed dismissive and inattentive, keeping his eyes fixed on my mother’s open purse as she was reorganizing her belongings. The implication was both disrespectful and inappropriate.

I understand that service standards may vary, but this level of rudeness is inexcusable. We will not be returning here after this experience as it left my family feeling disrespected and uncomfortable. I truly hope that the staff reflect on this so that their other clients do not experience...

My clothes was clean and infact, I did have a shower before coming to have some food trip at your restaurant, it was my first time; but I don't dressed well; the fact that I don't invest too much on Beautiful clothing but I do invest on my food trip. I'm not a vlogger but always dine-in in any restaurants wherever my feet brought me! My food trip last night at your restaurant, at first I was really stunted, when your receptionist told me to looked at the menus first; 99% of restaurants, I went never did this to me; I was always seated first and accompanied to the available table; but I asked the man, why do I have to looked at it first; why don't you have me sit first and then I will check what I wanted to order; then he said, "a lot of people already, came inside and when they saw the prices, they went out", then I told him, so that's your new rules to anyone, who don't dressed well, but he walked away, maybe didn't hear what I said. Then, I told him, I know what I want and I don't mind the prices. So, he seated me..lol...I ordered $12 wonton and $28 sweet and sour spare ribs to try, and steamed rice...the server was John, very attentive and I felt his customer care; the food came...wonton first, the portion for me was worth the price then the tasted was an encore, then most delicious s/s spare ribs i ever taste, meat so tender; then I decided to order another item, chopseuy...all in all the food were delicious plus the service was great! My annoyance to the receptionist, forgotten! But to be honest, it was a rude treatment at first, but I hope you guys changed that rules!...