Urban Hakka — Restaurant in Toronto

The shrimp pakora ($13) is a great way to start the meal. Its batter is applied with enough to cover the large prawns without being overly thick. Although how long the pakoras are fried needs to be standardized – one night it was absolutely perfect creating crispy parcels of prawns, while on a follow-up visit it’s golden but the centre slightly underdone so each bite finishes mushy. While it isn’t overly flavourful, the spicy Thai basil chutney that comes with it is absolutely delicious.

This same chutney goes really well with the Hakka style rice noodles ($12), which is very plain by itself, but is a good choice to pair with other saucier dishes in lieu of rice. They’re essentially like Singapore noodles without the curry.

Urban Hakka’s Singapore noodles ($12) gets the Hakka touch with a healthy dose of curry powder, probably 2 to 2.5 times the normal amount you’ll find at Chinese restaurants. It’s not terrible, but creates a rather strong dish where you’ll only need a small portion.

Luckily, they provide a big bowl of rice with the rest of the dishes and even offers refills if it gets empty. You’ll need the rice to accompany the Manchurian chicken ($12), which packs a flavourful punch. With a choice between wet and dry, we stuck with the recommended dry and it was fantastic - still a moist dish with each morsel of chicken covered with a salty, spicy, aromatic rub that appears to be made with freshly pureed ginger, garlic, and a host of other spices.

Hakka cuisine is essentially Chinese-style cooking outside of China. In Toronto, it tends to signify Chinese dishes with an Indian influence. At Urban Hakka, the dishes that lean towards the Indian side of the spectrum is a lot better, while the Chinese side falls flat. For example, the General Tao chicken ($12) essentially tastes like sweet and sour, which could be overlooked if it wasn’t so saucy that the batter is rendered mushy and it tastes like you’re eating gluey sweet chicken.

The sesame crispy beef ($14) is better, but extremely salty and is too powdery so you taste the flour and corn starch. If you’re going to get a “crispy” protein dish, stick with the crispy chicken ($14), which is cut into larger pieces and not as heavily coated. Nonetheless, eat quickly. When it arrives, scalding hot, the sauce is fantastic; once it starts to cool it begins to crystalize and tastes like candy coated chicken.

I can’t help but notice how their poorly laid out dining room affects the experience. The food delivery companies keep stomping through the dining room to the kitchen in the back, which is distracting when the restaurant is so silent.

Urban Hakka wants to create a serene environment, the décor is posh and there’s jazz music playing in the background. If they’re going to create a tranquil space than they have to go all in and get rid of the distractions… mainly all the people walking by within inches of a diner’s table. Simply ask the delivery people to wait by bar and have a staff member get the food from the kitchen (this could be a problem as the place is already understaffed) or ask the delivery people to go to the kitchen through an outside door (likely the more...

I wanted to give this place a better review, but sadly that's not going to be the case. First, let's start with the good. The server was extremely friendly and attentive and did his job well. Had the rest of my experience gone well, he would've been a large part of the overall positive experience. So kudos to him. Now the minor issues, but still passable. The floors were consistently wet and slippery throughout my time there. Granted, I believe they were cleaning it prior to my arrival, but there was no wet floor sign visible from the entrance to the back. And apparently the heater towards the front portion of the restaurant wasn't operational. So I was asked to sit at the back closer to the kitchen, along with the other patrons. Not an issue. I placed my order, and we were off to the races. And that's where everything went downhill. Part of my order was wrong, and I had to send it back. The rest of my food, which all came together, sat on my table as I waited for them to return with that item. I took my portion and placed it on the plate. Then, as I later went for more, I noticed a long, thick, black hair had been sitting at the bottom of the bowl, resting amongst the meat. I do not have long hair at all. And this was not part of the food that was sent back for being incorrect. At any rate, I was immediately done. I understand this happens sometimes, but there's a mental block for me after something like that. I can't unsee that. It ruined everything else. And I spent the last few minutes fighting my gag reflex and trying to think happy thoughts before leaving. Needless to say, I won't be going back, but bon appétit to those that do.

EDIT: I appreciate the response from this establishment. It felt sincere and shows a genuine acknowledgment of the issue. I hope this prompts them to implement new processes if they aren't already in place. Things such as hair and beard nets can go a long way. With that said, these things do happen, even with the proper safeguards in place. Overall the (other) food I ordered tasted good, and minus the unfortunate situation that occurred, the experience was otherwise positive. I've slightly...

If you're reading reviews to determine whether or not you should eat here, the answer is Yes. Don't read any further, just do it. I have only gone once (today) but Hakka is kinda my thing, and this was legit.

We ordered chicken pakoras (1/2 regular, 1/2 hot garlic), chili chicken (dry), and chicken Singapore noodles. All were great.

Chicken Pakoras - so fresh, so clean, so flavourful. I'm not huge on pakoras, mostly because whenever I get them I am disappointed. These were so flavourful, every bite was perfect, I burned the roof of my mouth because I just couldn't wait to take another bite. Personally, the next time I order I'll get all hot garlic, the hot garlic sauce just made a good pakora even better. Both with and without hot garlic sauce was the best pakoras I have ever had.

Chili Chicken Dry - again, so much flavour, these were actually kinda hot, this will rank up with probably the top 3 dry chili chicken dishes I have ever had

Singapore Noodles - perfectly cooked and flavourful. You ever get Singapore noodles where the seasoning is a bit dry on the noodles? Not these bad boys, they were moist and flavourful without being greasy.

On top of the quality of food, the restaurant was really nice for how affordable to food was. Wait staff were dressed nicely and were polite. Restaurant was clean, tidy, and uncluttered. This would be a great place to take a date. I took my food to go, so I didn't have the pleasure of sitting to eat, but next time I will. I wish I...