Yin Ji Chang Fen 銀記腸粉 (Downtown) — Restaurant in Toronto

I adore this place. It's comfort food for me any time I visit family uptown (Warden location). I'm giving the Downtown location 3 stars because the food was still delicious, but the delivery experience was the worst service I've ever had!

I live in CityPlace and was excited to hear they opened a location on Spadina. I placed an order this evening (Friday night) directly through the Yin Ji Chang Fen website in hopes of saving them 3rd party delivery fees. Their order platform is very buggy, but I managed to place my order at 6:52pm. I waited until 8pm (assuming that because it's Friday night, it would have a bit of a delay) to call the restaurant to ask for an update because their website does not provide any delivery tracking aside from a green checkmark saying you've paid. The person who answered the phone said they would reach out to the delivery person. I then received a text notification saying that a DoorDash delivery person was on their way to pick up my order. I'm assuming they forgot my order and then put it through AFTER I called at 8pm...so much for trying to help them save 3rd party delivery fees. In the text, I received the tracking link which said my delivery would now arrive at 8:52pm (recall that I put in my order at 6:52pm). Around 8:40pm I checked the tracking link, which showed that the DoorDash driver was on Fort York, driving towards Lakeshore/Spadina (past my building). I called to ask for an update and they said they were stuck in traffic. At 8:52pm I checked the tracking link again and it showed the driver was at York Street (way past where I'm at), so I called again and he said he had my ice cream downstairs. I was so confused since there definitely isn't any ice cream on the Yin Ji Chang Fen menu. I told him he was at the wrong address with the wrong order and he said that, that's what the restaurant told him, but that he found our hot food. At this point, I really lost my patience and called the restaurant to tell them it was ridiculous that my food still hasn't been delivered after 2 hours of putting in my order. I explained how their delivery website needs to be fixed and that this concern should be brought up to the manager. The only word the girl on the phone could say was "okay". I wasn't going to argue since it was apparent English is not her first language. I honestly didn't know what to do at this point, but I did finally received my order at 9:28pm (basically 2.5 hours after I put in my order).

I wrote this lengthy post in great detail to warn people NOT to order delivery from Yin Ji Chang Fen! It was such a bad experience. I'd recommend dining in because their delivery system isn't capable of managing orders...

I have ordered and eaten at the Yin Ji Chang Fen College St. location many times and this is the best place to get a comforting meal that warms you up and makes you feel good all over. Located near College St. and Spadina, close to Kensington market and readily TTC accessible, there are plenty of places to eat in the area but this is definitely my go to. Now, be forewarned, it's a small restaurant so if you can't get a table, you can always order to go or do delivery. Images provided here are from a recent delivery order.

Okay, now let's talk food. Featured here are just a few of their signature dishes. I ordered their C4 Minced Beef Congee (love that it includes various toppings including peanuts, julienned greens, and chopped vermicelli) and C2 Fresh Beef Sliced Congee (this one does not come with peanuts, but lots of sliced beef, has a richer beef flavour). Congee, a rice porridge is so soothing and comforting. The congee itself is flavourful and both versions are savoury and delicious. We often pair it with the S6 Dough Stick but skipped it on this order and instead went for the S7 Sweet Cruller (think deep fried, a slighter denser dough that is just slightly sweet with a crisp outer shell). Some of us like to dip the Sweet Cruller in our congee while others prefer to just enjoy it plain.

No order is complete unless you also get a few orders of rice noodle rolls. On this occasion, we got the R4 Shrimp with Chives Rice Noodles Roll and the R12 Sweet Corn Rice Noodles Roll. All rice noodle rolls come with a sweet soya sauce that just elevates these rolls to a whole new level. Images provided here show the rolls before and after the sweet soya sauce has been added. What you may notice is that these rolls are shaped a little differently. Unlike the more conventional ones you see at dim sum restaurants that come in sets of 3, here, larger sheets of rice noodles are used. They are so delicious and offer just a completely different mouth feel. Take a look at the images and you can also see that Yin Ji Chang Fen is very generous with their fillings.

If you're in the area, I would strongly recommend giving Yin Ji Chang Fen a try. Or, if you're not in the area, definitely order in for delivery. The food is delicious and so comforting!

Other goodies that we've tried include that are also delicious: R11 Dough Stick Rice Noodles, DC Cold Lemon Tea, C5 Lai Wan Style Assorted Congee, R2 Marinated Pork and Shrimp with Chives...

Dropped by for dinner a few weeks ago! Saturday ~6PM. The restaurant was full and we had to wait 10min to be seated.

I was really excited to try this place as I've heard great reviews from friends and online. They serve HK cafe style Cheung fun (rice noodle roll), congee, and other light dim sum type of dishes.

I went with friends. I ordered the beef and chives rice noodle roll, HK style rice noodle roll, the seafood congee, and my friends ordered the BBQ pork bun, along with their own rice noodle rolls.

I thought the rice noodle rolls were a big portion size and also tasted good. It was served as one giant roll versus some other places you might see it rolled up into smaller rolls. The HK style rice noodle roll was OK – I personally prefer the one at Sugar Marmalade more because this one felt a bit too saucy in the wrong way... My friends enjoyed their rice noodle roll.

For the BBQ pork bun....when it was served to us, it was cold and very obvious it had been going through a defrosting that wasn't finished. My friend noted that the filling in hers was cold as if it came out of the fridge without being heated. Mine and my other friend's pieces were on the colder side of lukewarm.

And for the seafood congee...the portion size and price were great. However, the seafood itself was very fishy and not fresh tasting. I was disappointed as I really love congee and this was unfortunately not it.

Because the restaurant was busy, we were kind of being rushed to leave. We weren't finished eating our food, yet the server was already trying to take the dishes (with plenty of food still on it) back and hand us the bill. We were timing our stay because we had plans to attend an event after eating, so it was kind of odd.

It was not the greatest experience and I wouldn't go out of my way to come back again, but definitely a solid spot...