Eat like royalties

Crown Prince Fine Dining. In a previous blog, I mentioned another restaurant belonging to the same chain as this one. However, this one is way better overall in my opinion. It is decorated with chandeliers all over the ceiling and the overall ambiance gives this antique feel to it.

Deep fried tofu and baby bean sprout leaves wrapped in rice noodles. I liked this dish, the three components' flavours wrapped nicely together. The texture was also great; it goes from tender and silky to crunchy and rough and back. The only downside to the dish is that the tofu is too fried. It totally lost the fresh bean curd taste; without the name, I would not have known that it was tofu. I think they put the tofu into too much flour and fried it for too long leaving a hint of greasy taste that does not go with the dish. I've had better tofu in tofu rice noodles somewhere else. Since tofu is the star of the dish, this takes a lot of points away for me.

Seafood dumpling in seafood broth. This was the specialty of Crown Prince and probably the most expensive thing on the tea menu. ~$6

The puff on the top is eaten like croutons. The puff is very flaky and a bit greasy eaten on its own. I can actually taste the butter in my mouth. When it is placed in the soup dumpling, the flavours go very well together. When eaten alone, the puff tastes oily and salty, but in the broth, it tastes sweet. I'm not sure how they managed that, but it was excellent. It almost seem like the chef designed and made the puff just for the soup.

Shark fins (Chinese delicacy). I did not expect to see this in my soup. Now it makes sense why this thing was the most expensive on the tea menu.

Fresh scallops and other goodies wrapped inside the dumpling.

Angus beef wrapped in enoki mushrooms and cucumbers braised in teriyaki sauce. Let me just say this is a Japanese dish and it's not Chinese. However, they've done this better than many Japanese restaurants and definitely all the Japanese buffets. It's hard to make beef tender and well done, but this chain of restaurant continues to do that and impresses me every time. I really don't have any bad things to say about this dish.

BBQ pork bun. I usually don't order this because when I was young, my family orders this every time we go drink tea, which is every weekend lol. I kinda got sick of it at a young age. However, I remember a while ago, a person told me he really wanted BBQ pork bun after a long period without Chinese food, but since he doesn't go drink tea as often as me, I said I'll recommend him a place. I know it's been a while, but a promise is a promise. Behold the best BBQ pork bun I've tasted thus far. :)

Overall Review:
Food: 9.5/10
Most of the food here is very well done, but 0.5 was taken off of the unhealthiness. Some of the dishes are too oily and fried for my taste. :P

Ambience: 10/10
By far the best I've seen of Chinese restaurants. And by "best" I don't just mean Toronto, but also in Asia (except for one that is kinda like a resort surrounded by a lake). Maybe I'm just a sucker for Victorian interior design, but I love this place!

Service: 9/10
Again, everyone (servers) is in formal attire which goes perfectly with the ambience. The only complaint I have is that the food came out a bit slow and many waitresses had the look that they didn't want to be there on their faces. This is not their fault, but emotional management is an important sector of the service industry.

Price: 9.5/10
Some may say it's too expensive for Chinese food, and that is probably the biggest complaint about this kind of restaurants. However, the quality of the food is top notch and the quantity is also very good for the price. Compared to Italian fine dining, the price is very inexpensive. This mean was ~$25-30 mostly because of the seafood dumpling.

Final Verdict: 9.5/10
If you're in Scarborough, definitely give this place or Casa Imperial a try. If you're in Markham, definitely give Casa Victoria a try. If you're in the downtown area, give Crown Princess a try. If you want great Chinese food and don't like how loud the restaurants usually are, I highly recommend these places.

Update: these restaurants now belong to two different companies, but their style, quality and food is very similar. If you go during dinner time, the price is around 3-4 times more expensive (they serve different food).

Address:
3600 Victoria Park Ave
Toronto, ON M2H 3B2

(416) 490-8893

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