Aaron A.
Yelp
Diana's has been a popular western seafood restaurant in Markham for a very long time. Yet this was my first time to visit this establishment. It starts with a lounge for quick bites and drinks and then leads into a larger dining area with plenty of seating. We got in for a late seating (8pm) on a weekday and so there were very little people and service was great! The décor was aptly nautical themed with lots of sea shells, glass, nets, etc.
Oyster deal (Honeymoons) - They have a dozen east cost oyster deal for $24 with the purchase of a drink from each member of the party. You are only allowed to choose one type of oyster for the dozen and not allowed to mix and match within the dozen. Although we were not allowed to try them all, this leads to some very interesting experiments. We could look at the consistency across the same type of oysters. After consuming 1/2 a dozen it was interesting to note that 2 of them did not have a briny flavour at all, and it kinda tasted like the tail end of tap water :/. The rest were briny juicy, these seemed okay. In the end, no digestive track issues, so all in all pretty fresh. Just two had weird taste. Next it came with 4 different sauces: lemon, horseradish, cocktail sauce and red wine vinaigrette. The lemon was dry and didn't have much juice. I don't like horseradish so didn't try it. The cocktail sauce was okay, but not sure why horseradish was added to ruin the sauce... and the red wine vinaigrette did not blend properly, the vinegar and the red wine had its own flavour and did not coexist well.
Clam chowder - I have high standards for clam chowders after a week long visit to New England. This one felt like a cream soup from a HK café with seafood mixed in. Very little seafood taste, although you do see lots of seafood in it. Soup was thick but very smooth, like it was thickened with potato starch as opposed to cooking potatoes for a long time, or the use of a different potato. I'd prefer a soup that's more coarse where the potato slowly emits starch as it breaks down from cooking. There were croutons in the soup that was super crunchy and worked very well with the soup. Other than the 3 croutons, I would not recommend.
Rockfellers - These baked oysters came loaded with toppings. The oyster as a whole was disappointing as baking it made it lose its ocean flavour. The additional toppings was a good attempt to bring out the oyster's flavour as it had little to no seasoning, and a bit of panko flakes to add a crunch to the texture. Unfortunately, the lack of flavour from the oyster itself meant that the entire thing was under seasoned.
Mussels in house sauce - Wow the house sauce was amazing and very tasty in small quantities. The mussels themselves were a bit small, the size you'd see at the supermarket. The sauce was delicious, but when scoop it up with the mussel shell to eat with the mussel it was too salty. I hope that next time the sauce would be seasoned less. For $20, I don't think it was worth it, but 1/2 price on Wedensday, it was okay.
Seafood Pilaf - Similar to the house sauce the seafood pilaf had an amazing mix of spices. Unfortunately, it was too heavily seasoned for me to enjoy the delicate flavours of the seafood. Otherwise, the texture of the rice was good, there was also a good amount of seafood. The large shrimps were huge and delicious. But considering the dish as a whole, I cannot recommend it.
I had heard good things about this place and it being tied to Diana's seafood market on Eglington meant high quality seafood. Indeed, it felt like the restaurant did serve high quality seafood. Unfortunately, they were not cooked up to expectation. Will unlikely visit this establishment again.