Lai Wah Heen

Lai Wah Heen. I can’t even remember the first time I was here it’s so long ago. This is a true old school Toronto Chinese restaurant. It’s a little worn but so is my favourite comfy chair. The service is still super professional and friendly and the food is still delicious. It’s probably one of the few places downtown that still does Peking duck tableside and it is delicious. I rarely come for dinner but do love their dim sum. Favourites of mine are the Ching fung, the gluttonous rice “mice”, chicken and truffle dumpling, crispy shrimp rolls, a Canadian must! I don’t know why but I always grab a green. Pea shoots or gai lan. Noodles are always on point and there is nothing more important than char sui bao. I also love that parking here is usually fairly easy.

Perhaps my new standard for dim sum! The service was excellent and extremely fast. The atmosphere is calm and relaxing. The food is such an amazing experience! The flavors are so on point! The bbq pork bun is the perfect compliment of soft fluffy bun with the ideal portion of bbq pork. The lava bun was pure joy. Each item we enjoyed was fresh, flavorful and left you wanting more.

This is definitely one of the best Dim Sum places I’ve ever been to. The serves was extremely nice and made really good recommendations. The quality of the food is supreme and the presentation is great. I loved the lobster shaped dumpling, very creative and the flavor was unbelievable. The shrimp and chive dumpling was delicious as well. I started with a warm green tea to warm me from this freezing cold Toronto weather. A+++

Lai Wah Heen is the proper ‘treat yourself’ dim sum spot. Not the best bang for buck on conventional dim sum picks, but the real treat here is the eccentrically crafted items you won’t find anywhere else. The restaurant is elusively on the second floor of the Double Tree, and has a finer dining vibe with an attentive and friendly wait staff. The lobster dumpling is a must, and is almost too cute to eat. I liked the soft Sichuan sauce of the waygu dumping, tho the rich fat flavour is lost in the minced beef. The fois gras pastry was also unique but a little underwhelming. When it came to the familiar dim sum items, the flavours seemed subdued. I did enjoy the custard buns, tho they were less creamy and more fluid. Overall, still worthwhile for a unique dim sum experience.

I had a great experience at Lai Wah Heen. It’s a very upscale dim sum experience with excellent service, attentive servers in a lovely and quiet environment. The food was an elevated version of classic dishes. The scallop pieces on top of the Shui Mai was a nice surprise. The Hai gow featured very large, whole pieces of shrimp. The lobster dumpling in the shape of a lobster was truly unique for dim sum. With the higher quality also means a higher price, but I would be happy to return for the elevated experience.

Crispy duck tastes good, it came with a whole duck. Ordered both dish for the duck, make sure you check the amount before ordering. The wrap came with 4-5 rounds, each round has 2 wrap. The dim sum can be ordered as combo or order independently where you can select over 10-ish different styles. And the service was great! Really enjoyed the visit.

Great dimsum! It is more high-end so don't expect cheap eats. However, do expect fresh, quality ingredients made into delicious, unique foods. I personally ordered way too much for one person, but I was not disappointed with anything. Definitely try the lobster steamed dumpling! Well worth it!

It's decent place, the service is top notch compared to other Chinese restaurants around the city. I ordered few dim sum items but my favourite actually their foie gras fried rice. Definitely will come back even just for that one dish. The other dimsum items nothing really out of ordinary in terms of the taste. Some of the dimsum, they put high end ingredients like truffle or even wagyu beef to make it fancy but personally I still prefer the traditional ingredients. Wagyu inside dumplings is kinda a waste of good quality ingredients in my opinion, something that should be a star ingredients become a insignificant taste in the background and become forgotten about. The venue itself feels old and not fancy considering the high price point that they set.