Chris E.
Yelp
This review is solely based on the dim sum food and experience.
We were really looking forward to eating here when we arrived in the GTA for our first day, especially since Skyview had been on so many "Best of..." lists.
Unfortunately, from the first dish to the last one, everything was just bland and not very flavorful compared to MANY, MANY dim sum restaurants I've been to around the world. Being from New York City, I've been spoiled my entire life with great dim sum in the 5 boroughs. Unfortunately, Skyview was very disappointing.
We went on a relatively ordinary Tuesday morning at 11:30 AM and, surprise, surprise, it was PACKED. To be fair, it was the week leading into the US/Canada Labor Day holiday weekend. We waited about 15 minutes for a table for 4, so it wasn't too bad, but it still came as quite the surprise that we had to wait for a table on a weekday.
The waiting area and actual dining area were separated, so when you finally make it in, you feel this great sense of feeling special -- like we made it! We were whisked into this world of dumplings, rice rolls and sticky rice, but our excitement was soon dashed. The one positive was that we didn't have to share a table because our kids could be quite the chaos creators, so we'd rather not have to apologize for any accidents to fellow customers.
ALL of the typical dishes you would expect to be served at dim sum was served here - beef/shrimp/roast pork rice rolls, shrimp dumplings (har gow),
pork and shrimp dumplings (siu mai), spring rolls, chicken feet, etc, etc, etc. They mostly had it all - on paper. They don't actually have the carts rolling around (WOMP WOMP), but instead have given into the new way of ordering, which is to fill out the menu instead and have us hesitantly hand it in like a last minute class paper, not sure if we ordered everything we really wanted. In a way, the paper form worked because they did have pictures of everything, so it made it easier to visualize the dishes.
We ended up ordering - baked BBQ pork bun pastry, steamed pork dumplings, chicken feet, sticky rice w/chicken, steamed buns with molten yolk, shrimp & pork spring rolls, BBQ pork rice rolls, shrimp rice rolls AND a fried crispy egg noodle Cantonese style --- These are the actual names of the items as listed on their menu.
The verdict - as I said earlier, BLAND, BLAND, BLAND. It wasn't just one or two things, it was many dishes that were blah. A few were OK, but, it was hard to forget the many that weren't. It's quite rare to go to a Cantonese/Chinese restaurant and say that the food is bland, but it was here. We recall multiple dim sum dishes just did not go all the way when it came to the flavor - like you would bite into it, chew it, taste it and then the flavor would disappear and not remain in your mouth after you swallowed the food. It's difficult to explain, but you know it when you eat it.
And, the one time we actually ordered an actual "kitchen" item, as in a rice or noodle dish, it was disappointing too. The fried crispy egg noodle Cantonese style's (aka pan fried noodle) sauce was so flavorless we were in disbelief. The noodle was very crunchy and crispy, so props there, but the sauce is EVERYTHING. If the sauce is terrible, then the order is shot.
I really wanted to like the restaurant, well, because when you dine somewhere you want it to be good, but, also, because we came in with such sky high (no pun intended) expectations. I know Markham is known for amazing Cantonese food and I do believe it, but, this was really one of the most disappointment dim sum restaurants I've been to (and, like I said, I've been to MANY).