Those of you who work/live in the Richmond Hill area should have already noticed the new Chinese restaurant located at the Commerce Valley. The unit used to be occupied by Crazy Sushi and another Japanese restaurant called Yura. However, I have never been to those two restaurants since both of them “looked” like they were unauthentic and over-priced. I know it’s not fair to have that assumption, but it’s all about the impression – especially I hadn’t heard anyone who’d been to those two restaurants and given good feedback.
One Friday afternoon, Me and 5 colleagues of mine came to this restaurant. I’ve decided to try it out. (Didn’t let them choose – actually it was just that none of them had any preference. :p) When we arrived it was already around 2:30ish. There were a lot of space in this already large dining area. I really like the warm pink/plum color theme of this restaurant. There were booths on the window side, round tables at the front (as far as I can recall), rectangular tables that could be put side by side (chairs on one side and bench on the other), as well as three rooms on the inner side of the restaurant. When you look at the ceiling, you’ll see some nice decorative “up-side-down benches” – nice looking but when I thought about it I was afraid that they’d fall down.
The servers were welcoming when we first got in. While we were waiting for one last person to come, they came by several times to check if we could order. (Maybe it was also because it was already past their peak hour.)
We asked if they had any lunch combo/special. However, the answer was NO. They suggested the lobster noodle that costed $18.99. According to them the lobster weighted 1.3lb to be exact. [How could they be so exact :)] So, here are what we ordered:
1. Fried dough wrapped with rice noodle (炸兩) – the portion was a bit smaller than we thought. The fried dough was relatively fresh.
2. Fujian fried rice (福建炒飯) – so-so, nothing spectacular
3. Turnip cake (炒蘿白糕) – compared to the ones @ Congee Wong or Congee Queen. This one was less spicy and lacked the “kick”.
4. Seafood congee (海鮮粥) – very nice. There were salmon, shrimps, scallops, crab meat (fake ones), white fish, etc. It was very similar to the one we had @ Congee Queen last time.
5. Sweet and Sour pork (糖醋里肌) – we all thought this would be different from the usual sweet and sour pork (咕嚕肉) because the Chinese name is different. I believe 里肌=tenderloin, correct me if I’m wrong, but this dish is total the same as the usual sweet and sour pork that you get at chop suey place. It was ok…
Overall, the restaurant was so-so. Price vs. Portion – It’s a bit more expensive than other places such as Congee Wong. I think it’s because of the location and also because it has quite a lot of customers from the surrounding business areas. (Can’t help comparing them because they are insdeed quite similar.) Something came into my mind when I saw this restaurant – looking at this name… I wonder if there is any connection between Tang and “Sugar 大有名糖”.
FYI: Tang Chinese Cuisine (大唐盛事)
Unit 9, 230 Commerce Valley Dr E, ON L3T 7Y3
Tel: 905-771-3988