Hi there. I share my experiences and thoughts at Rosewood Chinese restaurant in the Chinatown area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Toronto Chinatown Area
The Toronto Chinatown area is at the Dundas & Spadina area. This is kind of close to the Eaton Centre Mall and shopping areas.
There are a lot of Chinese businesses, restaurants in the area along with some Vietnamese restaurants, Korean restaurants, Japanese restaurants. Close to the Chinatown area there is a market that has other food options from other cultures. This other market is Kensington Market.
Dimsum @ Rosewood Restaurant
Rosewood Restuarant was a Cantonese/Hong Kong dimsum place I have been to a while back. Maybe 8 years ago. I did like their dimsum and I recommended this to my brother for us to visit.
We tried their all you can eat option dimsum. This price is 39 CAD for each person. This price is kinda high as it is Toronto. Dinner buffets at Chinese places is around 50 to 55 CAD, Japanese BBQ is around 50 per person. Dimsum AYCE for 39 CAD is not that bad. Full price list and menu here.
This place has a la carte options if you don't want AYCE. They have a picture menu in which I am a big fan of.
There are two floors in this restaurant. The second floor is closed off as it is not busy.
Rosewood restaurant does operate from 10 AM to 3AM Mondays to Fridays and from 9AM to 3AM on Saturdays and Sundays. This is one of the few options for late night eating.
Food Pictures
Fried Squid Tentacles
This one was really good. Maybe the best fried squid I have had ever. It is a good mix of chewiness on the inside and crispiness on the outside.
Some fried squids at other places have thick tentacles where it is hard to chew on. This one is more on the thin side. Thinner fried squid is the way to go I think. Very good.
Big Dumpling Soup
I think the correct name is something like Seafood & Conpoy Dumpling Soup. It is a soup with a giant dumpling with pork and some seafood pieces. This is one of my favourite dimsum dishes. Not all Chinese dimsum restaurants carry this.
I did not take pictures of everything. I thought their fried seafood items in the Shrimp Spring Rolls and Crispy Shrimp Dumplings were very good.
Their Shanghai Soup Dumplings (Xiaolongbao) were on the smaller side and okay. Not bad but not amazing.
The pork spareribs were good overall but their black pepper short ribs were not easy to chew on. Those ribs had a good flavour and were not too peppery but it was hard to chew to meat off the bone.
Their pan fried pork dumplings were large. The taste though was kind of bland. You can add chili sauce to spice it up.
My brother and I over ordered by 1 dish. We ordered something like 10-11 items. It has been a while since I ate a lot.
We packed the remaining beef rice roll and pan fried dumplings. There was a charge for packing up the leftovers in which I did expect actually. The leftovers was around half a dimsum dish so it came to 3 CAD charge for packing.
Closing Thoughts
Rosewood Restaurant is one of the better places in the downtown/Chinatown Toronto area when it comes to dimsum. If you want even better dimsum then you have to pay more at a more upscale place. There is also going out of the downtown Toronto area or even outside the Toronto city in Richmond Hill or Markham for other dimsum options.
My rating is 8 out of 10. It is good overall but dependent on what you choose and if you eat a lot. If you are not a seafood lover like my brother then this place may not be for you. You could try their non-all you can eat options and dishes. Service was very good, friendly. The customers were mostly Asian/Chinese with some non-Asians customers. I do think this restaurant has a decent reputation in the city.
