Ruby Chinese restaurant @ Woodside mall - opinions?

[TOchowgal]

Every time I go to Woodside Mall on the weekends, I see hoards of people going in and out of Ruby Chinese.

Is it good?

Do they offer all day dim sum?

Thanks :)

[KevinB]

I used to work at Markham Rd. and Finch. We had a 1 hour lunch on Friday,
as opposed to 1/2 hour every other day, so at least twice a month I would
be at Ruby. I would never say it was the best dim sum I ever had, but it was
generally good, not too expensive, and service was quick. Bottom line: I would
not go far out of my way to end up at Ruby, but if I was in the McCowan/Finch
area, it would certainly be one of my top choices.

[Finnegan]

Ruby's easily blows away 95% of the dim sum joints in downtown Toronto. The food at Ruby's is authentic, the service quick and the rerstaurant is always clean. I seem to recall the prices dropping after 2 p.m. on weekdays (dim sum is trditionally eaten for breakfast). They do the basic cantonese fare very well, Items like peking duck, shark fin soup are all excellent. As any real foodie knows, Scarborough and Markham are THE places to go if you want authentic chinese food...if you like the Canadian-ized chinese food (sweet and sour anything, egg rolls, etc. stay downtown

[KevinB]

Scarberia and Markup? Any real foodie knows the best Chinese food
north of Eglinton is in Richmond Hill.

[Finnegan]

Agreed..but Scarborough does have some very excleent chinese restaurants, albeit they are known for their food and not their decor or location ( a couple of the best are hidden in strip malls, etc.)

[saisailup]

I live in Scarborough and we eat out several times a week, so I can tell you that there are still several fairly good Chinese restaurants in Scarborough, both for dim sum and dinner.

Dragon Dynasty Chinese Cuisine (Brimley & Huntingwood)
Elegantview Chinese Restaurant (Victoria Park & McNicoll)
Oriental Century Palace (Brimley & Sheppard)

In terms of Ruby, they're better for dim sum than dinner.

[skylineR33]

The best "wok hai" chinese restaurant is actually located at Scarborough, Midland and Finch called "Fantasy Eatery" (Silver Star).

[Charles Yu]

Agree! To play safe, reserve a table ahead of time. The line up can be unreal!

[Yum2MyTum]

I would have to disagree with your assessment, saisailup.

My family goes to Ruby regularly for dinner and they have some truly great chinese food at reasonable (read: cheap!) prices. Particularly enjoyable are the "winter melon" joong (soup), the pan fried fish done two ways (particularly the way involving bitter melon), and the lovely vegetarian dish that involves fresh tofu sheets, broccoli and mushrooms of all sorts, swimming in their excellent house broth.

Dim sum is great too, but mainly in light of the reduced prices after 1:30. Grand Restaurant in the DoubleTree in Mississauga takes the cake for haute dim sum, IMHO.

[oracle347]

They offer the real thing when it comes to Dim Sum. Although the Quality is nowhere near somthing like Lai Wa Heen at the Metropolitian hotel, it's very reasonablity priced and they offer a great variety including a lot that you don't see in the Spadina Places. (Take it from the girl from Hong Kong! ) They offer dim sum until around 3 on the weekends, I don't know about weekdays though. I know I'm there at least once every two or three weeks myself. They trick is to go early, and be adventurous!

[sweetie]

They do not serve dim sum in the evenings. I would think they stop serving it around 3 or 4PM. I would say Ruby is middle of the road, a little pricier the some but still not too expensive, good quality but not exceptional.

[skylineR33]

Dim sum cheaper than Ruby ? Are you refering to those places in Broadview area (i have not been there for > 10 years) ? I know some which is around same price as Ruby like the one on old kennedy at the Club 300 building ...

[sweetie]

There are a couple places that are cheaper then Ruby, but the quality suffers of course. Honey Garlic at Kennedy and Denison, I don't know the name of the one at Market village, but it is cheaper then Ruby. There are a couple places on Woodbine between Steeles and HWY 7.

[skylineR33]

Thanks. I wonder how cheap can those places go ? I spent like $8 last time I ate at Ruby (we paid the bill before like 11:30am something so we got the morning special rate? something like that ...)

Looks like Ruby is the best bet for lower end dim sum in GTA.

[Blueicus]

Went to dinner at Honey and Garlic, the cooks really had a knack of loading on the salt.

[jennjen18]

sucks.