Best Chinese Lobster in the GTA?

[mochi_mochi]

Hi everyone!

I'm planning on taking my boyfriend for Lobster for his birthday this month and was wondering where you can find the best chinese style lobster in the GTA? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance :)

[BLM]

Any Chinese restaurants in the Toronto area offering live Australian lobsters in-season?

[skylineR33]

I have seen live Australian lobster at ElegantView (Victoria Park and Finch).

[BLM]

Any idea how much per pound, they're charging? And what size are they?

[skylineR33]

From my memory, it is like $20 something a pound and they are not too big...does not worth it in my opinion.

[Charles Yu]

IMO, Australian lobster is only good for sashimi. Texture too 'mushy' for my liking when cooked.

[BLM]

So you have tried fresh Australian lobster(not frozen)? Very hard to find fresh in North America.

[Charles Yu]

Before they went out of business, Jade Dynasty on Finch and Leslie always featured them in their fish tanks. Nowadays, as skylineR33 eluded to, once in a while you'll see them in Elegant view. Too expensive by North American standard, therefore,. usually tried them out during my trips to the Orient. Good Japanese restaurants always have them on their menus.

[skylineR33]

Yeah, there is Australian Lobster in Toronto from time to time. But I have never seen Chinese Spiny Lobster here. It tastes much better than Australian Lobster but the price is at least double if found in HK.

[BLM]

Thanks both of you(skyline & Charles) for your insights.

[TOchowgal]

I am partial to Wah Sing on Baldwin St and the big Chinese resto in the Chinese mall on Dundas St, west of Dixie in Mississauga. I don't know what the name is, but its the biggest one there.

I've never been let down by both.

[yummyumm]

hmmmm...any midtown suggestions?

are all Omei locations the same or is there a gem among them?

[Royaljelly]

Avoid the Omei on Steeles, it's totally different than the one on Hwy 7.

For midtown, you could try Sun Star on Finch between Leslie/Bayview. I haven't tried their Lobster dishes yet, but they do have a lot of fresh seafood and decent prices. I've been scouring decent chinese places since moving south and that's about the most midtown place I could find.

[erly]

We had the lobster there last week.
The largest was a questionable 1 1/2 pounds.
It was very tasty, and far better than Regal 16 this week.
The chicken in a bamboo steamer on a lotus leaf, was excellent.
The black bean spareribs were the worst that I have ever eaten.
Avoid this dish!

[Royaljelly]

erly, your meal was at Sun Star right?

Another horrible dish we had there was a sliced fatty pork belly in a fu-yu (fermented tofu) sauce. It was just raunchy, almost couldn't stand the smell of it (we ate 2 bites and left the rest). We enjoy their little deep fried white fishes and fried chicken w/ garlic (can get pretty salty sometimes). Their eel in black bean sauce was not bad too.

[erly]

Sorry Royal Jelly,
I always include the restaurant name, and this was an oversight.
Yes Sun Star.
I can't describe how horrible the ribs were.
You couldn't even chew the meat off the bone, and it was tasteless with only the strong taste of Black Bean and nothing else..
We left the entire dish.

[skylineR33]

The lobster dish I had at 'Wu Yi Villa' (武夷山莊) is one of the best I had. It is a 5 lbs lobster dish (玉龍抱珠, don't know how to translate into English, please see picture), the lobster meat is wok-fried perfectly to give the best soft bouncing texture, not a hint of rough or rubbery. The deep fried lobster ball is very well seasoned, right degree of bounciness with a perfect deep fried crispy outer layer ! I can feel the juice of the lobster filling diffused into my mouth through the thin crispy layer.

However, it is too big a dish for two people, maybe you want to try a 2-3 lbs lobster at Maple Yip, Fantasy Eatery or Magic Wok as suggested by other hounds.

[Charles Yu]

Thanks for mentioning 'Wu-Yi Villa'. I was going to mention it in my post but forgot about the English name! Looks and sound good! May round up some relatives and give it a try in the future. BTW, How much a pound are they charging? Same ridiculous mark-up as O'mei?

[skylineR33]

For the 玉龍抱珠, it is set price at $80 for a 5 lbs lobster, and it is a half an hour wait for the preparation of the dish. However, they charge me a few more buck because they said the lobster they got for our table is a bit more than 5 lbs.

The other lobster dish like the Maggie Sauce lobster, is $65 for 5 lbs, which is not that expensive. Maybe because it is only 1-way instead of 4-way ?! The production cost of it done 4-way is higher I guess.

Wuyi Villa is still very new (opened only 1 week) that it is not running very smooth yet from my observation. But it got great potential to be a very high class resetaurant. I am looking forward to see your comment on it once you have a chance to try it !

[tochowchick]

Can you pls let me know where to find Wuyi Villa?

Thanks...

[skylineR33]

Wuyi Villa is located at 4080 Steeles Ave East, the corner of Birchmont and Steeles.

[mochi_mochi]

Thanks skylineR33 for your detailed reply! I love the picture you attached as well, that looks delicious :) Although I am more interested in looking for the "wok-hei" style chinese lobster! I will take your suggestion as well as the other chowhounds and do a 2-3lb lobster at one of the other places :) The birthday dinner won't be for awhile, but when I finally go I will definitely report back!

[erly]

Hi Skyline,
I have only seen large Lobster at Maple Yip on one occasion.
Usually they are around a pound or slightly larger.
We are there for the whole Steamed fish a couple of times a month.
This week they had the x-large Vancouver swimming shrimp and they were delicious, stir fried with ginger and onion..
About 6 to the pound.
Someone had asked about them recently but I couldn't find the thread.

[skylineR33]

Maybe order two lobster at Maple Yip ? Yes, agree that the steamed fish there is excellent too.

[jennjen18]

Hey Guys, Fantasy Eatery is featuring the "prince" lobsters right now... these are the individual sized lobsters. (They dont even have the regular sized lobsters at $18/plate. They, however, have lobsters at a certain price per pound, still.) I believe they are at $6.88/each or something like that. I was there last week - dont quote me, you can call them and inquire ([phone]‎). On their poster, they even suggest types of preparing it, of which many have noted on this board. One of them was to cook with e-fu noodles, with a premium of $5.

[BLM]

Lobster with e-fu noodles is that a rare dish at Chinese restaurants in GTA? I've tried it at a Cantonese restaurant in Montreal.

[Teep]

It's not rare but may not be listed on the menu. Any Cantonese place that serves lobster can make it for you if you ask.

[BLM]

Any Chinese lobster preparations that you see in better GTA Chinese restaurants, that might be hard to find in the rest of Canada(outside of maybe Vancouver Chinese restaurants)?

[Charles Yu]

All the favourite 'Wok-Hay' and/or high end Cantonese restaurants mentioned on this board manage to execute delicious variations of Lobster dishes. Be it wok sauteed/stirred fry in Ginger and scallions. Maggi sauce or deep fried in peppered spicy salt....etc. In addition to O'Mei these include Maple Yip, John's B-B-Q. Fantasy Eatery, TanChiKee, Yang's, Regal Palace, Sam Woo Seafood, Magic wok...etc. Its like trying to pick a top Bordeaux red. Be it Latour, Mouton, Lafite, Margaux..etc They are all good and highly dependent on ones palette!

[mochi_mochi]

Wow! Thank you so much for all the suggestions, I really appreciate it! I'm not from the GTA, so this helps me out a lot Charles :)

[erly]

Maple Yip, which we very much like have decent size Lobsters only occasionally.
Elegantview on Victoria Park always have good size Lobsters in the 2 to 3 pound range for two people, as well as the larger ones..

[fivesensesreeling]

Wah Sing on Baldwin St. was always a favourite of mine.

[CoffeeAddict416]

Do you mean upstairs at Wah Sing? Or downstairs at Hua Sang?
Hua Sang, the downstairs one, is much better I think. For a bargain version of black bean or ginger lobster I think this is the best in the downtown core.

It's $33 I think now for two lobsters. They're very small lobsters. I would say they're about 1.5lb each but one order is plenty for 3-4 people to share.

[TOchowgal]

I agree with Wah Sing. Don't get anything else there - just the lobster. I've tried some of their other dishes and they are not upto par. My ex and I used to go there all the time for the lobster and we just get rice on the side.

[tjr]

O'Mei for the giant lobster 4 ways! It would be way too much for two people though...

[BLM]

How much is the cost at O'Mei for giant lobster 4 ways?

[Charles Yu]

Depending on how big and how much they are charging per pound ( daily market price ). Usually their giant lobster weighs in at around 7lb each. At about $19 per pound, that would come to about $130 for the four courses.
FYI, 'Emperor' has a lobster special every Sunday. Reduced from $20 per pound to only $12 per pound!! Their wok fried version with spicy salt garlic chips is awesome!

[BLM]

Where's the Emperor restaurant? This could be for my next trip to Toronto(I'm based in Montreal).

[Charles Yu]

In the plaza at the corner of Bayview and Blackmoor up in Richmond Hill. Blackmoor is the street just south of 16th Avenue.

[BLM]

What size of lobsters do they offer at Emperor? The lobsters at O'Mei are way too large for me to order.

[Charles Yu]

For the past couple of Sundays, we had the Lobster daily specials. First time, they presented the 6 of us with a four pounder which we asked them to change to a five pounder. Ended up to be a little too excessive. Subsequently, the next time round, we settled for a four pounder which was just right for 6.

[erly]

Had dinner at Emperor tonight.
Really like their Dim Sum, but this was our first time for dinner.
Enjoyed every course.
I am not a big fan of most Hot and Sour Soups, but admit that theirs was almost perfect.
My Granddaughter wanted Cantonese Chow Mien, which I don't normally touch, but it was so refreshing to see it made Crispy with real noodles, instead of the instant stuff, that I had some of it as well.
The smallest Lobster was 2 1/2 pounds
perfectly cooked and tasty.
, but $55.00 for 2 1/2 pounds is more than most other restaurants in this category charge.
Excellent service, and friendly staff as well.

[Charles Yu]

You should have gone on a Sunday! Lobster treated as a 'special of the day' Only $12.88 per pound! Therefore your 2 1/2 pounder will only cost you around $30+!! I'll be there tomorrow night!