Dim Sum at 'Ka Lung Court', Richmond Hill - Not bad at all!!

[Charles Yu]

The Chinese restaurant atop of Richmond Hill's Times Square has changed hands umpteen times over the years. The latest occupant is called ' Ka Lung Court Chinese Cuisine'. Since we wanted to try something new and it's just a short drive from us, we decided to give it a try. The place was huge, decor was sparse and modern and at around 1.00 pm it was packed due to the long weekend.

Dim Sum selection was adequate but not overly extensive, covering the traditional with a few innovative ones thrown into the mix. Overall, unlike high end establishments, presentation and quality of food was not super-refined, with a few rough edges on some dishes. However, to our surprise, overall taste was very delicious!!

The five of us had single or multiples of the following:

- Steamed crystal dumpling with shrimp and bamboo shoot (Har Gow)
- Steamed sweet B-B-Q pork bun ( Char sui Bao )
- Steamed glutinous rice wrapped with lotus leaf ( Lawe Mai Gai )
- Steamed chicken feet with Lily bulb
- Steamed pork spareribs with home style sauce
- Steamed beef tendons with spicy sauce
- Seafood cream pie
- Coconut flavoured chicken wrapped with lotus leaves
- Taro croquette with seafood stuffing
- Pan fried shrimp cake with chives
- Deep fried shrimp roll with avocado
- Steamed rice roll with shrimp and vegetable ( Cheung Fun )
- Puffy egg tart ( dessert )
- Fresh fruit Mochi ( mango and blueberries )

Apart from the Har Gow, (which I detected an overly shrimpy alkaline aroma due to insufficient rinsing of the shrimp before seasoning and a void of bamboo shoot!! a no-no!!), every dish we ordered was nicely seasoned and delicious. Stand outs were the Taro croquettes ( creamy fluffy filling ), the Cheung Fun ( nice thin skin accompanied by good grade sweet soya sauce ), the chicken feet ( nice and tender with a yummy sauce ), the seafood cream pie ( nice buttery crust and creamy filling - a clone of Richmond court's famous chicken pie but using seafood as filling) and the very unique fruit mochi dessert ( a la O'Mei's version but incorporating black seasame and blueberries )

Dim Sum pricing was $2.30 for medium and $5.60 for special. Total bill for 16 dishes before tips, came to only $48!! What a steal!!

[HSz]

I'm not sure what's happened, but apparently Ka Lung Court is now dark. :(

I had not yet been able to try their spicy squid! :( :(

[Learn2CooknEat]

I saw on Fairchild TV News a few days ago that Ka Lung is now closed. The same News said La Chine was closed too if I'm not mistaken.

[Charles Yu]

What??!! We just ate there about a week ago! Wow!!!!

[Charles Yu]

2 out of 2!! Man! I think I am cursed!
First, I recommended the great Cantonese Roast Duck at 'Cotten Tree' on this board and within a week, it closed down! Now, after a write-up of this great value Dim Sum place a short while back, it too closed down, out of the blue! Next, I am keeping a close eye on 'Golden Crown Dynasty Cuisine' - my latest Chinese recommendation, Hope it will survive or else I will have to keep my mouth shut!!

[MeXx]

Tried today, ordered four items:

1-Siu mai
2-Fried tofu rice roll
3-Steamed BBQ pork bun, traditional way (as per the menu)
4-Seafood cream pie

1-Wrap was falling off when picking it up, nothing spectacular
2-Seemed reheated to me for some reason, rice roll was thin as per your observation Charles, plus the soya sauce dispenser was not clean (had drops of soya sauce all over it)
3-Good, flavourful, decently juicy
4-Great crust for sure, strong mushroom flavour or something in the filling, might not be everyone's cup of tea.

Service was, well... it isn't anything to cry home about and is somewhat stereotypical. The rice roll didn't look appetizing and the water cress that went along with it didn't help either. I'll go back for the seafood cream pie and steamed bbq pork buns.

Photos attached.

[Charles Yu]

Yes! The problem with having Dim Sum in Toronto is the inconsistency! One really need to keep our fingers crossed and hope that we ordered those items that are the restaurant's 'forte'.

[munchieHK]

That's why I still prefer carts, but only at peak times when everything is fresh. I like the fact that I can take a peek at the food before it lands on the table. I have been disappointed so many times ordering from cards. I maintain that there are good reasons dim sum has been served in carts for so long, even though many people prefer cards nowadays.

[MeXx]

I am a cart fan myself. Sometimes you don't know what you want when you go for dim sum, but when you hear them screaming out what they have on their cart, you order right then and there. Arguably, card ordering is made fresh to order in a sense. Cart is freshest for first batch/round, as is dishes in general.

[Charles Yu]

Had dim sum lunch at the Emperor today. Expect better but kind of disappointed. Inferior ingredients in items like Sui Mai and B-B-Q pork buns. Braised items like Chicken feet etc tasted bland and underdone. Certain baked pies excessively greasy. Like it or not, the Ka Lung Court 's version, though rough with an edge, tasted better and cheaper!

[skylineR33]

I am wondering what is happening to these dim sum places ?! I was at Emperor last weekend and you know what they use on the "clear broth beef brisket" ? They use baking soda tenderizer and they use a lots on it !!

[Charles Yu]

I agree!
Looks like there are no more good dim sum place in Toronto any more?! ( or may be our palette are spoiled by all the great ones we had at FLM and Fan Tang?! Ha! ).
Whats even worse is the non-stop opening of branches like Regal Palace. A friend told me two days ago at the Yonge branch, there are more waiters than customers during lunch time!! Then, there's the branch at the old Ruby location! The dim sum there was sooooo bad that even cheap $1.80 places else where are serving tastier versions!
However, on the plus side, I recently discovered the ' Taro croquette' at Richmond Court extremely tasty. The center has really juicy filling of diced 'choi po', Chinese mushrooms, spring onions, cilantro and pork.

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Richmond Court Restaurant
328 7 Hwy, Thornhill, ON L4B1A1, CA

[skylineR33]

Yeah, the Regal Palace branch at Yonge is not doing good, it is quite empty on Saturdays. I agree they charge too much on the food they provide. Don't know how long it will last. But it looks like they got tons of money (probably investors from China ?) to spend as they are expanding so quick. They really need to improve the quality and consistency instead of starting the price war.

[MeXx]

Where is this Regal Palace on Yonge?

[Charles Yu]

Near Yonge and Weldrick.

[aliangwb]

Which Richmond Court location?

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Richmond Court Restaurant
328 7 Hwy, Thornhill, ON L4B1A1, CA

[Charles Yu]

The bakery at Chalmers

[red dragon]

My husband and I tried Ka Lung Court Chinese Cuisine for dim sum on Friday. We ordered:

Steamed crystal dumpling with shrimp and bamboo shoots - there were no bamboo shoots in the dumpling and the skin was falling off, as if they were steamed too long?

Steamed Siu mai – these were quite tough and chewy – very disappointing

Steamed cuttlefish in curry sauce – my husband said they were not good at all and I could see him struggling to eat them (very chewy)

Steamed beef stomach with turnip – awful, we ordered the wrong one as we were looking for tripe on the menu and it wasn’t listed. My husband was ok eating this dish but said it was not good at all

Steamed spicy beef tendons – one my favourite dim sum dishes, when done right. Tendons were very tender, but extremely sticky and glutinous, I didn’t care for the sauce, it had too much 5 spice powder

Steamed beef omasum with green onion and ginger – this was the tripe dish that we had mixed up above, what the heck is omasum, it’s normally translated as tripe - again very chewy and my husband was not impressed

Steamed bean curd sheet wrap with oyster sauce - good

Deep fried spring roll with shredded taro - good

Deep fried dumpling with minced pork – very disappointing, the worse version I’ve had – there were also no chives

Deep fried taro dumpling - good

Deep fried bean curd skin roll with shrimp - ok

Steamed chicken feet with lily bulb - ok

Steamed rice roll with beef and preserved vegetables – tough and chewy beef, rice roll was overcooked – we didn’t finish this dish

With tax the bill came to 35.60. We liked how the menu was priced the same (2.30 for small, med or large). Tea was cheap at 80 cents each.

Service was super slow, had to flag a waiter each time we needed something (hot sauce, extra napkins, more hot water, the bill).

I’d say the quality of the items were poor, but it’s no comparison to our favourite dim sum place (Dragon Dynasty).

We tried this place, but it was a real disappointment.

[sumdumgoy]

What time of day were you there?

[red dragon]

1pm

[sumdumgoy]

Not good, that is prime time.

I usually associate disintegrating wrappers and tough siu mai with reheats at 2:30 pm or later.

[red dragon]

Yes, I could understand that. We always go to dim sum between 11:30 and 1pm, no later than 1pm.

[Charles Yu]

Sorry to hear that Red Dragon! Nothing lasts forever. I guess?
BTW, is Dragon Dynasty still good? I thought they have gone downhill after some of their chefs and dim-sum chefs moved to Yang's and Emperor? Used to love their whole roasted suckling piglet!

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Dragon Dynasty
2301 Brimley Rd, Scarborough, ON M1S 5B8, CA

[red dragon]

No problem at all Charles, we don't know until we try right? And I always respect that not everyone's tastes are the same, and there is inconsistency to consider.

I haven't been to Dragon Dynasty in about 2 months. I'll have to visit there again soon.

[Crispier Crouton]

We went a few weeks ago and unfortunately I'll have to agree with skylineR33. Most of the dishes were sad and bland. Maybe it was because we went during the early cheap dim sum hours and they serve an inferior product during those times, I don't know.

[skylineR33]

Thanks for the report. Looks like they have improved then. I was there a few months ago but the dim sum I had was really not up to par, I remember I had the Goon Tong Gow (Seafood Dumpling in supreme soup) which cost me ~$6.8 each as a feature item on their dim sum menu list but I got a very mediocre dumpling with fake crab stick used in a bowl of tasteless soup base.

[Charles Yu]

Goon Tong Gow is no where to be found in their current dim sum menu. Closest thing is a ' Steamed Dumpling with shark's fin and XO sauce' priced at $5.60.

[skylineR33]

I think they took it off the menu, it makes sense if they cannot even make a ok one.