Dim Sum at Crown Prince Fine Dining, Markham - Update one year later.

[Charles Yu]

After a one year hiatus, I decided to pay Crown Prince a revisit this long weekend. Memory of my first visit was kind of vague. My only recollection was the opulent and weird 'Napoleonic' French decor used for this 'Chinese' Restaurant??!!. Food wise, the Dim Sum we had was acceptable with nothing really stood-out.

As expected, the place was packed at 1.00pm but the turn over rate was surprisingly fast. Our wait time was less than 10 minutes.

We ordered about 10 Dim Sum dishes amongst the three of us, sticking to the traditional rather than venturing into the ' new concept unknown'.

We had:

- Steamed Abalone Sauce braised Chicken Feet.
- Wafer Pocket shrimp Roll with Salad Dressing.
- Deep Fried Taro Croquettes.
- Steamed Shrimp and Chinese Green Rice Roll ( Cheung Fun ).
- Steamed Beef Tripe with Ginger and Scallions.
- Steamed Shrimp Dumpling ( Har Gow ).
- Steamed B-B-Q Pork Buns.
- Braised Beef Tendons in Chu Hau Bean Sauce.
- Steamed Eggplant with Minced Meat in a House Special Sauce.
- Sweet Egg Yolk Paste Fluffy Layer Cake

Overall impression was that almost all the dishes were executed competently with a few exceptional ones. Only downside was that a few dishes like the Har Gow and the Beef Tripes were 'under-seasoned'.

A few dishes worthy of a more detailed description were:

- The Chicken Feet. Unlike some 'undercooked' ones, Crown Prince version were really tender 'off-the-bone' and tasty.

- The Wafer Pocket shrimp Roll. Best dish of the meal. A textural parade of crispy, crunchy, chewy, saucy components. Very tasty and addictive!

- The Shrimp Cheung-Fun. Nice to see an ultra-thin wrapping. Shrimp was fresh and crunchy. Only mild down-side was their use of 'Choi-Sum ' leaf as a filling. The texture and presence of the leaf gave the sensation that the shell of the shrimp was still on!!

- The Steamed Eggplant. The stand out was the strange but delicious sauce. A mix of Hoi-Sin, Satay, Japanese Miso...etc?! Skill or luck??!

- The Har Gow. Such thin chewy wrapper and fresh crunchy shrimp filling. If only the chef would add a touch more salt!

Our bill came to $51.

If they retain the same quality for their $2.80 a dish 'early-bird' special, this place will for sure become Markham's best value 'Early-Bird' Dim Sum place.

[mrsleny]

Great review and photos.

Is this the Crown Prince at 3600 Victoria Park in North York? Or is there one in Markham that I don't know about.

Thanks!

[Charles Yu]

This is on Victoria Park just south of Steeles. Where 'New World' used to be!

[mrsleny]

Thanks!

[theel]

Seems like dim sum is a better bet here than dinner. I had dinner there a few weeks ago and was very disappointed on more than one front. The food ranged from average to below average and portions were small for the price. Our seafood in phoenix nest came with a snail (not the edible variety, the kind that you find in a fish tank eating the scum off the sides) which was pretty gross and the scallops were under cooked. The dish was replaced with a fresh one but they didn't remove the charge (but that would be too much to expect from a chinese restaurant I guess). The duck with mashed taro was overcooked completely as to make the duck dry almost to the point of being inedible .. but we were hungry because the service was slow and time in between dishes coming to the table was very long. The vegetables with garlic was excellent due to the quality of the vegetable. Overall a huge pricey disappointment. Maybe I should give dim sum a try here instead.

[RYP]

Any idea what the early bird hours are?

[T Long]

Order has to be submitted before 11:00am. To avoid disappointment, you might want to be there before 10:30am latest to get through the queue and to get seated in time to order. This would be the Crown Prince in North York.

[RYP]

Thank you. We have a toddler so we usually have an early start and beat the crowds.