海棠靚小炒

If your looking for some good and cheap chinese food, this is the restaurant to go to! 

I came here with my family for dinner and we decided to order their lobster meal, 4 dish meal. ($37, which is a pretty good deal with decent food). I would like to comment that the soup they give you before the meal is really good, has a traditional asian soup feeling to it. They serve it even when you don't order their set dinners.

This is the 薑蔥炒龍蝦. 

Very tastey, has a lot of 鍋氣. I kinda thought this was the best dish of the 4.

Second dish: 京都肉排.

Don't ask me why the color is so light and why it looks like onion porkchops instead, because I was confused too. It didn't taste like the traditional 京都 sauce, but it was decent.

Third dish: crispy chicken.

I actually didn't try this because I'm not a fan of chicken, but based on looks it seemed decent.

Fourth dish: 菜心配三鮮

The 3 mixed seafood was squid, shrimp, and scallop. I thought it was a bit too greasy. And you are right, it doesn't seem like there were much seafood.

On top of that, we ordered their famous steamed egg (招牌蒸水蛋). ($5.79)

I always order this when I come here, a must-try. Sounds like a very simple and easy-to-make dish, but I haven't had a better one anywhere else. The egg is just so smooth and just so tastey, best combination with rice. 

Another thing I like about this place is if you order up to $25, they give you a free dish. Sweet and sour pork. (咕嚕肉)

However, I must admit the quality of this dish fluctuates. Sometimes its not crispy enough or sometimes they portion is too little. But what can I say, it's free! Most of the times it's good though. :)

I came here before for lunch and the food was not good. I came again for afternoon tea because I wanted some fried fish and fruit salad.

Looks kinda typical in the picture, nothing special and nothing horrible. A bit disappointing because I was expecting honey dew in the fruit salad too.

Food: Pretty good. (dinner-wise)

Service: Alright

Price: Cheap

Atmosphere/Decoration: Nothing special, hard to find parking when it gets busy during dinner time.

Overall: Perfect restaurant if you want some good chinese food that has a lot of 鍋氣. It's not one of those elegant chinese cuisines though, so I wouldn't consider it being the best place for a relatives dinner gathering. I would and do come back often, but for dinner only. 

海棠靚小炒 Hai Tang Cafe

38 Buttonfield Road, Unit 9, Markham