Crown Princess – Toronto, ON We have been to many dim sum restaurants before and fell in love with the Din Tai Fung chain in Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong.

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While in Toronto, we had been on a quest to find the best dim sum Toronto had to offer and the name we kept hearing was Crown Princess. Hence we figured it was worth a trip there to see just how good their dim sum was.

Based on the suggestions of others, we called ahead to make reservations but were told it wasn’t necessary as they weren’t that busy. However, they told us to be there before 4 PM because that is when they stop serving dim sum. It was a Sunday so traffic downtown was not a problem and we arrived at Crown Princess with plenty of time to sample their dim sum.

With a great location on Bay Street, we were a bit shocked at just how large the restaurant was. And we were a bit blown away by the bright purple chairs and over-the-top décor. I’m sure they were going for elegant, but I found it rather obnoxious.

We checked out the menu and were a bit confused. The menu had a letter - S, M, L or XL next to each dish. When we inquired about this , we were informed that it has nothing to do with the number of dim sum in each order, but the size of the order. It really did not make much sense and we couldn’t get a clearer answer so we just guessed and ordered us a variety of dishes. Another negative point was there weren’t any prices next to any of the dishes. Confident (hopefully) that Crown Princess was a reputable place, we ordered blindly hoping we wouldn’t be in shock when the bill came.

We ordered a variety of dim sum and other Asian inspired dishes including:

Shrimp Dumpling (har Gow)
Steamed Scallop & Shrimp Dumpling
Chicken 2/Ginger Bun
Beef Tripe w/XO Sauce
Spare Rib w/Black Bean Sauce
BBQ Pork Bun

As I had mentioned earlier, we fell in love with dim sum while in Asia a few years area and our goal was to find something similar in Toronto and to our chagrin, we didn’t even come close! The food was all made to order, so it was served fresh and hot. However the taste was bland, dull and not at all like the dim sum we had fallen in love with. None of the six dishes we tried excited our taste buds or compared to what we knew was great dim sum. Our first attempt to find the elusive, good dim sum in Toronto had been thwarted!

Service was fair. It would have been nice if our server spoke better English so maybe we could have ordered things we would have enjoyed more or she could have explained portion sizes and prices, but that just didn’t happen.

When we requested the bill we were a concerned about the price being sky high, but it came in at just over $40. Over-priced based on how much we enjoyed it, but about right based on the quantity of food served.

Sadly though, our rating for Crown Princess for dim sum in Toronto is a low, Almost Not Bombastic.

What I liked: Not Much

What I didn’t like: Pretty Much Everything

Rating: Almost Not Bombastic

Address and Telephone Number:
Crown Princess
1033 Bay Street
Toronto, ON M5S 3A5
(416) 923-8784

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