Originally Posted by
seat38a
Our food, when ready were slammed on the table in no apparent order. While this kind of service may offend the uninitiated, for the initiated like my parents and I, we know some of the best food in any Chinatown come from restaurants like this.
Since we had early reservations at the 360 CN Tower Restaurant for dinner, I checked to see if there would be enough time to do more walking or if we would have to turn back. After coming to the conclusion that we probably will make it and if not just grab an Uber, we paid our bill for the coffee and dessert and headed up on Crawford St towards Bloor. Google map was showing the Koreatown was the next closest ethnic neighborhood nearest from where we were. Once we arrived on Bloor, we walked towards Spadina which would take us into the heart of Koreatown and then also put us back on Spadina. Just from my non scientific observations, Little Italy and Koreatown here in Toronto seemed quite small vs the ones you find back in California and New York.
t
Well done by not being taken aback by the service at Chinese restaurants!
Great observations about the Ethnic Town's in Toronto. China Town and Korea Town are indeed extremly small compared to other North American counterparts, but similar to how SoCal has places like San Gabriel, Montery Park, Arcadia etc, Toronto has a huge ethnic population in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area), with Chinese being the largest. There is a larger Korean Town north of Downtown Toronto as well. To be honest, Chinese food in Chinatown is average at best. There are many Hong Kong level Chinese restaurants in the GTA (and to me, exceed in some areas as I find the Seafood cheaper and fresher in Canada compared to Hong Kong) that you can try to venture out next time if you ever return. My overall take on this is; Chinatown was established long time ago for immigrants to be able to survive and make a living. But as time goes on as you have a new wave of immigration where people are coming with 'plane' (no longer boats) loads of money, they bring with them the need for more luxurious or higher quality Chinese restaurants. That's when you start having Chef's from Hong Kong come over to bring thier expertise. As the more affluent Chinese people tend to live in the suburbs, that's where you'll find better Chinese restaurants. IMO it's very similar to LA downtown Chinatown vs some of those places that I mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph.