CHINESE HALAL RESTAURANT

For a recent family lunch, my mom requested BBQ lamb skewers. At Taste of Asia, my favourite vendor was Chinese Halal Restaurant and conveniently, they have a location in North York. Reservations were made and a lot of lamb dishes were ordered.

Atmosphere: The restaurant decor is modern with plenty of large tables. Each round table was equipped with a glass lazy susan and had comfortable white leather chairs. For a late lunch, half of the tables were filled. I could see the restaurant being suitable for a casual meal or nice family dinner.

Service: There was nothing out of the ordinary about service, which was efficient. Every dish arrived quickly and bills were settled at a central counter.

Food: Since the meal was centered around BBQ lamb skewers, we ordered a lot (3/person). The spice blend was balanced and rich, while the lamb was fatty and charred. I would eat the skewers while they’re still hot. As they cool, the lamb flavour becomes more prominent and the fatty parts start to solidify.

We also ordered a toothpick lamb slices, braised beef, fried pancakes filled with lamb, steamed lamb chops and two bowls of hand pulled noodles. The spice used on the toothpick lamb was the same as the skewers with a more tender cut of meat and again, helped balance out the gamey lamb taste. We all really enjoyed the fried filled pancakes. If there’s too much lamb, this dish can also come with a sliced beef filling. Either way the pancake was crispy and delicious. The braised beef and onions had a great sauce and the meat fell apart being picked up with chopsticks. For me, the weakest dish was the steamed lamb chop. The dish had the most lamb taste, was a little chewy and too boney. A dipping sauce was served that cut down on some of the gameyness, but not enough.

One of my favourite dishes was the bowl of hand pulled, thick noodles in a milky lamb broth. The soup was flavourful, had a mild lamb flavour and wasn’t gamey at all, while the noodles had a great texture and were chewy. The thin pulled noodles in beef broth was also good and a good non-lamb choice.

As my family was finishing up, the table next to us received their order of toffee apples, watching the server pulling each apple slice and dunking them in sugar, we had to eat a plate too. The apples were soft, just cooked and the sugar coating was thin, even and crackled with each bite. I’d have no challenges eating an apple a day in this format.