In the GTA, there is no shortage of restaurants serving dim
sum. But, where do you find the best? For me, I favour places with clean dining
rooms, menus with enough choices, reasonable wait times, and of course, where
the food tastes delicious.
At Skyview Fusion Cuisine, even though their early bird
specials are only available Monday to Friday, based on reviews, the restaurant
still gets busy on weekends – perhaps due to its proximity to a Costcos.
However, the wait times seem manageable: arriving at 9:30 on a Saturday, we
were seated right away and even while leaving at 11am there were still
available tables.
Their regular menu prices are small for $3.90, medium for
$4.90, and large for $5.90. Even without the weekend early bird special, Skyview’s
menu includes a lot of small category options: pan-fried turnip cake, deep-fried
sticky pork dumpling, and steamed beef ball with chestnuts, which may be
considered medium at other establishments. As a result, the bill total isn’t
too bad, even without the discount.
Their steamed beef ball with chestnuts (S) was a bit dense
for my taste, but the addition of cilantro, water chestnuts, and sweet corn
does help to add further flavours and textures to an otherwise monotone item.
I would have liked the pan-fried turnip cake (S) to be cooked
longer, to enhance the crust, but otherwise it was a decent consistency and
incorporated enough turnip and lap cheong within the cake. Similarly,
the deep-fried sticky pork dumpling (S) could have used a bit more time in the
oil to really create a crunchier exterior but was still a solid version of the dish.
Both their steamed shrimp dumpling or har gow (L) and
steamed pork dumpling or siu mai (M) are solid renditions and sizeable portions.
While most people welcome the golf ball sized dim sum, I personally prefer them
smaller so there’s a better ratio of wrapper to filling.
With all the seafood dumplings, it seemed like a bit of over
kill to also have the seafood dumpling (L), which truthfully pretty much tasted
like the har gow with a tiny bit of chives, scallop, and fish roe on
top. It’s a good dish, but I’d pick one or the other.
Their steamed sticky rice with chicken in lotus leaf (L) is a
great option. The glutinous rice is not overly thick and there’s enough filling
to keep it interesting.
The ‘vegetable and bean sprout and shrimp rice rolls’ (L),
may more concisely be labelled as shrimp and snow pea shoot rice roll. It’s
fine, the rice wrapper thicker than it needs to be.
One of my favourite dishes, assuming its prepared properly,
is the steamed seafood dumpling in soup (L). At Skyview, they are one of the best.
The dumpling’s wrapper is thick enough to withstand getting too soggy and there’s
tons of ingredients (scallop, shrimp, mushroom) in it. The broth is salty
enough for flavour and is kept hot with the candlelit warmer. It was amazing
when it was first brought to the table, and still decent enough to finish half-and-hour
later.
The sitting around factor of a dish may also be
considered an important criterion for a good dim sum experience. After all, it’s
an occasion to eat, but also to catch up with family and loved ones. Sometimes
you want to sit back and actually just yum cha (drink tea). Converse, drink
more tea, and then dive into a dish later.
How To Find Them
Location: Markham, Canada
Address: 8261 Woodbine Avenue
Address: 8261 Woodbine Avenue
Website: http://www.skyviewfusioncuisine.com/
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Gastro World's Grading System
- Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
- 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
- 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
- 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
- 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
- 10 - absolute perfection!
Is That It? I Want More!
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