Commerce Gate Dynasty Cuisine

I came here because I had a Groupon for a dim sum lunch, had there not been a Groupon for this place I probably would have never known it existed. It is located in the second level of a plaza off Highway 7, there is no signs really indicating where the restaurant is and finding it in the plaza was difficult. Our Groupon was $ 15 for a 10 item pre-​set menu, the menu included:
–Har Gow (Shrimp dumplings) 2 dumplings were included, the dough was unusually sticky, overall just meh
— Siu Mai (Pork Dumplings), 2 dumplings were included, the dumplings were pretty greasy and their quality would be comparable to grocery store dim sum
–Steamed bbq pork bun (2pcs) pretty standard, pork filling had a nice flavour.
— Spareribs in black bean sauce, the ribs were very fatty and oily, they were not great
— Steamed Pork Dumplings (3pcs) these were just sad, such small dumplings that had very little filling and virtually no flavour
— Cuttlefish with curry sauce, one of the better dishes of our lunch, this dish had a nice curry flavour, the cuttlefish was nicely cooked and the noodles that accompanied the dish were quite good
— Rice noodle with beef, this was inedible, it tasted like it had gone bad or something. My friend and I didn’t even finish this dish
–Preserved egg and pork congee was A-​OK, the portion was very large and the congee was cooked nicely
— Pan fried meat dumplings (2pcs), pretty standard pot stickers nothing to write home about
— Beef balls, greasy and bland
— Deep fried spring rolls (2pcs) these could have been frozen for all I know, very thin and bland
— Almond jelly for dessert had a nice texture and a subtle flavour, I enjoyed this dish
In addition to our pre-​set menu my friend and I ordered 3 dishes. The chicken feet were spicier than other places, and were cooked nicely. The beef short ribs were nice and crispy but like many of the other dishes were quite greasy. The steamed tripe was A-​OK, on par with most dim sum places. Overall our experience at this restaurant was forgettable, the food was generally below average, bland, and quite greasy. The regular dishes we ordered were on the pricey side especially considering the poor quality.
The restaurant itself is a bit old fashioned looking, and the service was pretty standard for a dim sum establishment. Had it not been for the Groupon I would have never come to this place but it will take more than a Groupon to bring me back (perhaps a free meal?). There are much better dim sum places in a close proximity of this restaurant, I will not return.

I went here a couple days ago with my family because my mom had bought a Groupon for the meal (looks like a lot of other people have done the same). We have actually been here before for dim sum, which a few years ago, but this time we went for dinner. We ordered some tofu dishes, soup, pork, and fish. I really forget exactly what we ordered because it was all similarly mushy, overly greasy, and not that tasty. The service was kinda ehh. The place was super busy so I get that the waiters had to rush and stuff. But we had to wait a super long time between the first dish that arrived and the rest. Also, the soup was not complimentary, as it is in many other Chinese restaurants. The waitress told us it would be $ 6 extra for the table but on our bill it was $ 9 which is pretty exorbitant, in my opinion. It was a small tureen as well, only enough for six bowls. At the end of the night our family agreed that we would not come back again and that the place had gone down the drain since we last visited it about two years ago.

I’ve been to this restaurant twice, and actually find the food very well done.
The first time was using a $ 40 for $ 20 coupon.
The second time was for a lobster dinner for 2. But we brought 4 people, so we ordered an additional dish.
The bbq pork was quite small and only had a few pieces. Next came a hot and sour soup — there was enough for about 8 – 9 bowls, it was quite good — not too spicy, while still having a bit of a kick. The stir fry vegetables were quite small, mostly celery with a couple of pieces of broccoli.
I don’t really eat lobster, but it seemed quite small as expected. Last, was the crispy chicken. This was quite large, and this restaurant cooks the chicken perfectly.
We ordered a tofu with scallops as an additional dish, since this meal was only meant for 2 ppl. With a black bean sauce, it was done very nicely, with firm tofu and perfectly cooked scallops.
Lastly came dessert — red bean soup, with some almond cookies, and tapioca jellow.
For 4 people it was $ 30 for the groupon + 30 additional, so $ 60 for 4 ppl.
The first time the food was very good, the second time was good.

They were confused the first time as to how we can use the groupon as everything had to be ordered through a set menu. But they understood the second time.
I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant if you don’t speak cantonese, because their english isn’t very good.

Having spent the last 7 years in Nashville, TN where there is literally no good Chinese food at all, my standards when it comes to dim sum are pretty low. Essentially, if you have dim sum, that is already a point in your favor (or in this case, a star on your Unilocal review)… and yet, I can’t bring myself to give this place more than 2 stars.
Like many others, I came here because my parents bought some kind of online coupon for 12 courses of dim sum, purportedly $ 35 worth. I don’t think my parents read the fine print, but rather than letting you order the dim sum a la carte, if you were redeeming the voucher, the dishes were set for you. I agree that by and large, the serving sizes were very small (we only got 2 siu mai and 2 har gow, for instance), however, by the end, the four of us who were dining were adequately full. Most of the standard dim sum dishes you would expect were served to us (many other reviews have enumerated what was served), but none of them were amazing, and some of them were pretty gross (e.g., the octopus in the curried octopus dish had not been properly cleaned — I bit into one and promptly spit it back out because the «beak» had not been removed. Yuck!). All were extremely greasy, and I think it is probably for the best that the portions were not any bigger than they were. That said, the restaurant was quite full when we were there, mostly with Asian diners, so perhaps if you know exactly what to order, there are some gems on the menu. Can’t speak to authenticity or anything like that, just know that what we were served seemed kind of sad and was not visually appetizing.
Also, although I don’t require that all restaurants I dine at to have a «black-​tie optional» dining vibe, this place was really quite run down. In particular, the bathrooms were really dirty, and in fact one of the toilets was overflowing when I went in there. Not a great way to start a meal… Let’s hope that the kitchens are cleaner!
I did find that the service was rather rushed while we were there, but I did chalk that up to a cultural quirk rather than the staff being rude. Most of the waiters and waitresses who served us were quite helpful (though one of them was rather gruff, but again, this may have been due to a language barrier), particularly when my husband was inquiring about whether a particular dish was available although it was not on the menu. I would have liked it if they had refilled our tea and our glasses of water while we were dining, and I don’t know why they had to go ahead and calculate the tip for us, but these are small issues compared to the rest. For $ 15, I guess I am willing to overlook a lot of things, but I know that there are vastly superior dim sum places in Toronto… I would never pay full price here (nor would I return, even at a discounted rate), whereas I would happily pay more money to eat better food in a nicer environment elsewhere.

We bought a coupon for this restaurant. The deal was $ 15 for $ 65 worth of dim sum food. We did not realize that we wouldn’t be able to choose what to eat, it’s a fixed menu of 12 items.
We went on a Tuesday afternoon and got there at about 12:20. We thought we had eaten at this restaurant before, but as it turns out it was across the street from where we thought it was.
It is located on the second floor of the building area located to the southeast of the complex/​plaza.
The items on the menu are as listed:
1. Shrimp dumplings (2)
2. Sui mai (2)
3. Steamed octopus
4. Spare ribs in BB sauce
5. BBQ pork bun (2)
6. Steamed pork dumplings (3)
7. Steamed beef balls
8. Spring rolls (2)
9. Beef rice noodle
10. Pork dumplings (2)
11. Egg and pork congee
12. Almond jelly
Firstly, the waiters and waitresses aren’t very friendly, they are more business like and rushing back and forth most of the time. This is typical of many Chinese restaurants and if you’re not used to it, you may feel that they’re being rude — they are not, it’s just a cultural difference.
The staff automatically assumed I spoke Cantonese, which I don’t, I told them that I spoke Mandarin. They decided to speak English to me. Funny.
We looked at their regular menu and observed that the value of the above 12 items was not worth $ 65.
If you look at the pictures I uploaded, you’ll notice that the prices are small — $ 2.30, med — $ 3.30, large — $ 4.30 extra large — $ 5.30. If I ordered 12 extra large items, it would have been about $ 65.
The 12 items we received were definitely not extra large, except for maybe the congee.
The food came and even though we were hungry, it was hard not to notice that the quality of the food was mediocre to bad. The beef balls were not made out of beef, they had some meat flavour, but it was suspiciously… odd. The almond jelly smelled too strongly of almond and had the stink of artificial flavouring. We ate less than a quarter of those 2 dishes.
The other items were edible but simply not very appetizing.
At the end, there was $ 1.60 (tea per person was $ 0.80), $ 2.16 for HST on $ 16.60 ($ 15 coupon + $ 1.60 tea) and they automatically added 10% service charge. The total was $ 5.64.
What really annoys me is when restaurants add their service charge on the tax. Firstly, automatic service charges annoy me, I should have the discretion to tip how I please depending on their service. This certainly explains why staff don’t care how they do.
Secondly, why should I be paying a service charge on HST?
Thirdly, I went up to the payment counter to pay and the lady sitting there was texting on her iPhone. She didn’t look up and continued to text. Another lady came and we both looked at her waiting. She looks up and then helps the lady that came after me. ?? I didn’t make any fuss, but simply disrespectful.
I gave her $ 20.64 to get $ 15 exact back. She gave me a $ 10 bill and $ 5 in coins, probably expecting another tip. Hah! No way am I giving these guys anything extra.
We will * NEVER * be going back to this place.
Poor service, poor quality food.
* * * Don’t waste your money, even if you get a voucher. * * *

1.5 stars!
I came here with my boyfriend for dim sum for the first time using a voucher that I had purchased recently. The following 12 dishes were served to us:
2 pieces of water chestnut cake (some yellow-​jello dessert. NOT tasty)
preserved egg & pork congee (ok)
2 pieces of spring rolls (ok)
curry octopus (ok)
4 pieces of minced beef balls (meh)
3 pieces of minced beef rice rolls (ok)
2 pieces of har gow (ok)
2 pieces of siu mai (ok)
2 bbq pork buns (ok)
2 other dumplings (ok)
3 pieces of small soup dumplings (siu long bao… ok)
black bean spare ribs (mostly fat. meh)
It was definitely filling for two people; however, the quality of the food was mediocre. I’ve had better than this and majority of the dishes contained some sort of minced meat and very few shrimp dishes. I would have preferred to order my own favourite dishes and paid more.
As for the atmosphere, it was decent. It wasn’t the cleanest restaurant I’ve seen, but it was bearable.
Furthermore, the service was not good. I mean, the hostess did all she could to seat people, but the seating system they have there is non-​existent. We had reservations for 1:30pm and did not get seated until 2pm. Others around us were complaining about the same thing.
They SAY that you need to make a reservation, but it appears that it’s first come first serve. They SAY that you’ll be seated in 5 minutes, but they actually mean 30 minutes. The only reason why I’ll be coming back to Commerce Gate Dynasty Cuisine for dim sum is because I unfortunately bought two vouchers to this place. *Sigh*.Bad move.

Got a voucher from one of the deal site and tried it out. The listed 12 items ranged from siu mai to dumplings to buns to a variety of other dishes that sure can fill 2 – 4 people up. Interestingly unlike my assumption that the total would be just the tax and cost for tea … came out to be about 8 bucks. (interesting voucher indeed).
Overall food quality ⁴⁄₁₀. Simply because it was lackluster and empty of much taste.
Décor ⁶⁄₁₀ — there is a private area (for larger parties), an area beside the windows (very nice) and the central area.
We were beside the carts where the foods were places, awaiting the servers to deliver to tables, and at one point; a girl pulled a hair from one of the plate, looked disgusted, but still delivered to its proper table. hmmm.
Would not return, but for $ 15 for 12 items … it was an alright experience.

I have been coming to this restaurant for years. I have watched the place degrade and crumble. And today, after having dim sum there, I have decided never again to return.
The place is in serious need of a paint job. The floors are creeky and uneven and the bathrooms are never clean. Toilets are either plugged, filled with excrement or without toilet paper.
I am willing to overlook all these transgressions if the place serves up some good dim sum. But they don’t. Not anymore.
They have a terrible system in which a kitchen staff member wheels out a cart of dim sum and then leaves it in a corner of the restaurant for a member of the wait staff to distribute. This doesn’t happen for some time. I watched carts go unnoticed for more than 10 minutes today. By the time the food is finally brought to the table — covered with a cheap, flimsy, toxic Glad tupperware lid (completely unprofessional) — the food is often cold.
Today, we used a coupon we got from buytopia that gets you 12 dim sum dishes for $ 15. It seems like a pretty good deal, though the dim sum dishes are smaller than normal, as we guessed it might be. But it took about 20 minutes for the dim sum to start arriving after we put in our orders. When the food did arrive, taste was extremely disappointing. Usually, a la carte dishes are acceptable. But we couldn’t even finish some dishes yesterday. I would recommend not getting these coupons in the future.
I’m sorry to be so negative but this was my experience today at Dynasty.

Came here three times to use up the vouchers I had bought from LivingSocial (discount voucher site). I figured 50% off at a chinese restuarant which you rarely see around here was a good deal. Really wish I had done my research first before buying.
First time I was here I honestly thought I wasn’t coming back. Fish was undercooked (my friend got sick afterwards) and the lobster was way over priced … oh, and we were the only customers at the restaurant that whole entire evening. The second time we came here, there were more customers and the food was ok (we ordered yin-​yang rice … something that’s pretty difficult for any place to mess up). Third time the place was pretty much empty … don’t recall what we ordered … definitely wasn’t something memorable.
The desserts were pretty bad also. They were watered down and bland. Oh well, at least they were free.
Location, décor, and service was probably the only thing that was decent. I’m surprised this restaurant is still around.

This review is for my dinner experience! It was 2 star experience because of the food. The service was 4 star, friendly and attentive but that would not matter if the food not up to standard.
Snow Leaf with Garlic ($ 12.80)
— The taste was OK and too oily, however the vegetables had not been washed thoroughly! I almost chipped my teeth biting into some of the sandy bits!
Fish with King Mushroom ($ 14.80)
— Fish has good texture, not soggy.
Beef with Mushroom and Onion ($ 12.80)
— The beef was a little cold when served. The mushrooms just tasted so oily like they been soaked in oil!
Complimentary Sago in Coconut dessert was really really bad, just sweetness and nothing else.
I would come back for Dim Sum but definitely NOT for dinner!
Luckily I used a voucher… and didn’t pay full price!

Been here for dim sum for a couple years. They are good and the quality remains high even opened for a long time. Services are not the best bit certainly better than many other restaurants. Will go back for it for sure.

i food is really great here. the chef is well known for his steamed fish dishes and they are just cooked absolutely perfectly. very tender, moist. in fact the seafood dishes here are all pretty good, including the lobster.
the cha siu is some of the best i’ve ever had, really outstanding. very flavorful, moist, and not greasy.
need a little help with the peking duck pancakes though. they are hand made but a little too thick and doughie. the duck is really just cantonese style roast duck and not the real peking duck but still very tasty and excellent.
if you are on low sodium diet, this place is also good because they go light on the salt.
i cant comment on dimsum because i havent tried it.

For dinner this restaurant is barely mediocre. Let us start with the décor. I think this place likely opened sometime in the early 90s and has retained it’s furnishings and décor from then. Unfortunately instead of a feeling of nostalgia, you get more of a sense of old stuff. The chairs and carpets show their age with stains. The only redeeming qualities of Dynasty are the second floor view and underground parking.
Food wise, there are a few passable lacklustre dishes. Even the way food is plated is a bit drab. It is like the garnish was made by an underpaid or angry monkey. It is like they just throw stuff together. Maybe I have been spoilt and am no longer accustomed to the food of my people. But is it really that difficult to make Chinese food look less like a jumble of random foodstuffs thrown randomly together?
We had a pre-​ordered winter melon soup, which in my mind is difficult to screw up. But yes, they screwed it up. The ingredients were bland and felt like they were the boiled leftovers of another soup. The fried oysters were sandy and oily. The cold appetizer dish was unappetizing and and urefined. The only passable dishes was the fried rice and the chicken simmered in broth, but even then both were rather salty and oily.
Out dinner consisted of other unremarkable dishes and I do commend on the light use of MSG at this restaurant.

The dim sum here was good, and the ingredients were fresh. Like the previous reviewer indicated, Commerce Gate Dynasty Cuisine offers the typical dim sum items.
But service was kind of lacking. It could be because we came here on Labour Day when everything else but the Chinese businesses were open. Chinese people like to celebrate Labour Day by labouring. It was very busy here and so it was difficult to get the waiters’ attention. We ordered both a kettle of xiang pian tea and a kettle of pu er tea, but instead, two kettles of xiang pian tea came. When the bill came, they almost overcharged us — whoever wrote up the bill added an extra zero at the end of the amount, making one of the dim sum items come out to some twenty or thirty dollars. Luckily my aunt caught this with her eagle eye of bill checking and we asked one of the managers to look into it and fix it.
I am a visitor from NYC, but I’ve visited Toronto enough times to know there are other dim sum restaurants with food just as good and better service.