Lucullus Bakers & Roasters

I came here after the movies and decided to take a quick bite at this new Lucullus location on Enterprise. People have been raving about how nice it is, I had to go see for myself! I love how grand the finish is… with beautiful European-​styled décor from floor to ceiling. The coffee bar is especially captivating. But sadly, that’s about it.
Price point — on the expensive side and I don’t see the value. It is not like we are getting amazing food quality here. Ok, fine… I give it that we eat ambiance too, and ambiance was nice.
Food quality and presentation — sub par on the sweet potato dumpling in sweet ginger soup. I give another star for the extra spicy ginger they used (I love ginger) but the dumpling was already falling apart from overcooking and had became mushy. And I’m really not impressed with the $ 6 rice combo. If you plan to go fancy on me, it is unacceptable to serve me a rice bowl in an aluminium foil container. This is no cafeteria. At least make an effort to make it look presentable.
Service — what service? The cashier lady didn’t even crack a smile nor made us feel welcome… she gave us a blank look. Thank god we don’t have to pay tips.
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This bakery has an amazing amount of potential because of its prime location, but just need to up its game to survive in Downtown Markham. I do believe in second chances… I will come back to try again. Let’s see if Lucullus can redeem themselves then.

Food 3 stars. Interior décor and ambiance +0.5 star. Overall 3.5 stars.
This Lucullus looks really nice inside. The high ceiling, the cast iron, the colour, accessories all give an European vibe. The food quality was not bad. The quality didn’t wow or disappoint me. The selection is good, even for lunches. The lunch meal deals ($ 6) are small portioned, but come with a hot beverage, so the value is acceptable. Alternatively, one can choose one of the dim sum, such as Chicken and Rice in Lotus Leaf, Chinese sausages roll ($ 3), etc. I made a lunch out of two dim sum, and I was quite full.
I would return for a small dim sum lunch if the craving hits me.

If your a coffee purist turn around and walk out. I came here on a Sunday morning. The place looks great when you walk in, plenty of opulent seating, lots of treats, and many coffee options on the menu.
The person at the counter spoke very broken English and after painful discourse I was finally able to determine that they had a single type of coffee brewed and she was not able to tell me what it was, offering me a cappuccino instead.
I was very disappointed and would never go back. I recommend the Aroma café in the same mall instead.

The fiancé and I had a busy day ahead of us, so I suggested Lucullus for a quick and cheap bite.
This Lucullus is a lot nicer than the other one on Kennedy and 14^th. There is a nice selection of dum sum, buns, and desserts to choose from, as well as one of their pre-​made combo meals for $ 6 including a coffee.
Everything looked really good and I wanted to try everything. I spent $ 25 at a Chinese bakery, which is a lot, considering everything is so darn cheap.
Their BBQ pork buns are probably my favourite thing. We also enjoyed their curry chicken rice box with a coffee. The fiancé commented on how their coffee was really tasty and it was a nice surprise, since he wasn’t expecting much. His past coffee experiences from Chinese bakeries haven’t exactly been positive. The curry chicken was also really good. The perfect amount of spice and sweetness.
Some of the dim sum I got was super greasy, like the taro and meat dumpling with chewy pastry. I actually had to squeeze some of the grease out with a napkin. This bakery is also much more expensive than other Chinese bakeries. You’re paying for the quality, name, and rent of this place, lol.

Came here to try their ‘tong sui’ which consisted of a Sweet ginger soup base, sweet yam and sweet yam mochis/​dumplings.
The soup base was pretty good. I love ginger type desserts and this was pretty spicy for a dessert. What I didn’t like was the amount of sweet yam that was in this. It was too much and just started to get really heavy as you continued having it.
Based on that dessert alone, I wasn’t very impressed. I have had their baked goods before and those are decent. The place is also nice and cozy.
I’ll be coming back eventually, just not for that dessert I had.

This is the 4^th Lucullus location that I know of with the others being the original in Richmond Hill, Markham and downtown T.O.
This newest location is located as part of the Cineplex Theatre but the entrance is on the outside as you can’t enter from within the complex.
They definitely gone upscale here with the beautiful décor, lighting table seating, jazz music playing in the background etc… However I was very pleasantly surprised the pricing seems to be the same as the other locations.
Buns and pastries range from $ 1-​$ 4, set prepared rice dishes with drinks for $ 6. Yes they are more expensive then most bakeries but at least its price the same as the other locations and is by far the cheapest option in the complex. They could have gone higher due to the clientele and location but refreshingly stayed the same. This alone gives them a bump in a star rating for me!
Service is similar to other locations as its quick and abrupt so don’t expect a smile on the faces of the workers:)
I really do enjoy drinking my Hong Kong style milk tea here as its a really nice environment instead of a cramped Asian bakery! Feel like I’m in an upscale café without paying an upscale price!

A Chinese bakery with a premium feel. Never thought I would say that.
Pros:
Great atmosphere
Lots of items to choose from
Cons:
Items not restocked as quick
If you’re used to the standard Chinese bakery, you know the word premium is usually not associated with them. Lucullus looks to change that with this new outlet in downtown Markham. The place has a really good feel to it. It’s feels like a old school train station to me.
We came by on a Saturday morning for breakfast. As soon as you walk in, it’s unlike any Chinese bakery you’ve ever been to. The front is where the seats are and the back is where all the goods are. They have a vast selection of items too choose from. They are not restocked as fast though when they are out. The egg tarts were all gone when we got there and after 30 minutes, there still weren’t any to buy. The same could be said about a lot of other items which were all sold at the time.
We ordered a couple of buns and two steamed rice combos. Each combo comes with a drink for $ 6. The steamed rices were decent. The chicken and mushroom one had about 3 slivers of mushrooms which was a little disappointing. The salty egg and Chinese sausage was much better. My little one loved the cheese bun. For some reason, I was expecting real cheese instead of processed. A little weird on my part because I know it’s always been processed but the premium feel of this place made me feel otherwise.
Lucullus looks to change the Chinese bakery game. If they can work on their restock times it will definitely be a fav of mine in the future.

Came here during lunch since I work around the area. It’s in the new area where the VIP cinemas are. Upon entering it is very nicely set up like a Café. Tables and chairs on one side, the bakery items at the back, ordering on the right hand side.
The lunch specials are not posted on the wall, it is on a piece of paper where the cashier is. For 6 dollars can get a small box of steamed rice with choice of protein. And a choice of drink.
I got the black bean spare ribs with lemon tea.
The box of rice comes in a little tinfoil square box. You put your own soya sauce. The box of rice is small for the price. It’s slightly bigger than the rice you get from dim sum.
The service was not that good. The two people taking orders were not very pleasant. An older gentleman went to pick up his food and asked for a cup of hot water. But the two ladies replied «you have to pay for it». So he asked how much, and she replied $ 0.75. So the gentleman declined. It’s not like he didn’t purchase anything to eat, he just wanted hot water with his meal.
We went at 12:00 and a lot of the rice boxes were not ready yet.
They also had clam chowder, which was 5.95. A little on the expensive side.
The rice was mediocre. The rice was luke warm, there were about 6 pieces of spare ribs on top. Hmm… Wouldn’t come back since there’s so many other selections in the area. Might come back to try their pastries
It’s a nice sit down spot to have a chat, as it’s not very noisy or crammed.

Lucullus opens at Downtown Markham is kind of exciting. A real café setting that one can drink Hong Kong Style Milk Tea and enjoy some Chinese baked goods including Bo Lo Bao Pineapple Bun.
They even offers house roasted coffee.
Meal Combo for $ 5 still available if you want some cheap eats.
Plastic bistro style chairs already wobbling, or maybe my friend put on some weight over the holidays.
A lot of potential.