Magic Wok Cantonese Cuisine

Service was quite disappointing, but the food made up for it.
This is one of our family go to Chinese restaurants. It has been around for over 10+ years and is a staple for many families for dinner. We came here for dinner the night before the Lunar New Year, so we expected it to be busy. We made reservations in advance for a table for 14 at 7:30pm.
We got there on time, but still had to wait until 8pm. That was the first strike.
We sat down, and they started us off with the soup, which was good, most likely because we were all starving. It was pork bone boiled with radishes and cabbages. After the soup, it took them maybe 20 – 25 minutes to bring out the other dishes. Second strike.
As we progress through the meal, the dishes were brought out in spurts. First 3 together, then another 3 after 20 minutes, then another 3 after another 20 minutes. Usually at a Chinese restaurant, they would bring out all dishes relatively closer within each other but considering it’s one of their busiest nights of the year, I guess they miss the ball on this one.
Let’s talk about some of the food:
Cheese Lobster (twin lobsters covered in cheese, this is their signature dish for $ 26. Probably one the best dishes they make there, it never disappoints. Very flavorful and enough to share with everyone)
Ginger Lobster (twin lobsters, marinated with ginger, garlic, and green onions, also $ 26. Not a personal favourite but this is also one of their signatures)
Tai Yeh Chicken (Another one of their best dishes, the chicken is very tender, goes well with steamed rice, served with pickled radishes and the jellyfish strands)
Tofu Spinach (Vegetarian dish, the tofu is egg tofu, which is super smooth. The spinach underneath is cooked perfectly)
Pork Hock (This is not easy to make, but I feel like they still could have done better, the fat/​meat parts were tough and not fall-​off-​the-​bone, they drenched the entire dish in sauce to make up for it, not the best idea)
Sweet & Sour Beef (Very common dish, the pieces of meat were too large so we had to cut it up ourselves, onions were undercooked, again, too much sauce)
Mango Chicken in Bird’s Nest (Mangoes were a bit sour, chicken was done right though, this comes recommended to try!)
After we finished, we asked for dessert, and unfortunately, they ran out — so were given 2 plates of sliced oranges. Not exactly what we expected, which I deem as the third strike. After making us wait an extra 30 minutes, when we had a full party of 14, then prolonging our hunger after we sat, and followed by no dessert, this is probably not my go-​to restaurant anymore. But when I do come back, hopefully, they’ll improve the service aspect sooner rather than later.

Slow, forgets your order, and runs out of most things on the menu. Used to be excellent about a decade ago but sadly, this restaurant did not age gracefully. The food is decent, but the service could be much better. Lobsters are good, clams not so much, and sea bass is fairly fresh. This place could use a major renovation to freshen up the experience.

Came here tonight for an early Thanksgiving dinner and was utterly disappointed. Due to my youthful glow, I was designated to sit at the «kids table» and as you would presume, the majority of our dishes were deep fried. On top of poor presentation, bland tastes, and ultimately unappetizing food, the food costs were on the upper-​end. I will very unlikely come back. Also, special shout out to the deep fried taro duck which was unfortunately the worst thing I’ve eaten in the past month. It was dry, flavorless, and the duck was barely detectable. Even the accommodating sauce was flavorless.
This place used to be a family favorite but that was over 15 years ago. Hah, this place is in shambles now with less than a quarter of the restaurant filled during prime dinner time…

These guys have been around for years. Originally located at Brimley and Sheppard in Scarborough in the early 90s they relocated to their present location off 14^th and Kennedy in Markham.
With most places once they move the quality of food changes… not these guys. They have managed to maintain top quality and staff regardless.
The food is amazing. Whatever you order you will not be disappointed.
If a restaurant had a cult following… these place would be top of the list.
If you’re going their on a weekend… make reservations. The hours are a bit odd so call and find out… they usually open around 4pm on week days til 10 or 11pm

Food was ok, but they had some of the worst service around. Even with a reservation, we waited 2 hours for seating. They seemed very interested in only helping out their regular customers and not much interest in establishing new ones.

this place is known for the grandfather smoked chicken and the variety of seafood. i havent noticed too much change in quality as ive been going since i was a little kid. it has gotten slightly more expensive but still a very authentic and good tasting restaurant

Magic Wok seems to almost always be packed — a mid-​sized restaurant serving pretty standard Chinese food that I would consider above average in taste and quality. Price is fair and portions are just normal. Would go back again for semi-​regular family functions.

Came for dinner tonight (Tuesday) with the memories of a once great and popular establishment but was sorely disappointed. I give 1 star for a couple ups that are outlined below and another half for not being completely inedible so it’s really a 1.5 rating.
We ordered the fried duck stuffed with taro, beef tenderloin with sweet and sour sauce, snow pea sprouts with garlic, fried soft shell crab, eel with honey garlic sauce, and e-​fu noodles. Only the sprouts and eel were alright. The duck had no duck and was mostly taro. The beef tenderloin was lacking in flavour and the texture was not good — didn’t taste like tenderloin quality meat. The onions and sauce was good but for $ 18.50 I expect to have more than 8 pieces of mediocre meat covered in good sauce. Fried soft shell crab was a good size but again lacked in flavour. It was supposed to be salt and pepper with spices but nada. The e-​fu noodles were soggy and, at the risk of repeating myself again, flavourless. I have made better at home.
The only upsides were the complimentary soup that came beforehand, which was nice and hot and had loads of flavour, and «tofu fa» dessert that was very smooth and one of my favourite Chinese desserts.
Our bill came to $ 120 before tip for 5 people. At $ 25/​person for this quality of Chinese food is ridiculous and we will definitely not be back.

Yes, things are on the pricey side here, but only with the seafood dishes. Don’t worry you will get your money worth, as dishes are of good size and well made.
Be aware, if you order seafood that are not in the standard menu (like steamed fish or dishes made with one of the «by weight» seafood) they do charge a surcharge on top of the cost of the seafood. They have been doing that since as long as I can remember. I think they started because during the fishing season, people will bring in their own bounty. They will then just charge the same surcharge in those cases.

I drive by Magic Wok everyday to work for the past few years and never had a chance to try it, It’s hidden in a industrial area and has been in business forever so I thought the food must be good for them to be able to survive this long… boy was I wrong…
Coming in on a long weekend, the place was only half-​full — which is the first sign of a mediocre place. We asked for iced water from 3 different servers and it wasn’t brought out until mid-​meal.
My family of 6 ordered about 10 dishes to share. The first dish came out promptly in 10 minutes… 2^nd dish in 20 minutes… and the 3^rd dish in 40 minutes. we were pickiing on one dish one at a time until by the 4^th dish we were already almost too full! After we brought it up to management’s attention, we had to chase down the server for our food. I can’t imagine the service on a busy night.
Overall the food is ok. nothing special. it’s your typical chinese food — salty and super greasy.

Pretty standard Chinese restaurant. Went on a Monday night and service was quite slow. After ordering the food it took at least 25 minutes to get our food.
Chicken and eggplant $ 13
Taro bird nest with mixed seafood $ 16.50
Beef Tenderloin with onions $ 18.50
Sweet and sour beef $ 13
Everything was pretty good but one dish that stood out was the beef tenderloin. The meat was soft and tender however the portion was a bit on the small side.
$ 2 for each bowl of rice
The food is good but pricier than other Chinese restaurants in the area.

Not as good as they used to be (especially when I was like 4 or 5 and they were a small, cramped restaurant), but still very decent.
Two of their signature dishes are the smoked chicken (great grandfather chicken) and red-​roasted fish. They are great. The smoked chicken is very different from Western smoked chicken — it’s not as dense, the flavour is subtler, it’s slightly sweet. It’s delicious. And it comes with marinated jellyfish, which is delicious.
The red-​roasted fish is also great — it comes with a really savoury sauce that comes with spinach and whole cloves of roasted garlic. Amazing. I don’t like that the fish has bones, because I“m lazy (and the only fish dish with bones that I like is steamed fish) but it’s still pretty good.
All the other standard Cantonese dishes are good too — ginger and green onion lobster, shrimp fried egg, all kinds of stir-​fried Chinese veggie dishes, the «birds nest» stir fries (you know, the stuff that comes in a fried taro basket), seafood — it’s all good.
Line ups aren’t nearly as bad as before either, but you may want to arrive a little bit early to guarantee instant seating.

Ah well, what to say another Chinese restaurant… If you read in between the lines, slow service, rude, poor food quality… But seriously… It’s a Chinese restaurant! This place is always packed and has been here for ages… So either the restaurant is wrong, or the people writing the reviews have eaten at Panda Express way too much.
To highlight some of the main things… Lobster is nice but their steamed fish… My god. Every-​time i visit this place i have to get the fish. It is a draw dropping dish that separates itself from the rest of the Chinese restaurants.

Based on the reviews I went there expecting excellent food. Sadly, it was disappointing. The food was below average. The seafood — scallops and prawns weren’t fresh. The crispy duck and Yeung Chou fried rice was below average. The only decent dish was the Chinese broccoli.
I sense it’s one of those places that had some glory a few years back but is now pretty run down. Service staff were very nice and friendly. Maybe their chef moved on because the reviews and photos certainly didn’t match what landed on our plates.

The food was very good, but the service was pretty slow. There’s not enough staff. We were situated in the corner and when we managed to flag a waiter over, the near by tables took the opportunity to ask them for assistance too. In the entire restaurant, maybe there were 5 waiters.
Our food mainly came all together but it took us a while to get the complimentary soup. We had to ask two times. One waiter even asked if we didn’t want the complimentary soup to which was very confusing cause usually they ask if we want it. The waiters looked very tired.
The food was good but it is more expensive compared to other Chinese restaurants around the area.

It is getting tough to rate Magic Wok. I really want to give it more stars, but I have to settle with 3 stars.
We came here for a group dinner with 9 adults and 1 child. We ordered a set menu for 8 people.
Food — big portion. All dishes tasted consistently good. I didn’t taste loads of MSG and I am quite sensitive, so I suppose they did not use much MSG. Unfortunately, nothing really shined, or was impressive or special.
Service — Slow but this was not the fault of the waitresses but more of the restaurant seriously under staffed
Magic Wok has had a reputation of wok-​air. I didn’t taste it, or it was not particularly better than other restaurants.
So here it goes — a okay

This place never seems to disappoint, however if you go there, be prepared to show up with a reservation of else you’ll be waiting. They used to have their location in scarborough, but then moved up closer to my NECK of the woods… in Markham. The food is always fresh and you can taste the quality in their food. I totally am in love with their Chinese hot pots, and fish. The staff are always fast and efficient!

According to my dad, Magic Wok was one of the first Chinese restaurant in Toronto around 30 years ago but they were at a different location. They moved to this location a while back as well. I been here around 5 – 6 times and I don’t know what the hype is all about. The place is always packed but I do not find the food that big of a deal; taste like regular Chinese food you can find anywhere. Magic Wok is pretty dirty and décor is plain. Seating is cramped and service is crap as they seem to be understaffed. Magic Wok was good back in the days with no real competition but it is 2012 and we have Chinese restaurants every block of the city that I believe is better than this old timer.
Rating:
Service: ²⁄₅
Food Quality: ³⁄₅
Comfort ²⁄₅
Décor ²⁄₅
Value: ³⁄₅
Parking: ⁴⁄₅

I went to this place based on the good rating from a Chinese Cusine website during my vacation. What a big mistake! I will never go back and You ARE ALL WARNED!
This place is under staffs with both chefs and waiters. They are definitely not well managed at all. They are 100% unappologetically only care for the big tables.
Facts: There were 4 other small tables in that evening beside us. All of us small tables were completely ignored and our first dishes did not showed up until 35 – 45 minutes later. Mean while, all the other big tables orders were served right away even they showed up 15 – 25 minutes after us.
Facts: We purposely only ordered Chef specials and waiter’s recommendations because we want to get the best. After 45 minutes of waiting for our first dish. Tat supposely Special Satay Sauces Fry Clams were really sub par. Word cannot expressed how disappointing and underwhelmed we were. We had better from a mediocre restaurant at Flushing Queens New York.
Second dish came 10 minutes later. It supposed to be the Chef Special «Home Town Special Pepper Salt Fried Tofu». I can get more taste from chewing a piece of tissue.
By now we have had enough. We canceled the rest of the 2 dishes. The waiter admited they have not even started to cook anyway. We went to a small Maylesian Home Restaurant and had the best Pad Thai ever!
Do not go there!

I’ve been coming here to Magic Wok since I was a kid. I remember their old Scarborough location which was always crowded and the waiter who spilled sauce on my dad’s expensive new shoes.
Fast forward to a few decades later, and the core wait staff is still the same! The brother and sisters all look the same. My parents know one of the waiters, Happy, from another chinese restaurant location down the street. I thought they were pretty good. Like a typical chinese restaurant, the service is usually very quick and efficient. Just don’t expect them to come to your table and ask how the food is every few minutes.
The food here has always been excellent for the price. Whether it’s seafood, veggies, meat, really can’t go wrong. I would say they are best known for their lobster. $ 14/​lb during the summer can’t be beat. Oh, and it’s fresh and cooked well too (stirfry ginger with green onion, curry, etc).
They always have dessert, usually red bean, sweet almond paste, or «tofu fa». If they run out, they’ll give you a sliced orange.
Just a note though, Magic Wok is still only open for dinner. They make enough money during dinner that they don’t need to open for breakfast or lunch. It’s always busy during weekends, so patience is required (reservations don’t really help).