Dining Out: Chinese New Year 2026 Dinner at NKS Banquet Hall

A Chinese holiday wouldn't be complete without dinner at NKS Banquet Hall with my mom and her bestie:

Thick-cut char siu (BBQ pork)

Stir-fried sirloin beef with broccoli and candied walnuts

Stir-fried gai lan (Chinese broccoli) with garlic

Steamed tilapia with soy sauce, ginger, and scallions

Crispy skin free-range chicken with shrimp chips

Longevity buns

A complete meal of land, sea, and sky! (Okay, chickens don't really fly but it's still a bird, and IT'S SYMBOLIC, OKAY?) Got all of our favourites — including, yes, the best char siu I've ever had in my life — along with the traditional steamed fish in soy sauce and scallions (for prosperity, of course). Finished off with some piping hot longevity buns that the staff gifted us since my mom was born on Chinese New Year in the lunisolar calendar (yes, she is the only person I know that gets to celebrate two birthdays just because of this). Anyway, if you're wondering how the hell the three of us could eat all of this food — we didn't. There was enough food for two more dinners. And, obviously, since I am way too lazy to cook and they take pity on me, I got to take home of all the glorious leftovers!

Happy Year of the Horse!

NKS Banquet Hall

New Kennedy Square

8360 Kennedy Rd., Unit B06

Markham, ON L3R 9W5

(905) 948-8668

Dining Out: Chinese New Year 2026 Dim Sum at Purple Orchid

I took the day off and went for Chinese New Year dim sum with my parents at Purple Orchid:

Egg custard tarts (daan tat)

Steamed pork and shrimp dumplings (siu mai)

Fried glutinous rice dumplings (ham sui gok)

Steamed shrimp dumplings (har gow)

Steamed BBQ pork buns (char siu bao)

Steamed bean curd rolls

Lion dance!

The dim sum was good — classic options, standard portions, no frills but tasty (though the char siu bao were a little too soft; the bottom was almost mushy), and decently priced (about $60 in total after tax and tip for six dishes plus tea service for three people). A solid choice for dim sum in the Richmond Hill area. Bonus: we got there just in time for the lion dance show. A great start to the new year!

紫蘭軒 Purple Orchid

Jubilee Square

270 West Beaver Creek Rd.

Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3Z1

Dining Out: Mom's Birthday Dinner 2026 at NKS Banquet Hall

For my mom's birthday, I went to celebrate with her and her bestie at their go-to Chinese restaurant:

Thick-cut char siu (BBQ pork)

Cantonese poached chicken in soy sauce

Stir-fried sliced beef with sponge gourd and cloud ear mushrooms

Cantonese-style omelette with silver fish and green onions

An excellent dinner as per usual, but especially the SUBLIMELY SUCCULENT thick-cut char siu that the chef prepared that afternoon. Apparently, they don't always have char siu available because the chef who prepares it only comes in a couple times a week, so when it is available, it's sells out fast — and for good reason. I say this with no hyperbole: this was the best char siu I have ever had in my life, and I have had A LOT of char siu in my almost 40 years. The flavour is PERFECT — the most ideal combination of sweet and salty with a slightly smoky edge — and meat is super juicy and insanely tender, almost melt-in-your-mouth. They serve you two cuts of meat, one leaner (probably pork shoulder) and one fattier (probably pork belly), but even the lean cut was incredibly soft and juicy. I don't even think NKS is known for char siu, but it is TRANSCENDENT. 

My only complaint from this dinner is that the omelette has cilantro in it (so unnecessary), and was therefore ruined for me. But my mom and her bestie really enjoyed it, which is what counts, I guess. Whatever, this post is really an ode to their char siu, anyway.

NKS Banquet Hall

New Kennedy Square

8360 Kennedy Rd., Unit B06

Markham, ON L3R 9W5

(905) 948-8668

Dining Out: End of Year Dinner at The Big Brother 大師兄新派順德菜

To celebrate the end of the year (to clarify, the end of the Year of the Snake) as well as my mom's birthday, my dad made reservations at a Cantonese restaurant called The Big Brother.

Traditional salt-baked crispy skin chicken

Pan-fried green peppers stuffed with house-made fish paste

Stir-fried beef with bitter melon in black bean sauce

Hakka-style tofu stuffed with minced pork and secret seafood sauce

Deep-fried salted egg yolk kabocha squash and fresh oysters

The food is EXCELLENT. The menu is actually relatively small for a Chinese restaurant — it's literally a double-sided laminated sheet about the size of a placemat, and nearly every dish comes with a picture — which usually means every single dish offered should be executed exceptionally well. And it was absolutely true for our experience tonight. Cantonese restaurants are a dime a dozen in the Richmond Hill/Markham area since the majority of the people here are Chinese, but The Big Brother offers notably incredible, authentic Cantonese/Shunde-style dishes — even my parents, immigrants from Hong Kong, commented on how good each dish was with not a single complaint or criticism (you'll know how rare this is if you have Chinese parents). The Shunde-style deep-fried salted egg yolk squash and oysters dish is especially memorable — incredible flavour, perfect crispy exterior, ginormous and meaty oysters — probably because it's not a common offering at Chinese restaurants in general.

My dad told us that his friends had went to eat at The Big Brother around the time of its opening last summer and that while the food was good, the servers were so rude that they would never return. I'm glad to report that they've either gotten new staff or new customer service training because I found the three or four staff that served us were great. They greeted us warmly, they were accommodating, and they were efficient. Also, the space is clean, sleek, and bright, unlike many other Chinese restaurants where you question how they possibly passed their health inspection. It's a little out of my way, but I would absolutely come back here to eat again.

The Big Brother 大師兄新派順德菜

328 Highway 7

Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3P7

(905) 881-3333

Dining Out: Christmas Day 2025 Dinner at Xiang Zi Hot Pot

My mom and I decided to go for Christmas dinner at Xiang Zi Hot Pot after last year's rousing success. We invited her bestie and got a 5:30PM reservation. It seems like they decided to do two seating times this Christmas instead of having reservations at any time like they usually do, because when we got there, it was a full house.

Tofu puffs, fish balls, quail eggs, beef tendon balls, luncheon meat, lotus root, daikon, and winter melon
Chrysanthemum greens and tender beef slices
Bean curd rolls, lettuce, napa cabbage, king oyster mushrooms, and spring rolls
White fish, squid, beef tripe, and tender beef slices
Premium abalone
Fresh-cut beef slices
Mushroom and pork bone soup

So, last year, we were blown away by the assortment and set up they had at Christmas. They had a huge buffet-style spread of various prepared dishes and snacks as well as extra raw items to pick up ON TOP of their full tablet menu. But they decided to do things a little different this year. They cut down about half the menu and put almost everything out buffet-style. A bunch of our favourite things — various slices of meat, prepared cold dishes like lettuce stem salad or spicy cucumber salad — weren't available. A lot of the ready-to-eat foods weren't being refilled fast enough. There were only about 10 items we could order from the tablet to the table. Disappointing, since the sheer variety of food is what we love about coming here over other hot pot places.

An issue this evening, though, is that we were seated upstairs. I don't really mind myself (hey, extra steps means I can eat more, right?), but my mom and her best friend are in their 70s and have bad knees and arthritis. And the buffet? Where all the food is? It's downstairs. There's no elevator. So I ended up walking up and down the stairs about 8 times to get enough food for everyone. And that's fine because that's as much exercise as I'm getting this holiday week. No biggie. The real problem? They FORGOT OUR HOT POTS. You know, the actual pots with the broth that we can cook all of our raw food in? Yeah. All three of us ordered the same type of broth — mushroom and pork bone. Not a particularly complicated order. They usually get our pots to us within minutes. But tonight, it took them 45 MINUTES for them to bring our broth pots to our table. This was after asking three different servers to check on them for us. And, mind you, every table gets a 2-hour seating limit here. The server sheepishly had to assure us that they wouldn't have a time limit for us tonight — frankly, the least they could do. If we weren't hungry when we arrived, we were starving by the time we could actually eat our food. 

So, yeah. Xiang Zi's Christmas dinner service this year was a disappointing, disorganized mess. Judging by how long they took to get our hot pots to us, how many empty chafing dishes there were at the buffet, how long it took them to refill all the different ingredients, and just the lack of variety that they usually have, I'd say they were way too understaffed for the sheer amount of customers there tonight and had to cut way back on food costs. I've never had a less-than-excellent time at Xiang Zi, so this dinner was particularly disappointing. (I also just discovered that they don't even have an official website anymore. Are they going out of business?)

On that note, I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and a better dinner experience than we did!

Xiang Zi Hot Pot

Uptown Market Shopping Centre

3989 Highway 7

Markham, ON L3R 5M6

(905) 305-9888

Dining Out: Christmas Eve 2025 Dim Sum at NKS Banquet Hall

I had a half-day of work today and it would've been churlish not to go out for lunch since it's Christmas Eve and all, so I made plans for dim sum with my mom and her bestie at their regular spot:

Dough fritter rice noodle rolls with yuk sung
Steamed BBQ pork buns (char siu bao)
Steamed shrimp dumplings (har gao)
Steamed pork and shrimp dumplings (siu mai)
Pan-fried turnip and preserved pork patties (lo bak go)
Deep-fried shrimp and chive dumplings
Deep-fried pork and egg yolk glutinous rice (zong)
Baked egg custard tarts (daan tat)

I know I've talked endlessly about how great and totally underrated NKS Banquet Hall is, but honestly, if we're talking quality vs. value, their dim sum is absolutely the most worth it. Their decor isn't as fancy as Casa Victoria or trendy as Luna, and they keep it simple and traditional with their dishes (no truffle oil or gold foil here), but NKS is cheaper than both and the quality of their food is consistently excellent (similar to Casa Victoria; significantly better than Luna). The tea fee, at $2 per person ($1.80 if you're a regular, apparently), is on par with most dim sum places, but if you spend $20, you get your choice of siu mai or beef meatballs FOR FREE. IN THIS ECONOMY!

Also, if the room filled almost exclusively with Cantonese-speaking senior citizens isn't indication enough (and most of them are regulars since no less than five people came to greet my mom), NKS is — at least in Markham (which, honestly, is more Chinese than Toronto's Chinatown) — the best place to come for dim sum. And there's never a line-up because all the Millennials are going to the trendy, Instagram-able dim sum places. (I admit I have been guilty of this a time or two.) But y'all, when it comes to dim sum? Always trust the Hong Kong immigrant boomers! They don't give a shit about Google reviews or ratings — they just want good, authentic Cantonese food.

NKS Banquet Hall

New Kennedy Square

8360 Kennedy Rd., Unit B06

Markham, ON L3R 9W5

(905) 948-8668

Dining Out: Winter Solstice Festival Dinner at NKS Banquet Hall

Went for Winter Solstice Festival dinner with my mom and her bestie at our go-to Chinese restaurant, NKS Banquet Hall:

Fried tofu puffs with assorted mushrooms and Chinese broccoli
Stir-fried sirloin beef with broccoli and candied walnuts
BBQ combo platter: Roast duck and BBQ pork
Garlic-fried pork ribs

Got all our favourites, of course. I was tempted to get Peking duck but my mom had had it for lunch with my aunts and uncle — plus, NKS does a promotion on Peking duck on Tuesdays for half-price or something, so it seemed silly to get it there on any other day — so we made do with a BBQ combo of roast duck and char siu instead. Both food and service were incredible as usual, despite there being some crazy Christmas line dancing event going on. (I swear, Chinese seniors know how to party harder than anyone else.) Will be coming back on Wednesday for Christmas Eve dim sum!

NKS Banquet Hall

New Kennedy Square

8360 Kennedy Rd., Unit B06

Markham, ON L3R 9W5

(905) 948-8668

Dining Out: Mid-Autumn Festival Dinner 2025 at NKS Banquet Hall

This year's Mid-Autumn Festival dinner with my mom and her bestie at NKS Banquet Hall:

Deep-fried stuffed tofu with broccoli

Stir-fried sirloin beef with broccoli and candied walnuts

Garlic-fried pork ribs

Sliced beef with bitter melon in black bean sauce

It was surprisingly busy, even though we got there at 5:30PM. We didn't make a reservation because we figured no one ate dinner that early (honestly, I'm just starving by the time I'm done work at 5:00PM because I don't eat snacks after lunch) but there was a random karaoke event for a retirement home that was going on (let me tell you, my ears were about to bleed with the amount of tone-deaf screeching I heard), so they had to section of 3/4 of the restaurant and we got one of two tables they had left for walk-ins. I'm guessing every other table was reserved for Mid-Autumn Festival, which is the same reason we were there. For the first time ever, we watched the staff having to turn people away.

Either way, we ordered some of our favourites, and I guess they either didn't get their grocery order for the week yet or it was too busy all weekend, because I saw one server running out of the restaurant and coming back with packages of bitter melon, and then another server coming back ten minutes later with a bag full of egg tofu. (There is a Chinese supermarket in the same building, which must be very convenient for them.) Still, the food came out amazing (except for the diced chicken with walnuts, which was tasty enough, but was so unphotogenic, I'm not even going to post it here), so they clearly work well under pressure. Because during the whole time we were eating, we saw at least eight Peking ducks going out along with full set menus for at least ten other tables. Their chefs are fucking champs.

I hope everyone had an amazing Mid-Autumn Festival!

NKS Banquet Hall

New Kennedy Square

8360 Kennedy Rd., Unit B06

Markham, ON L3R 9W5

(905) 948-8668

Dining Out: Strawberry Hearts on the Snow at Honeymoon Dessert

To celebrate the end of my cold, I went to get a little treat with Minji and Daniel at Honeymoon Dessert:

Strawberry Hearts on the Snow

I decided to get the Strawberry Hearts on the Snow, which is supposed to include their signature Vanilla Ice, Kawartha Dairy's Strawberry ice cream, fresh strawberries, and a limited edition Cherry Blossom Rice Wine Oreo. Except they didn't have any strawberry ice cream or the limited edition cherry blossom Oreo, so they had to replace them with green tea ice cream and a regular Golden Oreo. Despite the replacements and their Vanilla Ice being a little too icy (read: chunky), I gotta say, it still satisfied the frozen dessert craving. (Perhaps everything just tastes better after a two-week long cold.) Still, I think I'll stick to their Mango Pillows, which have never disappointed me...

Honeymoon Dessert

Markham Town Square

3828 Highway 7, Unit 2

Unionville, ON L3R 1L7

(905) 477-7688

Dining Out: Sliced Beef with Bitter Melon, Sweet and Sour Pork, Fried Egg Tofu with Mushrooms, and Crispy Skin Chicken with Prawn Crackers at NKS Banquet Hall

With our flight back being delayed (to put this in perspective, we got to LaGuardia at 11:30AM and didn't get land in Toronto until 5:30PM) and that lox bagel from the morning long gone, it goes without saying that WE WERE FUCKING STARVING when we got back. It did not help that our driver took the 401, which even on a Sunday evening has bumper-to-bumper traffic, so that by the time we got back to my apartment, it was already 7:00PM, and we were HANGRY AF. We just dumped our luggage at my place, didn't even bother changing, and drove straight to my mom's go-to restaurant, NKS Banquet Hall, where her bestie met us for dinner. (I think after a few days in NYC, my mom was really missing Chinese food. And also the restaurant itself, which she frequents 5 days a week.) 

Sliced beef with bitter melon in black bean sauce
Sweet and sour pork
Fried egg tofu with mushrooms and broccoli
Crispy skin chicken with prawn crackers

We were so hungry that we didn't even wait for her BFF to arrive before we ordered. We got some favourite classics — the fried egg tofu with mushrooms and veg is a mainstay at all our dinners here, but we also got beef with bitter melon in black bean sauce (a dish I hated as a kid but LOVE, LOVE, LOVE as an adult), sweet and sour pork (a guilty pleasure — it has an insane amount of sugar), and crispy skin chicken with prawn crackers (a dish we haven't had in a long time because it's all fried and therefore also a guilty pleasure, but my mom was craving it and who am I to say no?). 

I don't know if it was because we starving, but every dish tasted particularly delicious, especially that crispy chicken, which was so perfectly cooked (and my god, I forgot just how delectable freshly fried prawn crackers are). There was a 70th birthday party going on while we were there so we had to listen to some truly hideous Chinese karaoke while eating, but other than that, this was another amazing meal at NKS Banquet Hall. Can't wait to back for Mid-Autumn Festival dinner!

NKS Banquet Hall

New Kennedy Square

8360 Kennedy Rd., Unit B06

Markham, ON L3R 9W5

(905) 948-8668