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 Dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House

We originally wanted to have our annual family Christmas Eve dinner at The Keg, but obviously, they were fully booked unless we wanted to eat at 4:00PM or 9:00PM. (We didn't.) We were scrambling to find somewhere decent to eat for the holiday that had a reservation time from 5:00PM to 7:00PM, and then my brilliant mind thought of Ruth's Chris Steak House — definitely pricier than we were seeking, but then my brother insisted that Christmas dinner was on him because he and his family weren't coming up this year. And lo and behold, they had one 6:45PM reservation slot left. It was meant to be!

Arugula salad with goat cheese, cranberries, and grapes tossed in cranberry pomegranate vinaigrette
6 oz. centre-cut filet with shrimp
Garlic mashed potatoes
Maple-glazed butternut squash with maple candied pecans
Creamed spinach
Roasted Brussels sprouts with applewood-smoked bacon and honey butter
Mini white chocolate cheesecake

All four of us went for the Ruth's Classics prix fixe menu, which includes a starter, an entrée, a personal side, and dessert for $97. I got the cranberry arugula salad (the perfect combination of sweet, bitter, and tangy — I could honestly eat this everyday), the 6-ounce centre-cut filet and shrimp (okay, The Keg does great steak, but Ruth's Chris does IMPECCABLE steak — the beef is so melt-in-your-mouth tender, I almost didn't need a steak knife), and my mom shared the garlic mashed potatoes and the maple-glazed butternut squash. We also got the creamed spinach (the ultimate steakhouse side dish and the unanimous favourite) and roasted Brussels sprouts (sweet, salty, smoky, crunchy — addictively delicious) for the table to share. For dessert, a perfect mini white chocolate cheesecake with raspberry coulis and two pieces of dark chocolate bark — rich, sweet, and decadent, but small enough to keep us from feeling too guilty (and bursting out of our pants because they know how full we'd be by the time dessert rolled around).

This was the best Christmas dinner I've had in years. I think this might be a new Christmas tradition in the making. (At least, I will make it so. My family will have no say in the matter because I make the reservations and therefore hold all the power.)

Ruth's Chris Steak House

170 Enterprise Blvd., Unit J101

Markham, ON L6G 0G5

(647) 794-0170

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: Thanksgiving Dinner 2025 at Swiss Chalet

As per our original Thanksgiving tradition, my mom and I went for dinner at Swiss Chalet:

Thanksgiving Feast: Half rotisserie chicken with stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a dinner roll
Obviously, we partook in the Thanksgiving Feast — it's basically their rotisserie chicken dinner with stuffing and cranberry sauce — which they offer twice a year, at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Unfortunately, they didn't have enough dark meat for both of us to get double-leg dinners, so we got one quarter chicken dinner and one half chicken dinner and split the white meat. (A quarter chicken is never enough for either of us.) We normally don't like white meat because it's usually dry AF, but it was shockingly good today — tender and juicy — maybe because the turnover was so high that there wasn't time for chickens to get dry on the spit. This combo also comes with your choice of pie for dessert, but we obviously got the pumpkin pie because they only offer it during Thanksgiving. (Pumpkin pie isn't one of my favourite pies, not even a Top 5, but because of its rarity, I have to get it when it's offered.)

Pumpkin pie

Luckily, our Thanksgiving experience at Swiss Chalet today was significantly better than the last one, which was three years ago. That experience was so bad that we had actually boycotted going to Swiss Chalet for Thanksgiving since then. But we figured it's been three years, so we decided to give it another go, except at our usual location this time. And I will not deviate from this location again, because this Thanksgiving experience compared to that one was like night and day. Today, we got seated within five minutes (we got there at 5:30PM in attempt to beat the rush), we got our regular server (she has literally worked there since I was a teenager, so she always recognizes us — aside from being really nice, she is also scary efficient and frankly, all servers should learn from her), our food came to the table within 10 minutes, and best of all, the food was GREAT. Fresh, piping hot, and DELICIOUS. This is what I expect from Swiss Chalet. Thanksgiving boycott, officially over.

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians!

Swiss Chalet

Markville Mall

5070 Highway 7

Markham, ON L3R 4M9

(905) 305-1809

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: End-of-Year Dinner at NKS Banquet Hall

Went for an end-of-year dinner with my mom and her bestie at NKS Banquet Hall:

BBQ pork and roast duck platter

Fried stuffed tofu puffs with broccoli

Poached white cut chicken with ginger scallion sauce

Cantonese stir-fried ginger scallion lobster

Steamed bass with scallions in soy sauce

I don't know it's because I had novovirus last week and was forced to eat really bland foods for days on end, but this meal was extraordinarily delicious. NKS Banquet Hall — which is primarily known for dim sum — is truly underrated for their dinner service. I've only been here once before for dinner — which was for Mid-Autumn Festival last year — but I've been thoroughly impressed with everything I've tried here. Everything this evening was just spectacular and I have a feeling this is going to be our new go-to special occasion dinner restaurant. A great way to end the Year of the Dragon!

NKS Banquet Hall

New Kennedy Square

8360 Kennedy Rd., Unit B06

Markham, ON L3R 9W5

(905) 948-8668

Dining Out: New Year Special at Uncle Qiang BBQ 犟贰叔

Happy New Year!

I rang in 2025 with Chinese takeout, bubble tea, and a Harry Potter movie marathon with my friends Minji and Daniel, which, frankly, was the best idea, ever. Since I got home at 4:00AM, we decided to go for a late lunch at my new fave, Uncle Qiang BBQ, where they are currently having a New Year Special Combo for $119.99:

Hand-smashed cucumbers
Flavoured sausage
Black pepper beef brisket
Pickled Chinese cabbage with chili oil
Chinese sausage and black pepper beef brisket
Garlic prawns
Miso beef brisket
Miso beef brisket and pickled cabbage
Egg fried rice
Uncle's Special beef
Uncle's Special lamb
Cheese corn

2025 is off to a great start.

Uncle Qiang BBQ 犟贰叔

350 Highway 7, Unit 105

Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3N2

(905) 751-7518

Dining Out: Christmas Day 2024 Dinner at Xiang Zi Hot Pot

Every year, my mom and I go out for Christmas dinner, usually a set menu type of deal. But I wanted something a little more comforting this year, and more warming because I've had a runny nose and nasal congestion since Sunday. And what could be more warming than hot pot?

Ready-to-serve dishes: Cucumber salad, lettuce stem salad, and marinated duck tongues

Premium item: Abalone

Napa cabbage, lettuce stems, king oyster mushrooms, and enoki mushrooms

Beef tripe, beef tendon, fish and beef balls, winter melon, daikon, and lotus root

Premium item: Tender beef

Angus beef, beef brisket, beef sirloin, New Zealand lamb, pork belly, and basa fillet

Cooking in mushroom and pork bone broth

Dessert: Fresh-cut papaya, oriental melon, honeydew, and watermelon

On top of their regular menu, they also had a Christmas-exclusive buffet-style spread around the main centre booth, which included ready-to-eat foods like marinated quail eggs, braised tofu, and stewed beef tendon; raw items already separated into dishes that you could pick up instead of ordering from the tablet; a huge variety of all-you-can-drink canned pop; as well as an assortment of cakes, Melona bars, and fruits for dessert. This was awesome. Kinda wish they had this all year round, but I know it's a lot to maintain and it makes the restaurant way more hectic than it needs to be since so many more people are getting up to roam. Still, the food was excellent, the service was excellent, and therefore, Christmas was excellent. 

Hope everyone had a similarly delicious and merry Christmas!

Xiang Zi Hot Pot

Uptown Market Shopping Centre

3989 Highway 7

Markham, ON L3R 5M6

(905) 305-9888