In the core of downtown Toronto there is a thriving community commonly referred to as Chinatown. As a Caucasian who is not intimately familiar with Asain culture I feel at first bewildered when I go to this area then fascinated. Wandering up and down Spadina Avenue I started to realize the sheer number of restaurants that there are in the area. After years of visiting Chinatown I recognized that there must be dozens and dozens of restaurants on this one street and that each one would provide a different dining experience. I have now taken it upon my self to dine at as many of the Asian restaurants in Chinatown as I can, specifically between College Street and Queen Street along Spadina Avenue.
I plan on reviewing each one of these restaurants on this blog. I will grade them on quality of food, ambience, service, presentation, price and overall experience. I will try to review one or two restaurants a week and I will include the name and address of each restaurant. I hope that this will help people in choosing the right restaurant for the type of dim sum, Peking duck, congee and noodle that they desire among the bewildering number of choices that Chinatown has to offer.
I would like to make the point that all of my reviews are made from a single night of dining and to get a proper review of any restaurant would require multiple trips and a sampling of many more dishes. I am just merely giving a single account of one night's service and hopefully this one account will give you a glimpse into the service and help to inform your dinign experience.
Finally, throughout this process I will also beging to assess a phenomenon that I have recently been noticing in Chinatown, which is its subtle transformation to Asia-town. What I mean by this is that the area, which were once occupied by a majority of Szechuan and Cantonese restaurants, are giving way to Korean barbeques and Sushi joints. Is this a result of immigration from these countrieds, or is it that people have come to expect authentic cuisine from this area and now people are capitalizing on the reputation of this community? Hopefully, in addition to serving as a restaurant guide, this blog will begin to address questions like these as well.