Asian Legend

First time here, tucked into a little strip plaza and conveniently close to apres-​lunch bubble tea joints. Service wasn’t as slow as some reviewers seem to have experienced — but perhaps that was due to being in a big group and the socializing helped to make the time go faster. The food was a nice array of soup dumplings and spicy meat dishes which had a good amount of kick — reminiscent of hakka in many ways, but I’m no expert so I’m sure there’s a lot of people who’d call me crazy for saying that.
I do wish they would have brought the soup dumplings before the spicy dishes — the spice is so powerful that it takes away the more delicate dumpling flavours. Overall though, not bad and I’d come back again.
ps. White guy bonus — the menus have pictures!

Wonderful place for Shanghai food! Tucked away in a corner of the row of restaurants, this place is almost always packed and bustling with people during their lunch and dinner times. We came for dinner on a Friday night at around 7pm and had to wait around 10 minutes to be seated. We ordered around 5 plates of food, including a wonderful dessert, but the order in which our food arrived was a bit baffling. Our cold noodle with chicken appetizer actually came very last with a small reminder to the waitstaff.
A small portion of their sweet and spicy soup was already a large soup bowl, so something nice to share around the table if you’d also like to try other foods. Overall, their food quality is great, in particular their smoked chicken and candied apple. They also have candied banana, but you can’t mix 4 pieces of banana with apple, so we went for the apple. It was so delicious, with a thin coat of maple syrup/​candy around the fruit. It’s dipped in ice cold water when brought to your table, so it’s a nice show and unique food.
After the dinner rush and near the end of our meal, their waitstaff and chefs did begin to have their dinners in nearby seats. Very reasonable prices for their food quality and variety — such a large menu with unique and traditional Shanghai food! Will definitely be back for more fantastic meals!

We came here during a busy Sunday afternoon. I’ve been to Asian Legend before and it’s a pretty good chain. Modern décor with menu in English, parking was plentiful.
The Beef Hor Fun with Black Bean Sauce was delicious. Probably the best we have ever tried as it was bouncy, light and tasty. It wasn’t on the menu but they made it for us. We also had a fried rice and eggplant dish. The dim sum here was expensive so we didn’t order any.
As with many restaurants, you might want to pick a seat away from the entrance if you don’t like the cold draft during winter as people will be coming in and out.

This place was recommended to me as a great spot to get some Northern-​Style Chinese food. There were quite a few items that looked pretty appetizing on the menu that I was looking forward to trying here. A good indicator that helps you spot out good and bad restaurants is the amount of traffic they have at peak hours. This place did have pretty good traffic, so I wanted to give this place a try.
I must say I was disappointed in the quality of food that was served. This place seems to have the brand name that the Asian Legend carries, but this location did not serve out good food that you would expect. Much of the food was a little bland and on the dry side.
This place does have positives though. The restaurant definitely fills up. There seems to be a good crowd, but the seating can become a little crowded at peak hours. They have a service request device on the tables which will allow you to ask for common things like bill, beverage, service & cancel at the touch of a button. Some of the attendants have pagers where they get notified right away and come quickly to provide service. That is a plus!
With this place being a chain, possible that I just had a bad experience with the food. But I am open to trying out other locations and hopefully other locations are better.

Cheap lunch specials but the chow mein for a dish to get you high blood pressure… salty as hell, the sodium content in that dish must have been off the roof, we told the waiter and they were really resistant in changing or making a new one for us so we just settle with them to just ate more noodle, which didn’t do squat since they added more sauce… we got their dumplings but it was pricy like $ 1 a piece
Won’t be coming back here

Having been to one other Asian Legend restaurant I figure its gonna be the same all around. For the most part it was the same but one item that was really different was the noodles with spicy and peanut sauce aka dan dan noodles $ 6.99 — It was served in a really small bowl for some reason with very little sauce. Usually its swimming in sauce but this one had just enough to cover the noodles so by the time everyone took their share some were left with very little sauce. It made the noodles taste a bit dry.
The xiao long boa and the beef onion pancake wrap were pretty much the same.
Also got a chance to try the jellyfish appetizer. You know the stuff you usually find at Chinese wedding dinners. For $ 7.99 I found it a bit pricy. The jelly fish were cut a bit thick which made them a tad chewy and it was drenched in an oily type sauce. Tasted okay but I would not order again.
Service was fast and efficient.

like many asian resturants, asian legend is pretty well known.
unfortunately, today was not one of those «OMG THIS IS SO GOOODDD» days. rather, much of the food felt as if they poured a gallon of salt into their food. also known as MSG.
quite normally, i would completely recommend this restaurant to a friend, as i love their food. unfortunately today, i would simply tell them to be ready to go and drink a gallon of water in preparation for the saltiness that is to come.

Had been there a few times.
Consistent food — the spicy Beef and noodle is good.
the nice thing is their choice of dumplings…
so if you are in the mood for good dumpling and dont feel like lining up at Dai Tai Fung, this is a good alternate.
Bön Appetite.

One of my favorite places to come for traditional high-​quality dim sum. There’s no shortcuts taken at this place, and is definitely the best location of the chain. The Shanghai soup dumplings are perfectly crafted and contain a filling of unmatched clarity and flavour. They make a house pancake that contains green onion, egg and shrimp that is a staple of the chain. Their fried rice can be a little dry, but everything always exceeds expectation and the consistency is remarkable.

Asian Legend is a popular local chain — so keep in mind that some locations are better than others.
This one, in particular, has been around for a long time and quite frankly, i consider it to the best location, in terms of food quality and consistency.
Now I usually don’t come here for dinner, but for a pretty decent Northern-​Style dim sum. This is one of the few places that does the savory soy bean soup right. The savory soy bean soup is not for everyone, but anyone wishing for that spicy, slightly sour, salty and crispy sensation — it is worth trying here. Equally good here is their steamed soup dumplings; I find that their skins are much thinner and more translucent compared to the other well-​known soup dumpling places. Other favorite dishes would be the savory sticky rice; and their lean salted pork and veggies fried rice cakes.
Service is what you expect for a Chinese owned and run place, but at a slightly higher level. This location can accommodate largish groups with a series of private rooms that run along the back area — the private rooms aren’t what I would say spacious and roomy — but it does the job in terms of offering privacy to chat with your group.

Went to lunch today and ordered off their lunch menu. Went with a couple of other people. We ended up ordering the double cooked pork lunch as well as a couple of other things.
Pro:
The food was spicy. For someone who loves spice, it was actually very flavourful
Not a long wait. The food was there within 15 minutes.
Cons:
The food was too oily. When I put the twice cooked pork on my rice, it was all oil
The corn soup was so small, and half the bowl was empty. It seem like they short changed us.
It was very salty. The cold noodles was spicy, but the salt overpowered the taste.
On a side note, as we were entering, there was a HUGE sign that said that Stephen Harper visited. Don’t know what to feel about that. I just kept looking at it.

Decoration — A
Service — B+
Cleanliness — A
Food — A
–Ho Fun with beef was very tasty
–Dim Sum was made fresh to order (i saw them wrap it as I was walking by the kitchen)
Overall I really like this place, the decoration and space is great for larger parties.

Shanghainese food is their specialty. Been coming here for the same couple of dishes ever since it opened. Portions are very, very decent and quality always the same. Also quite affordable.

Consistent quality and service. A good place to fulfill your dumping craving and other northern Chinese foods. The price is fair and plenty of option to choose from.

I’ve been here several times and have enjoyed the food each time I’ve been here. The servers are friendly and the food comes out pretty quickly.
I suggest going with a group so you can order a bunch of dishes to share. I like that their food a nice mix of different things.
I like the Braised Bamboo shoots, which were slightly sweet and crunchy. If you like bamboo shoots you should give this a try. Another nice cold dish is the drunken chicken soaked in liquor. It reminds me of deli chicken, Chinese style.
I love their soup dumplings! Some of best that I’ve had. The dough is not too thick. The best part is drinking the soup out of the dumpling before you eat it. The pork also had a nice flavouring to it and the dumplings were cooked well.
A nice alternative is their steam buns that is served with condense milk. You can either have this as a semi dessert or it pairs nicely if you want something a bit filling and will pair well with any of the other dishes,
Another dish I really enjoy eating here is the deep fried tofu with garlic sauce. The tofu is cooked really perfectly so that you get that nice crunchy texture and the inside is silken and soft. The sauce also has a nice spicy kick to it.
Some of their dishes can be very spicy so if you don’t like spicy food, be careful of what you order. I would suggest just trying different things off the menu I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Have the VIP card as this give you 10% off over $ 20. This place, and all the other Asian Legend, are owned by Taiwanese, but it is mainly a Chinese restaurant, so you are not going to see dishes from Mama Bear. The flavor is great, plenty of variety, the dumplings are good, almost as good as Ding Tai Fung. The beef noodle soup is also good here, but not as good as Mei Nung. But you come here for the combined food variety and flavor, and this place is still one of my favorit restaurant.
I give it a 8 out of 10.

I come here a lot and have their VIP card as I love spicy food and this place is one of the few places I have encountered that has decent quality Chinese food with quite a few well-​made Sichuan dishes.
Usually I come in a large group so we book a private room in the back of the restaurant which I like because the rest of the restaurant gets quite loud and busy. Although there is a corkage fee, you can bring your own wine which is nice.
We usually get the Peking duck, a bunch of the appetizers (my favourite is their steamed soup bun which is pretty decent here even though its not a dim sum restaurant), some spicy Sichuan dishes and some seafood dishes. There’s always a wide variety and I like most of the dishes that I’ve tried here.
I’ve tried a couple of their soups and I thought they were all pretty good as well. I also like the sweet red bean soup they give you at the end of the meal. Overall, I’m not a huge fan of Chinese food but I always have a good experience here and I bring friends and family here all the time.

This could be the new 905 go to for chi fi.
I stopped by for lunch and had Kung pao chicken with a side of spicy peanut wonton. Both were really good, love the chili oil as well. And I’ll be damned the place is clean and not sticky/​filthy… A pleasant surprise…

An unbeatable $ 8 lunch. That’s what I found when I stopped in to try this Northern Asian restaurant fighting for position among a dozen other Asian restaurants. the lunch menu choices were interesting and authentic-​no «sweet and sour» as I recall. I ordered the Green Beans with Beef, which is sautéed in bold flavours and a rich gravy. Including a bowl of rice and bowl of soup, it is a complete meal.
I also ordered a Hot and Sour Soup, one of my faves as a further comparison point. Nicely flavoured, with just the right heat, I took most of it home and finished it later. It was still great.
I have been in a couple of times, noting the dominantly Asian clientele, and observing the fast service and enjoying the addicting aromas passing my table. The menu is also a treat, with a ton of choices and high quality photos to get the tastebuds quivering. This is a place you visit many times to sample the great variety. But get there early-​they are packed for lunch!

Food greatness, thus far, has led me to another magical gem. Located yonder, in the midst of Commerce Gate and Times Square in Richmond Hill, here lies Asian Legend. The successful chain of restaurants, sets precedence of food that never disappoints. I only realized later I did not write a review for the current location.
Ending my strenuous day of work, I decided to venture here for a great takeout dinner. Arriving at the restaurant, I decided to order: Chunky Beef Noodle Soup, Hot and Sour Soup, and Mapo Tofu. My stomach growled loud, as my mind was in dire need of food. And at last, the food arrives and I drove towards home.
The Chunky Beef Noodle Soup tasted amazing. The soup was brewed to perfection and the noodles absorbed the tasty flavor. Each bite was more satisfying than the last.
The hot and sour soup was spicy. I wiped tears and sweat as each bite I consumed increased the burning sensation. The soup itself was brewed to perfection. The bamboo shoots and carrots complemented nicely.
The Mapo Tofu was extremely spicy, of spices that burned my mouth. Despite the side of rice to ease the pain, the tofu was unbearable. After a few bites, I rushed towards my cup and drank cold water. Several moments later of manly tears, I finished the Mapo Tofu.
Asian Legend satisfied my hunger and thus considered food greatness. The food was spicy yet was delicious within each bite. Although this location is not the best, sally forth here, as your hunger instincts will not regret the decision.