Cynthia’s Chinese Restaurant

The reviews do not do this place justice, if you are going to eat very tasty freshly prepared Chinese food then you have the right place
Friends of ours recommended we try this place and we ended up going together
Prior to going I had not heard of Cynthia’s so I read a few reviews to understand more why the ratings were so low.
We were a party of 12 on a Saturday evening and of course the place was busy, did we have to wait for the food… yes, but I will tell you it was well worth the wait
As we had 6 children with us we didn’t get to explore some of the other dishes that you would normally get into but we kept it very generic
Everything we ate was freshly prepared and very tasty, from start to finish
I would highly recommend Cynthia’s to anyone hands down!!!

ordered the dinner for two and general taos chicken. the chicken balls smelled sour, called and told them about this and the supervisor got very rude with me. Lodging a complaint with yorksafe health inspection services of york region.

Food sucked, chicken tasted like it was made in the microwave. Ordered vegetable chow mein, got bean sprouts.

Cynthia’s is just down the street from us and we have ordered there a few times.
My in laws order there more often, they like celebrating birthdays with Peking duck.
Unfortunately tonight was the last night we will give them our business.
My spouse and I are vegetarian and order the same things every time
Tonight we ordered fried rice, spicy eggplant, and OK tofu. When she confirmed the order I have to admit I couldn’t fully understand her over her accent but it sounded close enough.
My husband ran in to grab it and we hurried home excited and hungry.
Oh no they gave us squid not eggplant and we are vegetarian so we can’t just make do. Not a big deal we will call have them make an eggplant and pick it up in 10 take back the untouched squid.
To my disappointment we were met with staff who said in the few seconds since we called they already reviewed the conversation and you said squid.
First of all I’m vegetarian I can assure you I don’t accidentally order meat and fish.
Secondly who cares if I did? We are regular customers and it’s a $ 7 eggplant, surely she couldn’t be serious?
Then she tells him he should be more careful next time?
I obviously assumed a manager would never lose our business over a $ 7 eggplant and ask for him.
Ben comes on, pretty much laughs while talking over me the whole time, tells me she is best employee is broken English and is ok to lose our business.
So I advised me I regret is choice, will not be back and will ensure my friends neighbours and family don’t either as well as mention him specifically in my reviews. He stated this is ok happily as well.
Too bad, the food was pretty good if he just said sorry and let me get the eggplant I would still spend my money there.

Overpriced! $ 3.50 for a small egg roll — this will give you a sense of how expensive everything is. I have been eating here for a few years now and I think they increased their price and the quality has come down. Poor value. Last time I eat here. Very disappointing. I feel like I have been ripped off.

I’ve had better Chinese food (nearby Omei comes to mind) but not better service or presentation. The experience is excellent. Highly recommended.

Seriously, the staff at the restaurant provide some of the best customer service and appreciation I have witnessed at an establishment in a long time. But of course, that’s just the icing on the cake. I’ve tasted the crispy OK beef, the Mongolian beef and the sweet and sour chicken (off menu) as well as the mango spring rolls (addictive!) and everything was delicious (most of it was recommended by host too which is a bonus). The prices are reasonable and you get a large portion of food at great quality which is not always easy to find (so I can appreciate this place even more!!). The décor is traditional and beautifully ornate to match the server’s and host’s traditional garb. Bathroom — A+. This would be a lovely restaurant to host a larger group for a celebration as there are private dinner areas to reserve and some sort of classy lounge downstairs. Very impressed and would recommend!

Wonderful. Just wonderful. Service was excellent, the food was delicious. We had the banquet for 2, they happily substituted an item for us and they were very attentive to our food allergies. They also have gluten free option so we can take our gluten sensitive son here. Top notch!

Very solid place. The shrimp dishes are 6 massive jumbo prawns. Cleaned, deveined etc… Sizzling pepper beef also very tasty. Only issue is they changed their lemon chicken a couple years ago and I’m still bitter about it.

Very nice and quiet. Excellent food! Ordered the dinner for 4 deluxe as there were four people in our group. The soup was amazing! And I absolutely loved the pad Thai! I felt this was better than other Thai restaurants I have been. The stairs going down to the washrooms could have been more lit as it was a little touch and go the first steps down. Impressed with wine list and the wine itself. The jasmine tea was excellent t tasting and came with a flower inside.

Always a great meal! We order take out, and it’s always piping hot! Food is fresh and delicious! Love this place! Dining is an experience! Friendly and fast service! Never disappointed! If you get a chance, go dining at Cynthia’s!

I’m better now, thanks.
*****
First time I’d ever been to Cynthia’s.
Went with a large group.
No Birthday hoopla as promised, even though when I made the reservation,
I was asked if there was a special occasion.
Disappointing.
Even though I made the arrangements and paid the bill,
no staff acknowledged my presence.
Was told by one of our group that there’s a discount if you pay cash.
Don’t know if that’s true, but I saw no mention of it anywhere.
Might have brought cash if it is true and if I’d known.
Could have gotten over all of that, except …
Ordered one «gluten free» dish — it was just for me and that’s all that I ate — separate utensils, the whole bit — and was sick the next day for hours and hours.
Not nice.
*****
Yeah, not going back.

Very strange overall experience.
We had a reservation for 9 people (plus a high chair). They had asked my mom on the phone is there was a special occasion, she indicated it was her birthday but there was never any sign of them having a reason to have asked — they didn’t do anything for it. We asked for a high chair but the table they led me too didn’t have one, so I had to ask again. The room was quite cold, definitely should focus more on room temperature and less on useless ornate decorations.
Menu was expensive given the quality and the location. Still had a greasy, slimy «take out» Chinese food taste, despite the formalized service (which doesn’t mean good). I liked the wonton soup and tempura-​style broccoli and mushrooms best (although quite salty). Fortune cookies + Ovatation sticks a nice touch.
Rather eat Chinese food downtown.

Because most of the restaurants were closed tonight in my neighborhood, Cynthia’s was the only choice. And, am I ever glad it was. The food was perfect– flavorful, hot, crunchy veggies, and just the right amount of spice. Service was professional maybe even a touch over the top but in a good way. We hadn’t been to Cynthia’s for many years, and it was even better than we remembered.

The appetizers and soups were great! Definitely try their seafood. Escargot was superb and I’m sure scallops too.
I agree with the rest of the people that the service was very formal and feels uneasy at times.
The Peking duck was definitely a huge disappointment. I don’t think it’s fresh prepared. It may be cooked before and heated up when ordered. They also don’t patiently cut it, sort of chop it up and put them on the plate.

Awesome!
I wanted a Chinese dinner but in the Canyon Creek style which means service and a higher level of style
Order Peking Duck and they bang a gong and make a big deal of it which is funny
They have so many staff looking after you it becomes funny
They drape the knapkin, a cocktail waitress takes your drink order that’s printed on a fan
The maitre d takes your order
Everything is upscale and service is very attentive
Food was very good and yes pricing is a bit more than a food court but hey live like a VIP and enjoy being brad and Angelina for a day
Come on who gets hot and sour in a Chinese gold book? Donald Trump and I that’s who
Finish your meal with fortune cookies, chocolates and a wrap cloth to clean your hands
Sorry had to add this
Some one celebrated some anniversary and the maitre d and hostess sang a song for them with video and then jumped into happy birthday for little Bobby
This made the evening so much more fun for everyone

Great food
We
Had the spring roles, corn soup, chicken vegetables and sweet and sour chicken
We all enjoyed the dinner
was a little surprised to see tea we had to start on the bill. Normally it is included.

had the lunch set here and I was pretty satisfied. I found the service a little too formal just for lunch but I guess that’s just me. The food was alright. What I appreciated is that the set came with fried rice and it they didn’t serve the generic kind that normally goes with combos, it was the real deal version.
The prices were a bit higher than usual (maybe 20%) but that’s what the service and ambiance gets you. All things considered, I wasn’t disappointed. I would go again but with the number of chinese restaurants around thornhill and richmond hill, it probably wont be that often.

I’m not sure about these other reviewers experiences either, but every time I’ve come here (which is about 8+ times) I’ve always had wonderful experiences.
Our usual order consisted of spring rolls (crispy and always tastes fresh), chicken soo guy, beef fried rice and some sort of vegetable dish. I’ve always loved the food here!
I also love the décor and atmosphere at Cynthia’s. The staff are all in costume and it’s just a little more special than the usual uniforms, and the service has always been great. It’s also a very clean establishment, with the waitstaff armed with dustbusters (!) to clean up the area. If you pay with cash, you get 10% back in Cynthia Bucks, which is pretty neat getting something for basically doing nothing but paying your bill.
If you’re lucky, someone will order the Peking Duck and a big deal is made with it, they bang a gong and someone announces «PEKING DUCK!». They also have a cheesy video they play on a giant TV for birthdays which is pretty awesome.
Love this place.

I wouldn’t feed this food to my dog!
I have to say I have never been this Harsh in my life about a restaurant but the meal I just attempted to swallow was horrible…
The Ginger beef was like left overs from the garbage with some Ginger thrown on top, to the point the smell was so strong and the taste was impossible to swallow.
The chicken balls were overcooked with chicken that was not so nice and the sweet and sour sauce was pure ketchup and smelled like vinegar!
The chicken fried rice was hard and tasted like cooked eggs, where the
hell was the chicken?
The spring rolls were the smallest things I can seen in my life, one bite and it’s gone… Tasteless as well
I feel guilty having to force one star on this restaurant as it deserves nothing, not to mention their customer service skills are lacking.
You think if you called to complain how disgusting their food was they would at least say «sorry to hear». Instead they said «we make no mistakes, our food is fine.»
Oh and by the way, don’t try to get your money back or even try to
explain to these people, they just ignore you. I told them it’s not right for me to pay 50 bucks for food I can’t eat and if I could return it, their response was «it’s your, it’s not fair, no return, no money back» what’s not fair is I just spent 50 bucks down the toilet for something that ended up in the garbage chute.
I think if they had better customer service skills, things would of been better…