Kwan

Overpriced dim-​sum /​Chinese food. Though descent for the area, Yonge @ St. Clair. There is really not much option here. Décor is nice. It can be very crowded on lunch hours, mostly people from offices nearby. Other time probably not as bad. Dim sum is OK, standard Hong Kong style. Taste is not bad, but PRICEY! Deep fried stuffs are greasy, I suggest order as little fried food as possible. Other lunch items, such as chow mien, fried rice, garlic prawn, etc are tasty as any other descent Chinese restaurant.
Service can be slow when they are busy.

Good dumplings but service was meeeh. Even when youre just doing take out it takes a while even when its not busy and they dont even offer you to sit down or anything. Also if you like sauce on the side for your dumplings dont forget to tell them or else they wont put any.

Large space offering a few different ambiances to choose from. Conveniently across from St Clair subway station. I’ve been here several times since they first opened. The service has shown improvement, the food is consistently high-​quality. Excellent variety of very well made dim sum — good value/​well-​priced for what you get.

Kwan carries showy dim sum shaped in bunnies, piglets and porcupines. The prices are pretty on par with typical dim sum and you order by checking items off of a list. I would say the food is more westernised/​fusion (not too traditional) so if you’re looking for an authentic experience, you won’t get one from here but if you love gimmick (like me) and cutely shaped food, Kwan is the place for you.
4 stars because a dim sum restaurant can never get the full 5 stars unless there is cart service (that’s the real deal).

BOTTOM LINE: Decent dim sum, service worse than Chinatown.
People like to complain about the service, or the lack thereof, in Chinese restaurants, but one thing they typically do well is being efficient. Kwan is the opposite — or at least it was on a Saturday morning I attended.
While we were seated quickly, we waited around until we had to ask for tea and the menu on separate occasions — oddly, the waiter seemed irritated by our request. After our first round of dim sum arrived relatively quickly, we ordered a second round. This, however, took forever, and when we eventually followed up on it, it was brought out almost immediately suggestive that it had been sitting around in the back ignored.
It’s too bad because I really did enjoy the dim sum here. The décor is modern and the place is clean. At these prices, however, I think I would rather go to Crown Princess, Pearl Harbourfront, or Lai Wah Heen.

Delightful and refreshing dim sum experience!
I think it’s safe to say that I’ve eaten at my fair share of dim sum locations around the GTA. Each with their pro and cons, some being better than others. That being said, they all (unfortunately) shared one thing; their décor. Each Chinese restaurant that I’ve been to often falls prey to the ‘quantity vs quality’ tropes: the uneven circular tables draped in plastic for easy disposal, the extremely close table placements for maximum seating, the heavily stained carpet floors, rolled into kingdom come from countless dim-​sum carts, to even the traditional Chinese vibrant red velvet walls, mounted with dragons, or phoenixes, or other symbolic creatures of Oriental influence (don’t get me wrong, I love my golden turtle as much as the next guy, but the strong red gives you eyestrain similar to a doctor that had just completed a triple bypass surgery).
I am happy to report that this restaurant does not fall victim to those choices. Kwan is probably THE nicest dim sum location I have ever been to. From the lighting, to the plate selection and everything in between, the experience was extremely pleasing, and made my eating experience that much more enjoyable.
That said, let’s get to the food. I was surprised to find that my dim sum was being placed on my table no more than 5 minutes after handing the menu to the waiters. Ordinarily, I’d look down on pre-​preparing food for the sake of swift service, but the food they delivered did not seem show any signs of staleness/​re-​warming. I had ordered the Siu Mai, which came out still steaming, and not dry (as if on a steamer for an extended period of time), the deep-​fried shrimp dumpling came out extremely crispy, and not re-​fried (I can tell, having worked at a sushi restaurant before), and the Shrimp Cheung Fun came out without any dry bits that would indicate a hot plate or something similar. In addition, the food tasted really fresh! It’s hard to explain, but it really felt like they used higher quality ingredients in creating the meals here than they would at your run-​of-​the-​mill Dim Sum restaurant. Even the tea was well done!
My only gripe is that the food her is rather expensive. My 3-​dish meal ran me just south of $ 20 ($ 5 per dish; Tips and tax included). Their categorization of each food dish is rather cryptic with a very small print of the prices per dish size hidden near the back of their menu. Honestly though, if my hunch about higher quality food is correct, I feel their higher prices are justified.
With all that said, I must say this was an extremely pleasant experience and will definitely come back here if I‘m ever in the area. Nice service, quick AND delicious food (who would’ve thought?), and AMAZING décor/​atmosphere, I’d give it a 4.5 if I could, but am more than happy to give them a 5.

Chef’s food is excellent. Poor servers who don’t know how to serve dim sum mar the experience. Tea pot overflowing and a hostess with Scarborough kitchen-​side manner not cool. And no Amex at an upscale resto.

We decided to go based on some online feedback. We normally go to ginger & onions if uptown or Rosewood if downtown. This place was a great surprise. Great atmosphere and great food. The staffs were very helpful. We will definitely will be coming here again since we live very close by.
Highly recommended…

I’m going to state my bias now, I grew up in a food centric Chinese family (but I guess what Chinese family isn’t). I may have a higher standard for dim sum than most and also a higher quality for value factor. So while the food at Kwan is good, I’ve had better elsewhere in the city for less. I just can’t help but factor that into the equation when judging my experience. The dining rooms where substantially more fancy than any other dim sum restaurant, so you’re paying for that and being in midtown. The one unique dish was a lotus paste bun shaped like a bunny. It was almost too cute to eat, but of course I did in the end. The outer crust of the bun was slightly crisp, different from the soft steamed texture you’d expect. I’d go back to Kwan in a pinch when I’m in feeling homesick, but also too lazy to travel to Chinatown.

We had a great time at Kwan. The food wasn’t cheap, but everything was really unique and pretty good. Service and staff was nice and friendly. I’d say the dim sum is comparable to uptown restaurants. This is a good choice if you live in midtown of Toronto.

I came here for dinner with my family, expecting it to be somewhat of an upscale dim sum place… Horrible mistake!
The worst service I have ever had. I called the waiter so many times, but he kept on not noticing me, passing by without acknowledgement. First — to order drinks, then to order food, then — to add to the order… because the portions were small.
When I tried to get other waiters’ attention, or that of a person who brought my meals, they all told me I had to wait for the waiter assigned to the table. One lady promised me to get him twice! but he never came. And all this while the restaurant wasn’t even half-​full!
When I go to a Chinese restaurant, I expect fast service, big portions and good food. By these criteria, this was the most non-​Chinese restaurants of all Chinese restaurants.
Food was good, but not that good — I can easily name much better places in the city.
My first and last time there!
P.S: One of the beers ordered was not available, instead of bringing the drinks menu and offering to make another choice, the waiter assumed the decision for us — and just brought us a Tsing Tao… Really?
Awful.

Waited at entrance to be acknowledged for 5 min. Was whisked into cold (as in atmosphere) bar — the place had the feeling it had already closed — no ambient music, bright lights, only one other table. The «greeter» person turned out to also be my server and did not say hello or any pleasantries — his entire conversation with me «was ready to order?» No other conversation was exchanged nor did he say thank you or good bye. Washroom was very dirty and someone was sick in there at one point. That with lots of water and towels on the floor — obviously shows that no one has been checking the washrooms periodically. Had dim sum. It was just ok. This was certainly not what one would expect based on the location and price. I won’t be going back.

I ordered a verity of dim sum and they were all excellent, well prepared and delicious!
A five star place from me, will definitely come back many times!

3.5 STARS
You want to be treated rudely and have to wait for your food and scream out for attention? If so come here! Now I say this without any anger because in some odd way it lends to the charm of this place and how you are to act once here.
Located on Yonge/St.Clair, this upscale dim sum place is exactly opposite of most dim sum places across the city It’s upscale and looks more like a lounge than a restaurant. It’s actually a fairly large place that can certainly accommodate large groups.
We can here for brunch on a Sunday for 11:30am. The restaurant was about half empty but about 30 min later it really started to get busy with a line up at the door. We tried a variety of dishes ranging from the tradition shrimp dumplings to the more interesting mini chicken pot pies. Everything was fairly yum but no flavour explosion in my mouth kinda yum. The mini chicken pot pies were literally that — mini! A Reese’s pieces would be bigger! (you get 4 pieces). It had a lovely savoury and sweet flavour. It’s more of an amuse bouche. We also had the seafood soup dumplings which were lovely but slightly on the bland side as well as tofu rice noodle dish which had a nice crunch to it.
The staff seem to always be running somewhere (where I have no idea). If you ask for something they just go off… you have no idea if they even acknowledged what you said so you really need to speak up. Service was also slow… we were waiting 7 – 8 minutes between orders so try and order as much as you can at one time.
Definitely check this place out, but be warned that the prices are more than your local Scaroborough or Chinatown dim sum prices.

Classy décor, attentive service, delicate food! Solid dim sum place.

This may be my new favourite dim sum /​Chinese restaurant in the city.
I am a big fan of Lee Wei Heen and Kwan managed to poach the chef from there.
This place uses less sugar and salt than any Chinese restaurant I have tried and clearly used better quality ingredients.
The shrimp and bamboo har gow and siu mai were both very tasty. The crispy spring rolls wrapped in rice noodles were particularly good and the egg tarts may be the best I have had.
The seem to be short staffed with people rushing around, but the food certainly made up for it.
I will definitely be going back.

This is a best service n excellent quality food combined Chinese restaurant I ever have. Fusion Chinese food but didn’t gave away the traditional Chinese flavor. Price is a bit on high side for Chinese restaurant but you get a very personal service and flexible menu (if you know what you want, you can preorder ahead of time).
For example, they don’t serve dim sum at night but you can preorder it. Dim sum is a must try.
Their dessert is creative. And is a wow.

This restaurant seems to cater best to large groups. A group of 10 of us came here on a Saturday night. There was another large group of up to 16 people and 3 other tables with groups of 4. Although that sounds like a lot of people, the restaurant is fairly big and was ¾ empty. There is no ambiance. There is also no background music/​noise, so the largest group’s voices carried and were extremely loud.
Although the food was good, the price was too high and did not reflect the value. I understand why the prices are high given the wealthy neighbourhood and size of the restaurant. However, I would not recommend this place unless you are willing to pay the price for those things.
We tried a number of dishes including the the peking duck, lemon chicken, pork buns, chili garlic prawns, and vegetable dishes. I would recommend the chili garlic prawns and lemon chicken. The peking duck was overpriced ($ 48) and there are other restaurants that serve it better at a more reasonable price. I am happy to pay the price for a great meal when warranted but this was not the case. Unfortunately, I will not be going back.

This review is for Dinner on a Wednesday around 7pm, not Dim Sum…
Upon entering Kwan for dinner, it was very low key, intimate and relaxing. At first I was a little bit concerned because the waiter took a little bit longer than usual to get to us, but once he did (Alex) the service was expedient, knowledgeable and polite!
My fiancé had the Miso Mushroom soup and I had the Hot and Sour soup to start. Coming from Los Angeles, I had no idea what to expect. Both dishes came in wonderfully designed, single serving soup bowls that resemble the planet Saturn (you’ll see what I mean). The flavors were balanced, not over salted or over seasoned… just perfect. Light and fresh.
The jasmine tea was (miracle here, compared to all other Chinese food restaurants) served at a perfect, non-​scorching, temperature! Thank you!
The Mushroom and Spinach in a mild sauce was, again, extraordinarily light, fresh, vibrant, and healthy tasting.
The Chicken Ya-​Ca Mein (if I botch the names forgive me), again was extraordinarily perfect. The noodles were just long enough to easily manage with chopsticks or a fork, and the noodles were not overly greasy like so many «mein» dishes can be. the mushrooms and chicken in the Ya-​Ca mein were just enough to add a nice punch of flavor. Fantastic, truly!
We finished with the Mango Pudding and a couple of sesame covered «mochi» glutinous rice balls with sweet red bean centers. The pudding was the only dish that seemed flat and uninspired compared with everything else. It tasted more like jello than pudding, though again, the dish it was served in was so tasteful, it’s hard not to like it. The rice balls were outstanding, we couldn’t help but want more.
Everyone was friendly in an non overbearing way, the décor was renovated, but still pleasant and quiet (as mentioned before). It was a nice place to relax and have a peaceful meal, without any stupid music playing. For us, and we like to eat very healthy, we came away feeling full and satisfied instead of greasy and ill.
Good job, Kwan dinner chefs. And many thanks to Niall at Cava restaurant, just up the street for recommending Kwan. A good neighbor restaurant, thoughtful to recommend you, since they were having a private event. We will return to Cava soon, since we were unable to experience it today.
So why five stars? It would be a 4.5, but it’s closer to a 5 than a 4. The restaurant, for dinner, successfully accomplished what it’s trying to be, that is, high quality Chinese food with a pleasant atmosphere and friendly service, what’s not to like?

I tasked my husband to find something to do in Toronto during our trip to Niagara Falls. He wanted dim sum and this is where we ended up. We were not disappointed. We tried steamed items, pan fried items, and steamed rice flour noodle wraps. Everything was delicious and we are saddened by the fact that this place is so far from home.
One thing to note, the restrooms are downstairs in the basement, but the basement ceiling is low. I’d approximate that the ceiling is only 6 ft tall.