Modern Wok

I kept hearing people talking about their restaurant and last week I finally found it at the PATH and decided to try it out. I normally don’t do food court reviews but this is an exception, I am impress.
Modern wok looks like any other food court restaurant but when you see the long lineup you know there is something special about this place. First of all, the service was incredibly fast, the long line scared me initiallt, but I had only waited about 5 mins to get to my order. They have a gigantic selection of food items, so many trays that they had to pile on top of each other.
I ended up getting the hoi nam (vietnamese) chicken, it was only 6.99. The chicken was tender and juicy and the rice, mixed with chicken fat/​juice, was very flavourful. It tasted like something that I could get from a real restaurant.
Yes I admit this place probably doesn’t deserve 5 stars on the food alone, but for a food court Chinese restaurant, Modern Wok is substantially better than the chain restaurants. Modern Wok is cheaper, offers more authetic Chinese food, and best of all, it tastes better.

Great tasting Chinese food in the Path by St. Andrew station. I always seem to get here after the lunch crowd and there’s always an abundance of nearly empty trays of this or that.
I usually get pointed in the direction of some deep-​fried something rather than the potentially healthier options, but never mind because the deep-​fried something is always delicious.
Trays always are finished with a scoop of mixed veggies. Cash only so I’ve never asked for a receipt, although I’m not sure if I’d get one if I asked. Inexpensive and filling.

Nothing special. The taste tends to stay only on the outside but inside taste quite plain. Will buy from them if I am in a hurry and work is overwhelming. The price is good comparing to other places. So if you are looking for a cheap eat and don’t really care much about the taste then this place is perfect!

The best authentic Chinese food you will find in the path.
Their fast food is good — but I usually go for their off the menu items. The hainan chicken is delicious and so is their chicken in noodle. Servers are friendly and can speak Cantonese, mandarin and english.
Good quality Chinese food at a great price. Highly recommended.

I’m in the middle of studying for an industry exam and I don’t take stress well. The best antidote is comfort food, and of the many different kinds, Chinese Mom Comfort Food is one of the most effective. Except my Chinese mom is a 50min subway+20min car ride away from me, and I’m too prissy to get my hands dirty, especially when I’m studying. What to do?
In a situation like this, I’d go to Chinatown, but I work in the financial district so it’s not an option for lunch. Usually, I’d just get kimchi fried rice at Ho Ga or Manchu Wok at Metro Centre (it’s not authentic but it’s good enough in a pinch).
I finally stopped by Modern Wok today and decided to give it a try. No idea what was stopping me, especially since the always long lines speak for themselves, but there I was.
I. COULD. CRY. (of happiness)
The friendly person behind the counter walked me through how to order (small box comes with 2 items unless you get fried rice/​noodles, then it’s 1 item) and quickly gave me a rundown of what was available. I arrived at about 12:30pm and many of the pans were already emptyish, though more food was always being brought out from the kitchen.
I was super skeptical when I was told that the huge pan of beige lumps was steamed fish, but I’m a sucker for any kind of fish, so I chose it, along with stir-​fried napa cabbage with vermicelli, over plain jasmine rice. It came to $ 6.75 after tax — so the price increased, but it’s still very reasonable, especially for the financial district.
The fish was awesome. I mean, it’s not the same as home-​made, or restaurant-​quality, and it certainly looks different because they’re fish chunks as opposed to a whole fish, but it was tasty! It totally hit the spot. Steamed fish is one of my favourite foods in the whole, wide world. I liked that it was boneless & skinless, I liked that they were generous with the amount, I liked that it wasn’t fishy at all, I liked that it was seasoned just right, and I loved how I could shovel huge hunks of fish into my mouth, without getting poked and without choking.
The napa cabbage was pretty good. It was cooked properly and while it wasn’t exactly what I expected (there was Chinese preserved sausage in it as opposed to dried shrimp), it was good. The vermicelli was kind of over-​cooked, but it’s to be expected when it’s been sitting in its own juice under a heat lamp.
The amount of rice was appropriate, and cooked a little on the softer side (which is great compared to Manchu Wok, where the rice is always rock hard). I also really appreciated that the person helping me added a nice, big spoonful of green onion/​ginger sauce to my fish.
I am full, it was a very reasonable price, the food quality was much better than most Path eateries nearby, and my stress-​frizzled psyche is soothed (at least temporarily). I’m a fan!

I’m surprised a place like this exists downtown. I would’ve expected this in Chinatown, or a version of Modern Wok with inflated prices, but not at this place for this cheap. I’m a fan.
It’s rare to get good Chinese food in the financial district. I had lunch with my brother and we both had noodle soups — I had the roast duck noodle soup and he had the beef brisket noodle soup. I love roast duck but I think the beef brisket soup was better: it had a nice, strong flavour, perfect for those cold winter days, whereas the roast duck broth was a bit more plain.
You also get different types of noodles: the beef brisket soup had long, flat, white noodles (more slippery) whereas my noodles had yellow egg noodles (not fantastic, but not bad either). You get some token vegetables as well (we had broccoli), but from other reviews it looks like there’s baby bok choy as well. There are a lot of options beyond what we got — free-​range white chicken, soy sauce chicken, bbq pork, as well as your typical stir-​fry fare. You could probably eat every day for a week and not get bored.
Overall, it’s still a food court option, but you could do a lot worse downtown. At these prices (~$ 7) and with this selection, it’s pretty much one of the cheapest and filling meals you can get in this area. Authentic Cantonese and Taiwanese options at cheap prices. Who knew?

Modern Wok is an authentic Chinese fast food restaurant located inside a food court in the PATH near the St. Andrew station (the food court is directly across from SunLife financial). I love coming here for a quick lunch once or twice a week, $ 6.50 for a small rice with 2 toppings is pretty much one of the cheapest legit and filling meal you can find in the PATH financial district area. They have a large selections of standard toppings everyday with some daily special toppings which they do not make as much and it’s more of a first come first serve style. As a Chinese from Hong Kong, I think it’s more convincing when I tell you how good the food taste and how authentic they truly are! It’s not those typical Manchu Wok or chain Chinese fast food restaurants where they always have sweet and sour chicken balls.
If you ask me to recommend two toppings on rice, i personally like to have one topping with sauce and the other topping a little drier. My typical (if they have) toppings are Tofu Fish (or Eggplant with meat) and Stir Fried Fishcake vegetables on a small box of white rice. As I have mentioned before, for only $ 6.50, you cannot go wrong with it! (A burger king meal is WELL over $ 6.50! and a salad next door which i also reviewed will cost you $ 10!!)
I would also like to mention they occasionally have soup of the day, if you are a very traditional Chinese and is used to having a soup for most of the meals, I do highly recommend paying an additional $ 2-​$ 3 for the soup of the day (yes it’s legit authentic Chinese soup as well!!)
Overall 4/​5, 1 point off because not all the toppings taste as great, but overall a must try for all downtown workers who want some legit Chinese food around the area.

Best option for takeout Chinese food in the financial core. Food is fresh and flavourful and authentic, prices very reasonable and everything is absolutely delicious. Staff is always pleasant and friendly and they have so many different choices during peak lunch time that they don’t even fit on the counter. Amazing spicy beef noodle soup, great wings, every dish is mouthwatering good. They even have roast duck that’s not advertised, what more can you want? If you want real Chinese food, many dishes that you can’t get anywhere else that mom makes, this is the place to go

Honestly, I’m somewhat shocked by this place’s mediocre Unilocal score. Taken for what it is, namely, a nameless Chinese place on the PATH, Modern Wok is awesome. It’s pretty much the only Asian non-​chain offering even remotely close to the Financial District, and it’s far cheaper than its generic competitors. The food is hot, authentic, and served with characteristic indifference.
The line will be long, but it moves surprisingly fast — expedited no doubt, by their only cash policy and impatient glares should you take longer than ten seconds to order.
A great place for a cheap and cheerful lunch option.

If this was in chinatown or in scarborough, it would probably get 3 stars. However, because I can’t get hoi nam chicken rice anywhere in the financial district (not that I’ve seen anyways), it deserves an extra star! This place has a good variety of authentic food. The hoi nam chicken rice was 5.99. Rice was very tasty, but the chicken was a little dry. The sauce that went with it was good. The line up was not that long but we went at 11:45am. I hear it gets quite long after 12pm. You get free tea and water with your meal as well.

Agreed! Very hard to find non-​chain restaurant in the PATH. I am not a fan, but it is a great food option in the PATH. This place draws great crowds every lunch.

Draws workers from all the five banks, who dub it «145» for the building it’s in (145 King West). For Chinese food in Toronto, it’s not particularly special. For the PATH, it’s the only non-​chain Chinese food you’re going to get without hiking to the Sheraton Centre (for Noodle King).
Try the bitter melon dishes, or maybe the steamed chicken. Pork ribs liberally laden with chili sauce is another good choice.

If I could give zero stars. I would for Modern Wok.
The food is the most crappiest quality one can find. the food is soaked in oil. there was a cup of oil left on my plate from my overpriced 8.50 lunch for 2 choices (egg plant, and sweet and sour mystery meat) and rice.
What a ripoff for lousy food… can’t understand why there is a line up for this place. Anyways, I’ll never go back. not even for free.

Not so secret place in the Financial District.
Mole your way over to King & University through the path and you will happen upon the best take out Chinese food in the path. 2 choices with steamed rice for $ 6.50 or 1 choice for $ 5.
Free tea, even!
The food is pretty good and not your typical Chinese fast food fare of sweet n sour pork or chicken balls with that god awful red sauce.
Modern Wok’s food is fairly authentic as the long queue of Chinese people (and non-​Chinese in the know) can testify.
Had the spicy eggplant with ground pork and stir fried choy-​sum with shitake. yum!