Rol San - Dim sum
Christmas day we went out with some friends for Dim sum for breakfast: aka Chinese tapas.
If you never had dim sum, you should definitely try it out. In Chinese this literally translates to "morning-tea", the less literal meaning is "brunch". Like the famed Spanish tapas, everything come in small portions so you get to try many dishes without having to commit to one big dish, all shareable. Unlike the tapas, you get all of your favorite Chinese food fix if you want greasy, steamed, stewed, souped, or stuffed (or maybe have them all?).
If you had dims sum in the past this is not your fancy dim sum place. It's actually a bit tacky with the plastic table cloth (for easy cleaning) and not to fancy interior decor. But it's open on Christmas day and honestly the best thing to cure a heavy post-drinking night. This place is located in Toronto downtown Chinatown and is called Rol-San. In Chinese I think it translates to uh.. Dragon.. Sing? The owners don't seem to have launched a website or haven't gotten their millennial staff to do this yet. It is certainly not suffering from lack of publicity - this place has been a round a long time and obviously a local's favorite. Always packed during the weekends, and you will expect a line-up if you arrive after 1030 am. The trusty Blogto (local food holy grail) has also featured this place cuz it's oh so delicious. https://www.blogto.com/restaurants/rolsan/
This shop will let you order on a small order form with a pen. Dishes come out pretty fast as soon as they are ready - no particular order but they do tend to bring the desserts out last. Works for me! You can trust every dish is piping hot when it comes out with steam coming out of it! Now the trick is try not to burn your tongue (Ouuch!). We got so many things and there was only 4 of us and had no left overs. Wait I'm not sure this convinces you how delicious it is or how much we all ate... delicious! of course! The items included shrimp rolls, har gaw (shrimp dumplings), calamari, tofu steamed with mushrooms, tripe, chicken mushroom bun, chicken feet (yes these sound so gross, also a bit of a hassle to eat because they have million bones, but omg one of my guilty pleasures!) sesame balls, mango jello, coconut jelly with red beans, and maybe a few more things I forgot the names of.
It's a fun place to go with a few people. Eat and sip tea with leisure. Well hopefully you aren't seated facing the hungry lineup crowd that look at you with hangry eyes. In which case, eat a bit faster.
Recently (Dec 2019) there seems to be a sign outside this awesome restaurant - city construction notice that there will be a 13-story building mix-used built at the site. I am hopeful once it's all said the done, Rol San gets to come back in the same neighborhood in the same spot. But in the mean time, give them a visit and have some delicious har gaw and if you are adventurous, chicken feet!
If you never had dim sum, you should definitely try it out. In Chinese this literally translates to "morning-tea", the less literal meaning is "brunch". Like the famed Spanish tapas, everything come in small portions so you get to try many dishes without having to commit to one big dish, all shareable. Unlike the tapas, you get all of your favorite Chinese food fix if you want greasy, steamed, stewed, souped, or stuffed (or maybe have them all?).
If you had dims sum in the past this is not your fancy dim sum place. It's actually a bit tacky with the plastic table cloth (for easy cleaning) and not to fancy interior decor. But it's open on Christmas day and honestly the best thing to cure a heavy post-drinking night. This place is located in Toronto downtown Chinatown and is called Rol-San. In Chinese I think it translates to uh.. Dragon.. Sing? The owners don't seem to have launched a website or haven't gotten their millennial staff to do this yet. It is certainly not suffering from lack of publicity - this place has been a round a long time and obviously a local's favorite. Always packed during the weekends, and you will expect a line-up if you arrive after 1030 am. The trusty Blogto (local food holy grail) has also featured this place cuz it's oh so delicious. https://www.blogto.com/restaurants/rolsan/
This shop will let you order on a small order form with a pen. Dishes come out pretty fast as soon as they are ready - no particular order but they do tend to bring the desserts out last. Works for me! You can trust every dish is piping hot when it comes out with steam coming out of it! Now the trick is try not to burn your tongue (Ouuch!). We got so many things and there was only 4 of us and had no left overs. Wait I'm not sure this convinces you how delicious it is or how much we all ate... delicious! of course! The items included shrimp rolls, har gaw (shrimp dumplings), calamari, tofu steamed with mushrooms, tripe, chicken mushroom bun, chicken feet (yes these sound so gross, also a bit of a hassle to eat because they have million bones, but omg one of my guilty pleasures!) sesame balls, mango jello, coconut jelly with red beans, and maybe a few more things I forgot the names of.It's a fun place to go with a few people. Eat and sip tea with leisure. Well hopefully you aren't seated facing the hungry lineup crowd that look at you with hangry eyes. In which case, eat a bit faster.
Recently (Dec 2019) there seems to be a sign outside this awesome restaurant - city construction notice that there will be a 13-story building mix-used built at the site. I am hopeful once it's all said the done, Rol San gets to come back in the same neighborhood in the same spot. But in the mean time, give them a visit and have some delicious har gaw and if you are adventurous, chicken feet!
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