Dynasty Chinese Cuisine has reopened on Yorkville Avenue, just west of Bay Street. The location, formerly held by True, an organic/locovore restaurant, was closed, leaving it available for Dynasty to take over last month. The rstaurant has been at Yorkville and Bay since December 17.
The new location is definitely trendier-looking (they pretty much kept most of True’s decor, right down to the hardwood floors. They did, however, take down some of the booths to make room for regular tables) and very different from “typical” Chinese restaurants, which tend to be either down hole-in-the-walls or boring suburban carpeted places, unless they’re fusion-inspired or part of hotels. It is also about 30% smaller than their old Collonade venue, meaning that they might not be able to handle the larger wedding banquets that they did in the past. This is too bad, as there aren’t many Chinese restaurants in the downtown area which can be used as wedding reception venues. However, this means that they’ll be doing more regular lunch and dinner businesses.
Food-wise, it hasn’t changed very much. Dinner menu items are pretty much standard fare of stir-fries, steamed items and stews/hot pots. One of the dishes I had at my recent visit was stir-fried beef in pineapple. It’s somewhat fusion-y/North Americanized (the more traditionally Chinese dish would be a standard stir fry beef with gai lan or choy sum), but it’s absolutely delicious. Something more authentically Chinese is eggplant stew/hot pot, which in addition to eggplant, is cooked with shitaake mushrooms and is often also cooked with tofu. The dim sum lunches, like at their old location, is ordered via slips of paper. Again, the menu is pretty standard, with items such as ha gow, cheung fun (rice crepes) and desserts like egg custard tarts – typical of any Toronto-area Chinese restaurant.
The good thing about the new location is the traffic. The old Colonade location was on the second floor, and people who don’t know about the restaurant won’t know to go upstairs. However, Dynasty is now located near street level (more mezzanine) and is much more visible.
Dynasty is located at 69 Yorkville Avenue. Phone number is 416-923-3323. Dynasty’s old location at the Collonade is rumoured to become a bistro.
