TAO canteen

After dining-​in a couple of times I’ve decided to takeout my favourite dish and bring it home with me after work. Maybe this is more of a Tip than a review, since I’m stuck on the Chef Special :
Malay Laksa has been consistent in flavour, with varying degrees of spiciness, it is my go-​to for comfort food, especially during these long winters.
It may take me a long time to work my way thru the extensive menu, but I’ll let you know if this place ever disappoints. So far best $ value I’ve found nearby, for that warm fuzzy feeling mm-​yumm. Pay no mind to those harsh critics, thankfully I only read Unilocal reviews after-​the-​fact, when a place is deserving of mine!

For my last 2 – 3 visits over the past few months I have noticed that the quality of their stuff has gone downhill — drastically. I am not sure what exactly happened here but things have gone sour.
I can’t seem find any reason to like any of my previous favourites. The menu hasn’t changed but the food has. I have noticed a sharp decline in clientele as well even during the weekend rush. I used to have to wait in line for a table but now tables are readily available.
I wouldn’t waste my time coming here unless you are absolutely desperate or you are in dire need of a cheap fix. The only positive thing that remains is the relatively low price and huge portions.

I think I may have ordered the wrong thing. Ordered malay laksa noodle soup but there didn’t seem to be any coconut milk in it, which makes it hard to even classify as curry laksa. Other people’s food looked good but I wouldn’t know. If I go again I’ll get beef brisket.

I’ve honestly read so many bad reviews that I was scared to come in here. But since my sister was buying me lunch I couldn’t say no (the struggles of a foodie) and now it will give me a chance to review.
This place is convenient with their own parking lot — none of the usual parking difficulties of going to a HK café.
Even with all the bad Unilocal reviews — this place was PACKED. Granted it was filled with people who you would not assume to use Unilocal (older generation families). There was a line-​up at the door around 1PM and people started sharing tables.
We got take-​out:
Red Wine Beef Brisket Rice
— This was surprisingly, shockingly, devastating delicious. I have a tendency to become a little suspicious when Chinese restaurants use alcoholic beverages. But the sauce and the brisket went together very well & this is an item I would go back and take-​out without hesitation.
Chicken Gravy Rice
— They got my order wrong the first time and gave me a new box. The portions were huge — they gave me 2 pieces of chicken that took up half the take-​out box and was drowning in gravy + a nice portion of rice to go alongside it.
My sister told me this place was a hit or miss — you might get sick/​you might not… But after an hour of eating I am feeling fine. I will update if I develop weird symptoms.

My family visits here just because it’s close, but the flavors are off. The noodles for example, is very soggy. It is just very convenient because there are not many Chinese restaurants in the northern part of Markham. I would rather not visit here if I have time to drive further away.

Too much MSG on anything. Overall food is okay after you wash it with glass of water. Make sure you ask them to skip MSG when you are ordering.

Looking for a quick mediocre Chinese «diner» and happen to be in north east Markham? You can check this place out … If you’re out of options.
Food: typical Chinese diner style food. You have lots of the typical baked meat dishes or noodle broth soups. They also have some not so stereotypical items like Paad Thai. Any good? Nothing special. It’s hard to screw up a satay beef with instant noodle. But they get my attention with the breakfast specials i.e. free drink. Basically this place’s strength isn’t its food but how quick they can turn food out. If you need mediocre food quick, come here.
Décor: Like the food, nothing to write home about. A few TV’s for the seniors to watch Chinese soaps. Other than that, pretty stereotypical right down to the spelling errors in the menu.
Washroom: once again, a diner. Not gross, but not super clean either. Meets the basic requirements.

To be fair, I think everyone is misjudging this place — however I also just want everyone to get along lol but this place has great portions for price of their food so I’m not sure what JoJo’s talking about because they’re completely Inexpensive and majority of their dishes are huge in portion and still under $ 10. The other plus sides are that there’s a huge parking lot so easy to get in and out/​no wait time to sit down and eat, there’s booths, their menu has different sections catering solely to a breakfast menu, lunch menu, dinner menu (based on time of day) and they also have a snack menu, rice dish menu, noodle menu, etc. So to be truthful, they have such a wide array of dishes to choose from, you can’t go wrong here. And if you’re not Asian — don’t worry, I see White people in here all the time *ethnic friendly/​thumbs up*
Ordered the seafood with cream sauce on spaghetti and the chicken with gravy and rice dish. The seafood dish was not bad, the plate was very hot and steaming — and I mean the whole way through so that was great, lots of noodles, there’s a lot of sauce — this dish is enough to fill 3 – 4 people, however the dish itself was pretty salty. When I got home I felt my taste buds felt a bit overused because of this. I also had to get it to-​go in the end since I couldn’t even finish ¼ of the dish considering its size. The seafood included in the cheesy-​sauce were; squid; deveined shrimp; and scallops. With every order comes with it a pork-​bone soup that’s not salty but I’m sure you can taste some of the MSG after that is enough for 2 – 4 people, and two hot tea’s.
The chicken with gravy dish had some crisp to it around the edges which had a nice touch. The dish was accommodated by plenty of rice with some green garnishing and a lot of gravy to cover the chicken. These dishes were enough to fill you up even for just 2 people, but it can probably last you for leftovers for two days. I think both dishes were about $ 8.25 or so, but with 3 – 4 times the normal portion sizes for a single person. Therefore I say this is a good place for your money to get the most bang for your buck. This place also has a HK café-​vibe to it, complete with booths and tables to help seat you and your guests accordingly. There’s a TV on some of the sides of the vicinity and it’s usually playing a Chinese drama/​series/​show/​etc. The service tonight was also very efficient, quick, helpful, attentive and easy, so it made our stay very comfortable. Will be coming back.

This restaurant must be mindful of salt usage, because the Chicken with Tofu and Preserved Vegetable had minimum salt. The Eggplant with Minced Pork was served with fish sauce in a separate bowl. The Charcoal Coffee with Sirloin Beef was bold in flavour, including salt, though. The cooking ranged from forgettable (Chicken with Tofu) to average (Eggplant with Minced Pork), to good (Charcoal Coffee with Beef). Actually, I cannot with sincerity recommend you to order the Chicken with Tofu dish.
Interesting! They cook with used grounded coffee in all the so-​called Charcoal Coffee with Chicken/​Beef/​Pork entrée/​rice/​noodle, and the result was nice, even refreshing. There is an obvious charcoal taste that adds a flavour but it does not overwhelm the other tastes going on in the entrée. Nice inhouse specialty. I encourage you give it a try next time you are here.
We ordered a dinner combo for three ($ 26) that came with rice and starter soup. Considering that 3 bowls of rice was worth $ 4.50, each entrée costed $ 7.20 on average. The entrée was cheaper than those sold at T&T Supermarket. At this canteen pricing, I am willing to visit for a cheap eat again.

Another Hong Kong Style café that serves authentic chinese dishes. O. k service is not great here, very basic, but this place is always packed with regulars and locals. The food is o. k but lacks the wow factors and as other have mentioned they do use a lot of msg. In terms of value for your money its a good deal but I don’t think I would come back here again. Décor is fine and the place is fairly clean. If the service improved and they used less msg, it could easily jump a star in by books…

Came here last week ~ the food tasted average not the best for its price and quality for a HK style café .money price matches with phoenix. quality worse than your average HK afternoon tea style café
Well you can’t go wrong with luncheon meat and vermicelli but the vermicelli tasted low quality and too soft. This costed around $ 6 and I also ordered lemongrass porkchop vermicelli that tasted below average and it was $ 7… Pretty over priced for some cheap noodles … Sigh

Food was excellent considering the price. I think a lot of the reviewers don’t account for that. You get what you pay for and in this case it was worth it. I was impressed with the speed and quality of food. We often get take out from them as well and it’s always been good. They have a great lunch menu as well.

Pretty disappointed with this place.
Ordered a wonton noodle soup. I thought the noodles were over cooked and a bit soggy. The wontons themselves were small when compared to other places. $ 5.50 for the regular size and with extra noodle its an extra $ 1.50
Deep fried French toast $ 3.95 was pretty good. Came with maple syrup but I usually like it better with honey or condensed milk.
Service was fast and sitting with strangers is a high possibility which we had to endure since there are 3 huge round tables but most people come in groups of 3 or 4’s.
The HK style milk tea was like 80% milk and 20% tea. Didn’t really like it.
A very forgettable experience but suitable for cheap quick meal.

First off, I like my hk café… By far I don’t usually have high expectation on service or food. But the food and service was terrible…
They really need to change management …

We decided to try this place since we’ve been to the other restaurants nearby. I didn’t like the brownish-​orange plastic water glasses, but the dishes were fine and the restaurant seemed clean. The portions are definitely big, we ate half of a pad thai and a beef ho fun that night and the rest of it the next day. The tea was the strongest I have ever tasted, but maybe it is supposed to be that way? The prices are definitely reasonable, so although it wasn’t great because it is close we may go and try it out again.

Seldom go to this area, and accidentally found this place after shopped at Home Depot. It is spacious and clean. It serves almost everything; noodle, rice, congee and even Thai food. We had fried rice noodle with beef ($ 7ish) and chicken laksa ($ 6.49). They were in big portion… oh no… it’s more than big… it’s huge! It’s the biggest bowl of laksa I have ever had, and it’s the blandest as well. They didn’t put in any coconut milk at all and the soup didn’t have that thickness. Fried rice noodle was ok. Smelled good and the beef was tender, but the noodle was a bit mushy.
*Drinks are included and with complimentary soup*
**Disclaimer — WARNING — portions are in huge quantity and please come with an extreme empty stomach**

Not impressed with this place. Baked pork chop in tomato sauce on rice came with lots of burnt bits on the pork chop. The food came out especially fast even though the restaurant was moderately busy. Cold milk tea was filled with mostly large ice cubes (to the top) and wasn’t worth the extra $ 1.
I think it’s worth it to go somewhere else (eg. McCowan /​Bur Oak, or Kennedy /​Bur Oak) if you’re looking for your HK style fix.
I think I will go again to give it another shot, and because its location is convenient. You’ll hear again from me soon hopefully!

My stomach. Ugh, I don’t think I’ll need to eat for a week.
This restaurant is perfectly if you prefer quantity over quality, and I mean heavy quantity. I thought Sugar Sweet Café was known for quantity, but this tops it and then some.
The iced lemon tea in this place is gigantic. It’s about the size of an extra large soft drink at a fast food restaurant, and that to me is simply too much to handle. However, the tea is of poor quality and honestly tasted like Nestea or the tea you get from fast food restaurants.
We ordered the laksa and the chicken pad thai. Both were obviously of good value due to the size portions (honestly I don’t think two people can finish the pad thai in one go), and my dad actually liked the quality of the laksa. The pad thai was average, but I can’t really complain considering it only costed $ 7.95.
Service was okay, but we were the only ones in the restaurant the whole time so I expected a bit more attention in terms of asking us how the food was and thanking us for arriving at 9pm, 1 hour before they close.
I would not come back if I’m on a half-​full stomach. On an empty stomach I would consider a second try for some of their other items.

Finally opened over a month ago. They had the 10% for a month and took it away thereafter.
1^st experience: very minimal selection, not alot of specials. the only good thing was the lunch special was till 5:30Pm
2^nd experience: service was bad, ordered spaghetti and came out rice instead. when I said, I wanted spaghetti, they kept on repeating «is rice ok? «…I insisted in spaghetti… don’t force me to eat something I dont want to. I’m the customer… sheesh.
Overpriced for the food and service.
Overall, not a place I would want to come back in awhile unless I see some improving reviews… this business may not last that long…

I have been waiting for TAO Noodles for months. And finally…
Lunch Special till 5:30 pm with over 20 + items to choose from.
My Wonton Noodle ($ 4.95) with a choice of drink is A-​Ok. The wonton has a good balance of shrimp and pork with a touch of shrimp roe. Small in portion and great in taste. Reminds me a lot of what they serves in Hong Kong.
I will be back to try out other dishes as it is really convenient location for me and opens till 11 pm.
Seating is comfy and the restaurant is spacious will high ceiling.
A little hot and humid though today without enough AC… it definitely felt like Summer in Hong Kong!