Dynasty Chinese Cuisine
131 Bloor Street West, 2nd Fl 
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Phone: 416.923.3323
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At Dynasty, all manner of clientele are ticking off their orders on a small paper menu, eager for piping hot little dumplings to be whisked to their tables. Dim sum makes for a great lazy Sunday brunch alternative.
Although that Sunday afternoon found a hungry queue, plus a 20 minute wait despite having reservations, there certainly weren't any cart-pushing hawkers. Over looking Bloor Street West, nestled amongst mid to high end shops, it's not exactly where you'd think to go for dim sum.
Be-fitting of its location, perhaps, is the higher price point. There are 72 items on the menu marked as: S ($2.95), M ($4.60), L ($5.10), XL ($5.95), or XXL ($7.50). Most were familiar, but some more intriguing, such as the crispy shrimp puree roll wrapped in asparagus and bacon (pictured above). It had to be tried. The hearty sphere of ground shrimp, pierced with a wee bit of asparagus, was deep fried to a dry crispness that made the bacon like a cracker.
The steamed vegetarian dumplings were packets of baby corn, carrots, bamboo, and mushrooms in a nicely al dente wrapper. It was nicer still, with a dash of wasabi-esque yellow mustard or hot chili sauce (typical table condiments); or better yet, red rice vinegar brought upon request.
Steamed assorted mushrooms & snow pea leaves dumpling was reported to be the tastier veg package. Similarly enrobed steamed supreme har gow (shrimp dumplings) held nuggets of sweet crustacean.
Steamed rice crepe with fried dough stick is exactly that: a savory fried donut, wrapped in rice noodle. Although drizzled with a sweet soy sauce, it's sided with requisite dipping sauces: rich sesame and super sweet hoisin. The donut retained its crunch, but the rice noodle was too mushy for my liking, so soft it easily disintegrated in the mouth like gelatin.
Stir fried turnip pate with supreme spicy sauce works better with that delicate melting texture.
It's coat of XO sauce (made from dried scallops) provided a gritty, briny contrast.
We ended with one sweet bite, a dim sum favorite, brown sugar buttered sponge cake. Yellow and rich with yoke but light and fluffy, it's best eaten while still warm.
Dynasty is a safe bet for dependable dim sum. Service was sufficient, and there are more veg-friendly selections than most other places that always seem to sneak in pork or shrimp. It's evident that the extra dollars they charge go towards the quality of their fare - traditional offerings with touches of flourish - as well as a more refined setting. It's the kind of place that's good to take newcomers to be initiated into the dim sum delights of Chinese Tea.
Comments (9)
there are so many more places that are better and cheaper in markham and richmond hill. whenever i'm downtown, i would never have dim sum considering there are so many other choices of cuisine to eat. the competition up north drive the prices lower. you know a place is good when you have to wait min 30 minutes to get a table on a saturday/sunday morning. i was actually at dynasty today, and to be honest, from a chinese perspective, dynasty is only 75% authentic, while the other 25% is still catering to westerner taste. and totally overpriced...even if i didn't have the pay for the meal.
Uh, I really don't understand the overpriced complain... Yes you can get Dim Sum cheaper and the same comparable quality up at Markham, but I think you can easily say that for anything. Bay & Bloor caters to a certain group of clienteles (you know, the ones that can afford the Channels across the street? or the LV next door? They probably put their takeouts in them :) and it's pretty evident. As for the authenticity... I'm Chinese and I don't see what is not authentic about them. The quality of their Ha Gows alone is a good indication. What are the criteria for a Chinese restaurant to be 100% authentic anyway? Push carts? No Chop Suey on menu? Maybe just not serve Westerners at all? Hmm well here's a news flash, you don't have to order the egg rolls on the menu, it's not mandatory and I'm sure no one would hold it against you if you don't eat there because you can't afford it.
maggie, great comment! any dim sum junkie can taste good dim sum just from one har gow.
dynasty is high quality and 100% authentic. yes if you drive go to markham but if not, this is a great choice.
I agree....if you have to option, you should go up to Markham and you can get better dim sum for a better price but that is 30-50mins extra drive time. Dynasty is a reasonable quality, the Ha Gow are adequate, and you are dining on Bloor, so they pay higher rent, so you pay higher prices.
I'm new to the TO area and I tried Dynasty yesterday based on the good recommendations from this page. I was sorely disappointed. After tasting amazing dim sum while living in LA and having a couple of really good dim sum experiences in Scarborough lately, I found Dynasty's food to be very bland and disgustingly overpriced. Yes, I read the info and comments from this page and understood what Dynasty's prices would be, and I was prepared to pay that much for spectacular food. Dynasty is not spectacular in any way.
My husband and I first ordered our usual staples (har gow, siu mai, char siu bao, char siu pork in rice noodles, and sesame balls with bean paste) to see how Dynasty would compare. The har gow and siu mai were good but not great, the bao was a bit sweet for our tastes but the bun was nice and fluffy, and the sesame balls were actually pretty wonderful; however, the char siu pork in noodles was tasteless, the noodles were rubbery, and the sauce that came with it (usually a nice oyster sauce) was instead a gross vinegar-based watery variety.
After having a mostly-good experience with our staples we ordered a few more dishes as a kind of "tasting menu", with mixed results. The fried taro and tofu dishes were pretty good and the baked char siu pork buns were tasty, but everything else we ordered was definitely not: the fried shrimp & crab dish (the only XXL we ordered) was utterly tasteless and bordered on inedible; the shrimp & chive dumplings were average; the pork dumplings tasted like the bland frozen dim sum you buy from a supermarket, with a tough rubbery dough; and the baked sesame shrimp rolls were weird, tasted okay but not something I'd order again.
In total, we paid almost $80 for a dim sum meal that had some good points but was mostly either average or bland. In all of our previous dim sum experiences we've never paid more than $60 for excellent meals, even with 4 people at the table. To pay $80 at Dynasty for sub-par dim sum for 2 was ridiculous, and we're definitely never going there again. I'd advise you to do the same.
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