Toronto Chinese restaurant now is serving up a nearly $9,000 goose

If Toronto's new $1,000 cocktail experience wasn't over-the-top enough for you, Lai Wah Heen, the city's undisputed home for next-level dim sum, just added something to the menu that blows it — and other pricey luxury menus — out of the water.

In honour of all the glitz and glamour that comes along with the annual Toronto International Film Festival, the celebrated dim sum restaurant has introduced a sumptuous new five-course meal that draws inspiration from Cantonese and Southern Chinese cuisine.

Here's the kicker: its price tag weighs in at a staggering $8888, a nod to the Eight Treasure Goose that serves as the meal's crowning achievement and to the auspicious nature of the number eight in Chinese numerology.

Dubbed The Treasure of Fortune, the meal centres around the core theme of "treasures of the mountains and delicacies of the seas," an expression of culinary storytelling and tact that the restaurant requires diners to order three days in advance because it takes precisely that long to prepare it.

The process starts with the Eight Treasure Goose, a truly impressive feat of culinary prowess wherein Executive Chef Heyden Sin debones an entire goose while keeping the bird and its skin intact.

The goose is then filled with the aforementioned mountain and ocean treasures, including Tibetan cordyceps and Italian white truffle, premium-aged fish maw and imperial scallop, and formed into the shape of a bottle gourd, an auspicious symbol in Chinese culture.

Though it is — both technically and visually — the star of the show, the Treasure of Fortune extends beyond just the goose. The meal also includes, for example, a 500g tin of caviar.

And, if the golden goose, so to speak, wasn't luxe enough for you, the restaurant is also offering the option to add a bottle of 1989 Château Margaux — of which there are only two available — to the meal for a mere $3888.

Will I personally be indulging in the nearly $13,000 five-course dinner with wine pairing? Seeing as the price tag is nearing my entire net worth, likely not, but it sure is fun to imagine the types of people who will. Seeing as the meal is only available during TIFF, perhaps some flex-forward A-listers will be booking a reservation.

Lai Wah Heen is located at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel at 108 Chestnut St.