Hai Tian Restaurant

Closed so soon?
Wow, we just discovered this restaurant too.
The dim sum was good. It may not be the best out there but far from the worst. Everything was quite flavorful. Fried Tofu w/​Shrimp, Steamed Pork Buns, Spring Rolls, Sticky Rice w/​Chicken in Lotus Leaf, Fried Wontons were all on point. They offer Xiao Long Bao (Soup Dumplings). Not the best I’ve tasted in Canada but still pretty darn tasty. You are given an order sheet and you mark which item you want along with the quantity. You then hand over the sheet to your server.
Service needed a lot of improvement. Our server simply grabbed our order sheet and was barely seen after that. The family needed some more tea, napkins and sauces. It took over 15 mins to get someone to help us out. The restaurant wasn’t even all that packed.
My 2 little nieces weren’t in the mood for dim sum and only wanted some soup. The soup didn’t come out till we were practically finished with our meal. When we were able to get a hold of our server we would remind him about the soup, but no luck. It still took forever. This should have been the first dish to come out from the kitchen.
Bad service aside, the food was flavorful and reasonably priced. We all left very full. It was sweet of my cousin to treat me here and even sweeter catching up with family.

This review is an update of my dim sum experience at Hai Tian Restaurant.
Price wise, it is the most affordable in the area.
Weekday $ 2.20 and Weekend $ 2.40 for every order aside from the specialities which has their own pricing.
Food is not bad at that price point.
Service though is definitely lacking! Forever to get everything: even our bills and change!
$ 1 charge for table cloths??? So the one that brings me dim sum can wipe their saucy and dirty fingers on it?
Why charge for table cloths? I don’t even need that table cloth?!

My family took me here for my birthday. We ordered a swimming green bass, steamed, for only $ 20. We thought it was a great deal and well prepared. We also tried the peking duck, gai lan, and fried beef steak with onions. Everything was yummy. Generally, the portions are generous. They gave us complimentary soup and bean curd dessert. The service was good and the only thing that shortened our celebration was the fact that we arrived a bit late at 8 pm and they closed at 10 pm. We were there on a weekday. However, they politely told us that they were closing at 10, so we left even though we would have liked to stay a bit longer. The décor is quite nice, the chairs have covers and the dishes are clean and in good condition. I enjoyed it and would like to return.

All four dishes I ordered were very oily. You could clearly see the shine on the beans and beef, and when I put the minced pork in my mouth, all I could taste was a mouthful of oil. But then again, what do you expect from a Chinese restaurant? Having said that, the food was actually alright.
Sugar snap peas and king oyster mushroom — crispy peas and nicely cooked mushrooms
Beef and Gai lan — the texture of the beef was not bad. The gai lan was crunchy, on the verge of being undercooked, but I’m fine with that.
Black bean chicken in hot pot — This was quite flavorful with the onions/​shallots and slightly salty sauce. Some pieces were a bit overcooked/​dry while others were mostly bones.
Minced pork with salted fish — Couldn’t taste much pork taste or ‘ma tai’ because it was smothered in a layer of oil when I bit into it.
The dessert was glutinous purple rice sweet soup — personally I like this much more than red bean dessert.

I recently tried dim sum at a relatively new restaurant across from Markville Mall (replacing a restaurant that my mom went to quite often). The prices are quite affordable– $ 2.20 per dish on weekdays and $ 2.40 on the weekends.
Now onto the food:
Pineapple BBQ pork buns– of course I couldn’t resist this heavenly combination of the sweet and savoury! It was utterly delicious and my favourite dish of the meal (although sadly not part of the regular menu).
Pumpkin congee– this came in a sizable bowl. The pumpkin bits were tasty and I wished for more of that instead of the pork meat.
Korean beef spare ribs– there were only 4 or 5 pieces, but it was pretty tasty.
We also ordered a series of steamed dumplings– har gow, steamed shrimp and vegetable dumpling, and Chiu Chow dumpling with peanuts. Out of these, I enjoyed the veggie dumpling the most.
Deep fried shrimp rolls with salad dressing– this was similar to spring rolls, but stuffed with shrimp. Oddly enough, they served the rolls with a sweet and sour dip in place of the promised salad dressing. Upon request, they did bring me some miracle whip, and I thought that was a better match.
Deep fried pork dumplings– loved the chewy and crispy exterior. I would order this again.
Layer egg yolk cake– It was rather bland, although the texture was appropriately light and fluffy.
Chicken and mushroom rice– this was quite disappointing. The rice was really bland and lacked any aromatic essence of the toppings. However, for $ 2.40, this had great value and would be substantial enough on its own to fill me up for lunch.
On the whole, I thought that Hai Tian is a pretty good option for cheap dim sum, although there were some misses. Since the dishes aren’t classified into small, medium and large, I don’t have to worry about always picking «large» items to maximize value. Hopefully, the pinapple BBQ pork bun will be available again the next time I come.

We had a birthday dinner there for my father in-​law. Overall, we find the food was good and the captain was very friendly and helpful. They gave us a huge lobster and it was made really nice. He also gave us various types of deserts.
The price is also very reasonable. The restaurant is still relatively new, so, can’t say we have tried it many times but we will go back there again.