Sam’s Congee Delight

Great snack location. Portions are just right. Not too much and not too little. I would say their congee bowls serves two people if you want to share. But also works well as individuals. I mean nothing best than silky congee for $ 5. The fried dough is fluffy and crispy. Very dense like a donut. I even spotted a European guy eating alone speaking Cantonese with staff as this place is still popular at all hours.

This is probably my favourite congee restaurant in Markham. Like others have mentioned it usually gets really packed during the weekends & be aware that you probably have to share a table with others. The service is super fast, literally all of my food arrived within 5 minutes and they were all steaming hot!
Food: ⁵⁄₅
You MUST try the minced beef congee (#101 on the menu; $ 4.08) literally the best congee here! Like the description, there is chucks of minced beef (like mini meatballs) and some lettuce, green onions and peanuts to top it off.
Any rice roll is amazing because they make it when you order it!
Value: 4.5÷5
The quality of the food is great, but the portions are smaller than regular congee restaurants like Congee Queen. But this is reflected in the cheaper prices! Be warned though, the prices creep up since you’ll probably order 2+ dishes.

As a person with food allergy, it is always difficult to look for food. I have not been Sam’s congee for long long time. I feel that they provide better service. The congee tastes the same as before.

The place is a tucked inside a mall near pacific mall… The price is low for the food that is served. The food is really good.
We had congee + noodles + dough fritters+tofu+ Beef
For all 4 of us we paid 28.00 Tax included…
The only thing we didnt like was the squid… was super rubbery and wouldnt recommend it !
Service is ok … A bit difficult to communicate in english, but the service was quick and attentive!
Will definitely be back here.

The best lunch, every thing taste exactly the same from HK. Price is low. Fry breads are freshly fry. Rice roll is freshly roll.

Sam’s Congee was packed as usual. And unless you have enough people for a full table, you will be asked to share your table with others. We were 4+baby, and we had to share a round table with a single diner. I prefer not to share tables usually, it’s just kind of awkward especially since i’m eating with friends to catch up with them. But it seems you pretty much don’t have a choice at Sam’s.
The prices are low here, but that’s because the dishes are small as well. So be ready to order lots of dishes. Our first round we ordered a beef and persevered egg congee, beef and fish congee, chow mien, beef and enoki rice roll, dough fritter and beef brisket on plain rice noodle (not in picture). The food definitely arrives fast. I guess it’s not difficult to bring out the congee when they have a giant vat of congee cooking and they just ladle in whatever ingredients you want into a bowl and pour some boiling hot congee into that bowl. We were quite hungry from waiting for the table, so we dug in before I remembered to take a picture. Congee topping wise, there was a good amount of beef and preserved egg. But the congee itself, just didn’t hit the spot for me. There were extra ‘flavours’ added in. I was looking forward to rice noodle. They make those in house. Again, quite a bit of filling, but the rice noodle was too soft. It couldn’t hold up against the filling. Same thing occurred with the brisket rice noodle. It was super hard to pick up with chopsticks. It was almost like mush. At this point, I was losing hope. So I didn’t have much in terms of expectations for the chow mien or the dough fritter. The dough fritter I don’t know for sure if they make it in house, but for some reason I’m thinking they do. It was so disappointing. It should be crispy on the outside, but soft on the inside. It was soft inside and out. At least it was warm? The chow mien, nothing to write about, its just soy sauce noodles. We did place another order for rice noodles (because we were still hungry), but same as the first round, soft and mushy.

Freshly cooked food and congee was delicious. Got the sliced beef congee which was gender and tasty. Service was what you expect for a hole in the wall Chinese restaurant. Will miss this place when I leave Canada !

The service that I was given today, on a Monday, was extremely poor. I arrived here at around 11:50am and let the waitress at the front know that we are a group of three. As usual, the waitress asked if sharing a table would be fine, and we said no. We were perfectly fine with waiting until a table freed up that we could have to ourselves. At the time we were the only ones waiting to be seated.
We waited for about 2 minutes, a pair of guests were seated before us, and then the waitress at the front said we could have a seat at the table near the back of the restaurant which was a 5 seater table. We settled our things down and got into our chairs, and were looking through the menu, when a different waitress wizzed by and started asking us to move a seat down so that she could seat two people at our table. I informed her that we asked to not share a table, and said that the other waitress knew this. That waitress who seated us was present when I said this, and she did not say anything to that other waitress to acknowledge this, or to accept the blame/responsibility…She just walked off to the front of the restaurant. WTF. Next, the waitress who had just told us to move our seats over, rudely told us that we must share a table at this time (which was noon). The attitude and tone of her voice was so appalling. No apology whatsoever from either of the ladies. It was not like there was a queue of people waiting to be seated. Is it not first come first serve? Jesus. Or how about you try shooing away some of your customers who are still eating at their tables so you can seat some more people. Absolutely terrible customer service…
They just lost our business right there. As we left, the waitress at the front asked a pair of guests that just entered if sharing a table would be okay. Why are they bothering to ask such a question when they are forcing their customers to share tables? Servers at Sam’s Congee Delight think they can treat their customers like shit, well so be it. Never coming back here again despite the food being good.

Dropped by for a quick bite to eat today. I used to come here quite often, but I’ve not been in 10 years.
I used to find the food really excellent here but today’s food wasn’t that great. Back in the day, I was probably more impressed with the food because there wasn’t as much choice as today. None of the congee queens, towns, etc existed then. But with these places now open up everywhere, this place just doesn’t offer much of a superior product.
The congee today was a tad runny for me and there wasn’t much meat in the congee either. The steamed rice rolls weren’t smooth and were quite small. Two smallish bowls of congee and two small plates of rice rolls came to $ 16.70, so not much value for money either.
It was a nice trip down memory lane because the place looks the same as it did all those years ago.

I don’t know who Sam is (or if there is a Sam), but he and his congee associates sure know how to run a shop. Sam’s Congee Delight is simplicity at its absolute best. It has mastered exactly what it sets out to do, which is fast and delicious food at a good price. This no-​frills, congee staple has been tucked inside Market Village for as long as I can remember. Weekend brunch here means waiting in line unless you get here early.
As a kid (who am I kidding, as an adult too), I love watching them prepare the rice noodle rolls by hand and freshly fry up the Chinese fritters through the glass window at the front. You see them ladle congee out of large steaming pots and add fresh ingredients by hand. All the customers here look like they just woke up, and it’s great. There are no false pretenses, people just want some Chinese food made right first thing in the morning.
When you order, you write down the number beside the menu items you want. When the server comes, they read the numbers and immediately list off exactly which food item it corresponds to. Clearly, superior memory is a requisite for working here. My must-​haves are rice noodle with pork liver, sweet cruller, and pork and century egg congee. Bonus items include hollow sesame balls, plain rice noodle rolls that you can add sweet/​sesame/​hot sauce to, and fried noodles.
Sorry I had to make up some of these English names as the Chinese ones don’t translate very well sometimes. Bottom line is, order whatever, it’ll probably taste good regardless! :)
(1÷100)

You really can’t go wrong with a bowl of hot and comforting congee here. I always try to come here for breakfast/​lunch if I’m in the area. The prices can’t be beat, the ingredients are fresh and the service is super speedy — you will almost always get your food in less than 5 minutes!
We usually order two bowls of congee and a steamed rice roll to share. The fried dough rice roll is delicious and the perfect companion to congee!

I call their food «Chinese Comfort Food». They have been around «forever» so you know they are good.
They tend to have a lineup around lunch time, so be prepare to wait.
Their service has improved over the years, they are less rough around the edge and you may actually feel «at home».
Food ordering is easy, just look for what you like, write down the menu number, and they will bring your food soon after they take the order from you.
I love this place.

Although not exactly how congee is made in Hong Kong (or might I dare compare to how it’s made at home), but it is one of the best without having to jet off for a quick fix. The dough sticks are light, but just a touch on the thin side. Again, without having to fly off to China, I’m not going to complain too much. The other stuff are pretty darn good.
Go early and especially early during holidays and weekends otherwise be prepared for a bit of a wait.
Lastly, beware that they now add gratuity to the bill. Enjoy.

Service here is average considering it’s just a casual Chinese restaurant. Its almost like fast food here because you always get your order within less than 5 minutes!
Their congee is freshly made and is not watery nor thick, this is the traditional type of congee.
Rice noodles and dough sticks are all made fresh as you can see through the window on the outside of the restaurant!
I always come here for congee, it’s the best in town!

Sam’s Congee is an institution in Market Village. You will discover long lineups during breakfast and lunch. You will be pointed to sit with random strangers on communal tables. The place while is clean (to Chinese standards) isn’t exactly inviting and the staff are not particularly polite or rude.
However, people come here for the quick service and most importantly for the food. I will proclaim that Sam’s makes the best congee in the city! Their prices are low and the portions are average I would say.
Fantastic food, fast service and affordable prices — these are reasons’ why Sam’s is my go-​to place for congee (just not during the weekend mornings when the lineups are out the door).

Time to give Unilocal a more thorough review.
Sam’s Congee will always remain as one of my faves but I’ve dropped a star due to a multitude of different factors.
Most of the food here can be seen when they’re actually being made through the window in the front. Including congee, dough sticks, and rice rolls.
The idea is that they have a bowl of plain congee and they drop whatever toppings you order into it and then serve you right away. Therefore the food here is quite quick.
BUT. DO NOT come here at night as when the amount of customers lessen, the quality decreases — they cook a lot to make up for the demand of dinner hour and then use the ‘left-​overs’ from dinner hour to serve you until closing time.
The dough sticks are somewhat less expensive than other restaurants but they also come in smaller quantities (I think they give you 1 full one which splits into 4 pieces).
I love the banana-​leaf wrapped rice. I don’t remember what it’s called in English; but it is called a ‘Jung’ in Chinese. I usually just eat the outer edges of rice and leave the core to my mom LOL and dip them into sugar :)
The fried noodles here is a no-​no. It comes from the back of the restaurant and I try to avoid it at all costs.
I do enjoy the little rice rolls here with the yellow mustardish sauce and the hoi seen sauce.
This is a nice, cheap, quick dinner.
AND to prevent them from closing early — the owner put up a sign that gives you a number to call if the employees ever slack off and close before the time on the door (8PM).

One of the closest congee shops I can find in Toronto that has the quality of Hong Kong congee stores. This place usually has a huge line when you go on weekends during breakfast (around 9:30am to 10am) till (1pm to 1:30pm). I usually avoid those massive lineups by coming in super early or super late. I came in at around 11:15am before and there was no lineup as well.
The staff are amazing as they basically repeat your order to confirm just by looking at the numbers you wrote. Also, the food comes super fast. Each food item isn’t expensive as the portion sizes are small, but some dishes like the rice wrapped with leafs (zhong) can make you stuffed.
My personal favourites are the «cheoung fun», sweet fried dough and the chow mein. Remember to add their awesome sauces that they have on the table. The dark coloured one in a bottle is a sweet hoisin sauce and the light coloured one that looks like watered down peanut butter is a sesame paste (called ma jeung).

I’m not sure why I haven’t been here yet because they have some of my favourite dishes here!
I was craving congee so I got the assorted congee ($ 4.25). I think that the amount of meat in it was fair. I don’t think there was much (if any) MSG in the congee because I wasn’t dying of thirst after my meal.
Next, was the braised beef brisket ($ 6.25). It tasted normal like any braised beef from any other restaurants but it was done well. However, for the price, it was quite expensive. I felt like they tried to make it look like there was more beef in the dish than there actually was but layering a lot of lettuce at the bottom. The lettuce was very delicious in the sauce but still!
The rice roll with dough stick ($ 3) was alright. I would probably tell them not to put soy sauce on it the next time I got because the bottom pieces got really soggy. I also really enjoyed the condiments on the table because I was able to overload the dish with sesame sauce. Also, the option of adding sesame seed was nice.
The beef and enoki mushroom ($ 4.75) was delicious! My mom said that the rice roll was very silky and I have to agree with her. No complaints on this dish! I would be ordering it again.
Lastly, we got the pig’s blood ($ 4.25). I’m not a fan nor a hater of pig’s blood so not much to comment on here. I think it’s done alright. Again, it’s a bit pricey for the amount you get.
Overall, I really like the food here and I think I’ll be coming back here very soon!

I’m a big fan of this restaurant. They have an open windowed kitchen setup in the front so you can see them prepare pretty much everything that is ordered. The place is pretty popular but small in size, so the wait times can be pretty bad depending on when you go. I went with my family right after it opened, and we had to wait a decent amount of time to get a table. plenty of time for me to awkwardly stare at the guy making rice noodle rolls. When we finally got a table, we wrote down the numbers of all of the dishes we wanted to order. The waitress saw the list and started reciting what each number was off the top of her head to confirm our order. I thought this was pretty impressive, and it showed just how well she knew the menu.
The food here is amazing. The rice noodle rolls here are my absolute favorite. They are so fresh (well, that’s obvious since you can see the guy making it in the front) and absurdly soft. If they were any softer, I would probably have a really tough time eating it because the chopsticks would go right through the rice noodle rolls. They have a good amount of options for the rice noodle rolls. I tried a decent amount of them, and my favorite would have to be the dough stick one. The congee here is also great. I’m not huge on congee in general, but even I can appreciate a hot bowl of congee from this place. There are a lot of options available for the congee too.
The service is fast paced and very straightforward here. The prices are excellent and very worth it. I would come here for the rice noodle rolls all the time if I lived in the area. I’ll be back again for sure!

Used to be my favorite place for steamed rice rolls and congee but today was just not up to par!
I remember the rice rolls used to be light and thin, with a little bit of a chewy texture but was highly disappointed today cause the plain rice rolls were thick, gooey and soggy. They fell apart when I tried to pick up with chopsticks! Not sure if it’s just a one time thing or a permanent change! If this is the case might as well get it at congee Wong or will need to go downtown for good ones!
The congee and bean sprout noodles are still great and the food is always piping hot! Service is okay, quick and fast and simple décor. It’s definitely an in and out place. Real disappointed with the rice rolls, not sure if I will come back.