Cafe Arc De Triomphe

This is a HK style café, which I visit quite often.
They serve a ton of stuff on their menu and usually they have daily special that rotate weekly which includes tea and soup.
I have been here for lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. During lunch hours, they become quite busy and their kitchen slows down a lot. During dinner hours, its more quiet and sometimes we would be the only table there eating. I find that this is the case because their lunch portions are quite similar to their dinner portions and yet there is a significant price difference.
They have a TV that usually broadcast TVB dramas and I guess watching it kills time as we wait for the food to be served.
On separate visits, I usually order their curry chicken rice, chicken cutlet with Portuguese sauce, and the escargot when I come on different times.
So I recommend coming here for lunch and afternoon tea if you have a chance to visit.

Came here for breakfast. Could not believe the prices! I orderd mini steak, 2 eggs, toast, 1 hash brown, and a coffee. All came to $ 9.02 before tips. The food was really good as well! Very quick service.

Great little hi style Café tucked in the corner of the food basics plaza. Huge portions that are so delicious you wish you can finish it all. I had the chicken steak with mango bacon sauce with spaghetti finished with a cold cup of hk style milk tea. The chicken was relish and the mango sauce was surprisingly nice. I coulda done without the bacon. It didn’t it. I’m glad I discovered this local place. They also have daily specials and a meat platter with five types of meat for those who can’t decide what’s for dinner.

Typical Hong Kong style bistro food. Nice atmosphere. Service is good. Food is alright.
Came here for a quick eat. Ordered pan fried fish with clam cream sauce with veggies and potatoes. The meal special comes with a tomato soup or cream soup and a dinner roll, also coffee or tea. Food is really just okay. Spaghetti is soggy and overcooked.
Really came for my number one love: Hong Kong-​style milk tea. The tea is really strong. But today I find the tea not creamy enough. Could have been better. Will come back cause it’s close. The place is hard to find it’s in the corner of a dingy plaza and the décor can do with a bit of updating.

Pretty good. I had Manhattan clam soup and beef brisket with rice. My friend had the borsch soup and cream of mushroom on chicken with pasta. They made their own tea and hot bread with butter. We had mango freeze for dessert. They had big screen tvs where we can watch cantonese tv. The servers were all cantonese speaking. The food were served fast.

I just came back from this place and it was terrible. They totally ripped me off. I sat down and they gave me a different menu from everyone in the restaurant, when my friend got there she asked for the other menu, which clearly was only given to the Asians. I ordered a milk tea before ordering my meal. When I ordered my meal it automatically came with milk tea, which most HK places do. Later the waiter came back and told me the one I previouslly ordered wasn’t included because it was ‘bigger’…lol. no joke, the mug probably had 1 tablespoon more milk tea then the one included in the meal. Anyways, they made me pay for the milk tea because they gave me the bigger mug!!! It’s so sad that they ripped off over 2 bucks. I’ll never be back and will tell all my friends also not to go too. I really can’t stand greedy business people.

This is more like 2.5 stars. I feel like being nice today. I ordered one dish and had studied the menu diligently. I’ve come to the conclusion that things here are on average, slightly overpriced. Practically everything is at least $ 9.99 before tax and tip and not including drink/​soup. You have to pay $ 3.99 to add a soup and drink which I felt was very steep considering the soup is probably pre-​made and just scooped from a big pot. They have lunch specials at $ 8.99 and those might be worth it.
I don’t go to HK style café restaurants a lot so I have little to compare to. I’ve been to Asia Station at Market village several times and felt Asia Station was much better.
I had the Portuguese sauce chicken (which by the way, is not actually from Portugal, but from Macau) for $ 9.99 + tax. If I pay the same price at Asia Station, I’d also have a soup and a drink. However, the chicken quality was better than Asia Station. Asia Station has not been consistent for me. Sometimes their meat is good. Sometimes it’s full of skin and fat. I like the Portuguese sauce at Asia station better. Asia station makes the dish as a casserole. At Triomphe, it felt like they had pre-​made stock of sauce and just heated it. I ordered take out so they gave me a container of rice and a container for the sauce + chicken.
The only reason to come to Triomphe is because it has a monopoly on HK style café food in this area which is full of Korean/​Iranian foods. If you live on the East end, I’m sure you have better options. If I come again, it’d be for the lunch specials because I don’t feel like paying full price for what I had.

It’s difficult to write an objective review about a restaurant you feel nostalgic about. I first discovered the restaurant in high school 15 years ago (I date myself), when they were located in the Leslie and Finch Square Plaza. At that time, they were twice the size and very busy. They have since downsized and are now located at the Cummer and Yonge Plaza.
While the ambiance and service of the restaurant are average at best, I always return to eat their baked pork cutlet on rice (joo pah fan). It’s consistent and never disappoints. You probably know this already, but Café Arc De Triomphe is a HK style café (basically a restaurant serving Chinese style Western food).
Besides the pork cutlet on rice, the shrimp and potato salad is also my mom’s favorite. The Russian Borscht soup that comes with their meals is good. Their sandwiches and Chinese French Toast are not bad. Like other HK style cafes, their menu is extensive, but as I said before, it’s the pork cutlet on rice that keeps me coming back.
It’s definitely not the fanciest or newest HK café around. However they have been around for ages and still have a decent customer base, which I attribute to their food quality and consistency. Café Arc De Triomphe makes it into my restaurant rotation, whenever i’m back in Toronto.

they’re supposedly famous for their curry brisket and portugese style chicken. I’m thinking the rumors are like Adel.
All of these words whispered in my ear,
Tell a story that I cannot bear to hear,
Just ’cause I said it, it don’t mean that I meant it,
People say crazy things,
Just ’cause I said it, don’t mean that I meant it,
Just ’cause you heard it,

Pretty good place. But this is more if a diner rather than café. Serves typical true hk diner food. Quality is good and fine, but not superb. Nothing wrong with it but it just doesn’t stick out.

Price is pretty decent but food is average. I liked their garlic porkchop & escargots. The rest of the items I’ve tried are so-​so. Service is sometimes sub par even when they are not very busy. The only reason why we sometimes go back is because it is close to home & convenient.

Considerably pretty good price for its tastes and quality. Got many variety of food from breakfast, lunch, dinner to supper. Special menus and set courses for lunch and supper are especially good deals. Casual and comfy setting as a restaurant which serves all kinds of Hong King style western food from decent main courses to casual snacks food.
They have very good baked pork chop on rice, brewed Ox-​tail on rice, spaghetti and pasta with clams/​smoke salmon/​minced meat in rich creamy sauce or rose tomato sauce, pork cutlet on noodles or fruit salad, soft crab fried rice, creamy corn chicken chunks on rice… big icy cold lemon tea… Totally one of the best HK style café restaurant in town… yummy and economical. I come here almost every week, sometimes every other day for take-​out when I don’t have the time to cook.
They also have pretty good quality party trays.

While all the foodie wannabes are madly rushing about making phone call after phone call to get a Summerlicious reservation, this is the perfect time of the year to be in search of those hidden gems that do not have the advertising dollars or the cache to be included on that elite list. Perhaps some place simpler or homey… a step above the fast food chains but nothing more than a satisfying quick feed.
This brings me to Café Arc de Triomphe, a completely off the wall hidden gem amidst all of the Korean and Kebab houses that North York has to offer. Tucked into a corner of Newtonbrook Plaza beside the Congee Time (itself a stalwart of Chinese food) is a little Hong Kong-​style café which bears it’s tres ‘Francaise’-name. Do not come here hoping to find Confit de Canard or Cassoulet, Café Arc de Triomphe is as far away from a Paris Bistro that one can imagine.
First a little background — Hong Kong being the cosmopolitan metropolis it is, is full of restos such as these that serve up a Cantonese version of Western food (spaghetti, steak n potatoes, borscht, lots and lots of toast sandwiches). Arc De Triomphe is a fine example of such an establishment and will surely be a nostalgic eatery for all the Hong Kong emigres in this city.
The Café has numerous Western and Cantonese noodle and rice dishes as well as the curious but no less delicious hybrids. It’s an extensive menu far too rich to itemize here.
I ordered a plate of spaghetti in a cream sauce with chicken and smoked salmon. Mario Batali would probably cringe at the sight of this dish but quite frankly, who cares. as long as it tastes good and that it did. It doesn’t take much to recognize that the cream sauce came out of a can, the chicken likely frozen bits but hey! the smoked salmon was generous slice. Surprisingly, the spaghetti was done to a perfect al dente and the whole dish was remarkably tasty. (like your very own perfected college cuisine done right!)
Next up, I had a side plate of chicken wings and fries. The fries were of the McCain ridge cut frozen variety but no matter, still tastes crispy and delicious with a dollop of ketchup. The wings however, were a home run! Perfectly seasoned, juicy and salty, they came out precisely crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside without being too greasy. Finger lickin’ gooood!!! Those wings would give any of the new fangled ‘gourmet’ fried chicken places a good run for their money and I would rank them highly on any blind taste test. All the main dishes come with a free drink (hot tea, hot lemon tea, coffee or coffee-​tea with milk)
Café Arc de Triomphe is a fine place to get a quick fill when you are too lazy to cook or just don’t want to bother with ritual and fancier fare. A-​OK is the perfect way to rate this place. I shall be back to eat my way through the menu.