Dickens Cafe

Restaurant has comfortable décor that’s good for family, business lunch, even couples. Food quality is as good as one would expect from a hk style western restaurant, maybe better. Good value too.

Been here a quite a few times, and have been trying to get myself to finish this review. They offer quite a wide variety of food options and seems to be similar to a Hong Kong style café, but a little better.
The restaurant has a good amount of tables, but you’ll find a lineup whenever you go around lunch or the weekends. Lighting is a bit dim in parts of the restaurant, but you can still see you food is the most important thing for me.
I typically find myself here for lunchtime, which has me ordering off their lunch specials. Quite a good deal for their price as you get your meal, soup (with garlic bread), and a beverage. I typically get one of the pasta options, and the food is usually okay. Their borscht soup is one of the better ones in the area, with good flavour without being too sour and lots of ingredients.
Service is usually quite good as well, as servers come around and everything gets done quickly. Some areas of the restaurant aren’t in view of their bar/​kitchen area, so those are the less tended to spots.
A good place to come once in a while for lunch, but that’s about it in my opinion. Lots of similar restaurants in the area, so if you’re into this kinda food, it’s worth trying/​exploring.

Top notch for service and food! Well-​mannered and courteous staff. The menu is very similar to most HK style café and I was surprised to see breakfast items being served at 12:30pm still. We ordered the breakfast with 3 kinds of meats and the baked chicken ala Portuguese style on rice. Both came with drinks and the baked rice had the extra soup & garlic toast — very nice touch!
The food was plentiful and it’s refreshing to see fruit served with the breakfast, very western style. The price was $ 8.99 and I thought it was really decent since a drink is included.
I would definitely come here again!

4 star for service, 3 star for food. I had a craving for spaghetti and meat sauce today, so we drove up to this restaurant which we haven’t visited for a year (or two)
We also ordered braised oxtail in red wine sauce. The spaghetti was just like how we remembered it (even brought back some childhood memories– I used to eat that a lot back in Asia growing up!) the oxtail was not very chewy, but it could have been more tender. The oxtail came in a set course with soup, bread, a drink and a small piece of cake. The cake was light; we ordered hot ovaltine for our free drink but it was too watery.
Service wise, we dont ever remember Dickens servers being this polite, ever. So that made it an overall pleasantly surprising experience.

My favorite HK style café! I come here every weekend Great food and love their HK style tea. Cash only thou

Last time I went there with my in laws; service was extremely slow… We were there for 2 hours to have LUNCH :(. This is the reason why I stopped going there…
Until yesterday (2 years later… Haha… Yes, I remembered; I don’t know why)
The waiters and/​or waitresses had no facial expression, a blank face but I don’t mind at all… As others mentioned, they are like pricey Cha Chan Tang so i don’t expect much. Again, food and service took longer than regular HK Cha chan tang but we were able to finish our lunch in a hour.
Caesar salad was fresh, the dressing was on light, vinegar not creamy side which I like. I personally don’t like the creamy, white Caesar dressing. Right amount of dressing tossed with their own baked croutons no bacon bites.
The chicken steak seasoned well, tasty, juicy & tender.
Hot lemon tea or lemon water came with 3 slices of lemon (regular cut/​thickness) which was pretty generous compared to others (super thin ones) that I could taste the lemon flavour.
I like the texture of their shaghetti, just al Dante; perfect with any sauces.
Well, it seemed like most of their lunch deals are at around $ 9.99. I don’t mind because the food quality is much better than a lot of Cha chan tang and we don’t feel rush to finish our meal.
Yes, I am pretty sure we will go back again.

My favourite place for spaghetti for an HK style café. It is the best Chinese run café that I’ve experienced so far. Service is great and yes I have their VIP card.
The soft Italian garlic bread and soup is a delightful appetizer. Their mousse desert ends the meal off nicely. Meal combos include appetizer, desert and a cup of milk tea.
All of this could be had at a reasonable cost. Wifi is also available. It just can’t get any better.

Good prices for pretty decent-​sized portions! Service is fast and the food is your typical HK style tea room food. You can specify what kind of pasta you want if you are ordering from the pasta options! Neat!

Came here for afternoon tea (2:30 to 5:30pm). This place is considered a Hong Kong style café in my books but at a higher level. They do have many dishes that are comparable with expensive Italian restaurants.
Curry chicken with rice $ 6.99 — nice portion of meat and a tasty sauce
Salmon and chicken with angel hair noodles in cream sauce $ 6.99 — smoked salmon was fresh and tasty. The cream sauce with chicken and noodles went well with the salmon. Portion size was decent.
Deep fried chicken wings with potato salad $ 7.99 — chicken wings were done really well. Didn’t really like the potato salad. It had no taste.
Seafood spaghetti $ 6.99 — nice amount of seafood for the price.
Meals come with drink but we upgraded to Horlick for $ 0.50 each and iced milk tea for $ 1.25
When compared to other Hong Kong style cafes the prices here are on the high end. Usually during afternoon tea in other places the prices are lower or the same but include soup and iced milk tea.
When compared to Italian restaurants the prices here would be considered very lower. So I guess the price could be considered high or low depending on how you look at it. Quality is definately a step above your standard HK style cafes.

If I were to describe Dickens, it would simply be luxury cha-​chan tang. Dickens is by far the priciest HK style café I’ve been to. It’s worth it though if you ask me!
Pros:
«Higher quality» HK style café food
Big portions
Cons:
Prices are a lot higher than other HK style cafes
I’ve always wanted to try Dickens. I’ve heard many things about it in the past. Being the long weekend we took a trip up and finally decided to have a bite there. When we come in, we’re greeted immediately and shown a table. The staff seeing we have our little one with her seat in tow, bring a blanket to put over the chair she would be sitting on to keep her seat from slipping. That was very nice and seemed like something they do automatically.
One look at Dickens menu lets you know they don’t mess around. The prices are definitely higher than any other HK style café I’ve been too. I’ve never seen a lunch special menu with nothing under $ 8.99. We ordered hoping it would be worth it. We were not disappointed.
I ordered the pan fried chicken steak and my GF had the baked fish on rice. All lunch specials come with soup, garlic bread and a drink. Most places you only get a drink so it already justifies the price increase a little bit. When the food came out, I was very impressed with the portion size. I’ve never had a chicken steak so big before. It was very tender too. The spinach and mushroom cream sauce it came with was one of the best I’ve had as well. My GF’s baked fish came with the exact same sauce but with lots of shredded cheese on top. Both dishes were very good. They weren”t stop the presses good, but you could definitely feel like the food was of a higher quality than you would expect at other HK style cafes.
One thing to note is that drink you get with your meal. Unless you specify it, the drink will come at the end of your meal when the staff sees you’re done. I guess they are trying to be like western restaurants in which they always ask if you want coffee or tea at the end of your meal. We didn’t know this since it was our first time. If you’re someone like me who likes to have a drink at the same time, please note this.
I noticed that some people complain about the cash only thing. I never came before when they didn’t do cash only, but you should assume all these HK style cafes are almost always cash only so it’s not a big deal for me.
All in all, Dickens really impressed me. It was an overall very good experience. I will definitely be back If I’m craving cha-​chaan tang and want a little bit more than usual.

I visit Dicken’s once every few months and I am a fan of this restaurant.
They consistently give serve me big portions of good to excellent quality food and the menu offers a large selection of items at relatively inexpensive prices.
In my most recent visit, I ordered a Chicken salad for lunch. They served me a salad on a big plate with a big helping of chicken, some cashews, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and raisins. The salad was light and refreshing to eat and the seasoning on the salad was just right. Because of the large portion, I felt pretty full after lunch even though I was eating salad.
This place has some specials (I have a friend who has VIP membership and gets 10% off the bill every time they eat here), and they give you a complimentary drink if you order from the afternoon tea menu between 2:30−5pm.
The restaurant is a little bit dark inside and usually very busy. The service staff prefers taking orders in Cantonese, though they also speak English and some mandarin.
I have consistently had excellent food at Dickens Café.
4.0 /​5.0

Big drop in my review based on my last time there. They changed their policy to be cash only and the quality was just a bit off than what I normally expected. *Sigh* they used to have a higher standard of HK style food, now it’s just dropped down to blah. Then again L’Arc de Triomphe and La Piazzetta Ristorante which also had a higher standard of HK style food also went down hill the last few times I went. I do hope that Firefly isn’t affected, that’s about the only high end HK place I haven’t gone to lately.
I recently ordered the meat sauce and spaghetti there, which is my benchmark dish for HK cafes, but the last time I went there it didn’t taste like their normal fare which had a tinge of something that made it special. The last time I went there it just tasted like the meat sauce and spaghetti you get normally from other HK restaurants.
The place looked gloomy the last time I was there as well. It felt like it was bought by a new owner who didn’t really care much about it. It reflects in the décor and the taste in the food.
Per my colleagues comment, it may be an off day for the chef because I normally go there only on the weekends. So I may give it another chance in the future.

I’ve been here for both lunch and dinner and have had their specials both times. Every time I’ve gone the food has always been filling, and I’ve always had leftovers to bring home. It’s kind of nice because you’re paying for two meals. Although, food the next day is not always the best, I’m the type who does not like to waste food so I bring it home anyways.
The appetizers, main course, dessert and the tea/​coffee at the end especially really fills you up. I was excited to have the lobster bisque, however I thought it required a bit more flavouring. I had to add some more salt and pepper in it. Other then that, everything else tasted great! I realize every time I’ve ordered the specials, they do not have a lot of vegetables, so more vegetables on their dishes would be nice.
There’s also a VIP card you can get if you go there regularly. I do not come here regularly so I did not get it for myself. I find I always end up paying more every time I get these VIP cards so personally I do not get it.
On a side note: I remember coming here with my friend once, and she happened to have knew the people who worked at this café and got the 10% discount anyways without the VIP card. Maybe I should go with her to this place more often ;)

I absolutely love this place. It’s my go to brunch of afternoon spot. Traditional hk style dishes and prepared with no msg and real ingredients (not artificial).
It gets really busy around 12−1pm so it’s recommended to grab a table earlier or make a reservation.
I usually get the curry pork chop — there are several good hunks of pork chop and is totally delicious. They also have beef, chicken, ox tongue. It’s a bit spicier than most curries I’ve tried at Asian places but tastes very good.
The pan fried fish is good as well — very flavourful with a healthy side of veggies.
Every meal comes with a soup and garlic bread to start and a tea/​coffee to finish. It’s included in the price.

I guess I have had my hope too high, with so many people telling me that Dickens serves higher standard of HK style Western food. We ordered the set combo for 2 people ($ 55). The texture of the Peppercorn Angus Steak Striploin was off. It had been processed in a way that the meat texture was not there; it was likely a frozen steak. The peppercorn sauce was good though. The sea bass was fatty, but the sauce was non-​descriptive. We figured that it was based on powder milk or cream, because it upset the stomach of my BF. Both of us liked the cooked vegetables that came with the entrée. The lobster bisque didn’t have much lobster taste, as well that it did not have enough cream. I didn’t like the dessert and the coffee.
The services was fast. The café was clean. The food portion was big.

Its your typical Chinese western style restaurant with pork chop and steak. Ordered the curry veal which was pretty salty, the waitress were nice enough to exchange our dish with another but generally speaking all 3 of our dishes was nothing special and a little bit pricy… oh yea they also offer complementary soup, so we got the crème soup that came with shredded crackers on top… the crackers were stale, thought dickens would have better quality food but they went down hill just like how this plaza is going down hill as well

«Ok!»
I usually go here, price is pretty fair.
Perfect for dinner!!!
For weekends/​busy nights I recommend for coming here early like 6 – 7 pm!

Always good HK style lunch and dinner. Been going to all the Dickens café for as long as I remember. Parents were very close to the original bosses of Dickens and once they left Dickens to retire, it started switching hands many times so we’ve been on and off but looks like they are starting to bring back the Dickens quality we have expected when the original bosses first came up with Dickens café.
You can get a VIP card for 5 bucks and get 10% off your bill everytime which is a pretty nice perk and it works on all Dickens café locations.
They have a good afternoon tea lunch pricing but there won’t be bread or soup provided with the meal. Most dishes cost about 5.99 with drink included during this time. Definitely worth a visit in this location or the one in Scarborough.

Dickens Café has been around for some time as a business. But several of their locations disappeared off the map for a series of years.
Dickens is Western food prepared to suit Chinese taste buds, not dissimilar to a Hong Kong Style Café though the food is predominantly more Western than the former.
While there was a big sign on the exterior mall board, there is no signage attached to the mall. Just walk inside and you will find it.
You can order either lunch/​dinner sets or à la carte.
We came for dinner with my uncle and aunt and they ordered the Set Dinner for 2 which included 2 soups (choice of cream soup or «Borscht»), a bread basket prepared à la Chinoise (e.g. the bread is slightly sweet), a Shrimp Linguine and Chicken Steak with beverage (choice of HK-​style tea, coffee, or lemon tea).
I opted for the Red-​Wine Braised Oxtail (choice of either rice or spaghetti). The oxtail was very tender, and the rice soaked up the sauce nicely. It was a thin sauce as opposed to a thick sauce.
My cousin ordered a Shrimp & Garlic Angel Hair Pasta which was very good. The sauce was creamy and the pasta was cooked to a perfect al dente.
I loved their (warm) bread. It didn’t even need butter.
It is definitely a pricier alternative if you’re looking for Chinese-​style Western food, but the service was great. Our glasses were always refilled with hot tea when they were nearing empty, and the servers took away our dishes promptly and came to take our post-​meal drink orders quickly.

There are a lot of «Dickens» around in Richmond HIll and Scarborough Area. And this is one claim to be the authentic, original Dickens Café.
This location used to be Red Ants Restaurant, so the new owner kept most of the set up and deco, and just put on a new coat of paint.
They do have specials for any time of the day: lunch, afternoon tea and dinner set.
There are 10 lunch sets for one to pick during my visit. Priced from $ 6.99 and up. Which includes a choice of soup, garlic bread and a drink. 8oz Angus Steak for $ 12.99 seems to be a good valueI decided on the Curry Chicken with Rice ($ 8.99)
The borscht soup does taste fresh with tons of veggies. however, without the usual kick of other borscht soup. Though it is really enjoyable.
The Curry Chicken and rice, I found it just tastes ok. The rice is a little hard and cold… however the Curry chicken though tender is a little cold, same with the curry sauce. There are no steam coming out to fog my camera len, so I know it is not hot :)
But overall all the items I was served were ok. did not go WOW… but taste ok.
Service though is nice and friendly.
I will be back to try out other things on the menu. I though remember to ask them to make it at least warmer. they can just put them in the microwave for 30 sec before bring them to my table!
There are 10% off coupon in some of the Chinese Newspaper, so look for one before going!