Xam Yu Seafood Restaurant

Just had the double lobster special. Lobster, excellent. Lai Tong (daily soup) excellent. Cantonese chow mien, perfect sauce, wet noodle/​crunchy noodle ratio, fresh ingredients. Gai Lan: tender, beautiful green and perfectly cooked garlic style. Grouper and fresh veggies (stirfry) fish very tender and light tasting, excellent tender vegetables.
Healthy, fresh, clean food.
Highly recommend.
Sunday they had dao fu fa dessert.
Quality, service, taste.

It’s as good as it gets. I’ve been to Xam Yu each time I visit Chinatown. Fresh ingredients, large portions and friendly service resonates from this establishment. I went for mum’s birthday and she loved every dish we ordered.
We ordered ginger onion lobster, steamed oysters, beef ribs, soft shell crab, walnut prawns. The food arrived in good time and was piping hot. What I enjoyed most about Xam Yu is it’s authenticity in Chinese cooking. I’ve had a lot of Chinese cuisine around the GTA, and nothing has come close to Xam Yu.
The ambience is intimate and welcoming. Xam Yu should be on everyone’s must try list.

Did some takeout for me and my mom. In KC, you can’t get a meal like this for $ 35 for two (US dollars = $ 50 CDN). I got lobster, cantonese chow mein (my mom’s fav) and chinese broccoli with garlic.
The meal was fantastic and the flavors so much better than I get from KC. The portions were also generous that we had lots of leftovers for another day. I highly recommend this place. The seafood is fresh and cooking style is well done. 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

Perfect for a casual meal that won’t break the bank. Excellent food complemented by great staff. I’ve been going here since the establishment was operated by the earlier generation.
Every dish is as expected. Hopefully you will enjoy as much as me.

Food: 8.5÷10
Atmosphere: ⁷⁄₁₀
Service: ⁹⁄₁₀
Overall experience: 8.5÷10
Had a great experience a Xam Yu, under the recommendation from a friend (who is actually from Hong Kong).
The service was really great. The owner was really attentive, as was his staff, and he even offered us dessert on the house!
We ordered:
— sweet and sour pork
— lobster
— clams in black bean sauce
— fried rice
The food was great. From somebody who grew up in Markham, I know that the truly exquisite Chinese restaurants are north of the city, but this place fends well for itself.
THE BOTTOM LINE: if you’re craving some greater GTA quality Chinese food, here’s your spot.

Ordered the double lobster (ginger/​onion but you can get black bean style as well), seafood with birds nest, and steamed tilapia for 2 people. The double lobster was excellent – especially considering lobster is not in season right now. The tilapia was also super fresh although I did not pay attention to see if they netted one from the tank. The birds nest was OK but the veggies were dominated by mostly celery. Even still, the service was great and we got a lot of attention (hand dipping bowl, tea, lobster shell collection plate, complementary pork/​veggie soup, etc.). Would come here again!

Best seafood restaurant in Toronto! The service is fantastic, they are very attentive. The portions are large. …best items on the menu are the crispy beef and the double lobster.

You MUST try Hongkong lobster style and sweét and sour pork rib. Thats amazing and the price is incredible, i do love the service and food here, the ladu greeted us warmly and is really nice with customers. LETS COME TO THIS PLACE IF YOUR WISH TO ENJOY GREÁT TIME AND DELICIOUS FOOD WITH UR FAMILY. ;)

My friends and I ate here recently as we were all itching for a Chinatown feast. The place is small and plain like most Chinatown eateries with the plastic table covers and florescent lighting.
We enjoyed the following:
–Crispy Beef. Good. Slightly fatty but not overly battered or caramelized. I think everyone around our table was hankering for more once the dish was finished.
–Two lobsters stir fried with ginger and garlic. The classic. I could have used a little more wok hay in the flavoring but I guess that’s why Omei has its fans up in Richmond Hill!
–Stir fried snow pea leaves and garlic. Not too gloppy and these greens were very tender.
–Shanghai noodles with cabbage and shrimp. Meh. Just okay. We needed a carb dish in there somewhere.
–Deep fried soft shell crab. Expertly fried but little grease.
Dessert was tofu fa, which is warm soft tofu in a simple syrup. Not sure why this put off most of our table but I enjoyed it just the same.
Although I wouldn’t put Xam Yu near the top echelon of Cantonese restaurants in the GTA, I think they do a competent job overall in Spadina’s Chinatown. Service was efficient. They get you in and out in no time. Luckily we ate in the dull hours between lunch and dinner so there was no push to get us out the door. $ 20 each was the damage.
Fun fact: Mila Kunis ate here! (photo near the front)

Double lobster and and hot and sour soup here is perfect.

Oh Chinatown, why must you use so much MSG.
All in all, if you are looking for a quick Chinese food fix for a decent price, Xam Yu isn’t bad. I just have huge issues with the amount of MSG they use in their food. I get horrible heart palpitations.
Here’s my run down of the food:
Starter soup: complimentary and for good reason, pass
Sauteed snow pea leaves: oily and salty, they use pig fat to stir fry it
Sauteed watercress: good and light
Pasrnip and Beef hotpot: pass, the beef was so fatty… I just kept with the veggies
Braised duck with lo hon vegetables: good, but nothing in comparison to Peking duck
Fried rice: winner, but again, animal fat oil used for tastiness
Deep fried crab: if you like deep fried anything, you’ll like it
Beef ribs: too chewy but flavourful if you have sharp teeth
Tofu and seafood hotpot: Good but saucy and super salty.
Free dessert: sweet tofu. That was OK but because it isn’t cooked (they take soft tofu and throw it into sweet water), it gave me horrible stomach pains…
Next time, my vote for Korean food should carry more weight other than my wasitline!
Detoxing.

Good daily specials (super cheap lunchtime specials, ie: $ 4.49 for different dishes on rice or noodles), soft shelled crab, king mushroom with veggie, lots of classics. Chinatown mainstay, family run, Chef Ken in the back.

Awesome Food.
Prices are okay
Great experience.

Been coming here all my life, foods is always great. You’ve got to try the oysters with black bean sauce

I used to live in Toronto and would «occasionally» go eat after a night at the bar.
I usually frequented this establishment between the hours of 1am and 3am.
Staff are very friendly and will remember your name if you go often enough.
The double lobster is always good and friend rice. Its better if you go with a few people though because it can be a lot of food!
Prices are cheap and the food is tasty. Not a place I’d go with a girl I was trying to impress, but more with the guys late night.
BTW, you can ask for «Canadian or cold tea» and get a cold beverage that resembles tea but is not allowed to be served after hours.

We went for dinner last week and arrived hungry after a long work day.
Service was friendly and efficient. The steamed whole cod with black beans daily special was great, fresh and cooked perfectly. The waitress deboned the fish at the table, which was a great help. The stir fried shrimp with garlic sauce was tasty and not overpowering. Our seafood hot pot with tofu had a nice selection and delicately flavored. All in all a tasty, inexpensive meal.

My experience at this restaurant was approximately 2.5 years ago, but in all honesty, after an experience like the one I had, you never go back. My party ordered e-​fu noodles with crab meat along with a fish maw and crab meat soup (I can’t remember what other dishes we had ordered-​read on to see why). I didn’t try the soup initially because I wanted noodles. When I dug into the noodles which appeared 2 minutes after the soup (which came 2 minutes after the order), I couldn’t believe that the crab meat was B-​A-​D. It smelt bad, but I had shoveled the noodles right in without bothering to see how nice it smelt. When I commented, my party advised me that they had the same opinion about the soup, but weren’t sure if it was just the red/​malt vinegar which they put into the soup. This restaurant supposedly specializes in seafood! I asked the waitress if we could get a new plate of noodles, considering I had only gotten 1 small bowl (they always give tiny bowls at Chinese restaurants eh?). She asked me why I made such a request and I explained that we still wanted to eat e-​fu noodles but this one was cooked with crab meat which was long past due. She started arguing with me and then picked up a fork to taste it! After she ate a bite, she again told me that there’s something wrong with our tasting as it was fine to her. Need I go on? I have never gone back, I don’t think that I would consider telling a foe to try it out.

Figure I’d write something since I go there like every week… which pretty much says what I think about the place. I’ll just give the review for this week then when I took a work buddy, Jimmy the Greek. We worked together in Chicago and now again here in Toronto. We’ll hit Danforth next week to check out the Greek stuff but till then…
We ordered 5 dishes. They came out hot and fast like all wok food does. The usual fair of Salt & Pepper Squid, Steamed Snapper, Seafood Crispy Noodles, Sizzling Garlic Short Ribs, and Double Lobster Sauteed w/​Ginger Scallions. Squid was good but not great, not chewy but not too tender either. The other dishes were all great: fish was fresh, short ribs were not fatty, noodles were extra crispy, and lobster was fresh and flavorful; we loved the sauce. Jimmy gave up on using chop sticks mid way and used his hands for the lobsters. We were a mess after devouring it all. The boss lady gave us a beef soup to start off on and we got red bean dessert as well. The entire tab was $ 67 CAD, taxes made it $ 75 and I tipped them $ 15 for a total of $ 90. It was dirt cheap since our per diem was $ 160. The extra $ 70 we took to go drinking afterwards. We could have spent less but we didn’t care. I’d say the cost should be about $ 20/​person. It’s just that Jimmy is a big hungry boy (no comment on my stature!)
Food in Toronto is definitely good and cheap. I cannot imagine having to ever cook living here.