HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR EVERYONE!  To commemorate this festive holiday, I thought it would be fitting to do my first Food Friday post of 2014 on a Dim Sum restaurant!

[custom_box width=”60%” bgcolor=”#D5F2B6″ border_color=”#3F9F29″ text_color=”#3F9F29″ icon_url=”https://www.fionaman.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/knife-fork.jpg”]RESTAURANT: Paramount Banquet Hall 
ADDRESS: Times Square – 550 Highway 7 E, Bldg E Suite 2/F Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3B1
CUISINE: Dim Sum
PHONE: (905) 597-6338 
WEBSITE: http://www.paramountbanquethall.ca/[/custom_box]

For your reference, prices were the following:
Small (S) – $2.90; Medium (M) – $3.90; Large (L) – $4.90; X-Large (XL) – $5.90; Special (SP) – $6.90; Jumbo (J) – $8.90
Note:  The early bird pricing for S, M, and L dishes are $3.00 between 9am and 11:30am

Since it was dim sum, there are too many dishes to describe in detail.  So I’m going to let the photos speak for themselves then give an overall review below.

Japanese Style Fried Squid

Snow Pea Sprout & Shrimp Rice Noodle Roll

Chicken Feet with Special Sauce

BBQ Pork Buns

Steamed Egg York Custard Bun

Dough Fritter Rice Noodle Roll with Sesame Sauce

Pan Fried Pork Dumplings

Japanese Style Tofu

Chiu Chow Marinated Duck Slices

Deep Fried Small Fish with Spicy Salt

Ginseng Soup Shrimp Dumplings

Enoki Mushroom & Dried Conpoy Sprout Dumplings

Fried Prawn with Thai Sauce

Condensed Milk Red Bean Cake

Egg Tart

Milk Tart

Hot Tofu Pudding

Mango Pudding

Overall the food was delicious. Some notable mentions are Steamed Egg York Custard Bun and the Deep Fried Small Fish with Spicy Salt. Next time, I would avoid Chiu Chow Marinated Duck Slices as it was a cold dish and wasn’t very flavourful and Japanese Style Fried Squid as it was heavily battered. I prefer fried squid without the batter that you see at more traditional dim sum places.

Tip: Do not order all the dishes at once. As you feel the need to order more, just ask the waiter for another paper and fill it out. We made the mistake of ordering everything at once because most dim sum places will time the dishes out. Instead all of our dishes came out at once and we had to ask the waiter to take back our desserts or put it under a heat lamp.

The service is another story with this place. The waiters were a bit apprehensive to take back our desserts until we felt we were ready to eat them. And when we told the Captain we were ready for the dishes, he didn’t know what we were talking about. Instead of finding out from his staff, he just gave a puzzled look and walked away. We had to get back our waiter to request it from them. Then when we requested for the bill, take out containers, and a plastic bag for the containers, that took a while. Odd how the food comes out so quick yet requesting for other items takes longer.

While the food was delicious, I would not recommend this dim sum place based on the service and price points. You can get just as or even more delicious dim sum for a fraction of the price and better & more efficient service elsewhere. One of my all-time favourites is Fancy Chinese Cuisine at Warden & 14th Avenue. Now if you want a more “upper class” looking dim sum restaurant, then this is the place.