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Chinese Halal Restaurant
Categories: Restaurants Chinese Restaurants Halal Chinese, Halal [Edit]
101 Ravel RdNorth York, ON M2H 1T1
(416) 498-9800
- Hours:
Mon-Sun 11 am - 12 am
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Alcohol:
- No
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
11 reviews for Chinese Halal Restaurant
11 reviews in English
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Review from Vicki S.
3/18/2012
I came here for dinner with a group of friends who had never eaten Xinjiang/Chinese Muslim food before. (Reactions from friends included, "naw, you're making that up" and "isn't that an oxymoron? A Chinese Muslim?" People got schooled that night!)
The restaurant itself is nice looking, with some Arabic/Chinese calligraphy on the walls and new-enough decor. The service was very quick and efficient, which was exactly what we wanted, as hungry as we were. We ordered a dozen lamb kebabs and a dozen beef kebabs. They were perfectly seasoned with just the right amount of spice. The lamb hand-cut noodles were delicious and had a nice slow burning spice. The chestnut chicken was just ok, a tad overcooked. The pancake stuffed with lamb was decent, but not nearly flavorful enough. The best dishes aside from the kebabs were easily the sweet and sour fried fish, which was tangy and crunchy, the lamb hand-cut noodles, and the vegetable dou miao. The marinated beef tongue cold cuts were also a good appetizer to the main meal. I will definitely be coming back, and zeroing in on the lamb and beef kebabs. -
Review from Jennifer K.
Markham, ON
8/27/2011 11 photos
I have to admit that I never been to the Old location of Chinese Beef & Lam House...
This place used to be a AYCE Japanese/Thai restaurant. Gone was the old sushi bar and all the Japanese decoration but the lay out of the restaurant is really similar.
Lunch Specials from $5.99 till 4:30 pm on weekday is a sweet deal... Portion wise just perfect without leaving me wanting to have a second lunch!
Hand Made Beef Noodle Soup ($5.99) was quite savory, the noodle cooked al dente with a good bite.
Service was indifference and cold.... but I got my food fast, hot and delicious.........for all I care, that's most important! -
Review from Raymond W.
Toronto, ON
1/24/2011
Everything about the place suggests that this is nothing special.
The space itself has been home to three prior restaurants that has all gone out of business, the height of the chairs make you wish you've brought a phone book to sit on so that you have the right chair-to-table elevation, and the decor makes as much sense as the leaders the Liberal Party picks to run their campaign.
Examining the art on the wall left me completely bored. The place is plastered with random Chinese calligraphy drawings that has nothing to do with the Xinjing Muslim theme, and adverts of the restaurant itself, just in case you forgot where you were. Christmas lights dangles by the window, and the centrepiece is a giant landscape painting that's probably commissioned by a grade six class during a field trip.
To make it worse, the two dividers to section off the floor were garnished with neon tinted strips of plastic.
It's as if the interior decorator was educated in the Art School of IKEA, went on a mushroom trip, and went all 'Chinese Austin Powers.'
Tables of all shapes dwell here, parties are 2-12 can all be comfortably accommodated. There's even a semi-private dining area--which from the outside looks unfinished.
One can really marvel at the tackiness that is spread throughout, but all those failures are immediately forgotten when your food arrives. Because I'll tell you right now, it's damn good.
My friend and I were hungry dogs when we arrived. We ordered: Braised OX Tail, Braised Eggplant, Fried Beef Pancakes, Melaeuca Lamb, Fried Lamb Dumplings, Fried Chicken Wings, Lamb Kabobs and two bowls of steam rice.
The OX Tail was a bit chewy, and the chicken wings were a bit dry, but you can request them to be flavored. Everything else was bloody superb (especially the braised eggplant). These guys do lamb well. Usually at Chinese halal restaurants, there is a large selection of bread, this was not so at this particular establishment. No matter!
The service was alright, most of the wait staff appear to be part time students, but with that said, they perform above what you'd expect them to. They may forget your drink order sometimes, and things could get a bit awkward.
The lady sitting next to us complained about her dish being too spicy, where she was met by the waitress with an unexpected heartfelt response of: "Um, I'm SORRY..." -
Review from Peter E.
Mississauga, ON
3/12/2012 1 Check-in Here
Lamb that melts in your mouth. Flavoirful hot pots. Feed 4 for less than $85 tax and tips included.
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Review from Deanna W.
10/3/2009
My experience at Chinese Beef & Lamb House involved expanding my boundaries both gastronomically and geographically. The restaurant serves up Xinjiang/Chinese Muslim style food in a sad looking strip mall up in Scarberia. It's really far and involves using the oft-maligned purple ttc line and a bus ride but when a chowmeet was decided here I figured I was game for something different.
Decor: the words suburban communist china come to mind, well intentioned chinese kitsch
Our group ordered a host of dishes that could really be described as a lamb-a-palooza, lamb, lamb and more lamb with vegetables making a minor guest appearance. I didn't know there were so many ways to cook up lamb! Among the items we ordered:
-cumin stir fried lamb (tender lamb with lotsa cumin seeds, very good)
-crisp pan fried lamb buns (hockey puck sized buns filled with tumeric/cumin spiced minced lamb-okay)
-medicinal lamb soup (milkey and soothing the perfect thing to heal my cold)
-bbq lamb skewers (juicy and charred but fell short in the spicing department)
-boiled spicy lamb (one of my favourites of the night, shavings of lamb in a hot broth of chili peppers and sichuan peppercorns, if you got the right ladleful your tongue was treated to a fiery massage!)
-spicy stir fried organs (delicious and not scary but not enough spice)
-handmade noodles with lamb (loved the texture of the noodles, they were thick, rustic and chewy)
-beef tablets with whole cloves of garlic (sweet brown sauce, loved the abundance of garlic)
We finished off with perfectly deep fried banana's in honey. Yum.
Service was helpful and friendly but it was fleeting as we were seated in a private room at the back corner. Some language issues as well, so it's point and order system or bring a mandarin speaker for optimal results.
All in all, an interesting experience as I've been looking to sample some northern style chinese cuisine. However, I do feel that the flavours and spicing in the dishes were extremely muted perhaps our group was handed a raw deal when a few folks objected to ordering all spicy skewers. Prices were very reasonable-we each paid $20 including tax and tip and were stuffed to the seams at the end.
I would go back if a) someone drove me and b) if they amped up the flavour. -
Review from Janet L.
5/12/2009
OK here's the deal --
11 - 4pm lunch specials for $4.99!
that's unheard of! :) and it's FABULOUS!
cheap eats, that's also DELISH?! :)
sweeetttt --
it seriously doesn't get better than this.
Chinese Muslim / Halel Food.
Every Lamb and Beef dish on this picture friendly menu is AWESOME.
go in for a warm lamb stew or chef's special soup in the winter,
or cool garlic cucumbers in the summer.
their beef or lamb chinese style pancakes are YUM --
delightfully puffy and filled with perfectly seasoned meat.
their house special beef noodle soup is cravable! you can taste the time and love in the soup base. ughh so goooood.. and the hand pulled noodles are as real as they get outside of la chine.
seriously? who cooks like this anymore outside of china? --
these are classic techniques!
the decor is kind of hilarious though, a lil step up from a hole in the wall, it's definitely clean, but it also feels like you're in the middle of nowhere china, really really first gen. like you've escaped the city. and nothing matches. the walls are cheerily painted like you're walking into the plateaus deep into china, starkly contrasting the leather booths and the crazy yellow seat covers that match the trilingual waitress's outfits (they mainly speak mandarin, some canto, and english).
the TVs are always playing old 50's chinese black & white talkies, and there are neon signs boasting great halel food!
the chef is usually out and about greeting the customers - he's won awards for his food, and i agree --
this place is seriously the best regional lamb and beef dishes
that's hit the east side of this city since... johnny's burgers.
i highly recommend this place! because i'd be so sad to see it go under because no one knows about it.
deserves my YUM YUM approval fo sheezie ;) -
Review from Josephine T.
North York, ON
7/21/2011
This place is very different than any Chinese place you have ever been to in Toronto. They are northern Chinese food and basically not been seen anywhere in Canada. Not everything in their menu is great but it depends on what you have tasted so far. Their spices are very different. Unique. You have to try their chicken with thousand year egg. They are sliced thin and boneless chicken with a thousand year egg inside. Their prices are so cheap. ~$5. Their noodles are freshly made and by hand. The beef noodle is with the thin noodle but the lamb noodle is with thick noodles like lasagna noodles. I like the thin noodles. Really good! Also try their lamb shiu mai. It comes in a steamer. But you have to really like lamb because it does have a lamb taste. It's really amazing and less than $10 for 12 shiu mai. Very different food but definitely must try for a taste of China that you can only get here.
They had a small store up in Scarborough but their food is better here. The food is good and cheap. A must try for anyone that's has never been to that part of China before. Service is hard for people who doesn't have English as their first language but I guess that's to be expected. -
Review from Ana W.
5/17/2010
Great authentic Northern China Muslim Chinese food! I've come here ever since they were in business).
Decor: Nothing fancy. It's like a typical family-run restaurant. But they have added booth seating and brightened up the restaurant. I hope they keep making improvements, because they have plenty of space to work with.
Food: Once you get past the superficial stuff, you'll find an array of selection of lamb and beef dishes. One of my personal favourite dishes is the beef/lamb noodle soup. They make their own noodle! It's fresh! And their dishes don't use MSG (not that I can tell at least). They make a very good soup base. If you can handle spices, you'll like this place. Their lamb skewers are full of flavour. There is something for everyone.
Service: The staff is friendly and the owner is very down to earth.
This is a good place for large groups. They have lots of seating and round tables to accommodate larger groups.
I would definitely come back. I'd be here for lunch every day if I worked closer. -
Review from Lichen L.
Scarborough, ON
1/9/2011 1 Check-in Here
Food is okay. Service is horrible. Waitress knows nothing about the food she serves. Ordered 2 dishes. Watied 30 minutes for the first one, another 30 minutes for the second one.
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Review from Yelena K.
Markham, ON
5/12/2010
Love this place. Great authentic northern Chinese/Xinjiang food. Price is great. Their steamed lamb buns are so delish....we usually order some to take home to eat too. They lamb skewer is also highly recommended. Lamb is their specialty here.
A place like this, you wouldn't be expecting top notch decor/ service. The place is clean and spacious. The waitress comes by to fill your tea regularly. So overall a good place to enjoy some authentic dumplins and buns! -
Review from Ridersdiaries D.
8/29/2010
In California, we have a large community of Chinese immigrants so we have many delicious traditional Chinese restaurants from different provinces. Many of friends mentioned that Toronto has many good restaurants. My first stop was Chinese Beef and Lamb House, I chose this place for the Halal food and beef / lamb specialties. Well, I gave this place 5 stars for its friendly waitresses, variety / quality of dishes. We were 8 people so we consumed many dishes:(sweet/ soar soup, garlic beef, lamb dumplings, lamb rack/ eggplants...etc) we enjoyed every single of them. Look forward to visit on my next visit to Toronto!
