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Happy Seven Restaurant - CLOSED
Category: Restaurants Chinese Chinese [Edit]
358 Spadina AvenueToronto, ON M5T 2G4
Neighbourhoods: Chinatown, Kensington Market, Downtown Core
(416) 971-9820
- Price Range:
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$
- Attire:
- Casual
3 reviews for Happy Seven Restaurant
3 reviews in English
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Review from Justin C.
10/23/2008 7 photos
Oh my god, I ate so much food here. Someone had a brilliant idea to go out to Chinatown one night, so I looked desperately for any help on Yelp, and got lucky by trusting the one review this place had. They have real Chinese food here, not the kind you get at every "Golden X-Building-Name" take out in the universe, but the stuff you remember the next day, and not because your stomach is all screwed up or there's a huge carton still in the fridge. The beer is insanely cheap here as well, by far the lowest of anywhere we ate for the whole two weeks.
The menu here is huge, easily the largest I've ever seen in any restaurant. It's like a book bound together by string, even surpassing most respectable places fancy wine lists in size, with just food. If there is a type of meat, and a type of sauce, they are probably combined in some fashion on this menu. Even the "special" section on the back, which lets you choose from a large list of items to make a sort of tasting menu for the table, has over 100 items.
Given the chance to order many things that are usually not available all in one place, and for so little money, I decided that one dish just would not cut it for me that night. Instead I opted on 4. My original starter dish, the Razor Clams in Black Bean sauce, was unfortunately not available due to seasonality, but I did not let this derail me from my mission. I picked out the Shrimp with Lobster Sauce to begin, the Deep Fried Jumbo Salt & Pepper Frog Legs for second, the Orange and Ginger Glazed Boneless Duck for my main meal, and the Lemongass and Pepper Ox Tail Hotpot (extra spicy, of course) to finish. I list them in order only because that's the way they came out. All of these were full sized dishes which could easily have filled up one person. Naturally I shared as much as possible with the table, although the Germans I was with were a bit hesitant to try most of my more "exotic" dishes.
There's really no need to do a summary of each dish (although there are pictures of all of them), because they were all stellar, and I would gladly eat any of them a second time around. The duck was especially good, and for such a low price (around $10 for a giant plate) it has to be one of the best price-per-quality items I've ever had. Every single person at both of our tables was overly satisfied with their dishes as well, with the one exception being those who ordered the Hot & Sour soup, as it seems to be prepared quite differently here than what we were used to.
At the end of the night we took all the food we had left over and distributed it to the various homeless people we encountered on the way back to the hotel, because it was just too damn good to go to waste.Listed in: InspirAsian, Traversing Through Toronto
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Review from David A.
9/8/2008
Greatest Chinese restaurant with incredibly efficient service. Every time we needed more tea, I set it on the side of the table with the lid up and the waitress came by immediately. You definitely get bang for your buck here too. I ordered "Baby Abalone with Golden Mushrooms" and I got a huge platter that had a ton of enoki mushrooms with a good amount of tender baby abalone! My Mom (who is white) ordered "Rock Cod with Bitter Melon" and the waitress kept on asking her if knew what bitter melon was and then told her there are no refunds. LOL! it was delicious though and the rock cod was lightly fried and in a light sauce but still crunchy when I bit into it!
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Review from Anna V.
Toronto, ON
11/11/2008
Well well, Happy Seven got in some serious CTV trouble when they discovered huge rats running around the place during the day and caught it on film. Happy Seven is open late and everyone I know has been there after the bar more than a few times. It's pretty straight Chinese food fare, plastic table clothes and fast service. You don't go here for the great food, it's for the convenience of a late night joint when you're loaded. But after that story, maybe never ever again.
