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Number Two Restaurant
Category: Restaurants Chinese Dim Sum Dim Sum [Edit]
416 Spadina AveToronto, ON M5T 2G7
Neighbourhoods: Chinatown, Kensington Market, Downtown Core
(416) 593-4788
- Hours:
Tue-Thu, Sun 10 am - 4 am
Fri-Sat 10 am - 5 am
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Noise Level:
- Average
4 reviews for Number Two Restaurant
4 reviews in English
-
Review from Janine W.
Toronto, ON
2/5/2012
It's called Ivan's now. I went there based on reviews from yelp.
We went to Dim Sum on Saturday with a group.
No carts, just menus.
Price is reasonable $3.25 for everything I think.
Cost us $80 for 6 of us.
We tried
1. har gow (okay, good size, filling was good, wrapper good if you ate it soon and not let it cool off as it got hard quickly which is unusual)
2. Sui Mai (good size, pork wasn't too fatty and shrimp inside)
3. shrimp cheung fun/rice rolls (good but mushier/softer than most places so my Canadian friends had an even harder time eating it)
4. Turnip cake (vegetarian style) - nice and light. I missed the flavour from the meat though but we had more people at the table who didn't eat meat and ate only seafood
5. Deep fried tentacles (hard not to like these) not oily and good.
6. Eggplant stuffed with shrimp (good size, but the eggplant skin was tougher than I'd like and the shrimp filling was hard or tougher on the outside) I've had much better.
7. chicken feet (good, not too fatty, garlicky, though I like them saucier)
8. vegetable dumplings (these little triangle were nice especially since dim sum doesn't have much for vegetable options)
9. Seafood dumplings: these were really tasty. But I had a hard time figuring out where the seafood was as it was mostly vegetables in it. I think calling them vegetable dumplings with seafood would be better. Not enough seafood in them to be called seafood but really good nonetheless. We ordered more of them.
10. Chiu Chow dumplings. now I've never had these before (meat filled) so I don't have another one to compare to. But I liked them. Reminded me of something my mother used to make. I'd get them again.
We got multiples of almost everything as the other selections were mostly meat. So I can't speak for the other meat options.
One of the guys hadn't eaten dim sum before and I really didn't want him to try it and not like it and pay $30-40 for the meal. So I thought it would be a good option to try.
I think it's worth going to again but for me, it's not a substitute for the carts and all the bustle and busyness. And for the price it's great especially if you can't make it up before 11:30am where all the other places go back to regular price! -
Review from Lauren M.
If you can really bring yourself to eat at a place called NUMBER TWO Restaurant (dear Lord help us), then you might be pleasantly surprised with this place. Solid 3.5 star but I'm rounding it up because I feel generous today.
I have been eyeing Number Two (somewhat hysterically, because of the name) for weeks and it opened sometime over the past few days.
Number Two is definitely a Chinese restaurant geared towards whiteys. Or at least it's trying hard (and succeeding) to be "whitey friendly". (Who can blame them, really? We order ridiculous quantities of food, rave about how delicious it is even when it's not, plus generally tip generously! Bring on the whiteys!)
However, when I was there today I was the only whitey amongst a half-full restaurant of asians.
They had all day dim sum which was highly tempting, but Jennifer K lectured me via bbm to order a Chinese dish, so I picked out my favourite - Moo Shu Pork. The menu is giant and has all your usual Chinese food dishes as well as a separate dim sum menu.
I was really impressed with my Moo Shu! It was giant (for $9) and it was the healthiest restaurant Moo Shu I have tasted. Every time I get this dish elsewhere it is greasy as f*ck! (Canton Chilli, Lee Garden and Swatow are all entirely guilty of making it with far too much oil). Not here, it was nice and light.
The service here was really friendly and genuine. English spoken to varying degrees but the manager was very fluent. He came over to introduce himself.
The place is clean and they have clearly done some reno work to make it look slightly more modern than most of the other Chinatown haunts. Real linen (not plastic!) tablecloths, new chairs and tables, blue and white mosaic tiling at the bar/service area.
Open until 5am on weekends and 4am weekdays!Listed in: An "Egg's" guide to eating in…
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Review from Susan G.
9/26/2011
I've been eyeing Number 2 Restaurant for some time (as I love dim sum and it is a 5 minute walk from my house!) and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised!
The service is really good, and the food is delicious (though, not the best hot and sour soup I've ever had). To top it all off, the price is right! I went for Dim Sum with three other people, and we literally stuffed our faces (I bet the kitchen was laughing at us when they saw how much we over-ordered!) AND the bill came to about $50 including tax and tip! And I'm not kidding, we probably ordered 12 dishes at least.
SO if you want a large quantity of quality dim sum at the right price, check out Number 2 restaurant - as long as you don't think of.. the other number 2 the whole time... which I have to say, is difficult. They probably should have thought of that when they named it. -
Review from R.J. G.
Toronto, ON
10/8/2011
Don't be put off by the name. Because we live in the area we watched as Number Two developed into a restaurant and finally decided to check it out because it advertised all-day dim sum. The restaurant had moved into the old location of another Chinese restaurant (they do come and go so quickly) and although the menu didn't look that promising we pleasantly found their dim sum, yummy.
The place is spartan in design, a simple floor to ceiling glass window that looks out unto the street. Straight-forward metal chairs and tables with plastic table cloths and unadorned walls. It is not that large but bright and airy. The place quickly filled up and we ordered a couple of dishes to try their selection. Although the service was slow and sometimes more than a little confused everything arrived warm, toasty and delicious.
The star of the afternoon were some vegetable shiitake dumplings that were light, and delicious. We also had some green onion pancakes from the regular menu, some shrimp rice rolls which were the best I have had in this area and some black bean beef ribs. The food was good enough to compete with the only real competitor in the neighbourhood Rol San, meaning we will be back for more. It was nice to discover something so delicious in so unexpected a place.
