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- Hours:
Mon-Thu 12 pm - 1 am
Fri-Sat 12 pm - 2 am
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good For:
- Dessert
- Alcohol:
- No
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Has TV:
- No
- Caters:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
Tiff L. said: "I live right upstairs from this dessert house, so I may be a little biased. I walk past their store everyday when going to Finch station (it's only a little south of the station). I had a sesame ice cream crepe, you can substitute…" read more »
18 reviews for The Sugar
18 reviews in English
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Review from Sara-Yan Y.
North York, ON
2/6/2012
This is another one of those restaurants I live across the street from so I've eaten here many times before. The menu isn't too bad but I can't bring myself to buy another fruit dessert because they are something easy to prepare and costs quite a bit at 31 kitchen. Oh right, they also changed their store name from "The Sugar" to "31 Kitchen." Same owner, menu, and prices though.
I usually order the combo specials ($6.99ish depending on whether you want rice or noodles and such) which included a bubble tea and a small dessert. No complains about the food or the pricing for the combos.
The store went through many interior changes throughout the years and right now they have booths which I like sitting in. It is dim-lit, not too bright or too dark, and I personally enjoy the lighting. It doesn't feel like a restaurant you'd go with your whole family, but more for younger people to go with friends or their partners.
The restaurant also offers free wifi. :D -
Review from Antonia W.
Toronto, ON
1/29/2012
2.5 to 3 stars.
My friend wanted somewhere to go for a girl to girl conversation over chinese dessert and i had heard of this place by another friend so off we went. It was a sunday night and surprisingly super packed. The tables here are really huge, like big squares really and they're spaced out quite far so you don't feel cramped.
I ordered the sago/black jelly w coconut milk which came to my table sans black jelly. I thought it meant there was sago and black jelly but apparently it was one or the other. I never specified and the server never asked so I guess they felt like a sago night. The sago pearls weren't cooked long enough in my opinion... still too much chew.
My friend ordered the fried popcorn chicken and a waffle w fruit and ice cream. Good amount of fried chicken and the waffle came out w a mountain of ice cream, whipped cream and various sliced fruits adorning it all.
The servers were quite nice and attentive. there is nothing really wrong w this place and for the area, it serves it's purpose but I think I would head up to hwy 7 dessert places for the extra 10 min drive. -
Review from Esther W.
Toronto, ON
3/15/2012 1 photo
I went there with 4 friends a mine, and we all had a good time there. Both their desserts and hot meals were very very good that a guy who wasn't supposed to eat that late at 10:30pm but still ordered an appetizer and a hot meal. I especially love their beef noodle soup, stewed pork w/ rice, and fried milk dessert! The service was great and prompt, we didn't have to wait long to be seated and served. Overall, great restaurant to go to catch up with friends :)
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Review from Kristina J.
North York, ON
1/24/2012
I'm also surprised at how poorly reviewed this place is. It deserves 5 stars for several reasons:
1) The decor is very Chinese, and youthful, and hip, I like what they did for Chinese new year 2012
2) The menu has been redesigned. It even bigger than before! its very impressive probably 200 items + and they had a good selection of not only desserts but set meals (ie clay pot rices, and appetizers, and soups) The desserts are even better now, some are new like ice chow mein. I tried the strawberry, its like shaved ice cream, very good! Now they have more of the porcelain pot soups too, that look great. in addition to specialty fresh juices and shakes.
3) i've been coming here for several years and it has renovated, but it is worth going to. guarantee you'll like
4) the music used to be blaring loud, now it's softer so you can actually talk with your friends at the table comfortably. -
Review from Mimi C.
Toronto, ON
1/12/2012 4 Check-ins Here
I'm surprised at how badly review this place, i personally like it for several reasons. Though i think i might know why it's rated badly. I speculate it's because the food and environment/store is not authentic. I went with my sister, her bf, brother and my bf and they all liked it a lot. My sister's bf had their ramen and he thought it was delicious. The rest of them had waffles and they liked it too. I had the 5 flavour sweet dumplings and i thought it was really good, it was consisted of chocolate, taro, sesame, mango and one more that i don't recall anymore. The seating space is pretty good, easy to fit a small group of people. It also opens late. I personally like the fact that they have both asian and white deserts that people can choose from. I also like how they include normal dinner food choices besides desert.
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Review from Theresa W.
Vancouver, BC
5/20/2011
I'm so sad, I used to love this place. But now it's not called The Sugar anymore since they're starting to serve more set meals as opposed to Chinese desserts.
The place has undergone a few renovations, and every time I come back (6 month intervals), it always looks different. This time around I was looking forward to some delicious desserts and was happy to see the place so busy on a Thursday night.
The new seating arrangements work better for the restaurant and the desserts are about the same as I remember, but the menus are in serious need of a reprint. The ones that came to our table had the laminate peeling off. When we realized it wasn't a dessert menu, they came back with the right one and just looking at the sorry thing on my table made me consider leaving right then and there. It had no cover, it was tied together with string, and the pages that had long since torn at the punch holes were taped on, some upside down.
While I love love love Chinese desserts (it's one of the few things I long for when I come back for a visit), I don't know if I can continue coming here. It clearly isn't made for desserts anymore, so I'll find me a different place. Thanks for the good times, The Sugar, but this is a breakup. -
Review from Lynn C.
12/20/2010
3.5 stars, not quite a 4.
The Sugar is a weird place with a weird array of menu items.
- It has traditional Cantonese dessert, such as herbal essence jelly, mango freeze (mango cubes), etc.
- It has traditional Cantonese food, such as steamed rice meals (metal, not bamboo, steamer), road side sharks fin soup, etc.
- It has traditional Taiwanese food, such as stinky tofu, stinky hot pot, taiwanese sausages, etc.
My friend and I ordered
- steamed xo sauce pork neck rice: a little bland, and came with a bowl of cooked lettuce in soy sauce...
- stinky hot pot: really good, with intestines, pigs blood, enokie mushrooms, fish balls, and fish cake
- mixed vegetables and tofu dry pot: it was okay
- herbal essence jelly in coconut milk: awesome
- mango freeze: she said it was awesome
The decor is nice, the service is unfriendly.
Would I go back? I might, especially for dessert. The food isn't too bad, but it's not something i'd crave. -
Review from Raymond W.
Toronto, ON
7/17/2011
Jennifer K is right when she said that this is the only Chinese dessert place in the area. It is also the only bubble tea shoppe in the area..and I live in this area. Which means I'm bound to see someone I went to school with every time I visit here. Many..many awkward moments.
First, the name of this place has changed from 'The Sugar' to 'Kitchen 31'...or 35..thirty something. The owner remains unchanged, staff are the same, décor untouched.
This place is capable of producing the same variety of drinks and food as Destiny's tea shoppe, and that's rather impressive for such a humble space which used to be a cracked out Coffee Time. It is clean, good lighting, and always packed on weekends with unintimidating patrons. The service is fast, which is again impressive considering they make all the fancy drink orders for the Congee Wong just a few doors down as well.
Food that is cooked here basically come in generic portions, and is mediocre at best. But the milk..butter...something something...which look like tofu cubes are down right delicious. It's so rich and luxuriously flavoured. And that basically sums up this place. So you'd think I'd be here all the time. But I'm not, because it's so scary coming here!
I run into everyone I don't want to ever run into here. People in high school who I never talked to and felt guilty about ignoring, people from my old Chinese church that I boycotted, girls I kinda hit on back in grade 12 but never really dated. There was this one time where I was here with two of my girlfriends and I was telling them about this girl named Melinda whom I has a crush on during Chinese school, and then I sat up straight only to see Melinda looking at me with her huge eyeballs in the booth next to mine. I ducked my head so fast I karate chopped the table, and remained submerged with my bubble tea until she left. It's like the twilight zone here!
I don't care much for bubble tea, but my Asian genetics kicks in every once in awhile, and it is required that I get myself a taro whatever whatever to go. When I come here, it's like I'm a celebrity avoiding the paparazzi. Face scarves, big shades, hipster clothing.
I should learn how to use a blender. -
Review from Jennifer K.
Markham, ON
9/23/2010 9 photos
The Sugar is the only choice for Chinese dessert in the area so if you in the area and want to satisfy your Chinese desserts craving you kind of stuck with it.
I can understand why the service is lacking on a weekday lunch hour since there is only 1 waitress who taking orders, making drinks and desserts and delivering the orders from kitchen.
The Lingzhi Essence Jello ($5.99) is quite sizable compare to the one served at Herbal Harmony but it is lacking the intense Lingzhi taste.. wondering it there is hardly any in it?
The Coconut Fresh Fruit Sago ($4.79) is a nice surprise. Though it is a little too sweet for my taste but it is loaded with FRESH FRUITS! no canned varieties.. that is an extra 0.5 stars. The sago are a little crumbled together but is quite acceptable.
Have not try any cooked food on the menu. But I think The Sugar really try to hard to has so many varieties, you do sacrifice quality over quantity. Since there is so many eating place in the same plaza why don't they just concentrate on making better Chinese desserts instead??
They accepts Cash only! -
Review from Kobe L.
North York, ON
11/12/2010
Decor nice, food so very, very disappointing. Completely agree with some of the other comments, save your taste buds. Should you happen to be hungry next to this place, go home cook some rice and pour soya sauce on it, trust me it's no different and likely will taste better!
Ordered the curry shrimp papaya hot pot. So many things wrong, nothing like the picture in the menu for one, rice not crunchy at all, no sauce, shrimp way over cooked and shrivelled. Other dish was a beef hot pot, bland and burnt.
How is this place associated with Congee Queen and Congee Wong???
Perhaps this is more a dessert place, however will never know 'cuz I definately won't be venturing back.
Not recommended. -
Review from Kathy C.
2/25/2010
I wonder how this restaurant stays open.... or how long it will remain open.... We went to Niagara Falls for a long weekend and decided to take a day trip to Toronto. Knowing that there will be many awesome Chinese restaurants in the area, we decided to order small meals and try as many restaurants as possible.
The Sugar was the 2nd restaurant we hit, right after Congee Wong (next door). Wow, what a discappointment. At first glance, I was excited to try this restaurant after reviewing their menu posted on their window. It looked like a hip Chinese cafe with dessert drinks and some Taiwanese snack dishes to me.
We ordered one of the lunch combos offered which features a sweet tea with boba, minced pork rice, and a little dessert cake (bite size). We also ordered a 3-cup chicken and a tofu wha (flower) dessert.
The only thing I enjoyed was the small (1 bite), free dessert cake that came with the lunch combo. I never knew someone can mess up minced pork rice. I mean, there are good ones and decent ones, but I've never had, in my more than 30 years of trying Chinese/Taiwanese food, bad minced pork rice dish... until that day. The rice was... long grain, loose, not hot enough and not flavorful. Comes with a tired/dry looking half a soy sauce egg and didn't come with marinated/pickled raddish (which often would be included).
The boba sweet tea was terrible. Basically sugared water with very hard boba. The 3-cup chicken was more like kung pao chicken.... we walked out leaving more than half of each dish and not even bothered with a take-out box. -
Review from Joyees Y.
Scarborough, ON
1/3/2010
The Sugar is a classic example of the negative correlation between decor and quality of food that applies to so many Chinese restaurants. This is a total teenager trap: it provides a nice looking place to hang out and you can look at pretty food (but please don't eat, your taste buds will thank you).
They must have spent all their money on decor cause the food is lacking in everything. Bad ingredients, and just plain not enough of it. And thing are just thrown together in hopes for some coherency.
One of the things I love most and I get it whenever I'm in a Chinese dessert place is the ginger milk custard. It's supposed to be a bit firm but mostly really light, like silken tofu. It is the starch in the ginger that is holding it together, there should be no additive added to help it stay together.
What I got at this place was an actual custard with a hint of ginger. They used eggs which made it too rich and it distracted from what little ginger taste they had, it also took away from the sweetness of milk that goes with the ginger. What I had was a disgrace.
Than there were mango glutinous ball which was just wrong. Mangoes usually taste best cold but I've had a really nice warm mango sauce before. This was not the case, it jut ended up too sweet and too sour and tasted a bit astringent. And it was served in just a simple sugar water: literally, sugar and water. For what I paid I expected more than three balls in sugar and water.
Than there was the shaved ice. Large specks of ice with cheap CHEAP CHEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!! ice cream with miscellaneous fruits (which were tasteless since everything else was loaded with way too much sugar) The thing with shave ice is that they melt faster so very soon it became an unappetizing pile of diluted cheap ice cream soup with random fruits. Now I am not the biggest fan of shaved ice (melts too fast and it's ice with things on top..) but I actually have had really good one before where the ice was more fine and compact so it didn't melt as fast and they paired coffee with red bean which tasted really good. It was well thought out and it worked. And what the Sugar had was NOT a good shaved ice.
Finally, they had rice for those who want something savory. I didn't order it but the guy at my table did. Biggest waste of money! I saw 1% meat and 99% rice. I just saw him continuously scoop spoonfuls and spoonfuls of plain white rice. Yea I own a rice cooker too, I don't need to pay you that much for it.
Basically, I'm insulted that they can be this bad and worry that other people think this is the standard for "tong sui". For a better alternative there's a place in Midland and Finch plaza (the one with the KFC) which is much better. Admittedly there's not as much selections and the decor is less modern but the soups are MUCH better.Listed in: Places That Needs To Die In A…
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Review from Laura C.
Toronto, ON
5/11/2010
There's not much choice in the area in terms of chinese dessert places, so I think they've gotten a niche here.
I would never get dinner here, as it started out as a dessert place (it's called the sugar), but I think they added the dinner foods for more variety in case you can't get into Congee Wong.
I have to say that the food has deteriorated a little since it opened, but it's still good, and my staple place to go with I'm at my parents place in North York.
I like the glutunious rice balls and how there are 5 different flavours (note:smaller than it used to be), the fried milk pudding, and the golden sago. The black sesame soup is also okay here - thick and not watery. You can also get bubble tea, but they give you free barley type tea.
The only thing missing from their menu is the egg or milk pudding (dun daan) I'm not sure why they don't make it.
I find the service could be inproved a little, and the attitude of the servers. and some cushions on the benches please!!! But otherwise I like it. -
Review from Joanne W.
5/28/2010
I use to come here a LOT with my friends because it's possibly the only thing close to the area where we all live.
I came here again with a friend after 2-3 years, and I thought to myself, "What was I thinking?!"
First off, never order a meal here. It's not worth its price for the quality. I ordered myself a side of takoyaki (again - in relation to the search of the best takoyaki). Gosh, the takoyaki was horrible. What was I thinking!? It was full of batter, and the squid taste was just awful. Not only that, they topped it off with TOO much sauce. I was not impressed.
The popcorn chicken was surprisingly a lot better than Go For Tea. However, still was not fully satisifed.
The drinks were okay. I can't recall what my friend ordered -- it was some sort of hot celestial tea. I ordered myself a hot red bean black tea with tapioca.
Gosh, that was bad too. There was all this powder reminants at the bottom of my drink in the end. Not only that, the tapioca was hard and not very chewy.
Was very disappointed. Time to find a new place to go to in my area! -
Review from Josephine T.
North York, ON
9/19/2010
Their mango freeze with sago is really good. Most of their drinks are really good. It's a hangout place for teenagers. Their new decorations make it very private for groups of friends. Their set dinners are worth the cost. It's a Chinese dessert place for hanging out with friends.
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Review from Christine L.
4/12/2009
the sugar is located in a big chinese plaza. yeeep!
the sugar is basically a chinese/taiwanese food place with small meals, snacks, tea, coffee, and boba. mmmmm. yes. there's also free wifi and fashion magazines (in chinese or taiwanese).
pricing is okay and they accept visa/mastercard/amex/cash.
there's also a debit machine right by the door.
bathrooms are clean.
toast was delicious (yeah, coconut!)
and when my gf needed an outlet (for just in case), the waitress asked another group to move. (oops) turns out the outlet is right underneath the seating computer. they were all very nice about it though.
:] -
Review from Curtis C.
Scarborough, ON
2/15/2010 2 photos
I've visited 'The Sugar' four times over the past few years, most recently today for lunch. This modern-style 'cafe' is right beside Congee Wong and another similar chinese restaurant meaning parking can be chaotic at times. Luckily there is plenty of parking at the neighboring plaza.
I have been to The Sugar for dessert and dinner (separately) in the late evening, for lunch on a weekend. This review reflects my experience during those trips.
The desserts available are fairly traditional - not just your plain bubble tea & sweet drinks. The food selection is quite different from Congee Wong and definitely has it's own appeal.
The drinks here are acceptable, probably on par with Destiny. Nothing mind blowing. Food is decent at lunch. The portions are fair, but the taste could use some work and the prices are a little high.
Overall, I'm not a fan of this place - probably would not go back unless someone wanted to try it for the first time. Meh. -
Review from Cyrus I.
Richmond Hill, ON
4/8/2010 1 photo
This place is just ok overall, although drinks are generally impressive, food is also not bad, but service-wise, it fails! Other details can be refined.
