Café Hollywood is glitzier than the traditional Hong
Kong-style café: the mega wattage signage that makes the restaurant a breeze to
spot while driving or the two huge Oscar statutes flanking the doors. Their
food, on the other hand, is merely the same with an extensive menu of
inexpensive and plentiful options.
If you ever need a cheap date night, Café Hollywood has you
covered. For under $20, the dinner combos include a soup, salad, accompanying
starch (either rice, spaghetti, or French fries) and coffee or tea.
Sure, the small handful of spring mix with tart soy
vinaigrette is a sad excuse for a salad … if you can even classify it as a
salad, but the soup as bad – especially since it comes with a hot dinner roll
that’s a pillow of sweet doughy goodness. Excuse me while I inhale the best
part of the meal.
To be fair, the “Russian” borscht is a far stretch – there’s
no beets, caraway seed or onions in the soup. Rather, the Chinese version is
tomato based and has a spicy kick to it, with the only common ingredient being
cabbage. At Hollywood, theirs doesn’t even incorporate potatoes so it’s a
rather watery affair aside from the oddly oily sheen (perhaps from chili oil)
on top. There’s also a simple cream version made with chicken soup and dairy.
No hearty soups here.
Yet, no one’s going for the starters. What patrons are
waiting for is the main: a humungous plate of food that leaves you wondering if
you can finish it and how you’ll feel the next day, if you did. Take the
Hollywood mixed grill ($15.95) - it’s a mountain of meat: a pork chop, chicken
thigh filet, slice of Korean beef rib, hot dog, and bacon. Having had a bite of
my friend’s beef rib, it was good and I could easily have a plate of these on
their own. Her only complaint was the uneven temperature of the proteins, some
tepid or cool, likely from being mass produced for other dishes.
The same could be said for the Angus sirloin steak ($19.95),
which arrived completely rare in the middle. Although I take my steak medium
rare, it was still too undercooked for my taste, so a portion was left uneaten.
Of course, I could have asked for it to be re-fired, but getting someone’s
attention isn’t the easiest and since it was already smothered in gravy,
putting it back onto the grill isn’t the easiest affair.
Nonetheless, the outer ring I ate was decent for the price. Obviously,
the Angus flavour wasn’t as rich as dry aged versions. However, even
undercooked it was relatively tender despite the dull useless steak knives
given. In hindsight, my friend made a good point that it’s likely a
miscommunication due to how we ordered: generally Chinese customers will
request their meat’s doneness based on a percentage – so I should have
requested it to be 50% done (rather than medium rare).
Luckily, there were plenty of fries to fill me up – once again,
the run-of-the-mill frozen variety – but, warm and crispy enough to be
satisfying (especially dipped into gravy). I only wondered how their frozen
vegetables could be so dry, when these normally arrive water logged and soggy.
Even the gravy couldn’t save these.
Café Hollywood isn’t going to bring home an award for Best
Hong Kong-style café in Toronto anytime soon. Yet, there’s aspects of the
restaurant that’s commendable: the large dining room that allows them to take
reservations and their unhurried attitude (we stayed for almost two hours on a
Friday – an unheard of time compared to competitors). Next time I’d stay with
the traditional dishes – the baked rice looked delicious and baskets of fried
wings seem popular. When it comes to a Hong Kong-style café, the glitzy
offerings may be a poor choice.
How To Find Them
Location: Markham, Canada
Address: 7240 Kennedy Road
Address: 7240 Kennedy Road
Website: http://www.cafehollywood.ca/
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____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
- Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
- 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
- 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
- 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
- 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
- 10 - absolute perfection!
Is That It? I Want More!
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