Kyoto Sushi House is surprisingly busy at 3pm on a weekday. I was expecting a private dining experience, but the place was 80% filled. Filled with small tables and several solo diners, many seem to be students filling up on the all-you-can-eat lunch ($21.99) that remains in effect until 5pm.

You’re not going to find amazing food but it’s not terrible either. My favourite item was their chicken udon, which arrives piping hot with chewy noodles, a flavourful broth, napa cabbage and slices of grilled teriyaki chicken. It’s better than having their single order of teriyaki chicken that’s a bit dry without the soup.

I’m glad their carbs come in personal sized bowls. With that said, I’d skip their way too oily fried rice and stick with sushi instead.

Having doubts about consuming budget raw fish, I focused on cooked items like the shrimp tempura and unakyu rolls. The former was fishy tasting, likely because the frying oil isn’t changed regularly, but the eel and cucumber roll was surprisingly good, the requisite combination of crunchy cucumber and meaty sweet seafood.

For the nigiri, I opted to try the tofu skin sushi. Interestingly they don’t stuff the rice into the sweet burn curd pocket, rather binds it on top of the rice. It was what you’d expect… cool, sweet, and juicy.

The only raw ingredient I tried was the crispy spicy salmon roll and the fishy tempera bits made me regret ordering it. In fact, all their fried items we tried - Japanese spring rolls, deep fried dumpling, yam tempura, and fried calamari – are too oily, cheap quality, and tasteless.

I wish the miso soup arrived with the fried platter to have something to wash the oiliness away.

At least I had plenty of room for dessert, ordering a scoop of the red bean and green tea ice creams. They’re like what you’ll find at buffets but satisfies the sweet tooth.

I’m not going to mention The Lunch Lady of Saigon’s affiliation with a chef turned TV travel host in this post. Instead, I’ll focus on Chef Nguyen Thi Thanh, the lunch lady who attracted diners to Saigon for her daily noodle soups. Sadly, she passed away earlier in May 2025 before the opening of her Toronto restaurant, so its kitchen is comprised of a brigade of men instead of a lady.

Normally, a bowl of pho is a single person affair but at The Lunch Lady their wagyu noodle soup ($36) warrants sharing unless it’s the only dish you’re eating. A large stone bowl of rice noodle, fresh herbs, and a slow poached egg arrives with thick slices of tender beef cheek, a couple hunks of ox tail, and a bone marrow protruding that we’re told to scrape into the dish and mix before eating. As if that’s not enough, a plate of thinly sliced raw wagyu accompanies that’s added tableside to make a carnivore’s heart sing.

Since so many items are added to the broth, it really needs to be hotter, ideally sizzling in the bowl is first presented. Maybe the restaurant is worried about liability issues with the tiny tables, not wanting to burn customers, but the soup is barely hot after everything’s put in.

At least the broth is tasty. The first spoon revealed a decent soup that morphs into something even better by the end as the rich oils from the bone marrow & wagyu and herbs permeate the broth. Make sure you have multiple bowls throughout the meal.

What a brilliant idea to separate the shrimp from its shell in the crispy prawns ($24) prior to deep frying. As both cook separately, the shrimp finishes quicker, and the shell becomes brittle enough to eat.

Served six to an order there’s plenty to go around and are fried to perfection so it’s crispy but still juicy. The enlarged surface area does make it a bit difficult to dip into the chili lime sauce, you’ll need to angle and squish to reach the bright condiment.

To counteract the shrimp’s heaviness, the beef carpaccio ($24) was a great companion dish. The plethora of basil, mint, perilla, crispy shallots, and crushed peanuts seemed overwhelming at first sight, but somehow the beef filet held up against the garnishes. Topped with a lime vinaigrette, it does make for a flavourful bite that cuts the greasiness of the oilier fried shrimp.

The Lunch Lady don’t skimp on crustacean in the crab fried rice ($36). A small palm full arrives on top as proof of the abundance and we’re told to mix it in before eating. To ensure the pungent XO sauce doesn’t overpower the crab, only a bit is added to the dish, while more is mixed into a soy sauce that can be used to taste.

Textures are abound in their fried rice as some grains are deep fried along with crunchy fish roe. As a person who doesn’t love having things stick to my teeth, these crispy bits were a tad annoying but the dish delicious enough that I wasn’t annoyed for long. Surprisingly, the fried rice was even better reheated the next day as the flavours meld together and the crispy bits soften.

Since the tables are small, getting the timing of serving right is so important. We visited on the third week of The Lunch Lady’s opening, and they still need to work on pacing. While a complaint during the first two weeks was the meal moved too slowly, the brigade (seriously there were almost twenty people in the kitchen) over corrected with dishes flying out at breakneck speed.

Luckily, our server provided time warnings with military precision. As the pho was presented, she noted the fried rice would arrive shortly, so we slid all the accompaniments into the bowl to clear the plates and make room for the second main.

If you’re there for a leisurely meal, it’s not the greatest. Personally, I’d recommend visiting as a table of three, you’ll get a larger table so you may not need to rush finishing dishes. Or perhaps wait before visiting The Lunch Lady as they get their timing better.

Visiting with three people will also allow you to try more as the portions are sizeable and I couldn’t even think of dessert. At least the cà phê martini ($18) worked as a dessert, an espresso martini made with aromatic Vietnamese coffee and very boozy thanks to vodka, Licor 43, and Bolivar coffee liqueur.

Toto looks like we’re not in Ho Chi Minh City anymore. And through her partners, the Tran family, may the Lunch Lady’s recipes and legacy continue forever. RIP Chef Nguyen Thi Thanh.

Usually, when I visit a restaurant for dim sum, I’m going for the small dishes filled with bite sized morsels for sharing amongst a table. Things change at Jumbo Lobster where seafood is king. Especially since they only have 24 dim sum dishes (one being French fries) on their menu.

It’s a restaurant made for large gatherings, even a table of four is too tiny. Otherwise, it’d be difficult to order one of their two lunch menus where charges are based on the size of the lobster: $35/lb for 5lbs+ and $36/lb for 10lbs+.  While the price difference is minimal, the surcharge for the 10lb+ meal allows diners to have the lobster prepared two ways and arrives with additional dim sum dishes (eight vs. five).

The 10lb+ lunch menu (or L2 for $36/lb) includes lobster, eight dim sum, congee, fried rice, and a vegetable dish. Out of the stir-fried green onion and ginger and deep-fried dry garlic lobsters, I preferred the traditional onion and ginger as the crustacean’s flavours were more pronounce and felt juicier and plumper.

Despite the mountain of ingredients filling the deep-fried garlic version, it just tasted salty with a hint of sweetness. I can see the dish being favoured by children as it sits on a bed of French fries, which were kind of stale given they’re prepared ahead of time.

Any lobster tomalley is reserved for the lobster roe and shrimp fried rice, which was prepared well. The dish had decent wok hay, and the rice dry enough so there were distinct granules of grain. It was so good that our table finished the entire plate.

To balance the heavier items, there’s a generous portion of poached snow pea tips with goji berry, which were stir fried until tender but still crispy and fresh.

After ordering it does take about 30 minutes before dishes arrive - an anomaly at dim sum where things normally start flying in as soon as the menu is whisked away. In fact, the first item presented isn’t even dim sum, rather a large bowl of chicken congee that’s piping hot and contains tons of bone-in skin-on chicken. It’s a hearty and flavourful way to begin.

What I enjoy about Jumbo Lobster’s dim sum is that they make each item smaller to include more in a dish, making it easier to share. For example, a dish like shrimp dumplings generally arrive in fours but there are six at Jumbo Lobster.

The exception was the steamed rice rolls, which may be slightly longer but contained two rolls instead of three. Nonetheless, they were thin and silky and likely one of the items made in house.

Dishes like the steamed buns seemed like they were purchased frozen wholesale as they were all perfect spheres making the filling indecipherable. Wanting a pork bun, I played Russian roulette and was left with salted egg yolk instead. To their credit, it’s a solid interpretation of the dessert – a creamy molten centre with small egg yolk pieces mixed throughout. Sadly, the sweet and salty filling is not for me.

Much to my chagrin, it’s the same filling used in their deep-fried sesame balls, which were warm and crispy but not filled with lotus paste.

As for the staple dishes, their siu mai just contained pork but were rather juicy. Contrasted against the beef balls that were too dense, even when eaten hot from the steamer.

And while Jumbo Lobster provides a decent portion of meat in the pork spare rib, it lacks flavour as there’s more pumpkin than black bean sauce. The table seemed to prefer the beef belly with special sauce instead.

We were thoroughly sedated after our meal and were quickly pushed out after 1.5 hours to accommodate the bustling Sunday crowd. And for the financially savvy: paying with cash will net you a 10% discount. But, if plastic is your thing, stick with debit as credit card payments command an additional 3% surcharge. Whatever you do, just gather a group of at least ten, you’ll need them to get through the mountain of lobster.