Lai Doh Restaurant

After watching Southpark, this places are getting a better review than their current status. Food reminds me of my child hood.

It’s very affordable. Located in the heart of Scarborough and Markham, right across the legendary Pacific mall. However, lack of service, always forget about the utensils or give you a wrong order. I have been a regular customer there for years, price never go up, food is same quality as before (ordinary) but I can see the service is going down. Not a bad restaurant tho if you want a Hongkong style Chinese dish fast and cheap.

Meals are very good value for the price. Popular place now hence longer line up.
Not a fancy place, but good for an ecomincal lunch or afternoon tea place.

Food: ⁷⁄₁₀ — Value: ¹⁰⁄₁₀ — Service: ⁷⁄₁₀ — Ambiance/​Décor: ⁷⁄₁₀
This is a bare bones Chinese diner. It doesn’t pretend to be anything more than common food for common folk and the prices reflect that.
For $ 8.75, I got a dish with a chicken steak, big fish cutlet, veggies, and rice. It even comes with soup and a drink, and it still costs less than a «gourmet» burger. I mean, this is incredible value.
I’ve never had something bad here. At worst, it’s average, but like it’s to be expected.
Another dish that is my go-​to is the cheesy cream sauce chicken pieces with rice. That is a terrible English translation but it pretty much resembles popcorn chicken (maybe not as battered and fried) on top of rice, covered with a melted cheese and cream sauce. It’s really good.
The servers, who have been working there for a really long time, are very friendly, some exceptionally so, but there’s no one rude or unpleasant.
If you’re looking for a cheap and quick meal and don’t want anything fancy, this place is dependable.

This place is great if you’re looking for value! Everything is made ahead of time but it comes out warm and definitely a good choice if you are hungry. I recommend the cream soup which usually is a hit! As well as their daily special of beef filet or chickens filet! The best part about coming to this restaurant is that the afternoon tea is cheap as well. I love having the fired pork chop noodles as it has a great consistency and the pork chop is hot and fresh.

Ended up at this cha-​chang tang with my family at the mall after finding out the shanghai restaurant was shut down.
Food: Cheap prices, cheap food, but huge ass portions. I ordered roast duck vermicelli during high tea time. Aside from the soup and hot drink that comes with your meal, you really get what you paid for cause I literally got a huge bowl of noodles in soup with one duck leg. Taste wise, it really isnt anything special. Bring someone who can read Chinese cause deals are posted on the wall.
Service: Pretty much non-​existent and lacking even for a chinese café. Waitresses were either sassy or ignoring our table when we called for them? Dirty dishes are practically thrown and wheeled around into a cart in the already cramped space. Yikes.
Décor: small space means long wait times. Also very noisy. Very typical of a chinese café. Could be revamped and cleaned up.

A typical hong kong style café.
Price was cheap.
Portion was huge.
The cream soup was yummy, but it would have been extra tasty if it came out hot instead of warmish. Almost cool.
The baked cheese seafood with rice was great, but tasted too salty.
The black pepper sauce pork chop with rice, I first found it a bit over priced compared to other hong kong style cafes. But I soon realized why! The portion is huge! Two giant pieces of pork chop — awesome!
Service wasn’t too friendly.
Overall, if you are craving for chinese hong kong café style food and looking for a cheap eat, this place would be it.
They don’t accept debit or credit. Cash only. So bring cash.

I came in only cuz I was passing by and needed a bite to eat during tea time. I ordered their ice cream pancake and boy was it bad.
It took forever for it to come, my mom’s rice noodles came first and I had to wait abt 10 minutes more for mine. (They were probably looking up how to mix pancake batter)? At first glance the presentation looked real nice, I got 2 crepes on my plate and I seriously considered taking a picture to post up here, but upon tasting it. I retracted that decision because it sure didn’t deserve a picture post. 1) the pancake/​crêpe was too thick 2) there was no taste in the batter, no salt or sugar 3) it was so thick and tasteless it was like eating paper, no really. I said to my mom. I said «Even your rice noodles have more taste than my pancakes». She laughed and agreed. I barely finished one of the crepes and left the other one to melt.
Overall, this place is great I’m sure, based on other reviews and the number of families pouring in during the after-​school hours. Just don’t order their pancake…

Hong Kong style café with Chinese entrees as well. We opted for Chinese entrees. Each entrée came with a bowl of rice.
We had:
Stir fried green beans with chicken — green beans were fresh and crisp. They weren’t overcooked. The chicken was tender, but there was a skewed ratio of beans to chicken, beans being the vast majority of the dish.
«A» veggie with garlic — Fairly standard. Good portion. A tad too salty for me.
Sweet and sour pork — not as much filler veggie as other places do (that being the peppers, the onions, the pineapple). Most of it had that still crispy texture I like, but some of it did not. Taste was pretty standard. I like how the filler veg had a good amount of pineapple in it because out of the filler, that’s the one thing I don’t mind eating.
Chicken and beancurd hot pot — I think there was bean curd in here. I could be wrong. I thought it was fish until I bit into it. It was definitely hot (temperature wise). Taste wise, nothing noteworthy, but not bad in any way.
Fish curry — lots of sauce. Not so much fish. Also had chunks of potato. Interesting thing about this curry is that it does not taste like Chinese curry. It’s considerably more fragrant. That being said, I prefer Malaysian curry.
Oxtail in hot pot — This one is $ 3.50 more than their other pre-​set price entrees, but worth the $ 3.50. Oxtail was tender and the hot pot was hot (temperature wise). Good amount of oxtail too. Sauce tasted almost like braised brisket sauce. Also a tad saltier than I’d have liked it.
Things to note:
Tea comes in plastic cups. It doesn’t stay hot for very long, and you have to ask them to refill it. Because the food was salty, this proved difficult for me. I drank my tea, my dad’s tea and all of the remaining water in my water bottle. My mom commented on the lack of tea when we came home because her mouth was quite dry.
I’m not the biggest fan of these Chinese pre-​set price entrees (woh choy). They don’t interest me in the least, so yes, I am biased.

LaiDoh is a typical Hong Kong style café that you can find for some homestyle Hong Kong style café cuisine. The décor inside the restaurant is decent, although their white board menus do ruin the décor atmosphere. The service is very decent as the waiters are very attentive and very friend friendly towards their customers. The food itself is very standard in terms of flavour and presentation. The have classic dishes from Baked Rice to Fried Noodles to Yeung Chow Fried Rice to Hainan Chicken on RIce. The prices are very reasonable and a would make a quick lunch for those on the go.

Very average HK restaurant. Food isn’t too bad. I didn’t like when I first sat in and I greet the waitress and she didn’t reply. They need to learn to greet customer !!!

Loved this HK style café. Prices reasonable, portions appropriate, and most importantly food is really good! They have afternoon tea between 2−6pm with pretty cheap eats that are between $ 3 – 5 including a hot drink.
HK style milk tea quite good here. Enjoyed their French Toast for $ 3.85 as a special (you can get French Toast with peanut butter but I enjoyed it plain). It was perfectly soft on the inside and not overly fried on the outside. Delish.
Also enjoyed their Hainan chicken rice for $ 7.95. Generous and tasty free range chicken served with a good portion of rice and some yu choy. The quality was excellent especially given its price.
Their specials come with a standard drink and soup. I got 3 dishes (2 afternoon specials + 1 regular), 3 hot beverages and 1 bowl of soup for under $ 20 — pretty good amount of food given the price.
The décor is pretty dim looking but really I think this is a great cheap eat and I will definitely be back!

they have some specials that are quite different. A twist on typical HK meals. baked chicken in tomato sauce on rice … they actually have a half fish half chicken option. that was unique.
the dry fried noodles usually made with beef. they have the option of turkey/​ham with shrimp.. which was quite wierd… it tasted more like spam then turkey.
the chinese soup was good. it had actual meat and bone. not just soup.
servings are large. and i felt relatively full. average price of a dish w a drink (their special) is about 7 dollars.
it was quite busy… has a hong kong vibe but a little too dark if you ask me.
not too sure if i’ll come back anytime soon…

Back again for lunch and end up getting cheesy baked rice again. I ordered the chicken and shrimp version last time and it was great. Today the seafood version is on the lunch special menu and I was skeptical at first. But it turns out just as good. Rice and cheesy sauce was tasty. There were a fair amount of shrimps, scallops and squid and the pieces were not shrivelled up nor over cooked. Very happy with my choice. Chinese soup was good, not too salty and even got some extra large pieces of tender soup pork in my bowl. Hot milk tea did not disappoint either.
Husband got salmon steak w/​2 fried eggs served with rice, corn kernels, and gravy on the side. Each part tasted fine individually but husband thought its a somewhat strange combination on one plate. Egg with garlic salmon? Gravy for the egg and salmon? I’m used to of seeing fried eggs and even corn used to complete a meal in HK diners. Brown gravy for egg and salmon is indeed a little strange and I don’t think it’s very necessary. I saw the next table ordered cutlet pork chop (humongous) w/​plain spaghetti and got the same gravy. Hehe. Guess the restaurant just throw in this stuff to any meal that’s not already covered on sauce.
Even when it’s busy, the ladies serving still maintained their well mannerism and service tone (for a Chinese eatery, it’s good enough when they aren’t talking hasty, responding like zombies or slapping food on the table).
No old chinese songs this Saturday afternoon, just a silly old Stephen Chow movie on Fairchild TV.
Will still keep coming back, maybe next time I will try their dinner offerings of mixed grill or steaks.

I used to come here a lot for lunch back when it just opened. Now, I only come here for breakfast and only occasionally. They have all the typical Chinese breakfast and my personal favourite is satay beef with instant noodle. How can I not like it? It’s full of MSG! I do like coming here for breakfast because they give you a lot for what you pay. My noodles came with toast and Hong Kong style tea which I think is particularly good at this restaurant. I recommend this restaurant for breakfast especially since there aren’t that many non dim sum, Chinese restaurant opened for breakfast around this area.

This is a very cheap place for decent Hong Kong diner food. Portion sizes are huge as well. One plate of fried rice here is enough to feed both my parents and myself for dinner.

2.5 stars
Lai Doh, what has happened to you? Have you switched cooks? Have your serving staff gone through some sort of deceleration?
This used to be my favourite go-​to HK-​style café and it is sad to see that the quality has gone down.
The serving staff (though not having gone through a personnel change of any sort) are starting to slack. We were a table of 4 and they randomly brought us 2 pairs of chopsticks, didn’t bring us a knife for a dish that required one, and brought us the wrong sides. When we ordered, we had to repeat ourselves.
If you want a cheap place to eat, this is great. The servings are huge, and you can never got starving for under $ 10. However, don’t expect service.

I have to dock this place a star because they’re not really set up to deal with a lone whitey on their waiting list. I was here to meet the Dim Sum Babe who would be running a bit late for our 12:30 pm quantum superposition date/​not-​date. When it’s busy they issue you a number. I had 23. And then they call your number when a table is available. Unfortunately they only call it out in some Chinese dialect. That they understood Dim Sum Babe I’m thinking it’s Cantonese. They don’t call it out in English. Maybe they could have put a little doodle of a big nose or something next to a number given to whitey? I dunno. At some point I heard what sounded like «eee ship sam».
«Hmmm that sounds like 23 in Korean. And Koreans took their numbers from the Chinese. I wonder…» By the time I worked the logic they were on to the next number («eee ship sa»?) They worked through 3 or 4 more tables before I could impress upon them it took whitey more than the half life of a transuranic element to translate from Chinese to Korean to English and step forward and claim the table.
Anyway, I was hoping Dim Sum Babe would show up and use her height/​reach/​combat training advantage to solve all my problems and I could hide behind her skirt. But I managed to man up and get a table. I’m smooove like that.
I did let her cut my meat for me.
Anyway, I let Dim Sum Babe order. She did trust me to order for Ethiopian. Dim Sum Babe ordered pretty much the dish I’d never order if left to my own devices («So what you’re saying is there’s no pizza?») or could see a picture. Dim Sum Babe ordered a porkchop covered in what Koreans would call tomato sauce but I’d call ketchup. It was on a bed of rice. And thrown in for good effect was canned corn. This was an HK style café but the dish was indistinguishable in presentation you’d get at a pork fusion restaurant in Seoul. I guess missing was the side of sweet pickle slices. There was soup.
If it had been anyone else, even a Korean, I might have overturned the table and left in a huff. But Dim Sum Babe is a Better Elvis. In the words of Penn Jillettle «Elvis didn’t know much but he knew how to eat.» Dim Sum Babe knows a lot. A frightening amount. Plus she knows how to eat.
The ketchup rice porkchop was good. Real good. You know how sweet and joyous that first kiss is? The feeling of your love’s lips gliding over yours for the first time? The nervous breathing that gives way to sighs as you discover your love’s lips part to meet yours? Passion is returned with more passion. Well, the ketchup rice fusion pork dish was no where near that good. Let’s not be silly. But still. Pretty good.
The soup looked like ass as well but again my trust in Dim Sum Babe is without condition. She even warned me off the weird bits. It was really good. The pork was tender, like pork from a slow cooker.
We finished with some HK style tea which was drinkable after liberal doses of sugar and milk.
And per Wayne’s heads up, I tried to get into some of the 70s/​80s pop videos playing on the flat screens. I’m not sure what Jennifer K sees in this crap. Maybe if she made me a mix tape? All I know is Jennifer K’s motto is if you don’t like Leslie Cheung, Jennifer K doesn’t like you. Or was that NRBQ?

Lai Doh played some of Jennifer K’s favourite classic Hong Kong K (araoke)TV from the 70s/​80s.
I’m surprised she didn’t 5-​star them just for that «Feature».
She pretends not to know who Leslie Cheung or Anita Mui (HK pop) are but the people in the know, knows those are her favourite Ring-​tones. Inspirational enough? :P
Afternoon Tea Combo’s aren’t half bad. Does that mean it’s half good?!?
Well, the Food is decent for HK Café quality. Does decent mean A-​ok!?!
Exactly, no one really knows each other’s exact meaning of those descriptive words.
In Hong Kong phrase, «I’m not the worm in your stomach».
I have to start paying attention to the worm in stomach, maybe it’ll give me advice how to write better reviews. :D
Bad service drops them to mediocre.
What does mediocre translate to in Unilocal ratings?
Why don’t you Friend the worm in my stomach?
It knows me quite well. 2.5’d

2.5 star
Lai Doh Restaurant does have a really great selections of afternoon tea set.
Chiu Chow Squid Balls Rice Noodle ($ 4.25) with a choice of drinks
— The rice noodle and broth based were both nice and with good flavour
— The reason why Lai Doh is getting 2.5 stars because of the squid balls! Not only are they not homemade and they were not cooked properly. still cold inside
Of course none of the waitress would come and ask me how my noodle was. and if I need anything else…
The waitress here are luke warm and service is kind of crappy but that’s how i should expect from Chinese restaurants?
I might come back and give Lai Doh another try… maybe I will change the rating.
Cash Only!