Asian Legend

I mentioned in my last post that I was a bit behind in my blog, so I'm going to try to bang out a couple of entries today. And I'm so behind that I am currently about to write about Christmas. It is now February. Again, so sorry!

Restaurant: Asian Legend
Location: Scarborough
Meal: Lunch
Day: Sunday
Son's Age: 8 months

I was having lunch with my in-laws on Christmas day, and while many places are closed, Chinese restaurants are typically still open. Don't worry, we had a big Christmas dinner at my in-laws' house that evening also - I am not one of those miserable people that goes out for Chinese food on Christmas because I have no other options (that's a movie, right? I vaguely recall hearing about this on a Top Chef episode...). Anyway, my in-laws really like Asian Legend, so that's where we ended up.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐
You can find my previous blog post about Asian Legend to read about accessibility, but obviously this has not changed - there is still no space to change a baby. The new development, however, is that I discovered that they have high chairs available!

If you do come here, though,l please double check your high chair. They brought us one where the buckle was broken and we had to request a new one.

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I found our server to be very attentive - he was quick to bring us a high chair, and upon discovering that it was not functional, he immediately brought out a new one. He also brought us a bowl of hot water to heat my son's food.

I admit the bowl is comically large considering I'm heating up a 2 oz baby cube, but it got the job done. The server checked in with us several times throughout the lunch to make sure we had everything we needed for the baby, as well as extra napkins, which I found to be very thoughtful.

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
We ended up ordering several dishes, and probably way more than we needed. We started with some fried dumplings and green onion pancake.

You can't go wrong with either of these dishes, in my opinion, as they are both Shanghai classics. We also ordered the rice cakes with shrimp and pork again.

Still delicious, obviously, since we always order this one. This time, we also ordered a ja jeung mein, or as the menu calls it, minced pork with noodles in peking sauce.

In case you're wondering, yes, this is the original dish that inspired the Korean version of jja jang myun, but made with minced pork and shredded cucumber. It was very satisfying, but don't order it thinking of the Korean dish because it's not same. We also got some fried noodles with chicken.

I have to be honest - this one is not my favourite. It's quite bland, it pales in comparison to the other dishes, and given how much we ordered, it was highly unnecessary. I think we decided we needed to offset the saucy noodles, since we also got some dan dan noodles in peanut sauce.

It's funny - I always forget about dan dan noodles and then get very excited when it's put in front of me. It's delicious, and if you like peanuts, you definitely need to try this sometime. Of course, no visit to a Northern Chinese restaurant is complete without xiao long bao!

Classic pork dumplings with soup - always hits the spot!

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐½
It's definitely possible to bring your baby to this restaurant, since there are high chairs and the food is delicious and served family style. The setup and decor of Asian Legend is also more comfortable and less intimidating than other Chinese restaurants, if you are trying Shanghai food for the first time, but the food is still very good. That being said, if your baby needs a diaper change, it is probably more convenient to run out to your car than to use the washroom there.