Today, we had lunch at Gold Stone Noodle Restaurant at 266, Spadina Avenue in Toronto's Old Chinatown.
Typical of Cantonese roast shops, a whole roast pig, thick ropes of char siew, roast duck, salt baked chicken, roast chicken, soya sauce chicken etc hung enticingly in the window. On the other side, a gentleman was busy cooking egg noodles in a steamy glass cubicle.
Gold Stone is relatively clean and spacious inside while most Toronto Old Chinatown Cantonese roasts are grimy, hole-in-the-wall mom and pop shops.
These roast ducks with gleaning golden brown coats convinced me to step into Gold Stone.
I was also seduced by this golden roast pig.
Lunch hour was quite busy this Saturday but service was quick and polite, if somewhat perfunctory as typical of such eat-and-go shops. The Gold Stone is very bright inside thanks to the huge window walls running along the entire length of the restaurant on one side. Atmosphere was casual and welcoming.
The plate of roast pork came rather roughly plated.
The meat was quite stiff though not hard. The rind was crackly but hard. The pork tasted mildly savoury-salty and slightly flat.
We had half a roast duck for CDN14.
I love Gold Stone's roast duck as the fatty skin has a slight crisp outside while the meat and fat were tender and juicy. The marinade's deep savoury flavour penetrated deep into the fibres and blended well with ducky gaminess from the skin and fat.
Coming from Singapore and Malaysia, where our tropical ducks tend to be leaner, I really love the fat, cold climate ducks in Toronto.
We had a big mixed bowl of 12 shrimp dumplings and wantons in tea coloured chicken broth.
The shrimp dumplings had a little shrimp, black fungus and minced pork wrapped in a quite thick coat of egg dough skin.
The wanton had shrimp and minced pork but no black fungus.
We had our food with a plate of egg noodles each. The generic noodles were garnished with leafy greens (Chinese mustard) and slathered with "oyster" sauce. (Next time, I shall try their Cantonese style congee instead.)
👉 We especially like Gold Stone's fatty roast duck and would come back for it.
Our bill came non itemised and was CDN60 with tax and tips already written into the lump sum which can be paid in cash only.
View of the Toronto skyline from Billy Bishop Airport on Toronto island. Toronto is a super well connected city. We can walk from Billy Bishop Airport to downtown Toronto (connected by an underwater pedestrian tunnel) in 30 minutes. From Billy Bishop Airport we can take flights to many cities in Canada and USA.
Restaurant name: Gold Stone Noodle Restaurant
Address: 266 Spadina Ave, Toronto
GPS: 43°39'08.0"N 79°23'52.6"W 43.652223, -79.397959
Tel: (416) 596-9053
Hours: 11:00am to 12:00 midnight (Tues off)
Non Halal
18 Mar 2017
Good place to eat Chinese food. I agree with you Canadian duck has that layer of fat that makes it juicy. There are too many good Chinese food shops in Spadina for one to acclaim a particular is best unless you try all. Best wishes.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your visit and comment. Could you let me know which are the ones you visit regularly :-D Appreciate much.
DeleteYou found my favorite Cantonese restaurant of this style in downtown Toronto.
ReplyDeleteFarther north there are a few other good places like this one, such as Congee Queen.