REVIEW | Luckee Restaurant - traditional dim sum elevated with contemporary flavours & ingredients by Susur Lee

Luckee by Susur Lee opened its doors just last month at the Soho Metropolitan Hotel (formerly Sense Restaurant) and it quickly became the talk-of-the-town. Probably because everyone is excited to try Chef Susur Lee's newest restaurant in the City and not to mention that Dim Sum has been quite popular these days with many new takes that restaurants are experimenting with and sold out dim sum festivals!



It was a busy afternoon when we arrived for dim sum at 1:30 P.M. on a Sunday (dim sum only runs on weekends). We sat at a round table with a great view of the kitchen and chefs at work, overseen by Susur Lee, the Executive Chef himself. After the server brought the menu's to us, we eagerly waited for our tea and various dishes, extremely excited to get a taste of Toronto's newest dim sum hot spot.

 

Luckee is a fairly big space that is modern with some flair from the East. Benches along the window and in the middle to create separate dining areas and round family style tables stay true what you'd find at a Chinese restaurant.  Designed by Chef Susur Lee's wife, Brenda, she used pieces such as Chinese wall paintings, screen doors with calligraphy and little medicine drawers that you'd find in Chinese herbal medicine shops to keep the place true to its origin.



Now, onto the dim sum dishes we indulged in:

Har Gow - shrimp dumplings ($7.00)

Siu Mai - chicken dumplings with shrimp ($7.00)

Long Xia Gow (top left)- lobster & asparagus dumplings ($9.00)

This was the first time I tried a dumpling with lobster & asparagus and I'm hooked. There are big chunks of lobster in the thin dumpling shell with asparagus and some broth. Make sure you cool it down before you eat them because you'll get a splash of hot soup! This was also very tasty.

Also, notice a trio of their house-made sauces: chili sauce & Chinese mustard / soya sauce with chili / green onion & ginger pesto

Crab & Tofu Cake with shrimp & mushrooms ($7.00)

Shrimp Cheung Fun - Rice Roll with ginger, green onion & soya juice ($9.00)
Shrimpg was cooked well, crispy and tender inside the rice noodle. One of the best i've tasted of a Cheung Fun.

Chicken Cheung Fun - Rice Roll with tofu, ginger, green onion & soya juice ($9.00)
We had to order another one of these as these were delicious!  Crispy pieces of chicken wrapped in a soft rice noodle, drenched in soya sauce that was sweet & savoury. MMM!


Rice Donut with egg custard & sesame ($4.00)

Overall, while being a tad bit more expensive than going to a traditional dim sum restaurant in Chinatown, each dish was elevated beyond just that with Susur Lee's modern twist on a menu that we're so used to seeing.

Crispy shrimp and chicken instead of pork in a rice roll or using lobsters in a dumpling was refreshing, not to mention delicious, and the egg custard inside a rice donut was the crème de la crème finish to our meal.  We were disappointed that the Xiao Long Bao (pork soup dumplings) were sold out an hour before we got there, so next visit, I"m heading there bright & early!