Dimsum at Health Gourmet

Before I start this post off, I'd like to wish 

everyone a Happy New Year! Hope all of you

have a healthy and safe year with your family and loved

ones and most importantly eat lots of food! 

~ Tiffany.  

Saturday Afternoon Dim Sum in my family can never be missed even when there is an hour long wait for a table. When we found out our go to Dim Sum spot was renovating for the week, we quickly thought of a new place we could try. My mom suggested Health Gourmet, located in a Strip Mall by Midland and Finch. Health Gourmet prides themselves for serving food with 'NO MSG'. I guess we had to see for ourselves!

I don't often talk about the decor of the restaurants I visit in my blog posts, but man I was really questioning whether or not I was in Restaurant when I walked in. I don't even know how to describe it...mint
green walls, white curtains, odd
paintings.....Maybe I was too used to the typical Chinese Restaurant look.

The Dim Sum menu here is quite confusing as there are two set prices for let's say, the Steamed Chicken Feet. Apparently one is the regular price while the other is the price for
'VIP Club Members'. Really?!?! I guess that's one way they could get customers coming back.

We ordered the Durian Custard Pastry (3.5/5) ,which was recommended to us by our server. The pastry was very flaky as you
can see from the picture. It was a tad too oily, but nonetheless the durian custard was nice and creamy. Thankfully the Durian flavour was strong and didn't taste artificial at all.


The Deep Fried Squid Tentacles (2.5/5), arrived piping hot. These looked like they were well seasoned, but boy was I wrong. Oh yeah these were well seasoned....with a whole ton of SALT! At least they had a nice bouncy texture which was a tiny bit enjoyable.


 
The Beef Rice Noodle Roll (Cheung Fun) (1.5/5), is an item that is a must for my family at any Dim Sum restaurant. To be honest, I've never had Beef Rice Noodle Roll that tasted like this...the taste was just unusual. The Rice Noodle Roll was too thick, while the beef had this very unpleasant beefy, somewhat gamey taste. Yes there was garlic and onions but oh man not even the soy sauce could hinder
 the strong gamey taste.

I was glad the Deep Fried Spring Rolls (3/5), made the appearance next as they were fried beautifully golden brown. As expected, these were very crispy and piping hot. The filling consisted of the typical ground
beef and taro which was a tad too salty,
but overall it was a dish I enjoyed.

Next up, the Steamed Beef Tendon with Garlic Sauce (2.5/5), arrived lukewarm to the touch. Ordering from a Dim Sum menu and not from Push Carts I expected everything to arrive HOT, not Warm. Sigh, at least these were nice and tender. The garlic sauce didn't really provide much flavour which was pretty disappointing.

As soon as these arrived, I was praying that they didn't use the same beef mixture to make these as they did for the Beef Rice Noodle Roll. Welp, these tasted exactly, if not worse than the ones in the Rice Noodle Roll. These Steamed Beef Balls (1/5), were massive, but I mean not matter what size you make them, the taste is all that really matters. These had the same gamey
taste except with no Rice Noodle
Roll to somewhat mask the flavour. They put bamboo shoots in the mixture for the crunch, but ultimately these were not enjoyable for me. I guess there are some people who enjoy the gamey taste, but I for one do not.

The Steamed Chiu Chow Style Dumplings (Fun Gor) (2.5/5), were a huge disappointment as well. The dumpling skin was very thick, as you can from the picture. Normally these are supposed to be transparent where you can see the filling inside.
The filling consisted of ground pork,
onions, bamboo shoots, and onions
 and once again was too salty.


The Steamed Chicken Feet (3/5),
was very flavourful and fall off the bone tender. There was no gamey taste at all, surprisingly... Thankfully these were enjoyable.

The Sui Mai (2.5/5), looked rather unappealing. I mean the tobiko on top could've been taken off if you were to use such a tiny amount. Anyways, these were quite substantial as the pork and shrimp were nice and tender and it wasn't too salty for my tastes. The Shrimp had a nice bouncy texture.

We were still quite hungry after so we ordered the Shredded Pork and Vegetable Chow Mein (2.5/5). I loved how they seperated the noodles from the sauce to ensure
that the noodles wouldn't get soogy
and would stay crispy. The sauce
was rather thin, which ended up to
be very watery at the end which we did not enjoy. The bean sprouts and carrots added a nice crunch while the pork was tender.



Claiming to have absolutely 'NO MSG' in their food, I really question
that as most of the items we tried were rather salty. Maybe their substitute for the MSG is a whole ton of salt!

Based on the items we tried, our
trip to Health Gourmet was pretty
disappointing and I definitely won't be coming back again. Not to mention, the small tea pot we had was dirty with food and sauce stains on it. The cups also had a funky dish wash/toilet smell to it as well. I know....YUCK! I really hope they step up their game ASAP as their food lacks in quality, especially if they are charging more than the average dim sum spot and charging
'VIP Club Members' a monthly amount.

The Good:

• Lots of Parking Spots

The Bad:

• Based on the items we tried, Food lacks Quality
• Pricey
• Dirty Tea Pot and Cups