It’s been about a month since Susur Lee’s newest venture, LUCKEE, opened in the Soho Metropolitan. Isabel and I went on opening night (after the Jay’s home opener) for drinks and bar snacks. The was service scattered, the was food cold, and everything was overpriced. But I’ve been a Susur fanboy for some time now, and knew that he deserved another shot to impress us.
So last weekend we went for Saturday lunch. Which really is the main event for any dim sum place—even if it’s of the so-called Nouvelle Chinoise variety. Unlike our first visit, we were seated in the dining room (it’s a beautiful room) and were given the full menu to order from.
The menu is a mix of dim sum items and larger sharing plates. We decided to sample a bit from both. Of course, when it comes to dim sum, the true way to gauge a restaurant’s quality is to sample the standards. For most that means ha gow and siu mai—but we usually add in a pan-fried turnip cake (Susur’s variation involved taro—which I’m a sucker for).
The “classics” were legit. Well-made and tasty, but mostly elevated in price only. The true revelation in the meal came when we ordered his luxe version of cheong fun. This classic rice noodle roll dish was sent into the stratosphere with the inclusion of a fried dough stick (yau ja gwai), chicken and onions. It really was something special.
Other dishes approached this high (his Shanghaiese ham dish was delightful, and the wok fried beans were as good as they are anywhere else—which isn’t faint praise, because I love that dish).
The only real miss of the meal was his take on siu long bao. I insisted on ordering it because I always do at dumpling restaurants, but knew full well that it would be hard to impress us.
Most reviews will refer to LUCKEE as elevating dim sum. And truth be told, based on this one experience, it’s already near the top of the dim sum food chain in Toronto. But the Chinatown bar is pretty low. So does it make the trip to Markham irrelevant? I’m not going to go that far, but it’s nice to know that a yum cha fix can be filled closer to home. Even if we’re charged a premium for it.