Earlier this year, midtown dim sum staple Cha Liu relocated to a new teahouse-inspired room at Yonge north of College, and changed its name just slightly to Cha Lau. While it still serves all-day dim sum to hungry groups, it also offers an ever-changing prix fixe lunch special ($9) that’s friendlier to solo diners. The meal starts with a thick-skinned Vietnamese-style cold roll stuffed with lightly pickled vegetables and a bowl of smoky hot and sour soup full of wood-ear mushrooms, bamboo shoots, firm tofu and, unexpectedly, tomato chunks. Next up, some steamed baby bok choy and a bowl of fried rice with crisp green beans and scattered threads of preserved olive leaves. Finally, to cap the prix fixe, a quartet of different dumplings in a bamboo steam basket (of the lot, the juicy beef and mushroom dumpling in a crystal wrapper is the easy favourite). For dessert: the trio of dainty baked rice flour pastries filled with a sweet pumpkin-stained custard ($3.65). Even sweeter: not needing to corral a group of friends to indulge in a weekday dim sum feast.
The cost: $18.30 including tax and tip and a pot of chrysanthemum tea ($1.15).
Steamed bok choy, fried rice with plenty of wok hei and an assortment of dumplings: beef and mushroom, pork shui mai, shrimp and scallop and Chinese celery
Cha lau remains one of the most high quality dim sum shops in town. We miss them at Yonge and Eg but Jeff Kan and his team fill a welcome niche downtown. Always fresh and well made, often inventive, I am going there for my birthday lunch with good buddies Ray and Michael.