Rol San

Rol San (323 Spadina Avenue, Toronto)

In Chinatown, there are two dim sum places that are right across the street from each other. One is said to be rather mediocre, so naturally we went to the other one for some all day dim sum. On a weekday morning, it was just us and some elderly Chinese folk. Derek had been there before, but me and Monique had low expectations for Chinatown dim sum. I'm more a fan of that strip of Chinese restaurants on highway 7 sometimes called Chinatown North. They seem slightly cleaner and the food seems to be of higher quality. 

Some har gow (steamed shrimp dumpling) and har cheung (shrimp rice noodle roll).

They weren't bad! The shrimp were pretty large. The skin on the har gow was a bit thick, but it was edible.

Fried octopus and siu mai.

There were three of these fried radish block thingies before I took the pic.

It could've used a little more fried outside, but I liked 'em. 

Chicken feet.

Black sesame balls and milk egg tarts.

The sesame balls were really hot and fresh. We all quite enjoyed them, though I know that Jo would complain about how thick the outer shell was.

Taro spring rolls. Monique was trying to order something else, but this came out. 

That was kind of new to me. It was okay, but the taro would've gone better with the flakier stuff that Monique was attempting to order.

Would I return? Yeah. With my aforementioned low expectations, I was pleasantly surprised by how edible everything was. Some stuff was even good! I like how they even had the authentic dim sum standard white plastic table cloth. Since their dim sum is offered all day, I wouldn't have to wake up early to get it. That's a win to me! However, if given the choice between Rol San and uptown dim sum, I'd pick uptown. But you know... it's still okay for downtown dim sum.

Total damage: $14 per person. Three is a good number of people for dim sum because most of the food comes in portions of three or four.