Chine Legendary Hot Pot and Noodles is located at 327 Spadina in downtown Toronto, between Dundas and College streets. Unlike other hotpots, Chine has individual burners rather than a centre burner with a larger pot for sharing. However, not to be outdone, Mishy and I still shared one pot. Cost is $24.99 all day, $26.99 weekends, with broth being either $3.99 for the premium varieties or $2.99 for the regular. Happily, reusable chopsticks are used. There were also plenty of customers, all of whom were young.
The broth was among the tastiest we have ever had; we ordered the "Legendary spicy broth (half-mild)." For dipping sauces, I tried the "Chef's recommended", BBQ, and my own custom sauce of soy, ginger and vinegar and all were very good. Fish and beef balls were delicious.
"Screaming chili beef" was not as hot as would be expected, and was very tasty, reminding me of rouladen, and was absolutely delicious, a very nice cut. We both thought the Angus beef was awesome, probably the best beef we have had at a hotpot. Sausage was good and traditionally spiced. Spam was also good once it picked up the flavor of the broth. Shiitake mushrooms were present which were very welcome and were delicious with the flavors of the broth, as was the spinach. Udon also came to life with the broth, and the chicken was absolutely delicious and we both loved it. Both of us loved the dumplings and Mishy said they reminded her for some reason of candy floss. Crab meat was definitely surimi and was delicious. Sweet potato vermicelli had an interesting flavor which reminded me of the smell of new tennis balls. Fish was quite good when cooked in the hot pot.
For dessert we tried the traditional sweet sticky rice ball soup and sugar ice jelly. Mishy enjoyed the "soup" but said that there was not enough sweet in the ice jelly and did not like it. I liked the flavor of the sticky sweet rice ball soup, it was slightly floral, and agree with Mishy that the sugar ice jelly really didn't taste like anything. She also indicated that the butterscotch and chocolate ice cream was very good, although they were both a bit freezer-burned because they are put into the freezer in small cups which exposes them more. I thought the chocolate, vanilla and butterscotch ice creams were all excellent, especially the vanilla which had a wonderful flavor. Fried golden bread was not really desserty but was still good and light; the sauce for it is like cinnamon roll sauce and puts it into the dessert category I imagine. We both enjoyed the crispy taro roll a lot. Fried sweet sticky rice cake was delicious especially with the sauce.
The wait staff was very young, and sometimes was more preoccupied looking at their phones or chatting than in taking our orders, but all in all it wasn't too bad as far as service; when we got their attention the response was fast. The offerings were almost all quite good to excellent and we definitely had an enjoyable lunch (dinner?) that carried us over to the next day. The price was on the high side especially as the broth is extra, but is somewhat made up for by the quality. It was a reasonable value for a quite enjoyable meal.Rating: 7.5/10
