Update 2021-Aug-16: Spring Rolls is no more... unsure when or why this happened so not calling it a COVID-19 closure just yet, but Google Maps and Yelp are both indicating it's permanently closed, its phone # is out of service, and Google Street View currently shows its windows are papered over. Sufficient to call it closed...
Spring
Rolls is located in the heart of downtown Toronto at 40 Dundas, just
west of Yonge Street in the Atrium on Bay, so is very
transit-accessible being just west of Dundas subway station. It has a
nice modern upscale decor with high ceilings, black marble tabletops
and a granite fountain and pool in the centre of the dining area.
Chopsticks are reusable as expected. Ordering is done directly from a
waiter from the tasting menu of three pages. The entries on the menu
page include photographs and are larger than normal, so there are far fewer items
available then at most other AYCEs and the main courses have larger
portions. Soft drinks are $2.25 and although they are fountain
rather than canned are not AYCD. Soy
sauce had a green lid but was still very salty. I asked and was told
that this was low sodium soy sauce but I didn't believe it.
Seaweed salad was a bit sweeter than usual but Mishy
indicated this was not an issue so no complaints. The green house
salad had wakame on it; happily Mishy ate it for me but it still left
a flavour remnant in the remainder of the salad; I personally don't
care for it but opinions vary. As befits the name of the
establishment, the spring rolls were definitely the best either of us
have had, with thick savory filling and spicy plum sauce. Vegetable
spring rolls were equally excellent with a different sauce which tasted a bit like plum ketchup. The wonton soup was fantastic with
shiu-mai-style wontons and nice broth. Gyoza were likewise excellent,
just about the best, with sauce which was excellent already on them.
Shiu mai were excellent in a hot chili mustard dipping sauce we both
enjoyed. There is Caesar salad which other pan-Asian AYCEs rarely
offer and is a nice change from the usual green salad. Salmon nigiri
was excellent and fresh. Cheese dumplings were like triangular
cheese wontons with more filling and a raspberry sauce and we both found them excellent. Sweet and
sour chicken had pineapple, green peppers and onions in a tomatoey
sauce which was excellent and we both enjoyed it.
Sadly,
there were quite a few items that were not (as) enjoyable: The miso soup was underwhelming, diluted and nearly savourless. General
Tao chicken should have been called General Tao vegetables, as that's
mostly what it consisted of. It also had too much garlic and little
sauce; unlike any General Tao I ever had, it should not have been
given that name. (Did they bring the wrong entrée?) Sizzling spicy
honey and ginger chicken was somewhat good but not exemplary, Mishy
said it was "meh" and the flavours were indeed not up to
the presentation. Ginger broccoli beef is in oyster sauce, and really
didn't taste like anything, its flavors did not get along and
canceled rather than accentuated each other. The hot and sour soup
was more like a bowl of sauce: too sweet and not even close to the
genuine article. At this point I decided that the chefs were trying
too hard to be inventive, without worrying over whether the final
result was any good or not. Service was slower than most other places
with longer wait times. The final disappointment were the desserts:
the menu indicates the dessert is "mango tropical ice cream"
but also to ask the server for today's selection. Well "today's
selection" consisted of "absolutely nothing at all,"
leaving only one flavor of ice cream as the dessert. The so-called
"tropical" mango ice cream was okay and fresh, but was far
from the best I've ever had. As well on a very hot day there was
almost no air conditioning, but I can't blame Spring Rolls for that
as their walls between Atrium on Bay are partition and don't go all
the way to the ceiling thus share air with the Atrium, which was was
closed as it was a holiday so their air conditioning was probably
off.
I
would have expected better for the corresponding fewer items, because
more time and effort and quality control can be applied to each
offering, but this did not seem to be the case. The ingredients may
have been quality, but their results not in several cases. I had
almost forgotten that we had reviewed the other Spring Rolls when it
was at Yonge south of Bloor... perhaps this is the "same"
Spring Rolls and it merely moved locations rather than being a
different establishment? I noted many similarities we found,
including the menu formats and the similar over-experimentation in the
entrées, and that we ended up both liking and disliking most of the same things
as this location. We also weren't happy with the gougey no-refill
fountain pop (I gave in and had one but Mishy refused and stuck with
water.) The slower service was only a minor bother. Still, there were
some items that we liked very much, and a couple in the best-of
range, but I would expect this for the upper-echelon weekend lunch price of $20.49.
I don't think I would return to Spring Rolls though, except for the
utilitarian purpose of trying some of the items I had missed the
first time.
Rating:
6.5-7/10
