Whenever my family and I get stuck on deciding on a restaurant for dinner, we somehow end up at New Northing Dumplings on Silver Star Boulevard in Markham. We keep going back because their dishes are less greasy compared to the majority of Chinese restaurants. The dishes are cold (tossed together like a salad), steamed, cooked in broth or boiled. There are also fried items but the cooking methods are pretty balanced. It’s a family-friendly restaurant with minimal effort put into interior design. The restaurant runs efficiently where staff will waste no time in taking you order to clearing tables. Near the back of the restaurant you’ll find ladies preparing and making fresh dumplings all day.

633 Silver Star Boulevard, Scarborough  |  Menu  |  Map

The menu is pretty straightforward, the categories are: cold dishes, protein, seafood, soups, noodles, pancakes (you gotta try one), vegetables, and dessert. Just like most Chinese restaurants, dishes are meant to be shared with the table – family style! Plus, they are super affordable. There are a few items we keep ordering every time we eat here. The cold dishes are great for starting your meal.

I love the cucumber and jellyfish salad, the julienne pig ears and cucumber salad, and the pig lung in chili oil.  Something in the sauce and the freshness of the cucumber, the kick of garlic and the texture of the jellyfish just pulls me back for more. They are such simple dishes too!

Some pancake and pastry dishes to check out are the spring onion pancake and the pan fried green onion cake. The green onions give it a pop of flavour and the pastries are perfectly crisp.

We also go for their noodle soups because they sound healthy and we love a delicious, hot bowl of soupy noodles to slurp down. The braised spare rib noodle soup and the pork and vermicelli in pickled cabbage soup are both great bowls.

And of course, the dumplings. There are pork, lamb, and vegetable dumplings for you to choose from. They come to your table in large steamers that are usually filled with 15 dumplings ($5). My grandma loves the pork and dill dumplings. It’s a weird combination, but I’ve come to tolerate the flavours. We’ve tried the lamb dumplings and they’re potent with balanced seasoning. For dessert, if you like light, fluffy sweets, I suggest trying the egg white puffs. They are whipped egg whites that are deep fried to a golden brown, then rolled in sugar.

The menu might be overwhelming at first but there are a lot of good dishes. They also aren’t your typical Chinese dishes either. Northern Chinese cuisine is quite different from Chinese cuisines you see in North America (these are mainly Southern Chinese cuisines). Definitely a restaurant to check out!

Service is the usual – efficient and no bullshit, not much small talk, wave servers over when you need something – pretty casual.