SoSo Food Club: Toronto, Ontario

Disclaimer: This post not sponsored, however the meal was complimentery. All opinions expressed are my own. All offerings and prices are accurate as of time of posting. Please refer t0 SoSo Food Club for most up to date information.

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SoSo Food Club at first glance looks like something that came straight from South Beach, Miami with it’s pink and turquoise colour scheme. When you take a look at the menu though you’ll see that the dishes are that of traditional family-style Chinese cuisine and if you put two and two together you’ll realize that the pink and turquoise are actually reminiscent of many old-school Hong Kong restaurants. And that is why I would describe SoSo Food Club as a modernized version of traditional Chinese dining and cuisine.

I visited SoSo Food Club on two separate occasions, the first with a group of friends who wanted to check the place out and the second time the owner had graciously invited me to come in for a tasting. Between the two visits, one complimentary and one where my friends and I paid full price for everything I ended up trying almost everything on the menu with the exception of a few dishes.

Xiaolongbao ($9/4pcs) – classic Shanghainese pork soup dumplings, hand rolled in-house served with vinegar and ginger dip. Probably the most beloved of all Chinese bao (which literally translates to ‘bun’ in Cantonese, different types of bao are typically served at dim sum and sometimes dinner/lunch) it is exactly like the ones I have come to expect from most Chinese restaurants which makes it very authentic. Even my Asian granny would be impressed.

Veggie Lover Dumplings ($10/5pcs) – five spice tofu, spinach, bean sprouts, served with chilli soy sauce. Good for vegetarians and while tasty also good for those who prefer to play it safe.

Rou Jia Mo (Chinese Hamburger) ($8) – 20 spice braised mennonite pork belly with in-house made bread served with a side of pickles. Delicious, but like the veggie dumplings not exactly adventurous. The description of ‘bread’ might be a little misleading as it’s more like what Chinese people would call the class onion pancake, minus the onion. Even that in itself would not accurately describe it in English. It’s more like a round, crispy pan fried cross between Indian naan bread and puff pastry. Regardless it is in fact something you would typically find in a lot of Chinese restaurants (except normally with scallions in it).

Dong Po Pork ($19) – Melt in your mouth sustainably-sourced ‘bespoke’ burke field farms pork belly, daikon, egg, served with bowl of steamed white rice. Not gonna lie I ordered this one based on the fact that the description started off with ‘melt in your mouth’, and it lived up to that description indeed. Those pork slices melted like butter everywhere with each bite and the soft boiled soy sauce egg was flavour goodness. Make sure to eat the pork with the tasty radish vinegar slaw it comes topped with as it helps to cut the richness of pork.

XO Lobster Mapo Tofu ($32) – Sustainably sourced Nova Scotia fresh lobster, spicy seafood xo sauce, soft tofu served with a bowl of steamed rice. The presentation here was really something with the lobster sliced in half lengthwise and then stuffed with spicy xo sauce covered chunks of tofu  and lobster pieces. Kind of like a deviled egg, except with lobster, tofu, and XO sauce. Tastes just as drool worthy as it looks and sounds.

Family-Style Whole Sea Bream ($34) – sustainable sourced Greek sea bream in black bean chilli-sauce with clams. The description on the menu gives the warning that  “we’re serving it the Chinese way (yes, that means bone it, head on)'”, which as someone who grew up eating this all the time this seems perfectly normal but I suppose by North American standards of seafood it’s not typical. Also a much beloved dish it is almost always served in any Chinese family-style meal. This one was very flavourful, more-so than the ones I’ve had at traditional Chinese restaurants. As long as you’re careful and pick out the bones you’ll be in for a real treat as steamed fish that’s been done right is as flaky and tender as it gets.

Pickle Party ($5) – Lotus root, okra, bamboo, made in-house. Basically picked Asian veg it is served cold and is a nice light way to balance the richness of some of the other dishes.

Mouth Watering Chicken ($11) – Sichuan-Style Harrison co-op chicken with chilli sesame, peanuts, and beets. Another one I ordered based on the menu name of “mouth watering” the chicken was silky tender and definitely flavourful. The layer of thinly sliced beets at the base of this dish was also a nice modern touch.

Lamb Bian Biang ($17) – cry-worthy xi’an house-made spinach noodles with New Zealand lamb shoulder in chilli cumin spice mix. Rated the highest level of spiciness according to their spicy scale it is rated as so spicy that “I can see through time”, and had I had the courage (or been foolish enough) to try more than a breadcrumb sized piece of the lamb and noodles I probably would have saw through time because this is dish joke when it comes to spice level. You can also order this mild (which is what I should have done). Regardless, I could tell from the minuscule bite that I had that this was stellar dish with the perfect balance of flavours (although warning the lamb is  very heavy on the cumin) and the texture of the house-made spinach noodles was dreamy.

So So Dan Dan Mian ($17) – Sichuan-style house-made noodles with spicy sesame Harriston co-op chicken and a peanut garnish. My favourite dish of the entire menu! Luckily this is was only rated lowest level of spiciness on their spicy scale but it still definitely had some kick to it. The peanut sauce was creamy and delicious and the peanuts added some nice texture. Plus, when you order this dish $1 gets donated to Meals on Wheels program so now I have an excuse to order two of these because it’s just that good!

Black Sesame Meringue ($9) – Poached Loquat, mandarin orange curd, wild blueberries, and house-made candied ginger. Not traditional at all (which I’m thankful for as I’m personally not a fan of traditional Chinese desserts), although uses very traditional Asian flavours in a deconstructed style of meringue which is served in pieces and placed artfully over the dish with a smear of mandarin curd, poached loquat slices, and blueberries. It’s not overly sweet (similar to most Asian desserts) but focuses more on the flavours of it’s individual components which are done very well and also work seamlessly together. As someone who hates ginger the candied ginger slice ended up being my favourite part. Sliced paper thin the ginger is dried and only very slightly candied. At first bite it tastes nothing like ginger but as you finish off the ginger notes slowly start to come into effect which adds a very interesting note to the dessert as a whole.

My overall thoughts? I’m not gonna lie, before I came here I was sceptical that this might be a bastardized North American version of traditional Chinese cuisine, but I was pleasantly surprised at how authentic and how flavourful the dishes were. In fact, I found a lot of what I ate to be an even better version of some of the dishes I grew up eating. If I were to best describe it I would say that SoSo Food Club is kind of like a traditional Chinese restaurant that has been taken over by the next generation and given some modern touches while still honouring the traditions of the classics, which is a very good thing.