Rol San

Last time I was in the GTA, we had rented a car and hence, made it to Dragon Boat Fusion out in Richmond Hill.  Well, they have since closed and now it is The One Fusion.  This time, we decided to stay within TO and sans auto.  Therefore, we took a stroll up Spadina to Rol San ro get our Dim Sum fix.  They have been serving all-day Dim Sum since 1994, so hopefully it would be good?  I guess we were about to find out...

It was quite busy during lunch rush and we actually had to "dap toy", which is share a table with strangers.   Haven't done that since the 1990's!  We put in our order and had the usual Ha Gau (Shrimp Dumplings).  They were a bit small and featured a medium thick dumpling wrapped.  It was fairly dense and chewy.  Inside, the shrimp filling was good where it had a nice bounce texture.  It was lightly seasoned being sweet.

As for the ying to the yang, the Siu Mai (Pork Dumplings) were all pork, rather than the pork & shrimp mix we see most of the time.  Despite that, the dumpling was of a good size and the pork filling had a good rebound while being tender.   I found that the seasoning was on the milder side and we needed some hot sauce to elevate the flavours.  I liked how they added fish roe after steaming.  This meant they looked more appealing and had pops of brininess.

We also got the classic steamed Beef Meatballs atop bean curd skin.   These were also modest in size with a considerable mix of cilantro and green onion.  Hence, there was inherent flavour to the meatballs including some meaty sweetness.   Really enjoyed the fried bean curd skin underneath as it was appealingly chewy.   Of course we had some Worcestershire sauce on the side for dipping.

Onto the offal part of the meal, we had the Steamed Chicken Feet as well as the Bible Beef Tripe with ginger and green onion.  I thought the chicken feet were plump and featured softened cartilage.  This was the ideal texture in my opinion.  However, it was under-seasoned and needed more salt and/or soy.   The Beef Tripe was tender with food hits from the ginger and green onion but could've used more salt too.

Featuring the same shrimp filling as the Ha Gau, the Shrimp Spring Rolls were decently-sized.  Unfortunately, the outside wheat wrapper was not as crispy as we would've liked.   It wasn't too greasy though.   As for the filling, it was still moist and had a meaty snap texture.  It was fairly well-seasoned with a balance or sweetness and saltiness.  This came with sweet & sour dip, which was good, but we preferred dipping it into Worcestershire instead.

We ended up ordering 2 more dishes including the Chicken & Mushroom Rice Noodle Roll.   I don't recall ever having chicken in this dish before but it was not bad.  The ample chicken filling was moist and tender.  There was some enoki mushrooms strewn throughout.  There was some sweetness but also a sour finish.  Not sure where that came from, but it wasn't a big deal. As for the rice noodle, it was soft with elasticity.

For dessert, we had the Baked Egg Tarts and they arrived looking a bit pale.  We found the egg filling to be silky and just sweet enough.  However, the puff pastry was not flaky enough.  Rather, it was touch doughy and firm. Overall, the Dim Sum we had at Rol San had some ol' school vibes to it.  I guess we should've expected that from something located in Chinatown and not in the burbs.  However, it was still decent and worth visiting if you were in the area.

The Good:
- Decent eats
- Staff were fairly nice
- Relatively inexpensive

The Bad:
- I mean, you can get better elsewhere
- A bit busy and you may have to share a table