Royal Jade Restaurant located at 2100 Steeles Ave W, Concord

After a visit to our favourite liquidator store, we stopped by Royal Jade Restaurant for a late lunch.  The ratings online were high and I hadn’t had Hakka food in a while so we decided to check it out.  Upon walking into the restaurant at around 2 p.m., I was surprised to see it completely empty. 

Interior of the restaurant

A friendly male server greeted us and asked if we were ordering takeout.  Upon saying we wanted to dine in, he said we could sit at any table.  He brought us a high chair for the baby, the takeout menus (which seemed to serve as the only dine-in menus), placemats, plates and utensils, followed by cold and hot water for the table.  The chairs on the other side of the room were also stacked on top of the chairs and the server took them down.  It seemed like the restaurant was just opening up for service or maybe they don’t tend to have a lot of dine-in guests?

Takeout menu page 1

Takeout menu page 2

I ordered the Mango Lassi first to appease the toddler followed by our mains.  I really enjoyed the nice demeanor and attentive service from the staff.

Mango Lassi $7.99

Chicken Lollipop $17.49

The Chicken Lollipop came in eight pieces on the plate.  Each piece was nicely plated and was very hot and fresh.  The skin was very lightly crunchy and the chicken meat underneath was tender and smooth.  It was really good.  There was a hint of spice to it.  The green sauce in the middle of the plate offered more spice if you wanted to add extra heat to the lollipop chicken.

We chose the Thai Pineapple Fried Rice with shrimp option.  It was a huge portion — fresh and steaming hot.  There weren’t a lot of pineapple chunks in the fried rice actually.  Nevertheless, it was a really satisfying and hearty dish.  My mom commented that the dish had a lot of “wok hei” to it.

Thai Pineapple Fried Rice with shrimp $13.99

BBQ Style Hakka Noodles with chicken $13.99

The server warned us when we placed the order that the BBQ Style Hakka Noodles with chicken option would be on the sweeter side, but we opted to try it anyway.  It was also a huge serving of noodles in a dark soy sauce colour with lots of pieces of chicken scattered throughout.  The noodles definitely were on the sweet side but they reminded me of Filipino pasta which is on the sweeter side as well.  It was a unique take on stir fried noodles with chicken.

Shrimp in Lobster Sauce $15.99

Lastly, the Shrimp in Lobster Sauce is like a classic Hakka dish to order and I haven’t eaten it in a long time.  There were ten pieces of large shrimps in the heavy lobster sauce with a bowl of white rice accompanying it.  It was really tasty and full of flavour.  There were bits of lobster meat (I think) in the sauce as well.  The sauce was smooth and a perfect complement to the plain white rice.  (I actually didn’t see this item on the takeout menu, but I saw it on their online menu.)

We didn’t finish the food because the portions were so big and packed the rest to go.

Storefront

During our meal, there were three other parties who arrived to dine in.  Thus, the restaurant certainly isn’t as quiet as I originally suspected.

Props to this restaurant for a solid meal and delivering great, polite service to boot.  There isn’t a lot of parking available in the small lot, so you’ll have to get lucky to find a spot (or you can park behind the restaurant but some spots are designated for other businesses — just be aware of that).  The small lot is shared with another restaurant and lounge.

If you pay cash for takeout orders, you receive 10% off your bill.  Because we dined in, we did not receive any discount despite paying in cash.  Overall, their prices were more than what I expected for a Hakka restaurant — I don’t remember paying this much for similar meals at other restaurants in the past.