{"id":3802,"date":"2021-12-03T03:20:08","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T03:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/?p=3802"},"modified":"2021-12-03T03:20:11","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T03:20:11","slug":"house-of-gourmet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/?p=3802","title":{"rendered":"House of Gourmet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

484 Dundas St West<\/p>\n\n\n\n

416.217.0167 Website<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

House of Gourmet is a bustling Chinatown institution serving wonton noodles, late-night Chinese BBQ, and other Cantonese classics.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sitting four steps up from Dundas Street, this iconic dining room and its lovably brusque servers have been feeding diners from morning \u2018til owl hours for nearly three decades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"houseKnown for its quick service and massive menu\u2014around 800 items spread between two bewildering pamphlets with the tiny font\u2014House of Gourmet\u2019s glowing red signs mark an original ol\u2019 reliable that never seems to close.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"houseSave for a fire that shuttered the restaurant for several months in 2020, House of Gourmet is pretty much open 365 days a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of the Chen family have been helming the restaurant since 2005, where it had existed under the same name for a decade prior. Before that, it had been a supermarket, says owner Anna Chen, who runs it now with her business partner Situ. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"houseRegulars of this local culinary hub have been around for just as long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They run the gamut from students coming for morning congee, grandpas eating steamed rice rolls wrapped around deep-fried yao tiu (highly recommended) to bank workers on late lunch, opting for Hong Kong-style specials with cups of HK milk tea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"houseAround dinnertime, it\u2019s families crowding tables for multi-course feasts and groups of partiers after the function picking at plates of Singapore-style fried turnip cake ($9.99). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"houseHouse of Gourmet is also one of the few places in the city that lets you dap toi<\/em>, or share tables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around the restaurant’s signature blue crush sparkled tables, diners can shed the weird western stigma of eating alone to adopt the casual practice of splitting tables with other folks dining solo, no interaction required.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"houseFor first-timers, the sheer size of the menus and the restaurant, with its three kitchens (noodle and BBQ stations up front, woks in the back) and more than 20 staff\u00a0at any given time, may feel overwhelming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The menu abounds with Cantonese dishes and even some Szechuan specialties like crispy orange beef. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"houseBut at the heart of House of Gourmet is its simplicity of knowing what you want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The menu boasts\u00a0double whole lobster deals and Peking duck, but when looking for something quick, forgo the red menu and go for the green: rice, noodles, or congee.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"houseVariations of BBQ combos with suckling pig, duck, or char siu (or all three) on rice or in noodle soups accompanied with big, juicy wontons for $10.50 a bowl or less.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"houseA plate of bright curry powdered Singapore vermicelli noodles ($11.75) can be eaten in a lunch combo or as a larger plate shared by the table. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"houseDinner options span from sizzling plates to hot pot. Feasts are usually preceded by complimentary slow soups boiled all day from the day\u2019s selection of meats and veggies, a simple and perfect combination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"house<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

484 Dundas St West 416.217.0167 Website House of Gourmet is a bustling Chinatown institution serving wonton noodles, late-night Chinese BBQ, and other Cantonese classics.\u00a0 Sitting four steps up from Dundas Street, this iconic dining room and its lovably brusque servers have been feeding diners from morning \u2018til owl hours for nearly three decades.  Known for its quick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dining"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}