" Starchiva Cuisine, 160 East Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill “ - An extremely well executed and amazing value set-menu for 6…… that’s enough to feed 8!

THECHARLES · December 2, 2023, 3:30am

Our delectable and enjoyable meal tonight met and exceeded all essential dining criteria of quality, quantity, taste and value! Add to them, professional service provided by a group of friendly and attentive servers and voila, a delightful and memorable dinner was created.

Our chosen set menu consisted of the following dishes:

Soup of the day ( Watercress, red dates, almonds and Pork )
5 Lbs Lobster 3 ways:

Stir fried lobster tails with Maggi Sauce.
Steamed claws and head with Chinese rice wine, minced garlic
on bed of Rice vermicelli
Steamed egg custard ‘chawanmushi’ with lobster tamale

Stirred fry jumbo Hokkaido diver Scallops, Tiger Prawns and
mixed vegetables with XO sauce
Wok Seared Beef Filet Mignon cubes with French Mustard.
House special, whole Grand-Father, 5 Flavour Braised Duck
Stir fried King Mushroom with Pea Shoots
Stirred fry Florida Yellowfin Grouper paired with Chinese Kale (
Gai-Lan ) - Optional addition.
Duo desserts of Mung Bean dessert soup and Dark chocolate
ice cream cake

With the kitchen performing at top of its form. IMO, currently, Starchiva is undoubtedly at or near the pinnacle in providing commendable, high-class Seafood centric, Cantonese Cuisine in the Richmond Hill/Markham area.

Saregama · December 2, 2023, 4:26am

Looks delicious!

Never thought to combine king oyster mushrooms with snow pea shoots though I love both – sounds wonderful!

Egg custard looks luscious.

(I was surprised by the chocolate ice cream cake, but then I remembered one of the best restaurant desserts I’ve ever had was a mandarin orange cheesecake at a Chinese restaurant we frequented almost weekly. We were devastated when they stopped serving it!)

THECHARLES · December 2, 2023, 7:04am

Hello Saregama,
Where are you located?
We have a Japanese Sushi-Ya here in Toronto by the name of ’ ZEN ’ that offers a super-delicious ’ Mandarin Orange Cream Cake ’ for dessert at the end of the meal. Light, fluffy and not too sweet! Deliiiish!

gborges · December 2, 2023, 11:09pm

Thanks!

sck · December 3, 2023, 2:18am

Charles, the meal looks great. Me want some of that lobster/ scallop… How much was it for six?

You missed the picture of the grouper!

THECHARLES · December 3, 2023, 3:14am

The photo before the chocolate cake was the ’ Grouper and Gai-Lan ’ dish.
The one dish I left out was the ‘King Oyster Mushrooms and Pea Shot’.
The set menu was CAD328, the Grouper dish CAD 45.

DrJohn · January 30, 2024, 12:15am

We are friends with another couple with whom we make occasional forays into Markham for Chinese food, in recent years often trying out a place that Charles recommends. Last night we went to Starchiva Cuisine, the 160 East Beaver Creek location. It was excellent overall. The only problem was not being able to sample more dishes because there is only so much 4 of us can eat. Many of our dishes matched those recommended previously by Charles (in two separate reviews).

We ordered the marinated duck (half) ahead of time. The braised meat was moist and tender and perfumed withe 5-spice mixture.

We then had the baked oysters, which appear to be fried not baked. We ordered the rendition with salted egg yolk, which added additional umami. The frying was timed nicely, with oysters moist and not overcooked, but the coating was a bit oily.

Our friend particularly wanted the Maggi Dungeness crab with vermicelli. The crab was sweet and all pre-cracked. The vermicelli soaked up all the crab juices and was wonderful.

My pick was the minced pork with preserved vegetable, since I am always a sucker for steamed pork. Charles had recommended the version with salted fish, but also really like the pickled vegetable versions from long-gone old school places like Sai Woo. The pork was supple, richly flavoured, and deserving of steamed rice (we had two bowls).

Our other friend wanted another noodle dish and we pick the soya sauce and XO chow mein. This was enjoyable, although the nuances of the special soya sauce eluded me.

My wife also wanted the king mushroom with snow pea leaves and it was lovely.

We didn’t have the foresight to bring a bottle of Alsatian Grand Cru gewurtz, so we had their not-so-great riesling, plus tea and water.

For dessert, they served us complimentary sweet mung bean soup, tiramisu squares, and cheesecake squares.

There were many more options on the menu that sounded very appealing.