“ The ONE Fusion Cuisine, Richmond Hill “ - Entertaining an out-of-town relative with some elevated, well executed, delicious Cantonese fare.

[THECHARLES (Charles Yu)]

Recent Chinese/Cantonese fine dining experiences have been erratic and inconsistent! Establishments that used to excel now disappoint, with below par cooking and executions. Finding a dependable and trustworthy venue could be a major challenge.

Tonight, with fingers crossed, we picked the supposedly reliable and consistently good ‘ The One Fusion ‘ to entertain our out-of-town guests.

The following elevated, Cantonese ‘ pseudo Haute Cuisine ‘ menu, featuring a few advanced order items, was selected for our party of 7.

These include:

• Double Boiled whole Winter Melon casserole with mixed seafood, meat and
  vegetables. ( pre-ordered )
• LIVE whole BC Geoduck Clams prepared two ways (pre-ordered)
  Siphon/Trunk Sashimi and Chiu Chow style flavoured rice porridge using the
  internal organs and more.
• House special, mid-cut tenderloin, BBQ Pork ( Char Siu )
• Whole Rose essence, herbed top soya sauce poached Free Range Chicken
  (pre-ordered)
• Whole deep fried, crispy LIVE Thai Marble Goby Fish with seasoned soya
  sauce dip.
• Stirred fry Morning Glory (aka water spinach ) with julienne chili and fermented
  bean curd.

Complimentary desserts of Purple sago rice dessert soup, Chinese Almond cookies and Goji berry and Osmanthus jello.

Overall, the meal was a delightful and delectable feast that managed to impress and wow our guests. Professional, friendly and attentive service by our lady server was exemplary.

However, from my side, I did find the highly anticipated ‘Double Boiled Winter Melon Soup’ somewhat underwhelming! Considering the generous amount of exotic and flavourful ingredients used to enhance the flavour profile of the broth ( Shrimp, fresh crab meat, roasted duck, Chinese Ham, fresh and dried scallops, fresh and sundried wild mushrooms….etc ). The end result was a bit lack-lustre, watered-down and bland.
On the other hand, the broth used for the Chiu Chow rice porridge was an incredible taste bomb. The use of sun dried Flounder and pickled mustard greens, coupled with the umami of the Geoduck innards did a wonderful job in creating a memorable dish!

Oh Well! You win some…you lose some!!

[DrJohn]

Barring the “Downhill Alert” post from awhile back, Charles’s reviews of this place have been usually very positive. So we met there with two friends to try out some of the options. Tasted pretty darn good to us. We tried one of the dishes Charles loved and then each of us picked something that appealed to us.

Our waiter persuaded us to order the house soup, based on dried scallop, lean pork, fish, and other unidentifiable treats (one seemed to be a fruit). The broth was rich and complex and the meats were quite enjoyable with a little soy sauce that was provided.

We then had Roasted Succulent Suckling Pig with Jelly Fish (化皮乳豬件海蜇). The skin was crispy and the meat was tender, moist, and well-flavoured.

I picked the Stir-Fried Chicken and Chestnut 栗子生炒走地雞. Although I am still not 100% sure I can discern good wok hay from less good wok hay, I can say that the chicken, sweet chestnuts, whole garlic cloves, mushrooms, Chinese celery, and yu choy were a marvelous combination of flavours and textures.

Our other friend was intrigued by the Stir-Fried Jumbo Scallop with Pine Nut 二崧珍寶帆立貝. Huge and supple scallops came over top delicate egg whites that were embedded with umami-rich dried scallop. The pine nuts were a distinctive garnish.

Off one of the exclusively Cantonese menus came Manila clams done Safe Harbour-style: a salty and slightly spicy mixture of minced pork, chili, and deep fried small fish. Excellent.

And needing a little vegetable matter, we ordered the Braised Asparagus with Bamboo Fungus and Elm Fungus. This maybe had a bit too much cornstarch in the sauce, but we liked the contrast in fungi and the asparagus were fat and juicy.

Complementary dessert included red bean soup, agar with mango and other treats, and almond cookies.

[THECHARLES (Charles Yu)]

Glad you folks had an enjoyable meal there!
With the recent opening of a new Chinese supermarket next door to the restaurant, heard parking was near impossible?!

[DrJohn]

Parking near the grocery store was packed, but parking near the restaurant was fine. It was a Sunday evening, so likely there were fewer grocery shoppers than at peak times.