Marathon Cafe North York

New location for well-known HK-style cafe. Milk tea is their tried-and-true classic. Smaller spot more for takeout. Hainanese chicken was good with fair portion, though the rice wasn't as flavourful as expected. Baked pepper chicken also fair portion, but the sauce was on the tart side with unexpected lemon flavour. Average price for lunch/ light dinner fare for the area.
May 20th, 2023

Best milk tea ever! Love the services and great rice rolls!
May 20th, 2023

May 7th, 2023

May 7th, 2023

Fantastic food for a good price. Cooking staff was very nice and came out to the curb to bring us our food as it became ready. There's a nice nearby mall to sit in so no seating isn't an issue. Everything I had myself and shared from my friends was fantastic, the only thing I thought other HK diners did better was the spaghetti. In comparison to a few other HK cafes in the area, i'd say this is more traditional but worth checking out if it's a nice day or you're ordering delivery since theres not really any room to wait in the restaurant. Speaking of delivery services, the one star im docking is actually ordering our food. We walked in on off-peak hours and it was still swamped- I can understand since it seems fairly high in demand and theres really not much room in the kitchen. But it took us all in total probably 15-20 minutes just to get our orders taken, and the cashier seemed kind of inexperienced and had difficulties processing our food on the till. Meanwhile, delivery drivers kept coming in and going to the front of the line, which is normal for restaurants these days, but due to the small staff it ground us ordering to a halt every time while everyone working went to deal with the delivery. I would have probably been totally fine waiting if I could actually go sit near the planters to wait for my food but we were kind of just awkwardly standing there waiting to pay. Probably the first time in as long as I can remember where we all went "well, if we're still hungry we can't go back and order more so make sure you get enough". Maybe this would be solved if we contributed to the problem by ordering delivery like everyone else... Despite the long rant the staff was still very nice and would come out and ask questions of how we wanted our meal, what order we wanted it, if we were eating it nearby or taking it somewhere, etc. I would give this place five stars easily for food quality and friendliness of staff but the bad in-person ordering experience bumped it down a bit. Will be coming back for more though, there's so much on the menu I want to try!
May 16th, 2023