We've been looking around for a long time for a good soup dumpling ("goon tong gow") that rivals the first one we had in San Francisco. It was at a restaurant that we couldn't find when we went back a few years later. This Toronto goon tong gow was engorged with shrimp, pork, lotus root, dried scallop and robust broth, and was topped with a dollop of flying fish roe. It sat in a small amount of a lighter broth made with shark's fin -- the proportion of soup to dumpling was just right.

In our book, this sophisticated goon tong gow takes the cake. Bravo!

Lai Wah Heen, Metropolitan Hotel, 118 Chestnut Street (at Dundas), 2nd floor, Toronto (416) 977-9899