One of Vancouver's favourite Chinese restaurants just landed in Toronto — here's everything you need to try

Vancouver’s Peaceful Restaurant has finally opened its first location in Toronto, bringing Northern Chinese cuisine to the Annex.

Peaceful Restaurant had already been a local favourite across Metro Vancouver for 15 years by the time Guy Fieri rolled into town in 2013, to feature the restaurant on an episode of his show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

The episode further catapulted the restaurant into local legend status, beloved city (dare we even say, province?) over for its droolworthy Mandarin-style cuisine.

It was only a matter of time before we got the chance to dust off our chopsticks and try the restaurant for ourselves, and now, nearly 30 years after Peaceful Restaurant’s first location opened, we’ve finally scored our own location in Toronto.

At the helm of the whole operation is Executive Chef and founder Charlie Huang.

Huang opened the first location of Peaceful Restaurant in Vancouver back in 1998, and, he tells Dished Toronto, visitors from Toronto have been begging him to open a location in the city ever since.

Peaceful Restaurant serves Northern Chinese cuisine, which Huang affectionately refers to as “Mother’s favourite.”

The menu, though slightly pared down from that which you’d find at the Vancouver locations, is still replete with staples like Xiao Long Ba0 ($10.95), which, at Peaceful Restaurant, come filled with a generous helping of gingery minced pork.

Huang tells us it’s one of the restaurant’s best-sellers, and it’s not hard to understand why.

Peaceful Beef Rolls ($12.95) are one of Peaceful Restaurant’s signature dishes and, in our opinion, an absolute must-try on your next visit.

Thin slices of aromatic, five-spiced beef are rolled up with sweet hoisin sauce in a crispy, chewy green onion pancake.

It’s not a glamorous dish to eat (prepare for the insides to fall out on the first bite, cinnamon-bun style), but the combination of the warm flatbread, fragrant beef and subtle sweetness of the sauce will have you wishing you didn’t agree to share it with the table.

The Dan Dan Noodles ($13.95) are a personal favourite of Huang’s, and we’re firmly on the same page.

Even the most discerning of Dan Dan Noodle connoisseurs are sure to walk away after downing a bowl of the stuff. Springy noodles pair perfectly with unctuous, spicy peanut sauce, minced pork and cooked spinach.

If we’re being completely honest, we’re already plotting our next trip to the restaurant just to eat this dish again. We’ll probably come back the next day for it, too.

Vegetables are, all too often, relegated to the sidelines, but at Peaceful Restaurant, they’re the star of the show.

The Sichuan String Beans ($17.95), to be exact, are an absolute show-stopper.

They arrive in an absolutely heaping, glistening, gorgeous pile, and you’re met, immediately upon the plate being set down, with an almost overwhelming wave of garlicky aroma, which is only overpowered by the actual flavour of garlic in the dish.

They’re spicy, they’re salty, did we mention they’re garlicky? A gentle dusting of crispy minced pork rounds out the entire experience.

The House Stir-Fried Noodles ($17.95) are a classic, but Huang puts his own spin on the dish by loading it up with a variety of seafood: fillets of white fish, squid and shrimp are all hiding out in the tangle, along with pork and assorted vegetables.

It’s all cooked in a chilli garlic sauce that gives the whole thing a warm, umami taste while letting the individual flavours of each element speak for themselves. For those who stray away from spicy dishes, this is a solid bet.

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Peaceful Restaurant

Address: 515 Bloor St. W.

Phone: 416-530-0800

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