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Cheap way to spa in Chinatown

Luxury travel blog » Places to Travel » North America Travel » Canada Travel » Ontario » Toronto » Cheap way to spa in Chinatown
February 27, 2011 by Carol Perehudoff

This post may contain affiliate links.

If you’re after an exotic way to spend the day with a spa treatment included, all on a budget, then think Chinatown. And think feet! Here’s a cheap way to spa in Chinatown, foot reflexology included.

Cheap place to spa in China Town Toronto
Happy feet

A cheap day in Chinatown – start with food

Make it a day  – first go for dim sum. That’s a Chinese breakfast/brunch meal of tapas-sized portions. Yum – what could be better (of course you need to call a hiatus on your carb free diet) than shrimp dumplings, sticky rice in lotus leaves and lots of bean curd rolls? Then get adventurous and opt for tripe and chicken feet. No scratch that. Stick with the bean curd. Are you crazy?

Mark and I did this the other day. Except we wanted to try the newly-installed Dynasty on Yorkville Ave so our Chinatown spa day actually started in Yorkville. Highly recommended.

Then we went wandering through Chinatown looking for a foot massage place that didn’t look too dodgy – erm, no happy endings, if you know what I mean.

Yay! We found our cheap spa in Chinatown

And then we found the Evergreen Beauty & Wellness Centre. How can you go wrong with a wellness centre? It was clean and we didn’t need an appointment and a an hour foot massage cost a whopping $25. Men, take note – you will never be able to offer your girlfriend such a cheap spa date again.

Evergreen Spa Chinatown Toronto
Foot massage!

Evergreen Beauty & Wellness Centre

At Evergreen we were ushered into a plain room with two easy chairs, given some green tea and then our Chinese-speaking massage therapists came in. You really have to wonder what they’re talking about (remember that Seinfeld episode when the Korean manicurists kept talking about Elaine?) when they look at your feet then start gabbing to each other.

And you’re not going to get any of this frou-frou soft treatment like at some high-end spas. These women have serious strength. As I was gasping in pain, Mark looks at me. “Is it tickling?” he asks (stupidly).

“Yar!!! Grack!! Arggg!!! No!” I replied (prettily).

And then she went for my heel. “Yikes!” I shouted.

She said something to the other woman. Oh, no, I thought. Now they’re probably saying I have some strange irreversible internal problem because reflexology, as you probably know, doesn’t just feel good on the sole (and soul), it’s a pressure therapy based on massaging reflex points that are connected by nerves to all the organs in the body right up to the top of the head. Different spots on the feet correspond to different points of the body and focused pressure is said to be able to cure or prevent disease.

What are you thinking?

Cheap reflexology in Chinatown

So if you think you just have a sore heel, think again. As I look on the handy complimentary foot map you can pick up at the front desk, I see that the heel area can pinpoint problems like the Genital Gonad, Sciatic Nerve or the Cold Point Rectum – depending on where the pain stems from. Somehow, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what was causing my pain. But I gave the therapist a raised eyebrow look, as in, what? What? And she said, “Me same!” Apparently she has a sensitive heel, too, and didn’t seem to think it symbolized anything dire.

Phew!

Anyway, I was sorry when it ended. The ladies were really good fun even if we couldn’t speak the same language, and I’m sure my genital gonads, sciatic nerve and cold point rectum were much better for it.

PS To keep on making it an exciting day, add on a trip to a Chinese bakery for coconut buns then go to one of the market stalls for dragon fruit, lychees and anything else weird and wonderful in the Asian fruit realm. It’s the perfect cheap spa day in Chinatown!

Want to go more upscale? Here are some of the best spas in Toronto

Read more about going to the spa at The Spa and Spa Travel

Category: Spas and Wellness, Toronto

About Carol Perehudoff

A former freelance travel columnist for the Toronto Star, Carol has won more than 30 writing awards and honours. A spa and luxury travel expert, she’s written for top travel publications around the globe.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Carol Perehudoff

    Yes, Linda – you need to add a tip, and it does add up. There’s really no way around it. Still worth it though!

  2. Linda

    Hi Carol, sounds like great fun I’m keen to try it out! I’m from Australo\ia and have no idea about the tipping thing as we don’t really have a culture of tipping. Do you tip at massage parlours? The price sounds cheap for a ot of these places but once u add tip…

  3. Angela Cosmai

    Looking for great foot massage . Visitng Montreal next weekend. Thank you

  4. wanderingcarol

    Right you are! The address for the Evergreen Wellness Center is 422 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON M5T 1G4 and the tel is 647-341-5016. May your feet be happy.

  5. Schreibey

    This place gets so many great reviews and not ONCE is the address mentioned. How about a phone number?
    thanks

  6. Lori Henry

    Um, yeah, I definitely don’t get to Chinatown enough… but then again, I’ve been told that my Cold Point Rectum is doing just swell…

  7. amy

    Sounds like the best day ever! Though I wonder if it makes more sense to do the foot massage and then dim sum; you know, once your genital gonads are relaxed.

  8. Lesley

    Chinatown also can be a great place for a good budget haircut–Mario gets swears by Osaka.

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