[North York] Han Ba Tang

Location Review
4862 Yonge St
Toronto, Ontario
(416) 5 46-8218

Just when you thought the Yonge and Sheppard area in North York already had enough Korean restaurants, along comes Han Ba Tang (@han_ba_tang), the newest addition to the block. With a name that translates from its native language as "one full round", Han Ban Tang's restaurant owner aims to combine her decade long experience in authentic Korean cuisine, with modern culinary ideas. She refers to her cuisine as "young fusion Korean" and maintains a menu which she constantly revises in hopes to inspire appreciation of the Korean cuisine from a younger population. Young or old, Han Ba Tang's deep background story, warm hospitality, innovative dishes, and original drink menu will easily win over many a crowd.

Han Ba Tang

[Toronto] Miss Korea

Location Review
687 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON M4Y 2B2
(647)748-9100
Website

Opening in December of last year, Miss Korea (@MISSKOREA_BAR) is a trendy Korean bar eatery, and the newest addition to the Yonge and Bloor area. Not too long after it opened, Justine (@foodigatorJ), Vickie (@Kiki_bff) and I, came here one night for what we like to call our "Korean Drinking Catch-up Nights" (original, I know!). Like all the other eateries in this area, Miss Korea has an inconspicuous doorway leading to an expectedly narrow space. The venue is well suited as a catch up spot though, and extremely space-efficient: re-arrangeable low-rise tables, relatively high ceilings, and open-top stools which double as jacket storage space.

Miss Korea

[Thornhill] Song Cook's Authentic Korean Restaurant

Location Review
72 Steeles Avenue West #6
Thornhill, Ontario
(647) 678-8000
MENU

I always find the Galleria Supermarket near Yonge and Steeles to be a good quick fix for all my Korean food needs, but that was before I knew Song Cook's Authentic Korean Restaurant (@SongCooks)was a mere 20 steps away.

I came here on a chilly winter day with the family to celebrate my sister's birthday. After we parked I wanted just to run inside to the warmth. From the outside, nothing really striked me as unusual. It seemed like the typical small, quaint, and cozy Korean joint with limited seating. To my surprise, it was quite the opposite. This may very well be the largest Korean restaurant I've been too!

[Toronto] Korean Village Restaurant

Review Location:
628 Bloor St W
Toronto, ON M6G 1K7




Not too long ago a bunch of other food enthusiasts had a spontaneous craving to go for Korean barbeque. That, coupled with the fact that there was one among us that has never tried pork bone soup before, gave way for discussion to have Korean food for dinner. Word became plans, plans became actions, and these actions ultimately became another food adventure! So off I went with  Justine (@foodigatorJ), Joie (@zoeticepics), Charles (@charleslaw), and Kat S, to Korean Village Restaurant located in Toronto's Koreatown. While there are an overwhelming number of options in the area for Korea food, you really can't visually miss this restaurant. They have a huge lit up yellow sign to let you know that you've come to the right place.

[Toronto] Swish by Han

Location Review:
38 Wellington Street E.
Toronto, Ontario

Swish by Han Menu

On a chilly night, Vicky (@kiki_BFF) and Justine (@foodigatorJ ), and I headed out to Swish By Han (@Swish_by_Han) to try out their food. I actually have never heard of this place, so I probably never would've stumbled upon this place if it weren't for their suggestion. It wasn't even until I sat down at the restaurant and looked at the menu that I knew they served Korean food. The eclectic dining room decor and dimly lit ambiance is very atypical of most stereotypical Korean restaurants. And the food? While they do serve some what of a fusion style Korean, it was 2 thumbs up for me!

Myungdong Kalkuksu Noodles and Shabu Shabu

Review Location:
8194 Bayview Ave
Thornhill, Ontario
(Major Intersection: Bayview Ave & Langstaff Rd E.)




The other day my friend Jess and I went out for a catch-up dinner. For whatever reason we always end up having Korean, but no complaints since I love Korean food! 

Despite this restaurant being open for a while now, this was my first time trying it. The food was so good, I'm surprised I didn't hear about this place earlier! Perhaps its the name of the restaurant. I was actually recommending this restaurant to someone else yesterday, and had quite a bit of difficulty communicating the restaurant name. I'm sure in Korean it is probably less of a weird mouthful of words. In the interest of time and typing efforts, I will now refer to this restaurant as Myungdong for the rest of the post.

[Richmond Hill] Sushi Tei

Review Location
115 Times Avenue
Richmond Hill, Ontario
(Major Intersection: Highway 7 Rd & Valleymede Dr.)

MENU

Having not eaten sushi for a while, this was a much anticipated meal for me. My blog probably needs this injection of a sushi review as well, since it seems like I had a good dominating Japanese theme going on!

When I found out that Sushi Tei is a Korean-Japanese fusion restaurant, I was immediately skeptical about how much I would enjoy this place. I am a huge fan of Japanese and Korean food individually, but I'm not too fond of is most Korean influenced Japanese food. I'm not saying that all Korean made sushi is terrible (because quite frankly in my opinion Sushi Bong can kick a lot of Japanese place out of the water), just that most of the time I don't find it as satisfying. However, rob had been here before and commented that it was alright so we decided to eat here anyways.

[Richmond Hill] Kaori Japanese Restaurant

Review Location:

30 High Tech Road, Richmond Hill, ON

(905) 707-8858 ‎

Edamame and Beer

Appetizers: salad, bean sprouts, edamame, miso soup

Top: Spider Roll, Bottom: Blue Ocean Roll

Sushi Boat

Complementary Turnip and Mackerel Dish

So I've been wanting to try Kaori out for a really long time. Partially because there aren't too many good japanese places in richmond hill, and was hoping this would be a hidden gem to be unravelled.

The location of the restaurant used to be an Outback Steakhouse, and it doesn't really seem like they've made an effort to change the decor inside or out. Definitely nothing special here. In fact, there really wasn't anything special here at all.

The food was a really big disappointment. Since there were only two of us, we couldn't order very much. The appetizers were very very salty. This may be just a matter of preference, but I've had these preserved sardines before (made from the mother of one of my korean friends) and I don't remember it being so salty. Even the vinaigrette dressing in the salad was salty.

On to the actual food. In general, the rice was really dry, and the rolls were not well made. The insides of the rolls were falling out, and each roll did not have a consistent ratio between rice and stuffing. The only thing to commend on was the salmon sashimi, which was cut into good size pieces and was relatively fresh. The rest of the sashimi was subpar. The white tuna and squid had a spongy texture to them, and the white snapper and tuna were drenched in lemon juice, which are signs that they weren't fresh to begin with.

Suprisingly, the best thing here was the complimentary dish that was given to us. It was a stew with turnip and some sort of fish (mackerel?). The turnips were soft, and it was very flavourful. Any koreans out there know what dish this is?

For the price we paid, we both felt that we could've eaten something of a lot higher calibre. We wondered at the end of the dinner if the Korean food here would be better (since the restaurant seems to be Korean run), but we're not sure whether or not we want to come back here again to try.