After waking up to a nice Friday afternoon, I decided to go to a place I've always wanted to visit; K-town! :) So my friend and I just grabbed our bags, and headed for the bus.
As many of you may know, there are two Korea Towns in Toronto. This is the one on Christie Station near Bloor and Bathurst a.k.a. the old K-town. For those near UofT, this place is not too far away.
We got so excited when we got off the train; and then we found out K-town is only one block long.
The sky was pouring when we were exploring, so we went to the nearest bakery until the rain stopped. This is a peach sparkling water. It literally tastes like Perrier with a hint of peach, also kinda like washed down Aquafina Vitamin Water.
When I searched on Yelp, this shop is the highest rated Korean restaurant in K-town. So of course, we had to try it. The place is known for their tofu.
681 Bloor St W
Toronto, ON M6G 4B9
(416) 537-0972
View Larger Map
Tofu appetizer. Personally, I think they're too literal with this. This whole dish is kinda bland, I think they were trying to bring out the flavours of the tofu by just adding salt accompanied by broccolis, but they failed to impress.
Sweetened potatoes. This is quite good, comparable to other places. I wish I had more of this...
The kimchi is spicier than other places, and I like it! :)
The sprouts lack flavour.
Since this place is famous for their tofu, I got their House Special Soon Tofu Soup. It came out hot and bubbly.
The soup is accompanied by this rice. When I was reading their reviews online, I was quite excited to try this. This is the first Korean restaurant I've been to where they serve you purple rice in a stone bowl. The purple rice isn't that different from the white rice except for the texture (purple rice is harder) and slight difference in taste. But I like I like :)
They waitress gave me an egg to put in the sizzling soup. We were supposed to mix the egg into the soup.
So it looks like this afterwards. This dish isn't that satisfying especially since their tofu tastes no different from the ones I get from the supermarket. After trying their house special, I failed to figure out why there's such an emphasis on the tofu. The soup had shrimps and clams. I ordered the medium spicy soup and it wasn't spicy enough. Not very impressed. It left me wanting more after the dinner.
Overall Review:
Food: 6/10
Not impressed. Maybe I should've tried their pork bone soup since a lot of Yelp reviewers were commenting on how good it is. Also, there is too small a variety of appetizers.
Ambience: 6.5/10
There isn't much decoration, but at least the place looks very clean. However, the place is too squishy and the tables are too small. I couldn't even put my hands on the table after the food arrived.
Service: 8/10
Pretty good service; the waiter greeted us right when we stepped into the restaurant and the food came in a reasonable time. Also, they kept the washrooms clean, which is a biggie for me.
Price: 9/10
Pretty cheap dinner. Everything plus tips is ~$9 and I was full (though not satisfied).
Final Verdict: 7/10
I wasn't too happy with the place, but I think it has more to offer, so I would probably give it a second chance and go again.
Some of the stuff I got from the Korean supermarket. Left: Tteokbokki (sweet and slightly spicy seasoning for Korean rice cakes). It is a street snack (when on skewers) and a restaurant dish. It used to be served in the royal courts of ancient Korea and is considered haute cuisine. Right: microwavable seaweed soup.
The canned drinks are ones I've tried in China. I was soooo happy to find these in Toronto! These are canned juice, but it contains real fruits. The top left is grape juice and it actually has grapes inside. Since my mom and grandma likes bananas, I bought them some banana milk. The clear glass container holds a piece of ginseng. I was pleasantly surprised, since it's only $.99. I tried it and it's kinda weird, the juice is very sweet and mixed with strong ginseng flavours. On the far right, it's some cookies with chocolate fillings.
Korean dessert I love. The outside tastes like waffle batter (but soft) with nuts and the fillings is either mashed potatoes or red bean paste. It might sound odd to you if you've never tried it, but it's actually pretty dang good. It's called hodo kwaja or hodugwaja.
Note: one hour is more than enough to see the whole K-town. Don't make the same mistake we did, we arrived at 2-ish and we literally went into every shop, and walked through the whole k-town 3 times before it was time for us to have dinner (5:30).
No comments:
Post a Comment