Krazy for Koreans Part 4

Dumpling Restaurant 

4385 Sheppard Ave E
Scarborough, ON M1S 1T9

(416) 293-8321

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I've been craving for the Gamjatang (Pork Bone Soup) in this restaurant for at least a month. Everyday when I'm on my way home from school, I always see this place. Everytime I pass the Dumpling restaurant, I'm always tempted to get off the bus and grab myself a nice meal. From my previous blogs, you may have noticed that I've mentioned "the best Gamjatang is at Brimley and Sheppard." Well, because I love you guys and I want to share with you everything I like, I went there on purpose so I could write up this blog. :) 

Fresh pressed Korean cold noodles. My friend had this and she loved it! It contains a lot of bold flavours including a chilled apple vinaigrette as the soup base with a lot of cucumbers, apple strips, a little bit of Oshinko, the yellow pickled Japanese radish found in sushis (if I remember correctly). At the bottom, covered by all the veggies, there's also sliced and marinated beef shin. Overall, this is a very refreshing dish for summer. It's kinda like the equivalent of a cold shower with a mint body wash for me on a hot day. :P 

*Drum roll please.......

Behold, the best Gamjatang (I've tasted) ever. No one has yet been able to beat this flavour, and ironically, the restaurant serves half Chinese and half Korean dishes. However, I know that the chef that cooks these is Korean. Just look at the size of this! The ingredients is literally exploding out of the stone pot! It's so satisfying every time I eat this; it just gives me this warm and fuzzy feeling inside. :P It gives you that punch of flavour with every bite and it doesn't fade. However, I DID notice that the ratios of different ingredients have changed since the last time I was here. They stopped using the Korean soy bean sprouts, and overall, there is less sprouts. More Chinese cabbage which is GREAT since it soaks up all the flavours like a sponge (way better than potatoes I find). The amount of fat on the pork bone is outrageous. My friend literally took out chunks after chunks of fat; thank goodness mine wasn't like that. :P The soup is also a bit spicier than I've remember but I'm totally fine with it since I think it's part of the experience that you need to drink LOTS of water afterwards. I mean, if it's not spicy, why eat spicy food right? However, if you can only take mild to moderate levels of spiciness, this may be too much for you. 

Overall Review: 

Food: 10/10

Not only these two dishes are spectacular, but other dishes are definitely up to par as well. If you're there, be sure to try their assorted veggies and meat dumplings. Zucchinis and meat or tomatoes and meat may sound like a weird match, but it is two of my favourites. The dumplings you have in other restaurants are all dry and hard even when it's hot. But at the Dumpling Restaurant (as if not obvious enough :P), they made it like Shanghai Dumplings (ones with juice inside). Definitely up to par with the Shanghai Dumplings in Asia Legend. Their beef and green onion wrap is also very good. Be sure to bring a big party and try all of them! :D

Ambience: 0/10

That is not a typo by the way lol. I must warn you, this place isn't the cleanest restaurant around. Not like the rats running around kinda dirty and not the diarrhea type of dirty, but consider yourself warned. One of my friend actually said he gets a stomachache every time he eats there; but I go there often and nothing ever happened to me or my friends or family. It's your call how far you're willing to go for food. :P 

Service: 7/10

We were seated immediately and we got our food really fast. The servers just don't seem very friendly; and I think they can only speak Mandarin and a little bit of Cantonese and a little bit of English. You could tell they were waiting to be off of work. Also, they did not let us split our bills.

Price: 9/10

If I remember correctly, for three people the bill was ~$22 tax included. The Gamjatang was $6.50. However, I feel like we could've gotten a bit more appetizers. In Tofu Village, we got 5, but here, we got 2 and I believe they're not refillable. 

Final Verdict: 8.5/10

For me, food always weighs more since that's what you're ultimately at a restaurant for. If not, the score would've been wayyy lower.  

Krazy for Koreans Part 3

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


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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). 

So intoxicating.

After a long and dry lecture of statistics, my tourist friend and I decided to go out for a nice dinner. This place is made for her since she loves beer. Beerbistro is known for its wide selection of beers. It is said that the beers there is the equivalent to fine wine. 

18 King Street East (at Yonge Street)
Toronto, Ontario
M5C 1C4 

Tel:	416.861.9872

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I apologize for the terrible photo quality. They have this thing where you can choose 3 beers from the collection to try for $6, so both my friend and I got one. The bottom ones are mine. The bottom right is a raspberry beer (which is my favourite because you can actually taste the raspberry flavours and it's very fruity). The middle is caramel beer. The first second of tasting it was good, you could also taste a hint of caramel, but the after taste is bitter and nasty. The left is some German beer that's supposed to be fruity, but it just tastes like regular beer. The top left is an English beer and again, it just tastes like regular beer but less strong. The top middle is a German beer made with banana and cloves. You can actually taste the banana flavours. I have no idea what the top right is, I don't even remember how it tastes anymore. :P

Again, sorry for the picture quality. This is my friend's crab meat quesadilla. The whole thing was hot and flavourful, and it's made with real crab meat. Friend: "there are remains of crab shells in the quesadilla, not very pleasant. Also, I can make better guacamole myself." I liked it though.

Oh hi there. :) Everyone is so dressed up that it was kinda awkward for us to walk in with backpacks on our backs. We also feel a bit underdress because everyone around us were in suits and dresses.

My Belgian mussels in the white cream sauce and garlic. I think I had too much mussels lately, this bowl of mussels actually made me feel quite sick. I'm sure it's me and not the mussels though. Anyways, this was not very satisfying for me, I was craving for bread and meat afterwards. The taste of the dish was okay. It's not bad but not extraordinary neither. The mussels were not as fresh as I expected. It actually tastes kinda like it has been frozen for a while.

Overall Review:
Food: 7.5/10
The Beerbistro didn't convert me into a beer lover. My friend actually had to finish the beer for me. :P I loved my friend's quesadilla, but my mussels was disappointing. For what the restaurant claims itself to be, it did not meet my expectations.

Ambience: 9/10
Very nice place to eat. Most people actually stay there for a very long time and just chat. It is not one of those restaurants where you finish your food and go, but it is more of a conversation place. It was only slightly awkward because of our attire and you can't really eat with your hands. That was pretty hard to do considering what we ordered.

Service: 10/10
Our waiter was super nice and super cute. Our food came in a reasonable time and the waiter was there whenever we needed him. He always had a smile on his face and very polite.

Price: 8.5/10
The price was reasonable for the food we got. My bill was ~$25 (the beers and the mussel).

Final Verdict: 8.5/10
If you love beer, this place will be heaven for you. My friend absolutely loved this place. Overall, it was a very nice experience. Don't think I would revisit this place though, since its main thing was beer and mussels and the mussels weren't that great.

Krazy about Korean (Restaurants) Part 2

The day after I've been to the Korean restaurant in the previous post or the day after that, I was still craving for Korean food. Since I don't have a ride, I decided to go to Seoul Garden which is like a 30 mins walk from my house. I've always wanted to come but never had a chance until now.. 

I've seen pictures on Facebook since a lot of my friends have been here.

My grandma and I were here for lunch and the place is awfully quite and empty. We were the only customers in this huge place. Then I was thinking uh oh, not a good sign.

Super high ceiling.

Legit Korean grill for Korean BBQ :)

Appetizers. If you have never been to a Korean restaurant, the appetizers are absolutely free and you can ask them for more. :)

Sweet beans; a bit salty compared to the other places.

Seaweed.

Sweet potatoes; as in regular potatoes made with a sweet sauce. From what I know, these potatoes are supposed to be fried and there should be a sticky sugar-like sauce on it. This one is kinda different, more salty, and I like the ones in other restaurants more.

Pickled turnip.

Mung bean sprouts. From what I know, they're supposed to use the Korean soya bean sprouts (ones with a bigger yellow head).

Kimchi-ed cucumbers (well at least that's how I call it lol!)

Kimchi! I mean, it's not a Korean dinner without kimchi!

I believe it's pan fried pumpkin paste with green onions.

My grandma's tofu dumpling soup. I've only tasted the soup and it's on the bland side.

My Gamjatang (pork bone soup)! Recently, I've been obsessed with this dish. But this failed to impress me. As you can see, the soup base isn't even red! This also lacks flavour and spiciness. The good thing is it has a lot of veggies. But they're also missing soya sprouts! Sigh, my Korean kravings weren't satisfied that day. 

Overall Review: 

Food: 6.5/10

My friends were right, the food here isn't that good. They also had these traditional drinks on the menu that I wanted to try, but the waitress told me they didn't have any. 

Ambience: 10/10

I mean, the photos says it all. Even though there weren't anyone else there, a part of me really liked that. There's nothing I love more than a nice and quite meal paired with such serene looking ambience. Definitely a good experience in this aspect. 

Service: 8.5/10

The waitress is nice and she's always here when we need her. But there's only one waitress. Even though one is sufficient to serve us, but the ratio of restaurant tables to waitresses isn't right. 

Price: 7.5/10

Eh, not bad for Korean food. I believe the bill was under $20 or $25. The other places are a bit cheaper, but I guess the price accounts for the ambience. 

Final Verdict: 7.5/10

I mean it's Scarborough, you can't expect much to be authentic except for Chinese food. If you live near the area, this is an okay place to go. But if you live in downtown, save yourself the trip and you'll definitely find better Korean cuisine there. 

Shout outs to all the U.S. and Europe readers out there! Thanks for your continual support (even though I'm talking about restaurants in Toronto)! :) 

Address: 

4350 Steeles Ave E
Markham, ON L3R 9V4

(905) 305-0699

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Krazy for Korean (Restaurants) Part 1

After a laborious week of work, both my coworker and I were craving for some Gamjatang (pork bone soup). We didn't feel like travelling for this since my feet were swollen and well, she's just too lazy lol! :P My coworker suggested this place near where we live.

*note: Gamjatang tastes slightly different wherever you go since different people make it differently. So you have to find a restaurant that has the flavours you like and stick with it.

For me, this dish was lacking in many ways. It lacks bean sprouts, lacks spice, and lacks flavour. I think it is safe to say this is not my favourite.

This stranger here, is too manly for spicy food, so he ordered a Bulgogi (Korean marinated beef) plus rice. According to him, the beef was good, but I didn't try it, so I don't know. I believe he asked to be featured on my blog, so there you go stranger. :)

Overall Review:
Food: 6.7/10
The appetizers weren't that good either. The sweet potatoes is dried out and there's no sauce.

Ambience: 4/10
It looks too Chinese to be a Korean restaurant, except for the Korean series playing on the tv. I mean, it doesn't even have a buzzer on the table like legit Korean restaurants.

Service: 8.5/10
The lady was nice, I asked her to teach me how to say something in Korean and she did. The food came relatively fast, but it took forever for her to notice we want the bill.

Price: 10/10
Krazy cheap. My meal plus tax was under $7 and I left with a full stomach. Besides, there was unlimited appetizers.

Final Verdict: 6.5/10
If I had a car, I'd rather go to Nak Won, or even the Dumpling Place at Sheppard and Brimley (they have the best Gamjatang there!).

However.. I've only tried one thing at this shop, so in order to do a better review, I'd have to try their other stuff to be accurate with the ratings.

Address:
633 Silver Star Blvd
Scarborough, ON M1V 5N1

(416) 412-9588

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Looks are so deceiving.

I think the title says it all. So not too long ago, Starbucks started producing these "cake pops." I've been wanting to try these the day it was out, but the impending doom that was grand proposals was looming in the background. So I ended up trying these so late.

They're basically like super sweet timbits/munchkins on a stick, covered in fondant like SUPER sweet chocolate. I had two small bites and I was sick of it. I don't think I would ever give this a try again. It's just...too much. :)

Us three spice girls.

For our tiny reunion, we decided to go for some authentic Indian food and this place was recommended by my "tourist friend". The photo above only shows a few of the awards the restaurant got over the years. The place is three stories and it was still crazy packed!

I wish I could show you how authentic the place looks. But I'm tired of my friend saying I look like a tourist in restaurants, so sorry about that :/. They also had Indian music playing softy in the background and the place was dimly lighted which ties the Indian theme well together.

My friend had an ordinary cranberry juice and I had a Lassi (traditional yogurt based Indian drink with spices and rose water). To be honest, it just tastes like diluted and sweetened yogurt. I couldn't taste any spices.

Eggplant curry (dark brown): SUPER spicy for me, even eating with the naan and rice. But this out of the three dishes has the riches and most common curry taste. Also, you can taste the vegetarian-ness if you know what I mean lol unlike some other dishes.

Chicken something curry (not butter chicken): this was my favourite. It tastes more like a dessert than a main dish, because the curry taste is not strong, and it's very sweet and rich with coconut milk. Since I have a ginormous sweet tooth, this dish was perfect. However, the chicken was way over cooked and it's a downer since the curry is so good. This is absolutely the most delicious curry I've had yet.

Chicken red curry: for me, this does not have such as rich curry flavour as the eggplant one and it isn't as sweet as the yellow one and the chicken is just as overcooked. Not my favourite, but my other two friends seem to like this one the best. So for this, I guess you have to try it to know.

Gulab Jamun: traditional Indian dessert that's made of doughy milk solids, deep fried and soaked in syrup, rosewater or other Indian spices.

This was REALLY good. Tastes kinda like cheese balls. If you like cheese and if you like sweets like me, this is the perfect combination of the two and is a must try! Also, this is complimentary to your meals, which is a plus. :) 

Overall Review: 

Food: 9.5/10 

The only downer is the overcooked chicken. Otherwise, the dishes this place serve is very authentic and the flavours were well put together. Everything there is like an explosion of flavours. 

Ambience: 9.5/10 

The only complain I have is that the waiting area is too small, and since it's so crowded, most people have to wait outside the restaurant. During winter, this would be a problem. But otherwise, the restaurant is very dainty and comfortable. 

Service: 10/10 

Despite the load of customers, the service was superb. The servers were very polite and always had a smile on their face when they talked to us. The food also came in a reasonable time frame. Really nothing to complain. 

Price: 8/10

The actual curry was ~10-15$ and the portion was only about the size of a fist. The chicken was overcooked and took up most of the dish. So I think 10$ for dried up chicken is not very reasonable. Overall, each person paid ~20-25$ for the whole meal which is moderate. 

Final Verdict: 9/10 

This is a must go if you want to try Indian food. This restaurant really deserved all the awards they got and have exceeded all my expectations. Little India gives you an Indian food experience unlike any others!

Address: 

255 Queen St W
Toronto, ON M5V 1Z4

(416) 205-9836

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