Korean Grill House - Yonge/Bloor

This Korean Grill House (one of several) is located at 754 Yonge St. in Toronto's heart, just south of Bloor St. so very transit-accessible as is a short walk from the Bloor/Yonge subway interchange. I would describe it as quiet when I went, as there was hardly anyone else there unfortunately (ended up with the table closest to the window.) There is free WiFi, chopsticks are stainless steel (a first; I identified them immediately as being from the Kitchen Stuff Plus across Yonge, as I carry that model myself in case there are only disposables wherever I go.) Soy sauce was light, fresh and sweet. There is also a chili and oil sauce for flavouring the grilled items; it's rather hot so I drizzled a few drops onto each. Pop is AYCD. One caveat is that they don't take Interac.

Korean grill houses like this one have a gas grill burner built into the table; the diner grills their own food on it, both meats and vegetables, to their taste. Orders are placed on small paper; vegetables can be custom-ordered from the waiter; the first vegetable order will be a "sampler"platter with a bit of everything. Contrary to the Google Maps entry there is no "buffet" per se although this may be what was meant.

The other "sampler" that will be provided is the traditional banchan assortment of small dishes of rice and appetizers: bean sprouts, spicy sprouts, cold tofu, kimchi and radish. Each of these can also be ordered in chosen quantities later. Cold tofu was really good, better than expected. Spicy sprouts were interesting and good, as were the milder ones. The long strips of pickled(?) radish are strange in appearance but tasty enough to make up for it. From the veggie platter, the mushrooms and green pepper were quite nice when grilled with the soy sauce. I suggest to separate the layers of sliced onion so that they grill into onion rings which brings out the flavour. Large lettuce leaves are there to wrap the meats in which I later did and this was quite nice.

On to the main courses, beef soup is a tasty broth with no noticeable meat or vegetable pieces in it (the consistency and colour reminded me of miso soup.) I tried four of the five grilled meats and ended up having several portions of each (although I skipped the squid.) Chicken was excellent in a sweet curry marinade and needed nothing added to be delicious. Pork was also delicious and savoury and I didn't have to add anything to it (although I did try all with the soy and a drizzle of the chili oil of course.) Beef although sliced thinly was tender, juicy and savoury (thinness reduces the chance that a diner will undercook, but the consistency of chicken doesn't really allow for this.) Fish was tender and good… I would say possibly too tender as it tends to fall apart when being retrieved after grilling, something to be careful of.

Lunch was $16.99 (there's a more expensive option with lamb but I am not into that;) unfortunately there are some caveats. Firstly, this is only for the meats and doesn't include the AYCE vegetables which are $3 extra. Dessert is also not included and I skipped this as ice cream was roughly $3. And lastly, there is an added 13% service charge so that counted as a tip, but it isn't optional. Thankfully the service was very fast, friendly and attentive to make up for it (although as there were only two other tables occupied.) I usually tip about that much anyway and for AYCE grilled meats and veggies $19.99 isn't bad (value is factored into all our reviews) and dessert, although nice, is optional and probably healthier if avoided! I did enjoy lunch there.

Rating: 7.5-8/10