Song Cook's Korean Restaurant - Toronto

The restaurant was much larger inside than it appeared from the outside, with a traditional low table seating area for 50 people and a more contemporary dining area also seating 50. After ordering our food, we were served with a typical assortment of Korean condiments to snack on while we waited for our meals. The soup was served with the main course, rather than as an appetizer. Although unable to find bulgogi on the menu, my dining companion chose the BiBimBap, which offered a mix of textures and flavors including a fried egg, ground beef, mushrooms, veggies, and rice. She was pleased with her choice. I opted for the DonKatsu, a generous portion of breaded pork cutlets stacked two high with a house sauce that resembled a darker and richer version of plum sauce. I left the restaurant quite full. The service was polite, although there was a minor issue with the timing of our dishes being brought out. Overall, it was a satisfying meal.

One recommended dish is the haemul pajun for $27.99, a seafood and green onion pancake that is quite generous in size and packed with octopus, shrimp, and green onion. It may seem a bit plain on its own, but dipping it in sweet soy sauce enhances the flavor. Another dish for sharing is the jap chae for $26.99, consisting of chewy glass noodles in a sesame oil soy sauce with beef and vegetables. While it is a decent version of the dish, it may feel overpriced for the portion size. Lastly, we tried the Tang suk yuk for $24.99, a sweet and sour chicken dish with a flavorful sauce. Although the sauce is not as vibrant in color as those found in Chinese restaurants, it is still enjoyable. However, the portion size may be too small for a shared plate.

Our bill came out to around $80 for the 4 of us, which was a great deal considering we were also able to take home plenty of leftovers. The staff were all very friendly, attentive, and helpful, especially since we were unsure of what to order. Overall, we had a wonderful experience and would highly recommend this restaurant!

I was in the Yonge Steele area to run a few errands. From some online researching, I came across a Korean restaurant that had a lot of positive reviews but seemed very hidden in the area. For this lunch adventure, I decided to visit Song Cook's Korean Restaurant.

Food 3.5/5 (50% of final grade <br/ <br/   Ordered:<br/ <br/   YuSeul Jjajang (Seafood Black Bean Noodles 2.5*/5<br/ <br/   Stir Fried Octopus 2.5/5<br/ <br/    Mul Neang Myun (Buckwheat Cold Noodles 4/5<br/ <br/  This dish was amazingly refreshing and light. After about half of it I got really parched though, so I guess the sodium content must have been higher than usual to compensate for the coldness and how low temperatures affect taste.<br/ <br/   Cham Pong (Spicy Seafood Noodles 2/5<br/ <br/ This dish was very basic and really consisted mostly of salt and nothing else. I didn't even taste the spiciness over the saltiness! The texture of the noodles, however, was quite nice bouncy.<br/ <br/   Big Bowl BimBimBap (Mixed Vegetables with pork and egg on rice 3.5/5<br/ <br/ A large silver bowl with an assortment of shiitake mushrooms, thinly cut carrots, soybean sprouts, seaweed, and lettuce seasoned with sesame oil and salt on plain white rice. Add the red pepper paste to taste. This entree was deceptively simple, yet simply delicious! The Big Bowl BimBimBap was large enough to feed three people, hands down.<br/ <br/   Five Spices JokBal (Sliced Pork 2/5<br/ <br/ This was bland to my tastes.<br/ <br/   Pork Bone Soup 2.5*/5<br/ <br/ Snack Size TangSuYuk (Sweet and Sour Pork and KhanPoungGi (Sweet and Spicy Pork 2.5*/5<br/ <br/  2.5*/5<br/ <br/   Wrap Vegetables 2/5<br/ <br/ This was literally just an assortment of really fresh raw lettuce, kale, and perilla leaves.<br/ <br/ *2.5/5 is when a dish is simply at par with MY knowledge of the industry average, so it may or may not be accurate. I can vouch a little and say that my Korean food tasting is above average though, since I've cooked this sort of cuisine myself, and I've been to quite a few Korean food places after watching many korean dramas.<br/ <br/ Ambiance 3.5/5 (15% of final grade <br/ <br/ I specifically booked the traditional seating area, because that was a novelty to me. It was surprisingly comfortable! The tables and floors in the seating area were very clean. You have to take off your shoes to step onto the seating area though, which I thought was very quirky and novel. The atmosphere was surprisingly accommodating for both large groups and small groups, or even individual diners. The lighting was at a comfortable brightness where everyone still felt as if they were at a cozy joint, yet maintained a nice air of tradition.<br/ <br/ Service 3.5/5 (15% of final grade <br/ <br/ I went with another 9 of my family members, with 4 children under the age of 10, so you could imagine how crazy it was with dropping water cups and running children. Our server was extremely friendly though, and came very quickly every time water was spilled. I couldn't decide what to get, so I decided to get the help of the server, who was VERY enthusiastic about explaining his experience of other customers' preferences (EXCELLENT product knowledge! . He basically put together our menu! I originally ordered a large TanSuYuk instead of the two snack sized porks, but then I pulled him back to tell him about how I wanted to try both, so he recommended the snack sizes. He came back after the dishes were served and asked us how we felt about the portion sizes, and I honestly told him that I was expecting something bigger for its price. Surprisingly, he agreed wholeheartedly and offered to supersize our next order of the porks for the night for free, if we wanted to order more. I politely declined this offer though, because we ordered quite a bit of food. It was a very nice gesture of his to comment on the portion sizes though. In general, this is a very family friendly restaurant. The only reason I didn't give service a 4 was because they accidentally charged me for the large sized TangSuYuk (and I only realized when I got home . That's an extra $18.99 tax tip!! I quickly called them to explain my situation, and they were apologetic, but happy to arrange a time to my convenience to reverse this though, so there isn't much to complain about that except that it was a small slip up. The server was probably slightly distraught over the loudness of the children anyway (my family consists of VERY outgoing children .<br/ <br/ Cost 2.5/5 (10% of final grade <br/ <br/ Not much can be really said about the cost it's a pretty standard Korean place for dinner in terms of pricing. SOME portions did err on the smaller side though. SOME. <br/ <br/ Other 3.5/5 (10% of final grade <br/ <br/ The general tolerance the staff had for the children in the family was very comforting, especially for large families like mine. It could be quite difficult to dine out when the servers are eyeing the children negatively, but it was great that this didn't happen here at all! One of the young lady servers was pushing a small cart of dishes when two of my little nieces rushed in front. She let out a nice smile and said Hi to the girls instead of kissing her teeth like most servers would. It wasn't only her though, as smiles were frequent from the staff!<br/ <br/ Final Grade 68/100 3.5 Stars!<br/ <br/ TLDR: Neat little restaurant. The traditional Korean seating where you sit on the ground was very cute! Try the Cold Noodles!