I found my experience with this restaurant to be much less satisfying than I was expecting, given the stellar reviews that I had read beforehand. Perhaps I should have paid more attention to the 2-star and 3-stars because their experiences were more in-line with my own.
I made a reservation a day in advance, as some had mentioned it gets really busy.
And indeed, it was really busy. We walked in and noticed about a dozen people sitting in the waiting area. Fortunately we had reservations so that was not an issue. I then noticed that there were many empty tables, which was a bit confusing until a friend pointed out that they were all reserved. So...if you can get reservations in, do it.
The restaurant looks nice and clean. They occupy two units, so there are two entrances up front leading to two different areas, but then you realize they're both connected in between. There are decorations here and there, with nice black walls between tables. There are several booth rooms for medium-sized groups (4-6) that are pretty nice. Each table comes with a bell that actually works unlike some places. Washrooms were no good though, compared to the dining area.
Their menu comes with some usual korean dishes like stews and bibimbap and stuff.
They have a nice collection of drinks to choose from.
Flipping over towards the end, you'll see their table BBQ section. The way it works here is you must order at least two orders per table. Most of the items count as one order, so you're going to have to get two. In terms of cheese BBQ, they have spicy chicken and cheese, squid and cheese, as well as a seafood and cheese (which comes with a bunch of different seafoods). You're basically looking at $40 per set, which is good for I'd say two people.
They also have meat BBQ. Again, minimum two orders. You get some plain pork belly or beef rib options, and some marinated pork/beef options. When we asked about how much meat we'll actually get, the waiter specified that it will be around 225 g. Now, if you think about it, that's half a pound of meat for $18 to $25. This better be some amazing meat if they're charging like $50 a pound (to put this into perspective, you could get good southern BBQ for around $20-$30 a pound, and decent AYCE korean BBQ for $20-$25)
We decided to order two orders of spicy chicken and cheese, and two orders of marinated meats (won in votes compared to seafood and cheese). When the food came, a lot of stuff was put on the table: two cups of lettuce, 5 side-dishes, a bowl of onions, vinegar and sauces, a bowl of steamed egg, a second portable stove, and two platters of meat. Basically, the whole table was filled. While it does look impressive, there isn't actually that much in terms of food. And because there was just so much stuff on the table, you'd have to figure out how to work with it.
The side-dishes came with a few pieces each. This means you're probably going to need to get a lot of re-fills if you really like it, but they don't really have too many waiters available and getting ahold of them even with the bell can be difficult.
There wasn't much meat. Well, it's 225g, so that's kind of to be expected, but the quality wasn't even that great. They were all pretty thin and didn't taste or feel that great either. Then again, I was in charge of the grill and I have basically no grilling experience, so perhaps it was my fault that the ingredients weren't used well. I don't know.
The spicy chicken and cheese is probably their specialty since it's on their store front, but I didn't find it to be anything special. They add a lot of things to it that aren't chicken, and then they mix it up in the spicy sauce so that everything looks orange. But there was probably a dozen pieces of chicken or so. Split that between a group and everyone gets...not much. It's all the extra stuff like vegetables or rice cakes that they add that makes it look like there's a lot going on in the pictures. The cheese was ok, but it goes out pretty quick.
In hindsight, given that we knew how much meat we were going to get, probably should've went with the seafood and cheese platter. Any AYCE KBBQ would be better. You'd probably have a better experience going to korean grill house of all places if you want to grill some meat.
I'm not sure why some of the reviews are so high. Is it because it's an "authentic" experience? Seems pretty normal for a korean BBQ restaurant in Toronto. Is it because it's "traditional"? Well, they do serve lettuce and side-dishes and you can actually grill your own food, but there's plenty of places like that here. Perhaps the set up of the cheese grill is quite unique, but I would only give them points for presentation in that regard. But they do have other, non BBQ items so maybe those are better?
I do like that they accept credit cards and are willing to split bills. read more