I had lunch here today and overall the food was excellent, service was nice and ultra fast, but portions were tiny!
I've been meaning to check out Raon Kitchen for several years now, but it's in an industrial wasteland and a part of town that I'm not too often in. As luck would have it, I was about 3km away today running errands and so I decided to pop by. It was a bit after 1pm (on a Wednesday) so the lunch rush was over. I parked in one of the 2 parking spots out front that are reserved for Raon Kitchen customers (there's a big parking lot, with lots of businesses, but most spots seem to be reserved for certain businesses only. All unmarked spots were taken. The parking lot was pretty full). I went in and was immediately greeted. I ordered the Beef Bibimbap ($9.73) and paid. I had enough time to sit down and undo my coat and my food was pretty much ready!
The beef bibimbap consisted of purple rice, cabbage, carrots, spinach, julienned omelet, wood ear mushrooms, and bulgogi beef (it usually comes with kimchi, but I asked them to omit it). The food itself was delicious. I love wood ear mushrooms! I liked how the different flavours came together. The beef was tender and lean. I added a bit of hot sauce which gave it a little spicy kick. The only thing is that the portion was tiny. With taxes, I paid $10.99 (and that was just the bibimbap, no drink or anything else), and for an $11 lunch, I expected to not still be hungry afterwards. I'm 5'0" and 102 lbs. I was still really hungry afterwards! :(
The place is really small, industrial-looking, and more suited for takeout. I believe that they are the central kitchen for their other locations (a food cart on Bank St. and a restaurant on Laurier Ave. West). There are 2 tables, 1 that seats 2 and the other that seats 4, then there are 2 seats facing out the window (bar seating), which is where I sat, that's it for seating.
Staff were friendly and service was really quick.
This place would be great for a quick lunch if you work in the area and either have a really small appetite or don't mind shelling out $22 for lunch and get 2 orders :) read more