Mary T.
Yelp
My rating is 4.5. I'm rounding up.
My manager seems to be in needy mode. Normally, on Fridays, a bunch of us go out for lunch. For a number of months, he has been unavailable on Fridays. So, we dropped asking him.
A couple of months ago, three of us did a pot luck at work. When we met him in a lunch room, he asked us three times where we went for lunch. We were at work. He insisted that we invite him to wherever we were going. Um, okay.
Anyway, he asked where we were going on Thursday. I have been so busy that I never thought about it. He invited himself and wanted Korean. Okay, cool. He mentioned one place in Mississauga. I did a search and it was permanently closed. That's why my friend and I tend to organize these lunches. We do research.
I have had Sikgaek flagged for eons. I suggested that we go. Yes!
I drove my intern and our manager over. I realize why we don't like having lunch with him. He has a weird control issue.
"Google maps says to go down the road that we were on," he mentioned, being a backseat driver while I drove us.
"I'm not using Google maps. We are taking a different route," I replied.
I got us safely to this restaurant. I backed into a spot practically in front of the restaurant. I took a photo of the storefront and my manager's head was in the shot. I have never said, "Get out of my shot!" to anyone. Perhaps I had grown tired of his backseat driving. He got out of it. I have his huge head in a photo that I can use to my advantage down the road, if need be... haha!
We got a quiet, intimate booth. Our server was nice. It's gorgeous inside. I love the teapots dangling from the ceiling. I also liked the cute menu artwork everywhere.
When I see ramen on the menu, I am sold. We decided to go family-style with our food options. We each chose an item and decided to split the bil.
I ordered the shrimp ramen with cheese. My former intern, who is a friend, told me to add cheese to my ramen. She told me to trust her. I did and do.
I also wanted to try the Korean fried chicken. We all decided to do half fried and half with yangnyum sauce.
My intern always likes an appetizer. We are similar in that we enjoy trying something new. He wanted a pancake. We looked and went with the veggie version, yachae jeon, which is a traditional pancake with onions, green onions, egg, and assorted veggies. I liked that we decided together and ditched consensus from our manager.
I saw on the wall a graphic of strawberry soju. I asked what it tasted like. She said it's kind of like vodka, but with "low alcohol." We found out that it has 13% alcohol. I wonder what a high amount of alcohol is to this woman! My manager panicked, as he can't handle alcohol. The rest of us were fine.
The strawberry soju was yummy. We had it in tiny shot glasses. I liked the strawberry flavour and it wasn't strong.
The food came out fast. Our shrimp cheese ramen came out first. It was so good. That spicy broth is amazing! The cheese is yummy with the ramen. I loved the full shrimp. It comes with the shell and head on, so there's a bit of effort required to eat it. It was perfectly cooked.
We got the yachae jeon pancake next. I did the honours of using the scissors to cut it into six wedges. Yummy! My manager does not like green onions. Give me green onions and onions with some crispy parts, and I am hooked. It was bland if you eat it alone. It came with this kicked-up sauce, which was great. My intern and I actually dipped the pancake into the ramen broth. So good!
We got a free dish. I appreciated that gesture. It was steamed egg with green onions on top. Yummy! I used to not love steamed egg. However, with the dipping sauce that we had and the soju, it was delicious!
The fried chicken came last. It was my first time having Korean fried chicken. It won't be the last. Both the fried and yangnyum chicken was juicy and crispy where it should be. The fried tends to be bland compared to the flavourful, saucy yangnyum. The latter had a bit of smoky flavour and a slight hint of spicy heat. We all liked it more, although the fried chicken is great with the spicy sauce that we got with our pancake. Everything is!
I originally wanted to try the hot pot. However, my manager didn't want all of us to dip into the same pot. Fair enough. I don't want what he may have, either. I will need to come here without him to give the hot pot a try.
I also felt like I needed my own bowl of cheese ramen with shrimp. I felt incomplete and wanted more of that yummy goodness.
The reason for an almost perfect rating? It's pricy. We ordered three dishes and a small bottle of soju. Our bill came up to $83 after taxes. To me, I'm down paying more for delicious food. I just felt bad for my intern to shell out that much. Luckily, he is happy to experience new food and he didn't mind paying a bit more for this experience.
We had no problem finding a parking spot at noon on a Friday. Delicious!
(430)