I have to say that Korean food is awesome, especially the ones from these top-notch Korean restaurants in town!
From pork bone soup and bibimbap to delicious Korean-style hot dogs (gamja) and Korean fried chicken, there’s definitely something for everyone to enjoy. We also have a Yummy Korean BBQ Restaurant review here along with photos if you are looking for some good Korean food.
I have a confession to make though.
Korean BBQ isn’t one of my top go-to places when it comes to eating out. Despite how amazing it tastes, I’m not particularly a die-hard fan of eating too much red meat.
I just generally prefer Japanese restaurants or AYCE sushi places over Korean BBQ on my “cheat days” because it feels like there are more options than just cooking red meat on the grill. Why restrict it to red meat only when you can have the option of fish or lean meat included? 🙂
Plus, I’m a lazy person so I’m not really up for doing the work or cooking my food at the restaurant. I just like to eat. Lol!
However, my husband, and our friend who joined us, love consuming red meat from the grill, so we all agreed to stop by Daldongnae (the Scarborough location). They also enjoy grilling the food on the spot because you get to cook the meat to your own liking.
Daldongnae Korean BBQ Menu
Before we give you our review, here’s a quick look at one of their menus. This will give you an idea of what you can order there.
Daldongnae Korean BBQ Restaurant Review
Given we were satisfied with their food and service in the North York location, it was a no-brainer to go back to the same chain. They have 8 different locations in GTA and 1 in Montreal.
Despite my lack of interest in red meat, I have to admit the food was pretty awesome. Yes, I still eat red meat in moderation because it is a good source of natural iron.
This place serves delicious Korean BBQ, side appetizers, and other dishes from the kitchen.
As you can see from the image above, the meat at the front is the pork shoulder. In the middle, we have the beef short rib. And lastly, the meat behind the mushrooms is the beef rib eye.
Here is a list of things we ordered and our honest review about them. We ordered three different types of meat, and I have to say that I couldn’t tell what exactly I was eating because the meat all taste somewhat similar.
1. Complimentary Vegetable Side (Banchan) Dishes
There were a lot of small side dishes to share, and they were all pretty good. I can’t really comment on what everything was, but I enjoyed the kimchi, seaweed, Korean soy beansprouts (Kongnamool), and the apple potato salad the most.
The kimchi was fresh and had the right amount of spiciness to it. I love seaweed because it gives you a nice dose of iodine. I’m generally not a big fan of beansprouts, but there’s an exception when it comes to the Korean-style beansprouts. I could pick on those all day!
Lastly, the potato apple salad was creamy and had a hint of sweetness to it due to the sauce and chopped apples.
When you finish your side dishes, you can always ask for unlimited refills without paying extra. I believe we asked for 3-4 rounds of refills.
2. Pork shoulder butt ($18.99)
The pork shoulder butt was a good choice of meat if you don’t want to consume only beef. It was well-marinated, juicy, and had a good amount of fat to it. I don’t eat a lot of pork, but when I do, I make sure it’s different and from a quality cut like this one.
The pork shoulder tastes delightful when you wrap them with fresh lettuce. What I like to do is to put kimchi, beansprouts, mushrooms, and other side dishes inside my wrap so it doesn’t feel like I’m just eating meat by itself.
On top of that, they included an unlimited refill of eggs along with corn and melted cheese for you to enjoy with your lettuce wraps. The best part is, it doesn’t cost extra!
It gives your wrap a nice variety, and I like to balance my meals with a variety of different foods!
3. Boneless beef short rib ($28.99)
The beef short rib was my husband’s favourite out of all the meat we ordered. I thought it was too chewy for me, but he loved how it tasted. The beef was well-marinated and had a good amount of fat to it. Luckily, it’s not as fatty as the pork belly, which we didn’t order.
Again, this tastes amazing when you wrap it with your lettuce and throw other side dishes inside.
To add more flavor and get the most out of this meal, don’t forget to add the melted cheese on corn in addition to the grilled eggs!
Simply dip all your wraps in the 3 types of sauce they provide, and you’re good to go!
The beef short rib is one of the pricier items on the menu, but it’s definitely worth it if you’re a fan of this type of meat. This was worth the splurge for us because we don’t go to Korean BBQ as often.
4. Beef rib eye roll ($22.99)
I liked the beef rib eye roll the best out of all the meat. It was well-seasoned, not excessively fatty (though there is obviously fat there of course), and had a good amount of meat to it. This was one of my favourite meat to wrap with all the other side dishes because it went so well together!
I have to admit there were times when I didn’t even know what I was eating because all the meat somewhat tasted the same to me. But overall, I thought the quality of the meat was really good. I would definitely come back and order these again whenever I’m feeling for some Korean BBQ!
5. Assorted mushroom ($6.99)
I love mushrooms and I add them to almost everything I can think of – burgers, sandwiches, salads, rice, noodles, and wraps!
However, I’m going to be brutally honest here. The mushroom was very little in quantity and they weren’t even washed. One thing that disappointed us was the dirt that still remained on the mushrooms. We had to clear out the dirt and it was pretty annoying. It makes you wonder, are they are even feeding you clean vegetables?
We had no problem with the free lettuce refill. They all looked plump and freshly washed, so that was good.
Needless to say, after cleaning the mushroom ourselves, we tossed them into the grill and enjoyed them with our wraps.
6. Kimchi fried rice ($14.99)
We decided to order kimchi fried rice as a filler because we weren’t entirely full. Our stomach was still calling for more food, but we didn’t want to order any more meat. I think that’s enough meat intake for the day.
The kimchi fried rice was a little too saucy, which is kind of expected, but it was still very tasty.
And you will probably get dehydrated from this plus the BBQ meats without having at least 2 glasses of water, so be sure to drink up!
Their fried rice came with some pork, kimchi (obviously), a fried egg, and red or white onions topped with green onions.
One thing we didn’t like was the excessive amount of onions they put in. We enjoy the green onion topping but we’re not a fan of white or red onions, so we had to pick them all out. It’s okay to have a bit, but every bite we took had diced onion in it which was really overwhelming.
Other than that, the kimchi fried rice was really flavourful and good! It was a little too saucy for our liking, but it hit the spot nonetheless.
Food: 4.2/5
It’s definitely better than your typical AYCE Korean BBQ Grillhouse because you get to try different cuts of meat.
You can also tell that the quality of their meat is better. What we love is the variety of their vegetable side dishes (banchan), which are all complimentary and refillable. They also elevate the flavour of your food when you pair them with the meat in your lettuce wraps!
The only downside is that their dipping sauce and kimchi fried rice were on the more savoury side with lots of sodium, but I guess that’s to be expected with most Korean BBQ places, or any place for that matter.
Service: 3.3/5
The service was a little below average. It was nothing special, but it wasn’t terrible either.
The waitress was attentive and came by often to refill our drinks and take away our empty plates. However, we did have to ask her for refills on our banchan (side dishes) many times because she didn’t bring them out as often as we would’ve liked.
It was also annoying that we had to wait for a long time for them to serve us more lettuce. We didn’t know what the hold-up was, but it looks like they forgot a few times.
In terms of service, they could improve with speed and efficiency.
Ambiance: 4/5
The ambiance was small but cozy. It wasn’t very spacious, so it didn’t feel like there was a lot of room. At least that’s how I felt at the Scarborough location.
When we were at the North York location, we enjoyed the patio seating. The table we had there was pretty big and it felt roomier. The place was a little dim which is cool if you’re trying to get a romantic vibe going, but it wasn’t too dark that we couldn’t see our food.
We would say Daldongnae is a sociable, industrial-like, and modern environment to dine in.
The only thing we didn’t like was the fact that it was quite loud in there. We could hear people talking and laughing from other tables, which was a little distracting.
Price: $$
We ordered 3 different cuts of meat, 1 mushroom dish, and a kimchi fried rice to share. In total, our bill came out to be $105.03 after tax but before tips. With tips, the meal was $123.93 split between 3 people. That’s roughly $41 per person, which is pretty standard nowadays for dinner.
We think the price is fair because of the quality along with the unlimited refill of delicious side dishes that came with it.
Would we come here again?
Yes, only when we’re feeling for Korean BBQ, we would! We’d prefer this over AYCE Korean BBQ any day! We rather pay more for the meat and have the option to get more banchan dishes.
Daldongnae Korean BBQ Restaruant Rating: 4.2/5
We give this restaurant 4.2 out of 5 stars because of its quality and delicious side dishes.
Daldongnae is a great Korean BBQ restaurant if you’re looking for quality over quantity. They have a variety of meats and vegetable side dishes (banchan) to choose from. The service could be improved, but the food is definitely worth it! The price is on the higher end, but it’s worth it for a nice dinner out. We would recommend this place to anyone looking for a good Korean BBQ meal!
We didn’t grab dessert here because we decided to stop by Kitaya for their heavenly and irresistible soft-served roasted green ice cream – this was literally one of the best Japanese ice creams in town and we highly recommend giving them a try too.
Have you been to Daldongnae before? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below!
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