Review: Seoul Garden

The interior of Seoul Garden. Click to enlarge.

Although part of the reason we go to restaurants is to let other people to cook for us, sometimes it's pretty fun if you get to do the cooking yourself (to further confirm how your food is prepared...in a way). My parents and I decided to eat lunch at Seoul Garden, a Korean BBQ restaurant at Pacific Mall. It's very hard to miss where this restaurant is as it is in the front, between Pacific Mall and Market Village. My brothers were unfortunately MIA for this food trip...so if you guys are reading this, this is what you guys missed out on!

Of course, the main selling point of Seoul Garden is its BBQ, probably the number 1 thing people think of when you say "Korean cuisine". There are other options if you do not feel like having Korean BBQ; their menu also had standard Korean dishes such a bibimbap and kimchi jjigae. In case you are wondering (or if this does matter to you), Seoul Garden is run by Koreans, so I guess you can say that this is an "authentic Korean BBQ experience". As I said before in my Toko review, I don't think this matters very much.

The interior of Seoul Garden is really nice, albeit it looked very...European. The ways you'd be able to tell that this was a Korean restaurant was through the copious amounts of Korean posters advertising Hite beer and soju, the grills themselves, and the fact that they were blasting KPop.

After we were seated, we already pretty much knew that we were all going for the all-you-can eat BBQ (which was around $10 for lunch). I did note that the servers did take a bit to come to our table and take our order, which was quite strange considering there wasn't that many people when we entered the restaurant. In addition to ordering the meat, we added a $3 plate of lettuce. "$3 for lettuce?", you may ask. "You must be crazy! What are you going to do with lettuce?!" You'll see in a bit.

The amazing amount of side dishes. Click to enlarge.

So about 5 minutes after we ordered, the servers brought out all of these side dishes! I haven't been here in a while, so I forgot that they do offer their patrons with all these delicious side dishes. It's pretty amazing since we paid around standard price for Korean BBQ lunch; other Korean BBQ restaurants do not give nearly as many side dishes. Another big difference between Seoul Garden and other Korean BBQ restaurants is that the side dishes are ACTUALLY delicious and taste fresh. It was certainly a great start to the meal. If you're wondering, the side dishes were: kimchi, seaweed, pickled radish, kimchi pancake, fermented beans, glass noodles, bean sprouts, spicy green onion salad, and sweet potatoes. They also refill the side dishes you want!

The two soups that were offered to us. Click to enlarge.

In addition to the side dishes, we were also offered two types of soup. One was a type of seafood congee that tasted pretty good, quite mild. The other was a meat, fatty broth soup which was okay, but I could've done without it.

Starting to BBQ. Click to enlarge.

After about 5 minutes after our side dishes arrived, the meat came in. From what I remember, Seoul Garden offers bulgogi (details here), kalbi (beef short ribs, my absolute favourite), chicken and spicy pork for their BBQ lunch menu. They also offered squid, but we passed on that. I loved this offering since whenever I think BBQ, I think of meat. You can probably order a dish with seafood in it off of their menu if you want some seafood. However, I'm an avid fan of not having seafood at all whenever I eat Korean BBQ.

Mmm...BBQ. Click to enlarge.

I did notice that Seoul Garden did change their grills from a charcoal to a infrared grill, which was quite disappointing. Not too sure why since I do not know anything regarding the difference of cost between charcoal and infrared. Maybe it's to allow more even distribution of heat among the meat? If you know, please comment!

More BBQ. Click to enlarge.

The meat was okay. I really liked the taste of their kalbi, however my parents and I did notice that they could've seasoned all of the meat a bit more. Everything except the kalbi was a bit bland. Quite the disappointment considering that the side dishes were really delicious. The spicy pork wasn't even spicy!

One of the ways to enjoy grilled Korean dishes. Click to enlarge.

Remember how I added on $3 extra for lettuce? Well, this is one of the ways to enjoy grilled Korean dishes. What you do is put the grilled meat on a fresh piece of lettuce, add a piece of raw garlic (it's better than you think), add ssamjang (details here), and add some rice (which I did after I snapped this picture). You then basically wrap it all together (basically making a lettuce wrap) and eat it! It's very delicious and I suggest that you try it whenever you have the chance. You can pretty much add whatever you'd like to this lettuce wrap, however I believe this is probably one of the most common ways of how this is done.

The service was quite fast and efficient after you got the attention of the servers. We did notice that the servers had absolutely no smiles on their face whatsoever and seemed a bit bored. They weren't mean to any of the patrons, but it would be nice if they smiled or at least looked like they somewhat enjoy being there.

So...here are the ratings for Seoul Garden (detailed ratings here and out of 5):

Flavour = 3

Value = 3.5

Atmosphere = 3.5

Uniqueness = Not applicable since there are numerous Korean BBQs in Toronto

OVERALL RANKING: 3.3 / 5

Being completely honest, the ratings could have been lower if it weren't for certain aspects. In terms of Flavour and Value, the real saving points of the meal were the numerous and very delicious side dishes that we got and they gave us a ton of lettuce. This score would've been much higher if I had started this food blog last summer because Seoul Garden actually had charcoal grills. They are most likely what the meat needed to add an extra dimension of flavour.

In terms of Atmosphere, the decor really sleek and very summer-y. The place is kept really clean and it feels like you're actually dining on a patio; a big plus if you wanted to enjoy that patio feeling during rainy weather. To improve in this category, the servers could definitely smile a bit more. Employee overall mood is another aspect of the meal that contributes to the patron experience. I guess restaurant employees tend to overlook this.

However, this would still be one of my go-to spots for Korean BBQ in Toronto (i.e. I still like the place). I've still found the food here much better than other places...and they do not charge you if you leave leftovers. 

Please note that on Urbanspoon, the menu pictures posted on there are out of date. It definitely was not $16 for lunch when my parents and I went there and the menu we saw was more specific (ex. they actually wrote "bulgogi" instead of beef).

Type of cuisine: Korean
Price range: ~$10 per person (for all-you-can eat BBQ lunch)
Atmosphere/Attire: Casual

Questions? Comments? Leave them below!