The Owl of Minerva — Restaurant in Markham

I had breakfast at The Owl of Minerva yesterday morning and ordered the KamJaTang (pork bone soup). This hearty dish, made with cabbage, potato, and Korean spicy pepper powder, was just what I needed since I wasn’t feeling my best. I requested it extra spicy, and it came with a side of rice. The warm, flavorful soup definitely hit the spot.

Since I arrived right at opening, the service was quick and seamless, and the quiet atmosphere made for a pleasant dining experience.

While the food and service were great, I’m unsure if I would recommend it due to the pricing. The KamJaTang cost $17 before taxes, which felt steep compared to similar dishes at other Korean restaurants. I remember coming here during my university days when the same dish was under $10. Although the price increase is understandable given inflation and rising costs, it still seems a bit high for what’s offered.

If you’re craving a comforting bowl of pork bone soup and don’t mind the higher price point, it’s worth a try. For me, while the experience was enjoyable, I’m still on the fence about whether it’s worth...

Honestly it is not even worth giving one star. Food is mild and old. I ordered pork bone soup since they had one page full of different types of pork bone soup. I thought they were proud of their food (or maybe they changed their chef?). The meat wasn’t soft at all it was hard to chew. The taste of the soup was mild it didn’t satisfied my expectation. I thought I could make better than that. I also ordered Tteokbbokki and the rice cake was old and was cracked. It was not at all spicy like we ordered.

The worst part was when we didn’t give the tip because the food didn’t satisfy our expectations, the boss chased us asking, “ hey, you didn’t tip us”. So What? We avoided fight by just saying sorry and left. We visited to get good food, but we didn’t. We just ate because we didn’t like wasting ingredients that were put in to make this food. It was the worst.

Remember this was the head store of The...

I like this place primarily for the KamJaTang (Pork Bone Soup). It's my go-to item everytime I visit this location. I've had pork bone soup from 3 Owl of Minerva locations and the overall flavour as well as meat texture is much better at this joint. ✔There are 6 varieties of KamJaTang : Original, Seafood, Vegetable, Beef Dumpling, RiceCake, Clear Noodle. ✔You can Customize your Spicy Level ✔Meat is Fall-Of-The-Bone ✔Rich and Flavourful Broth

🔹️Negative On a few occasions I've encountered the "Seat Nazi". You DO NOT EVER want to make eye contact with the "Seat Nazi". She follows her own rigirous seating protocol even if the place is empty. Do not attempt to sit in a 4 seater if you're a party of 2...her killer instincts kick in. As you're just about to pull the chair out, she'll fighter plane nose dive into the table and yell... "NO SEAT FOR YOU!"

She hasn't been there on my last few visits, so...