Ganadara Korean Restaurant (Verdun) — Restaurant in Montreal

Writing this review is difficult because of how pleased I was with Ganadara in the past - going in I had high expectations. Unfortunately, the experience wasn't the greatest tonight, but there are simple fixes I believe to the issues I'm going to present.

Hygiene: My partner and I were seated at the bar on Wednesday night. The restaurant decided to go with an open kitchen concept, so at the bar you can easily observe your food being cooked and prepared! In theory, it makes for an engaging dine-in. In practice, if proper hygiene isn't implemented, the food loses its appeal. It was hard for us to see the cook handle raw meat with his gloved hands, then cooked food, and then plating, while only wiping his hands in-between with a rag he carried. The rag was visibly soiled, with stains of blood. Further, it was also hard to see this same rag placed right beside the cooked meat on the cutting board, as he was cutting some of the food. We can easily see other ingredients being handled directly with the other platers'/cooks' hands, as they are reaching into the containers. A simple solution? Have one person handle the raw food; place tongs/utensils into the food containers; wash your hands in between handling food.

Safety: While seated at the bar, there is a long, thick cable passing underneath it, dangling beside our feet. It's quite easy to stand, have your feet on one side of the cable, and then trip. It's just not safe for a cable like that to be dangling so close to people's feet. A simple solution? Tape the wire/cable down! Conceal it somehow, place it higher so it is NOT at foot level.

3.Service: Getting seated took an unnecessary amount of time, as it seemed the 2 customers who were in the process of paying their bill were concealing the waiter's/hostess' view of us? I'm not sure. There was one waiter, and about a cluster of workers figuring out how to plate the food, where orders went, etc. I haven't worked in a restaurant, so I'm not sure if this is common procedure, but it seemed a bit inefficient to me. We were seated with water but no cups or utensils, no indication of how to use the menu (although we understood it was through QR), we felt bad for the single waiter. A simple solution? Have another waiter(ess); Have tables set up with cups and utensils after cleaning up right away.

I felt really bad giving 1 star because of how much potential Ganadara has, so I gave it 2 stars. I think even just spending an extra week to prepare employees, offer some basic hygiene training, get organized, or whatnot, would've been very helpful! So far, I'm a bit disappointed. It all seems a bit disorganized and unsanitary. If my partner and I are able to notice it so easily, I worry about what might happen if someone from the food industry comes along one night and dines in at the bar. All I can do is write a review (which I have never done ever, but really felt compelled to this time..), I'm sure they'd be able to file a complaint which can lead to far more severe repercussions. I don't know how it all really works though. Anyways, I would love to give it another chance...

Got home and my wife was like "I just wasthed that sweather, why does it smell burned". And that is how I will start this experience, at the end. I have been going to Ganadara since it opened way back when on Mackay! When it WAS awesome. After tonight, i am NEVER going back. Tonight I ordered the bulgolgi raymun. My friend ordered the "poutine", 10 minutes after ordering there was SO much smoke in the place my eyes were watering. THis lasted for a while, then my food came... I look down to see burnt peices of beef in my raymun. I advise the waitress who looks in shock and apologizes and takes my plate. I wait another 15 min and they bring me a "new" bowl. Turns out its the same bowl they just pulled out the pices of burned beef. THe only problem is the broth was quite flavourless, with the exception of tasting burnt! There were still chuncks of burnt meet at the bottom, i could not finish it. While eating they burned something else cause it got smokey again. Which leads me to my introductory comment, getting home and my wife remarking that my clothes smelled burt. Best part was being handed the machine to pay, and seeing that there minimum tip button was 18%. THIS is a whole other rant not specific to this restaurant. Needless to say, tonights food and service was not worth 18% tip (we never saw the waitress again after her brining back the bowl of burned...

Honestly, I love Ganadara but this wasn’t it at ALL. I was there with my friend because we both adore this place so much and was excited to eat there ! It was our first time going back to Ganadara in 3 years since they closed their first restaurant !! They really need to work on bringing the old menu back and work on their current food they are serving us. I had to make a second order of everything that I got from starters to main courses because it was tasteless and full of oil . My friend order too has to be remade because they was a piece of hair in her order. I’m not saying that to bash the franchise because I LOVED and still love that place , hope you will see this as constructive criticism! I will be back in a few months since I know it’s just opened recently and gave it another try !

PS: don’t sit next to the wall it’s very very cold there’s a kind of breeze coming out the wall and despite having to re-order my food , they will still force you to leave after 2hours even tho we can clearly see all the empty seats around.

Not sure who is managing this Ganadara but hope you guys will take all our comments in consideration and make some changes . Even if you have to close again for a couple of months , I highly suggest you guys to do so and be...