Alirang Korean Restaurant (Merivale) — Restaurant in Ottawa

We went to the Merivale location, it was maybe my 2nd time having Korean ever, went for dinner at 6:00PM on a Thursday evening, was surprised at how busy it already was, but I was a little underwhelmed by the experience.

Starting upon arrival, my dining companion has severe mobility disabilities; was a little disappointed that there doesn't seem to be any Disabled parking at all. Restaurant is itself well laid out, bright and airy, very comfortable overall. Was not greeted that warmly, and I thought it was just us, but watched them treat other prospective diners with same indifferent attitude as we were finishing dinner. They wisely left, even though we offered them our table.

We were served tea in a plastic mini beer pitcher, it was tepid at best and so weak I couldn't tell what kind of tea it was. That it had the colour of a certain body fluid in clear plastic probably didn't help matters.

Most menu items are dinner entree's, and not shareable dishes like Chinese or other Asian restaurants, We ordered Korean Dumplings as an appetizer that came straight from the Costco frozen aisle that were deep fried and tough. Initially thought the price-per-dish a little high, but it was a nice touch to get the cold side dishes (Kimchi, sweetened potatoes and some seasoned noodles), none of which I really cared for.

The entrees came within 5min of the Appetizers being served, which was a little annoying, but the Jaeyukbokum, a spicy Pork \ Vegetable Stir Fry, and Bulgogi, a milder/sweeter beef version. Both meat servings were generous, I didn't even finish mine, but had to ask for extra rice, which was an additional $2.00, again, annoying.

But what left me underwhelmed was the overall Service, which was not exactly warm or friendly to begin with and devolved into inattentive and/or indifferent from there. By the time I did get my additional rice order in, the rest of my dish was cold. Had to then ask for a take-out container, both took way too too long.

That being said, as much as the principle dishes were good, and in the end prices reasonable, I am not...

We've been exploring more Korean cuisine and decided to try Alirang due to how highly reviewed it is. We were not at all disappointed! I don't think we can look up what we had while writing a review for the proper Korean names, but it was all excellent. We shared the appetizer seafood pancake, which was wonderful. The shrimp were not at all over cooked, and the green onions were still very crisp. Surprisingly, for me, at least, the star of the bulgogi bibimbap was the mushrooms. With the bibimbap, they also give you traditional condiments / garnishes. It was the best (probably freshest) kimchi we've ever had, and we were pleasantly surprised by some sort of sesame bean sprout that were not at all oily. We also had a "spicy" (mild, despite the 2 chili peppers in the menu) pork and vegetable stirfry that was very nice--probably my husband's favourite dish--although it might have been the most familiar to him.

Service was polite and knowledgeable, but also fairly hands off, which was nice. The decor was very basic. Things were fairly clean and uncluttered, but atmosphere was definitely mid.

The only things I want to flag are the parking situation and the lack of accessibility, neither of which could be helped given their location. The parking lot is tight, even in back. Going to the rather small washroom involves a flight of stairs. Neither of these things were a problem for us, but they are things to be aware of.

Oh, also--I think we had an over-steeped batch of tea or something. It tasted like warm straw-wrappers.

Sorry about the pictures, we started eating before I remembered to take some--a testament to how...

Haven't been back to Alirang in a while and it seems to have gone downhill. We got the seafood pancake, tangsuyuk, galbitang, pork kimchi jjigae, bulgogi and ojingeo bokum/spicy squid.

galbitang was very beefy with a good amount of tender beef ribs. ojingeo bokum had a good amount of heat and the squid was cooked perfectly. Seafood pancake was greasy but not crispy and the flour wasn't mixed evenly with pockets of doughy flour. Bulgogi was standard. Tangsuyuk was freshly fried but the crisp didn't hold up to the end of the meal and the sauce was a ginger forward and leaned more Chinese than Korean Pork kimchi jjigae - lacked a depth of flavour, maybe the anchovy stock base?, and had tomato flavour in it which wasn't terrible but definitely not expected.

Also, I didn't realize the restaurant is run by Chinese folks now. Not sure if it always has been but that to me explains why some of the dishes seemed to have some familiar chinese flavours.

Service was quite slow and we had to actually try to flag down our server. Washrooms are quite dirty and the odour made its way into the...