Hongdae Korean Restaurant 홍대 밥상 — Restaurant in Richmond Hill

Yesterday, we went there after deciding to have a Korean food. We chose this place based on ABSOLUTELY GOOD REVIEWS.😍 But things didn’t turn out the way it should be.🥲 We went in with two of kids- 4,6 and a 4 months old baby. One of the male (tall with long hair) server was so unprofessional. Seems like he didn’t even know what he’s doing. We Not sure if he’s new to the job or he’s literally unprofessional to be one. He didn’t know how to handle the situation at all. There was 4 set of chairs on every tables. We have 4 members included a 4 months old in her car seat so there was 5 of us. We asked for a high chair or regular chair for my 4 year old boy, coz there was only 4 chairs at the table. He then asked us “ is my 4 year old boy gonna sit here (on another side of the table with no chair there) I said “yeah” but inside my head am thinking , where the hell he’s gonna sit then if not there. He suddenly replied “oh no, he can’t sit there it’s not safe” 🫠 ok we understand coz it’s a walk way coz the place is small so not too spacious. But ok whatever- you know that moment turn us off already. He seems not helpful at all. Coz He looked so clueless where we goons sit? Like come on…boy!!!! this is my very first time experiencing thing like this. I proceeded and asked him -pretending clueless like him 🫩 “so where can we sit? He INHALED A BIG BREATHE !!!!🥴 What does it mean by doing that? Are we not welcome here? Racism-maybe? We are CAMBODIAN, FYI. 🤫 At the end we just walked out. He then explaining us that he IS THINKING where we gonna sit.🥱 Then my husband said that’s ok coz it’s so disrespectful to us the way you treat us like we begging you for food. Come on!!! We drove all the way from Alliston to there just to try Korean food. And it’s such a disappointment and disgusting experience we met. We’ve been to other Korean food restaurants many times. But never been once treated like that. 💕

I just wanna say, We PAY to eat, we’re not going there and eat for free. NOT FOR FREE…OK.🙄 So that’s not how you treat customers. You as a food server should know where customers gonna sit, guide customers, show the customers professionally not waiting for customers to ask you where they should be sitting. Please love your work place as your own. I don’t blame or disappointed with the restaurant but with the server. If you’re not in the mood to work, please stay home. Don’t just come to work and ruin other...

As you can see by my photos, the pork bone soup is very misleading. The menu shows a garnished, full bowl with large pieces of meat but once the boil settles, you can see that it is a sad looking dish. The price is expensive ($19.99) for a dish that looks like that, especially compared to other 5 star rated competitors in the area that serve the same dishes. The only redeeming part about this soup is the broth is well seasoned and strong but there is nothing else in this bowl except 3 small pieces of pork neck bone and half a small potato. The pork meat should also be cooked longer, as it was not tender and it was hard to eat. Some feedback would be to make the dish look like the photos on the menu and not to be so stingy with the meat since the restaurant raised it’s price.

The steamed dumplings were good (4/5) and reasonably priced ($9.99).

The side dishes are also good (4/5) well made and fresh. The kimchi is only ok (2/5) which can be improved. To a foodie like myself, I have high expectations for kimchi especially for a 4.9 star rated korean restaurant.

The ambience is typical and comfortable.

My last gripe is that the menu is outdated. There are many things on it that have been crossed out, written over, and sticky noted. Many of the “updates” on the prices are only in korean, which is very confusing as well as misleading.

The service is good and the food came out quickly (under 10 minutes). I asked for a window seat, but was declined since I am a single customer which is fine. However, it is 5:30pm on a Friday and they are not able to seat more than a quarter of the tables. This is probably because there is nothing special about the restaurant. Don’t get me wrong- the food tastes good but for the price and annoyance of the thing listed above, there is nothing special that would make me excited enough to share this restaurant with friends that are also foodies like me.

To me, it is not worthy of the rating when there are competitors in the area that are cheaper priced and...

We were in the area and were looking for a Korean restaurant and found this place on google.

We went mid-day and there were still a decent amount of people seated. But our server greeted us warmly and seated us right away.

We were having trouble deciding what to order and asked our server for her recommendations and she was very helpful and helped us narrow down our choices.

They have somewhat of an extensive menu which I was sketical about as in the past I find usually korean restaurants with an extensive menu are not as great tasting as ones with smaller menus but have dishes that are perfected. But to our surprise the food that we ordered were delicious!

We ordered Jajangmyoen, Sweet and Sour Crispy Pork, Tteokbokki, and Spicy Beef Soup. All were super delicious!

Jajangmyoen - hit the spot and probably one of best if not the best ive had in the GTA.

Sweet and Sour Crispy Pork - was very balanced and tasty. We had the sauce mixed in and tne pork remained crispy till the end.

Tteokbokki - was nicely balanced as well, I find sometimes the sauce is either too runny or too thick. I found theirs in the middle which is what I prefer. The sauce was a little spicier than im used to, and their rice cakes were cut differently, thicker and rounder. But again, flavor, layered flavors, instead of just Spicy and rice cake as some Tteokbokkis can be.

The Spicy Beef Soup - was so nostalgic as it reminds me of my favourite Spicy Beef Soup that was served at a Korean Restaurant near my childhood house. They had unfortunately closed down and I have been on the hunt to find a close second. This has been the closest that I have tried. Very warm, comforting and flavourful. Tastes like it was home made with care and gave time to allow flavors to develope richness in the broth.

We will definately be back. Thank you for the great service, food and...