Bapbo Korean Restaurant — Restaurant in Toronto

I've been here 5 times so I feel like my review is justified.

It's pricey, the service is subpar, the food is not great, and the customer service from management is downright horrendous.

This place is a hit or miss. And by hit, I'm being very generous with my wording. 50% of the time you'll get watered down tteokbokki and flavourless japchae and the other 50% the food is subpar at best.

Due to dietary restrictions the items I can get are pretty limited. My friends and I usually order the cheese tteokbokki, kimchi fried rice, japchae, savoury pancakes, and appetizers (gimmari, veg dumplings, etc). Their menu is constantly changing and the price is increasing yet the quality of their food and service has plummeted.

The servers are always running around with their heads down. Once it took us 30 mins to finally place our order. And then another 30 mins after we finished our meal to get the bill. It is SO tough to flag down your server for water refills or additional inquiries.

Also the food is simply disappointing. We had one great experience with the tteokbokki, that we returned here another 4 times hoping to relive it. But we were sorely disappointed with each visit as the food got worse and worse. The tteokbokki is extremely watered down. They charge $3 for cheese. This used to include 2-3 slices of american cheese but is now the smallest serving of grated cheese that the server adds right in front of you.

The menus also need to have clear descriptions of what's included in the mains. We ordered the seafood jajangmyeon and it came with minced pork. This was NOT indicated on the menu whatsoever so we asked for the server to remove it from our table. She was extremely apologetic and kind to us but let us know that the manager refused to remove it from our bill.

This experience was definitely our last straw. My friends and I will not be...

Bappo 4/5

I got the pork bone stew, which came with banchan consisting of fish cake, bean sprouts and kimchi. The kimchi and bean sprouts were regular, but I enjoyed the fish cakes a lot. They were cold and seemed marinated, and I think the sweetness and coldness was refreshing while I was having the boiling pork bone stew. On that note, the pork bone stew was literally boiling at the table for a little when it just arrived. The liquid was mostly savoury, spicy, and very thin. I loved the savouriness of it, the level of heat was nice, but I didn't enjoy how thin it was because the consistency didn't really coat the rice as much as it soaked it. The meat on the pork bones were tender and flavoured well by the surrounding liquid. But the size of the bones were large, and I think this combined with the size of the serving vessels made the dish a little harder to eat than it needed to be. Although gnawing on the bone was a fun way to eat, which I don't think you get to experience too often when eating out. The purple rice was a nice touch. I find that purple rice tends to have a little more of a grain flavour than white rice does, providing more to the dish than just a plain accompanying starch. Also, this might be nitpicky, but that big piece of cabbage I found to be super difficult to eat. It was way too big, impossible to cut, and leaked broth if you tried to bite it. I ended up shoving it in my mouth at one time and while it was a super tasty bite, it was unwieldy and ridiculously hot. Service was really friendly, but slightly slow considering how busy the place was at the time. Prices are good I think from a customer standpoint, reasonable and not too expensive at $16 for everything seen in...

We went on a Monday afternoon just after 12 with a party of 3 and got the fried calamari, cheese corn, and vegetable bibimbap. The fried calamari $10 was very greasy, while the batter more than overwhelmed the thin rings of calamari. I think I got 6-8 calamari rings that came with sweet and sour sauce. The cheese corn was a very small and flat portion, definitely not worth $10, but it was delicious while hot, then not so much. The bibimbap was $15 and good portion that came in a hot stone bowl. I received 3 small plates of condiments to mix in with the bibimbap. I think they were spiced cucumber quarts, kimchi, and fish cake strips. There was a sauce, I forgot the name of it, that was supposed to be added to the dish to augment the flavour but it did nothing for me. The service was pretty good I would say. My friend requested that the egg on top of the bibimbap be more cooked, and they did that with no problem. The wooden bench was very hard to sit on. And also, you can’t move it closer to the table, either because it’s stuck to the ground, or maybe it was just too heavy for me, so after 10-15 minutes, it was getting uncomfortable to enjoy my meal. The place itself wasn’t too busy, or loud, so it was the perfect setting to talk with friends and hear each other talk. I forgot to take...