Daldongnae Korean BBQ (Scarborough) — Restaurant in Toronto

Communication and Customer Service needs to be better. We will NEVER go back again. We spent total of $300 plus additional 15% tips on our 2 bills. Even though service was bad, I still ensured to pay the staff.

Now let me explain what went wrong on Friday night.

1)We called in the afternoon to make a reservation and they told us to walk-in,; cannot reserve for party of 7 (5 adults, 2 kids).

2)We walked in and put ourselves on the waiting list. I spoke to a waiter and said we need a large table to be seated together. He said sure, just wait for our number.

3)We were called 30 mins later and they wanted to seat us on a 2 grill table with 1 bar stool on the end (walkway). We had 5 grown ups so there was no way we could squeeze in a table.

4)I saw that there were 2 long tables near the front where all of us could sit but they said it was reserved for 9 people??? So we ended up sitting in 2 separate tables (1 grill table each). After we ordered, they split up the long table for 2 groups of people (total of 6). Now, I don’t under why they didn’t give it to us initially.

**My biggest issue with them is they never communicated to us that we weren’t able to all sit together on a long table. They did not manage my expectations and had us wait 30 mins.

5)Beef portions (finger meat and short ribs) were definitely way smaller portion when we last visited. Side dishes were understood to be unlimited refills but you can tell they didn’t want to give us refills.

Was it worth $340 for a family dinner? Definitely not for the food and service we received.

*Update: You missed our dissatisfaction with our dining experience. We were okay with waiting longer since we already waited for 30 mins and we do understand how the restaurant cannot take “day of reservation”.

However:

1)You should be more transparent the next time when someone calls in with a large party (7 people). If you cannot seat us together, then simply tell us that it’s not feasible and we’re be more than happy to come back next time when we reserve ahead of time. This, you did not do and mislead us to think that seating arrangement was not an issue.

2)We spent $340 on a family dinner to celebrate our birthday and we were treated like we were sitting on the street and had to beg for refills. What kind of service is this?

If you think the above is acceptable then continue the way you operate...

You’ll need at least two people to get their table BBQ where diners mix-and-match an order of protein per person (i.e., a minimum of one item per person with at least two servings per table). There’s a nice selection of offerings, we opted for the boneless beef short rib ($29.99 for 7oz), chicken thigh ($21.99 for 7oz), and tiger shrimp ($11.99 for 5 pieces).

The hot plate was presented quickly upon ordering, already adorned with cheese corn, garlic slices, kimchi, and an egg mixture poured tableside. And a hot stone bowl of soybean stew followed, waking up the palette with its savoury mix of vegetables and tofu. It’s so hearty that I’d be satisfied with a large bowl of soup and steamed rice.

As the proteins are presented, the server swipes the surface of the plate with a piece of beef fat (what a great way to use every piece of the ingredient!). He tells us to start with the beef, then move onto the chicken so that there’s enough oil on the grill to prevent the later from sticking. We follow the instructions starting with tender strips of the short rib and then the chicken with the shrimp sprinkled throughout as they take a bit longer to cook.

Daldongnae leaves the ingredients neutral, only the chicken was lightly marinated. So, it’s an ideal place to dine with those who may have ingredient sensitivities or are watching their sugar and sodium intake. As a person who loves flavour, I relied heavily on the onion soy sauce, savoury bean paste, and even the sweet and spicy gochujang sauce in the banchan as condiments.

I recommend getting a start on the hot side dishes early: the kimchi isn’t the greatest once it dries out; the egg was best when it just starts to cook through, still fluffy and soft. Only the corn can stay on longer as the cheese develops a lovely crust.

And don’t worry, you’ll get plenty of vegetables from the banchan that accompanies the BBQ set – spicy cucumbers, marinated bean sprouts, an oddly sweet potato salad, spicy seaweed, and a savoury gelatin. Plus, there are lettuce leaves for creating saam wraps. The best part is that they offer unlimited refills of the side dishes, corn...

Disappointed with the latest experience as the first one at north York was great.

Please ask them for a list of their policies before you enter, there seems to be a lot. We were a group of four adults and 4 kids and they insisted we had to order 6 meats minimum. I can understand the requirement however this could have been communicated politely and after we have sat down not to leave a sour taste even before we saw the menu. We were allowed to order 5 which was a "generous" gesture I have to admit.

Problem started when we requested a second refill of the banchan. They said they wont give us any as there was no more raw meat on our tray. (We had meat cooking on the grill) Totally understand people abuse the Korean restaurant tradition of free flow banchan. But I feel had we been 2 people eating we would have had the same amount without any issues. So for 4 adults and the kids we could have some more. The refusal really made our experience pathetic.

Our server who was also probably the manager apologized and said he will learn from this when I mentioned this while paying the bill. I will probably not visit them again.

I do not want to harm their business given it is already difficult out there, just want to inform future visitors to discuss an appropriate amount of banchan before you start just to avoid...