HoGa Oriental Cuisine — Restaurant in Toronto

Absolutely surprised by all of these positive reviews. I work around the area and heard all the buzz with how cheap it is so I figured it would be time to check out the place. The lines always seem very long and move very slowly, when you make your way to the front you can see that it's a husband/wife Korean store who are pretty old so I thought it was actually cute that they run this store together.

Then you have the husband just yelling at you, talking with a mask on so you can barely hear him, asking you in a very rude tone "what you want". I ask for the chicken teriyaki, doesn't even look at me and says "sold out".

I order something else, ask for utensils after he hands me my order and he proceeds to throw the chopsticks under the cashier (ON HIS SIDE OF THE COUNTER), then he walks away. ??? I lean over the counter just to pick up the chopsticks that he tossed under the cashier and just walked away thinking what this guys problem is.

By the way, he gets irritated if you ask for napkins or a bag. Keep in mind it's a hot takeout box that you can't even hold without your hands burning.

Before anyone says "that's just a bad experience", I went an additional 4 times on different days during lunch hours and got the same poor experience every time just so I can give the guy a chance. He also doesn't even help his wife and just watches her on his down time, what is wrong with this guy? Why can't they hire some staff to help them out? Is it because no one wants to work with him?

It's free to be nice, the argument should not be "the food is cheap so they can treat you like...

I passed by around 11:40, knowing that there will be a huge lunch rush coming up. There were already 5 or 6 people queued up, but that's alright it's better than 20.

But service is pretty fast: there are usually 2 or 3 people filling orders. So even a long line dwindles down pretty fast.

When I left 3 minutes later, there was another 15 people lining up.

A sign at the front says "cash-only", so be wary.

Menu

Menu comes with an assortment of dishes including teriyaki, katsu, donburi, chicken curry, bibimbap, udon noodle soup, along with some appetizers.

Most of these options include two sides of your choice, such as sweet potato noodles, kimchi, bean sprouts, green broccoli and some other options.

Everything on the menu is under $7. The most expensive items go for $6.99, but they average $6, and there are a couple items going for $5.10, such as a box of teriyaki chicken.

Food

Asked for the chicken teriyaki, with noodles and kimchi on the side. Comes with white rice. It didn't look like much in the take-out box, but after plating it, it's a pretty good portion.

The chicken had a particularly interesting flavor. I don't know if it was just the sauce they used, or the way they prepared it, but it had the distinct chicken flavor that you would get when you boil chicken as opposed to grilling or frying.

Basically the chicken tasted like chicken. The sides were fillers for the most part. They really pack it in though.

It's a good place if you're on a budget and don't like to bring in...

I have been going to this place for 15+ years. Great food and great prices. I am disappointed by the continued reduction in portion sizes while the prices rise, but it still remains a decent deal. My issue is when I tried to pay via Interac tap today, the gentleman behind the counter held on to the machine and kept pulling it back towards himself every time I tried to tap my card. He insisted that my card only needs to get close to the terminal, but it was not working. Consequently, he told me I had to use another card, but I had to argue and insist that he at least allow me to try to tap the card on the machine (after all, it is referred to as Interac "tap"). He reluctantly allowed me to do so and, lo and behold, it worked!!! This back and forth took some time, and when payment finally went through as I knew it would (after tapping my card) the gentleman didn't apologize and, in fact, remained quite combative telling me that that's not the way it should work. This was a frustrating experience and makes me very reluctant to...