Siroo and Jukstory — Restaurant in Annandale

For as long as I can remember, I've been scarfing down bingsoo, and I typically went to Breeze or Shilla to satisfy my bingsoo cravings. Siroo outdoes Breeze and Shilla by a factor of about a thousand. After having dinner at Gom Ba Woo nearby, the BF and I drove over to Siroo to get some bingsoo.

Siroo is tucked away on Markham Street, past the AMF Annandale Lanes. It's in a little plaza I've never seen before, next to Pho Hai Duong. When you enter, there's a refrigerated section to your left that holds all kinds of Korean goodness like buckets of kimchi, seafood pancakes, meatballs, and other banchan. There's also a section for many varieties of rice cakes and other desserts. They also serve various types of porridge, everything from tuna vegetable to bulgogi octopus. If you're hungry for more than just bingsoo, they also have juk (porridge) in chicken, bulgogi, crab meat, abalone, and more. Finally, they also sell cupcakes and macarons.

Of course, their specialty is bingsoo, aka wicked snow here. Flavors include chocolate, gold (red bean), mango, citron, berry berry, strawberry, and coffee. You can get either regular snow or green milk tea snow base. We ordered the green strawberry in a regular size to share. I love green tea anything, and the green milk tea snow base was really good. They do a good job of distributing all the ingredients evenly in the bowl, so you get a good spoonful of strawberries, snow, frosted flakes, and injuimi. I like how they inserted strawberries throughout the bowl rather than place them all around the outside, like other places tend to do.

Highly recommend Siroo if you're in the mood...

Abalone juk, bingsoo, and corndogs were good even though some online menu items were not actually sold, but I can understand that. However, what prompted me to leave a review was the overall attitudes that everyone working there had. We felt neglected, especially when they greeted else everyone who entered except us, who came in feeling a bit lost. I have no idea what it was about us particularly. They were just rude and impatient to my family while obviously more welcoming to Korean customers. As a first-timer, it was a bit confusing on where to pick up the made-to-order foods (as there are 3 different areas), where to leave our trays, etc. Asking the older lady at the window returned nasty faces and eye-rolls. The young girl at the register was impatient as well. It left me appalled after having to give extra smiles, thanks, and apologies for asking. I felt embarrassed to be unfamiliar with the works. They just expect everyone to know exactly what to do with self-service. I still recommend the place because it is unique compared to typical Korean menus, but if you also get this type of service, just ignore the attitudes and...

Loveeee the shaved ice! It’s finely shaved and mixed in with what tastes like condensed milk so it’s cold and creamy. The toppings are typically great (I tend to favor the fruit ones) and overall an extremely satisfying dessert! The mix ins are great too it typically comes with bits of mochi and Frosted Flakes. The mochi adds and nice chewiness while the Frosted Flakes gives it a good crunch. We’ve had the coconut paradise and strawberry so far and liked them quite a bit. The mango however - wasn’t the best, the mango was not fresh and kind of took away from the whole thing and we just ate around it.

Their actual food is ok however there’s definitely better Korean food in the area. We like the tteokbokki but it does just sit in a warming bin all day so the freshness may vary depending on when you go into the store. The mung bean pancake was ok but was a bit too oily and heavy for us, but could’ve been good if he had kimchi or something too offset that taste.

The tables are adorable and themed and half the space is a Korean grocery store which is also adorable. Overall I love this as a cold refreshing dessert place after...