OH K-Dog Merritt Island — Restaurant in Merritt Island

Oh! K-Dog & Egg Toast 875 N. Courtenay Pkwy., Merritt Island, FL 32953

3 Stars (Chain restaurant review)

With 30 locations spanning the country from New York to Oklahoma and more stores on the horizon, it looks like this chain wants to be here for the long haul. Immigrating from Korea where Korean Rice Hot Dogs have become one of the most popular street foods the peninsula has ever seen, they hit the shores of America with a splash. Oh! K-Dogs are unlike your typical hot dog. In some cases, it just refers to a hot dog shape item, deep-fried on a stick. Do they have State Fairs in Korea? Regardless of the interior, the one trick pony here is the rice coating.

I am in a real conundrum. For the first time in eight years of doing this, I found food I can't recommend but can't say don't go either. This restaurant is a gimmick—not in the sense of a gadget but in the sense of using a novel idea to attract customers. As with all gimmicks of this nature, it's really a one-trick pony. Even with their unconventional take on the frankfurter, it's still your basic hot dog.

Veronica was my counter help today and she was friendly, knowledgeable (I had a lot of questions) and professional; however, as this was lunchtime and it was a ghost town, it was difficult to get a real feel for how she operates. I understand this is a new location, so once word spreads, that might change, otherwise, I don't think being empty over lunch bodes well for them.

I asked Veronica for a #2 (sweet chili sauce, mustard cheese sauce, ketchup and Parmesan), #4 (traditional ketchup and yellow mustard), #9 (potato), and two orders of their egg toast. C. (bacon, cheese and egg) and D. (teriyaki egg toast).

The #2 dog hit the palate on the sweet spot. I chalked it up to the sweet chili sauce and concentrated on other aspects. The ingredients seemed fresh, though it was hard to tell with everything being deep-fried. I'm not complaining, just making an observation.

After one bite of #4, I knew it wasn't the sweet chili sauce that was so sweet, it was the hot dog. I've never had a sweet hot dog before, sweet sausage, yes. Hot dog, no. It must be a Korean thing. It wasn't good, it wasn't bad. It was OK (pun intended).

Moving on to dog #9, I ordered this because I thought it was the most interesting item on the menu. I wasn't disappointed. It was interesting, albeit disgusting. The outside rice coating had home fries (cubed potato chunks) attached before deep frying. Overall, this was not a good combo.

Moving on to the egg toast. C would have been much better with higher-quality ingredients. The bacon was more fat than meat and I prefer mine on the crispy side as opposed to raw. I liked the bread, it was thick and toasted properly. It was the interior that I found to be average. The same can be said for the teriyaki egg toast in D.

The Big Boy says, “A gimmick is just that a gimmick. This is fun, unique and an exciting take on the deep-fried wiener. However, the food is par...

🌸Food, Atmosphere, Service - All 5-Stars!🌸

Imagine my surprise at seeing a Korean hotdog, mochi-doughnut, bubble tea restaurant in the middle of Merritt Island! And that surprise only continued to grow as I stepped inside, saw how cute, clean, and inviting the interior was, and then proceeded to order my meal on the self-serve kiosk with ease.

The interior is a chic-trendy black-and-white palette, which makes the colorful rows of mochi-doughnuts, digital menus, and video feeds on the walls pop out from the backdrop. Service is friendly and fast, and the food tastes fantastic!

My matcha mochi-doughnut was sprinkled with dark chocolate powder and easily tore apart into smaller, bite-sized "holes." It was the perfect balance of umami and sweet, with a firm, pastry-like mouthful to each bite. The jasmine milk tea with peach popping pears gave a perfumed, exotic nuance to the taste buds. The hotdogs are MASSIVE! Very filling, full of flavor, and with many options to choose (mozzarella and sweet potato rolled in sugar is a surprisingly good combination!).

On the technical side, the interior contains bathrooms for patrons' use, and everything is clean and sanitary.

Don't miss OH K-Dog. I'll happily be returning for...

It’s a neat place and great for pictures but that is not why you go there.

For reference I went a couple weeks ago with my girlfriend and this is not the first oh-k dog we have been to. We ordered two potato dogs a sandwich and two donuts.

Let’s start with the dogs. They were disappointing. The amount of batter that was put on them made the actual filling almost non existent. The person handing out the dogs was also very annoyed that I asked to have the sugar put on it. (Which is the point of a Korean corn dog) Only to have him not coat the whole corn dog. Very disappointing.

I am not sure what they did to the sandwich but it was not the oh-k dog sandwich I remember and was so excited to get again. The bacon was gummy and the sauce was odd. Can’t really explain how or why but just odd.

Finally the donuts were stale. And kinda bland.

All in all once you get past the uniqueness of the spot (as there is nothing like this near MI) you will realize that it isn’t that...