PIGGYS KOREAN BBQ

The Fiancé has raved about Piggy’s for the past year, it being his go to bro date venue. After a long Friday at work neither of us wanted to cook. So when he suggested dinner at Piggy’s, I had my jacket on and was out the door before actually replying yes.

Atmosphere: Pulling into the parking lot of the strip mall, Piggy’s was easy to find with its adorable blushing mascot. Each table is equipped with an inset grill and overhead venting system. The booths were comfortable and spaced out. It does get smokey and the smell of BBQ does soak into your clothing. We arrived pretty early, 6pm on a Friday night and the restaurant was just starting to fill up mostly with couples and families.

Service: After being seated by the hostess, we were given a few minutes with the menu before our server arrived. She was very friendly, always had a smile and was happy to answer our questions. Since we ordered a meal that is grilled on the table, service also includes the cooking and prep of the meal. Our side dishes arrived quickly and the server arranged the many dishes to fit comfortably on the table. Once the pork belly started cooking, there was a lag between when our server came to check up on us and the meat was crisping up very quickly. I would’ve loved a little more attention at this point or some clear directions.

Food: For all the BBQ meals, a minimum order of 2 is required. This makes it hard to try multiple items with only two people because the portion size is plenty. We ordered two orders of the Mook Eun Gi Oh Gyeop Sal, marinated pork belly with kimchi, along with a fried rice and a bowl of multigrain rice. Each order of rice comes with a small stone bowl of soybean soup. With the BBQ meal, lettuce wraps, marinated onions and spicy red sauce is served along with the usual side dishes of kimchi, mashed potatoes, pickled daikon, pickled cucumbers, salad and marinated bean sprouts. I really liked the spicy, marinated lettuce and the sesame seed dressing on the salad.

The Fiancé’s fried rice was also tasty and had lots of kimchi flavour. I had our serving of soy bean stew and really enjoyed it. You could clearly taste the soy beans in the broth and there were plentiful vegetables cooked in it. The slices of pork belly were good quality, thick cut and lightly seasoned. I loved how the kimchi was cooked at the bottom of the grill, letting them soak up the juices from the pork. Our server came back to flip the strips of meat and cut them into bite size pieces. Each piece was crispy and tasted great on it’s own or dipped in the red sauce and wrapped in lettuce. My favourite accompaniment was actually the marinated onions slices, which added a nice acidity to each bite.

Overall, the BBQ was tasty and great quality, I really enjoyed the variety and quantity of the side dishes and I can’t wait to come back with a bigger party to try more menu items.