When it comes to Korean BBQ, my preference has shifted to appreciate quality over quantity. Back during my university days I loved AYCE spots, especially ones with a late night discounted menu. These days with a little more disposable income, I’m look for beautifully marbled beef and fresh seafood. Arisu’s tabletop cooking fits the bill with premium Angus Beef, a bevy of authentic Korean entrees and an expansive selection of sake and soju.

Disclaimer: All food and drinks reviewed below were provided complimentary. All opinions expressed below are wholly mine.

Organized by DKLo of DKLoEvents, the menu tasting at Arisu was an event. The restaurant’s hospitality shined through with the sheer volume of food pouring out of the kitchen. There was more food than anyone could possibly finish and everyone went home with lunch for the next day. At one point, the plan was for each table to order from a list of entrees to taste, if they were still hungry. The restaurant instead served up every entree on the list, to allow us to try it all.

For appetizers, we tried the Veggie and Seafood Salad, Seafood Pancake, Sweet and Spicy Korean Chicken and Twi Gim (Korean tempura). Between the four, my favourite was the seafood pancake, which was packed with shrimp, squid and big pieces of green onion. With so many fillings, the batter of the pancake itself did struggle to stay hold its form. I also enjoyed the salad and liked the addition of thinly sliced avocado and cucumber to the wakame.

We tried two BBQ set menus. The first was the Korean Classic, which came with short rib galbi in a light seasoning and marinated, bulgogi, boneless seasoned short rib, pork belly and a basket of fresh lettuce and shiso leaves. Each person also had a small tray with 3 different seasonings and sauces to try. From this platter, my favourite cuts were the pork belly and lightly seasoned short rib that was beautifully marbled and very flavourful.

The second BBQ set we had was the Aberdeen Black Angus with locally raised, grass fed, aged beef. 5 different cuts were included, tenderloin, rib eye, boneless rib, flat iron and petit tender. Every piece was buttery soft and had a clean beefy flavour. I barely touched any of my dipping sauces with this BBQ set.

After filling up on BBQ, we sampled 5 entrees from Arisu’s lunch and dinner menus, My favourite was the Ox Bone Rice Noodle with its savoury, rich broth that clung to each noodle. This was the dish I claimed to take home leftovers of. This was followed closely by the Sushi Lunch Box set’s cold soba noodles.

• Aburi Oshi Sushi and grilled Black Cod marinated in miso – Served together on a large square platter, the dish was pretty and delicious.
• Spicy Sashimi Bibimbap – $14.99 Classic bibimbap ingredients with the addition of crab, chunks of tuna sashimi, ikura and tobiko.
• Ox Bone Rice Noodle – $12.99 Rice noodles and steamed beef in a thick bone marrow broth.
• Korean Lunch Box Set – $15.99 Tofu stew and Tteok Galbi, minced and seasoned beef rib patties on a sizzling plate.
• Sushi Lunch Box Set – $19.99 Soba noodles, tempura, salad and Galbi Roll

To wash down the meal, I sipped three kinds of sake and soju that night. One was ginseng infused, another raspberry and the last oak aged.

When I get a craving for Korean BBQ, it comes in two varieties that can lead me in two distinct and opposite directions. With one, I’ll be heading to the closest AYCE place to eat my fill of salty BBQ’ed ribs and beef for a low price. While the other craving will only be satisfied by delectable pork belly and sends me north to my favourite Korean BBQ restaurant, Piggy’s. Piggy’s specialize in a la carte Korean BBQ that includes high quality beef, and beautiful thick cut pieces of pork belly. They’ve recently opened a second mini branch downtown and invited me to stop by for a meal.

Disclaimer: All food and drinks reviewed below were provided complimentary. All opinions expressed below are wholly mine.

Little Piggy’s was located in Koreatown on Bloor near Spadina. Even though they had just opened the day before, there was a steady stream of curious customers walking in. The Hubby and I were seated at a table for four and the first thing we noticed was the lack of a built-in grill, but something was there. After a quick investigation (and seeing it turned on), we figured out the table had a built-in induction stove element. Pretty nifty.

To drink, I tried one of their Grapefruit Ade’s and The Hubby ordered the Blue Lemonade. Both drinks arrived in adorable smiley face glasses. I liked the strong citrus taste of mine and the mild sweetness paired well with the BBQ. Our main was the Mix BBQ Combo that came with pork belly, garlic pork and Korean style beef. As the meat sizzled in front of us, we snacked on bacchan and salad with a creamy poppyseed dressing. My favourite Korean side dish has always been mashed potatoes, which was one of the dishes that day.

When it came to the BBQ, I found that the induction stove didn’t heat up the grill pan as hot as their other location or as quickly. Our server helped us set each BBQ course on the grill and checked on their progress regularly. Once ready, our server cut the meat into bite size pieces for us. Out of the three different proteins, my favourite was of course the pork belly. The order of BBQ came with a hot stone bowl of soy bean soup and a basket of fresh, crisp lettuce leaves for wraps. We also each had a sectioned plate that came with fresh garlic, two dipping sauces and sliced onions to add to our wraps. I like throwing the fresh garlic on the edge of the grill to toast them a bit before eating. Similar to their uptown location, I enjoyed the quality of the cuts included and the light marinade on the beef. I find at most AYCE restaurants, the sauce overpowers the natural taste of the beef or pork.

Apart from BBQ, I also tried out Little Piggy’s spicy rice cakes and UFO fried rice. Both the texture of the rice cakes and the taste of the spicy red sauce were bang on. I also liked how the menu allowed customers to customize the rice cakes with an assortment of add-ons like seafood and ramen. A base dish started at $7.95 and toppings were an additional $2.95 each. The UFO fried rice was playful and again highly customizable. A mound of fried rice, with your pick of protein, was served surrounded by fluffy steamed egg on a round sizzling plate.

On top of their in-store menu, Little Piggy’s offered Cupbob, customizable bowls of bibimbap to go. For $6.99, each cup is filled with rice, a chosen protein, customizable toppings and drizzled with sauce. My Cupbob had japchae and bulgogi, topped with nori and a spicy mayo sauce. This would’ve made for a very filling and satisfying meal all on it’s own.

After a very satisfying, and filling, meal, dessert was needed. Piggy’s served creamy, delicious soft serve, topped with a square of honeycomb that was the perfect way to cap off the night.

One of my closest friends lives in The Annex, which is a great address for a good dinner. With my Guu craving satisfied the week prior, I was eager to try out a new restaurant. Being a skip away from Koreatown, Korean was really the logical option. After reading reviews on Yelp and Urbanspoon, Korean Village Restaurant seemed like the best option with a high volume of strong reviews and a lengthy history.

Atmosphere: My first thought entering the restaurant was how large the dining area was. It’s rare to find such a spacious interior in the neighbourhood and with the tinted windows, it was impossible to tell from the store front. The bamboo decor and screens were a little dated but cute and traditional. With no background music playing, being able to converse with our indoor voices was a plus. Most of the tables that Monday night were occupied with couples enjoying dinner.

Service: Honestly, I’m a little conflicted about the service we received. It wasn’t rude, it wasn’t bad but it also wasn’t great. When I placed my order for the seafood noodle soup, the waitress questioned me twice, asking if I knew what I was ordering. Confirming once, I can understand, twice makes me feel uncomfortable. The dish is brought served raw and cooked at the table. Once the platter was dropped off, we weren’t provided any instructions and no one came by to tend the pot. Once I started poking around, our server came by to tell us it was ready to eat and she looked confused as to why we hadn’t started. Throughout our meal there was very little attention and follow up service.

Food: Between the two of us, my friend and I split a spicy rice cake and Hae Mul Jung meal. Five side dishes were served, including fish cake, bean sprouts, kimchi and pickled cucumber. Note that on Korean Village’s menu, it does state that there’s an extra charge for re-filling side dishes, we didn’t try asking for more.

Our rice cake dish came out quickly and was the perfect texture. I liked how saucy the dish was and that it had a great spicy kick. The slices of onion were a great excuse to eat more of the sauce. As soon as I knew we were headed to a Korean restaurant, I wanted to order Hae Mul Jung, spicy seafood noodle stew. Recently, it’s become one of my favourite dishes and I prefer it to the pork bone or beef stews. Partially because we didn’t know how long it needed to cook for, the clams, rice cake and noodles ended up a touch overcooked. I liked the variety of seafood, the quantity was great and each ingredient tasted fresh. Large pieces of tofu were also included along with Korean cabbage, enoki mushrooms and sliced cucumber. The noodles reminded me of soba noodles but thicker and with flour. I had been expecting clear sweet potato noodles and would’ve preferred their lighter texture. As is, the dish was heavy and we took a container to go. My favourite part was the soup, it was flavourful but the seafood flavours didn’t translate to the rest of the ingredients.

The latest addition from the people behind Guu is Yakitori Kintori, located on the second floor of the Bloor St Kinton Ramen, Kintori specializes in charcoal grilled skewers (kushi), epecially chicken (yakitori). All different parts of the chicken are served and it’s a great example of head to tail cooking.

Atmosphere: The BF and I stopped by with a friend on Sunday, right at 5pm when they opened and was lucky enough to get seats in front of the grill. I would highly recommend making reservations as there are only about 30 seats and there’s bound to be a line. The barstools are similar to the those at Kinton with a place for your bag and a coat rack is set up for jackets. The pace of the meal was slower than ramen, but still not one to linger over. I felt like Kintori’s a great spot to grab dinner at the end of a long day or before starting your night.

Service: Climbing the stairs to the second floor, we were greeted by the servers in Kinton as well as Kintori. The hostess was a super cute, friendly Japanese girl and I couldn’t understand a word she said. I felt bad but none of us could decipher her accent. Once we were seated, our server came to take our order, help explain the menu, made recommendations and was efficient and friendly. Since we sat at the grill, we saw our order getting prepped and cooked. It does take a while for the skewers to be ready, so ordering a few appetizers while you’re waiting is a good idea.

Food: My favourite way to order skewers is to start with one of everything and then double up on favourites. Each skewer usually has 3-5 pieces of meat/vegetable so depending on your group 1-2 orders of of each skewer lets everyone have a bite. Kintori’s menu maps out each cut of the chicken that is orderable. Next to some items, there’s an T/S icon indicating that you can choose between salt or tare sauce (a sweeter, thicker soy sauce) for seasoning. There is also a small selection of pork, beef and vegetable skewers along with a whole other page of tapas dishes. If the selection is overwhelming, there is a chef’s selection of 5 or 7 skewers that offers a nice variety from the menu.

We ordered a good bulk of the menu items. There are still a few items I’d like to try (neck, heart, oyster and liver) but of what we ordered, I’ve organized them into 3 groups. Overall, the chicken was really tender, I found the beef a touch dry and the pork was crispy. The okra and stuffed jalapeno were amazing and a nice break from all the meat.

1. Skewers you won’t want to share:
Aigamo (Duck Breast – Daily Special), Lamb (Daily Special), Buta Bara (Pork Belly), Okra, Jalapeno Nikuzume (Stuffed Jalapeno), Sasami with mentai mayo (Tenderloin), Cheese Tsukune (Stuffed Chicken Meatball), Eringi (Oyster Mushroom)

2. Interesting unique skewers, nice to try
Sunagimo (Gizzard), Tsukune (Chicken Meatball), Momo (Thigh), Kawa (Skin), Bonjiri (Tail), Tomato, Ton Toro (Pork Cheek), Negi Shio Gyu (Beef)

3. Skewers that could be skipped
Mekyabetsu (Brussel Sprouts), Hiza Nankotsu (Cartilage)

We ordered a Tako Wasabi while we waited for our skewers to arrive. The wasabi that day had a real kick and really cleared up the sinuses. From the Rice and Noodle section, we also tried the Yakionigiri, grilled rice ball filled with seaweed. This would be the only disappointing dish of the night. It was a lot of rice and not that much flavour.

The surprise dish of the night was the Kitsune Udon. Udon noodles are wrapped in a deep fried tofu skin and served with dashi broth. The noodles were a perfect texture, the dashi was flavourful and the skin added a nice saltiness. I was also impressed with how much udon there was. It was a great dish.

I washed everything down with a glass of Kintori White Sangria. The drink was a little light on actual fruit pieces but tasted like summer.