Home of HOT-Taste: More Korean!

I think I'm on a Korean addiction - I've had Korean food for 4 days in a row now, three of which consisted of pork bone soup (pbs) . Some people go for wine tasting, so I guess I can go around savouring PBS too.
This spot is a favourite among some of my friends who live near by on Bay st. Home of HOT-taste is located on 714 Yonge St., next to the Countryside Coffee. It's also a very popular spot among young Koreans, perhaps because of it's dim lights and loud atmosphere, and two big flat screens that air Korean music videos all day long. The boys can enjoy some firey dishes while drooling over Hyori-lee's booty-shaking.
The restaurant boasts its firey chicken dishes. While there are the standard tofu stews, soups, pork stir frys and bbq rib dishes with rice combos priced at 5.99-8.99 posted on the wall with pictures, its menus are filled with items such as "spicy firey chicken" or chicken wings for around $14.49 for a plate. The plain fried wings are popular as well.


Being on a PBS addiction, of course I had to go for the PBS ($6.99) because I found that every restaurant has their own unique broth. This one puts a lot of peppercorn and green onion in their soup and the pork is stewed just to the right tenderness that it falls apart as you bite down on it. I didn't find it overly spicy nor salty, and really liked the kimchi and potatoes in the soup.

Second dish was the rice cakes with fish cakes and onions. The rice cakes ($5.99) were chewy but not tough and the sauce was mildly spicy with a sweet undertone (makes me think they put a hint of ketchup in it). The fish cakes were just thin slices of standard fish cakes that were in the dish for a ride. The whole plate had the stir-fried-over-open-fire kind of taste to it that I really liked.

Finally, the most ordered dish in the restaurant. The famous spicy firey chicken with fried rice for $5.99. The chicken's not that spicy and very tender with a bbq taste to it. It's one of those "you might not love it but you definitely won't hate it" safe dishes. I didn't try the fried rice but it glistened under a layer of oil with some vegetable bits in it. Standard.

For sides, the restaurant gives lettuce salad with soya sauce and miso dressing, pickled turnips and kimchi upon request. Service was alright, but a little slow because there was one waiter runnin around 12 tables....(poor guy).

Overall, it's a good place for those of us who don't mind a loud environment with a cheap, filling and tasty meal, and/or for those who just want to sit googly eyed staring at Korean pop stars all day.

Nak Won Korean Table BBQ Restaurant

I had dinner with my best buds from Ottawa. We were originally going for a "REALLY REALLY great Persian Restaurant" at 5529 Yonge St.....the closest thing we found to that was a closed Persian grocery store. Thankfully, there were enough Korean restaurants in the area as back up.

It was very cold so we didn't want to wander far from where we were, so following the Chinese rule, I picked the place with the biggest crowd. This is Nak Won Table BBQ at 5594 Yonge St.


The place had a very impressive selection of side dishes. Everyone is greeted with a place of lettuce salad with a creamy sweet mayo dressing. Then there were the seaweed (a little too salty), honey coated potatoes (very, very delicious. We had to ask for refills twice before our food came), cellophane noodles, bean sprouts, marinated cucumbers, turnip strips, sliced fish cakes, kimchi (that's a given), and marinated beans. I could get full just eating the side dishes alone.

Diza wasn't particularly hungry so she wanted something small. But after we all ordered she still wasn't sure what she wanted, so out of pressure she got the spicy tofu stew ($6.99) under the waitress' recommendation. It came bubbling hot with chunks of tofu and the egg and shredded pork and onions. A very standard tofu stew that was quite spicy. She couldn't handle the spicyness so I actually had quite a bit of it. I found the taste to be more prominent once the dish cooled down.
Brian and Annie wanted the stone pot bibimbap ($7.99) because that's what they always get. There wasn't a lot of beef in it so without the hot sauce, there's not much taste in the dish itself. I found a huge piece of burnt rice at the bottom of her bowl at the end of meal and gasped as if I hit jackpot. Brian's eyes lit up when he saw me lift that crispy, golden piece of rice up...and of course I split it with him :)
Hamid was very specific in what he wanted. He wanted stir-fried noodles with beef/chicken and vegetables..the closest thing I could find was this stir-fried noodle with seafood and vegetables in spicy sauce ($12.99) under the Chinese dishes section for him. It was smothered in a sweet and sour-like sauce with a spicy kick to it, andwas definitely the most flavourful dish of the evening. The vegetables and seafood weren't very prominent in the dish, but there were a lot of onions that added some good flavours to the noodles. I managed to dig out a small shrimp, and Diza found a "very cute" baby squid that she demolished without blinking.

Finally, Karen and I ordered the pork bone soup. Although I just had pork bone soup ($6.99) from E-wang downtown the day before, I was craving for it again. Disappointingly, the pork bones weren't stewed for long enough so they weren't fall-off the bone tender and made the eating process even more time consuming. The broth was different as they put a lot of ginger in it. The potatoes weren't tender either and the flavours from the broth did not make its way into them.

Overall, the service was good and the prices are reasonable. I really enjoyed their side dishes, but main order wise, they still offered us a satisfying meal but there are certainly improvements that can be made.