Kyochon BBQ

I once asked my good friend Jojo to come over after his night classes to pick up a pie.  It has been a while since I have last seen him and it would be good to catch up with him over a late dinner.  Living at Yonge and Finch, late night restaurants were plenty and it wouldn’t be too much of a problem to find good eats.

The only thing was that my friend’s car decided to retire its battery as Jojo picked up a building parking permit.  His car strewn on the driveway of my condo building, we had no choice but to sit there and wait for CAA to come to our rescue.  Either that or Jojo would get a hefty fine being on a no-parking firetruck zone.  All the waiting was not really that painful as Jojo and I have always so many things to talk about.  It was just the pang of hunger that I minded and for a while I was considering heating up the frozen pie.  Forty-five minutes later,  the car issue addressed, we strolled by Yonge walking down south of Finch.

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The slew of restaurants in my neighborhood were mostly Korean and I am yet to try them all out.  I have always been a fan of Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu but that night I thought I’d try another one out.  Standing on the west side looking east, I chose the one brightly lighted, Kyochon BBQ.  It was almost 11pm when Jojo and I walked in.  Middle of the week and so late, we had the restaurant all to ourselves.  Most Korean places I have been were stereotypes of restaurants with huge posters of cheap menu written in Korean characters.  I was a bit surprised that this one even with their few posters still looked restrained and unusually bright and contemporary.  After confirming that they were still open, we both decided to go for Bibimbaps.  There is nothing like really hot rice and veggies pacifying a hunger pang of a starving foodie.  I also thought it was relatively simple to prepare and we should be eating soon enough.

As we waited we were given our banchan (Korean appetizers) and I was most surprised of the variety.  First time I have eaten in a place that gave me 8 to choose from.  My friend Jojo told me, those servings of banchan were good enough to pacify his hunger and then he worries that with the Bibimbap, the food might be too much.  It was a good point to highlight.  Of the eight choices I must say I was addicted to about 4 of them.  I wanted to ask for more but I was keeping myself in check as the Bibimbap could also fill.

The bibimbap finally arrived and I was happy I restrained myself on the banchans.  It was a tall pile of an over-easy egg, julienned veggies and some minced beef sitting on top of crusted rice. Digging in, I must say now I am in trouble which one I liked better, my regular from Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu or Kyochon BBQ.  Both were reasonably priced and hearty, it was hard to choose between them.  Good thing I live close to both.  Maybe I don’t have to choose, know what I mean? ;)

 

Update:  This restaurant is closed early 2014