Hancook Cheese Dakgalbi

Some dear friends invited us for dinner Hancook 치즈 닭갈비, one of their favourite neighbourhood haunts, to welcome us back to Toronto. Being huge fans of Korean cuisine we were intrigued as we’ve never had the opportunity to try Dakgalbi. We became even more excited when our friend Joel told us that his maternal grandmother lived in Chuncheon, a city famous for its Dakgalbi, and that he had eaten there a few times and loved every bite.

Dakgalbi is served on a hot pan, and placed on a portable stove top, allowing the dish to stay hot while you eat.

And enjoyable it was. We ordered the signature dish - spicy Dakgalbi. Chicken is marinated then stir fried with sweet potato, cabbage, green onions and rice cake. The rice cake adds a marvelous soft, chewy texture, cabbage is nice and crisp while taking on all the flavours, and the chicken was excellent quality. This dish is only mildly spicy (to us anyway) offering loads of flavour to every addictive bite. The food is served on a hot pan kept warm by a portable stove as you eat. We couldn't help but get an order of dumplings too, all washed down with generous servings of soju and ice-cold beer. After devouring the main course and enjoying great conversation and more soju. We decided more food was in order. So we ordered some spicy Tteokbokki (rice cake) and delicious seafood Pajeon (Korean pancake) - both superb - which we enjoyed with even more soju. So good!

Fried dumplings with spicy salad - $9.99

The evening lived up to the hype. We were very impressed by the Covid-appropriate measures taken by the restaurant to ensure a safe and enjoyable dine-in experience. Guests must wear a mask when not seated, and hand sanitizer and hand-held laser temperature check is required before being seated. Contact information for the table is recorded in case contact tracing has to be pursued, and servers and kitchen staff were scrupulous in both mask and social distancing compliance. Being so reassured made the food and atmosphere all that much more enjoyable.

It was a great night and we’ll be back at this great little spot sooner rather than later.