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| - We gathered together a group of ten for the bo ssam and wow, what a fun experience. There's just something about having a five-pound piece of meat plopped down in the center of the table that makes you know it's going to be a fun night. You DO have to order the bo ssam and a few other dishes ahead of time, so don't think that you can just drop in to Daisho and replicate our experience.
It's worth mentioning that this place is *very* trendy. I feel like a small-town imposter every time I come in here. Plan for nice jeans and a shirt at a minimum.
The pork was amazing - sweet, salty and chewy on the outside and tender and flavourful on the inside. We were able to dig in with tongs and pull the whole thing apart until only a bone remained. Granted, we reduced it to the bone with some effort, though, even with ten stomachs to fill!
Along with the bo ssam we ordered every vegetable side dish (five or six dishes), all of which were very good, if a little expensive. If there had only been a few of us we would never have ordered them all, but once it was split ten ways it was worth a couple bucks per person to try each one. The best ones were the brussels sprouts and the sunchokes.
The oysters were perfect (as they should be). The server suggested adding one to a wrap with the pork and kimchi, but after trying that once I stuck with topping them with a little kimchi, green onion and hot sauce and slurping them back on their own.
Once you're in a big group it's also a good idea (and sort of awesome) to order a gallon of beer. The beer selection is very good, we had the Evil Twin pale ale and it was a crowd pleaser and kept us to around $6/person for beer.
Overall we were able to do all of this for $50/person including tax and tip, which is more than I'd typically spend on dinner but definitely not unreasonable for a nice meal, especially given the celebrity-chef status of the restaurant owner.
There are a few things that would have bumped this up to five stars for me: First, it seems as though you can get refills on the lettuce and possibly the kimchi with the bo ssam, but this was never offered to us and we ran out of both very quickly (the kimchi almost immediately and the lettuce before we finished a quarter of the meat) it would have been nice for our server to at least offer to refill them, even if we'd've had to pay (which would be a little much at $240 for the meal, but we would have considered it at least for the kimchi.)
Second, in spite of having made a reservation several weeks in advance, we waited over half an hour for our table, and when it wasn't ready we were uncerimoniously shuffled off back down to the cocktail level. We recently had this problem with a smaller group at Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal and were treated to a round of drinks and an appetizer on the house. I know it's Toronto, not Montreal, but some sort of gesture from the staff for our wait would have been nice and bumped them up to five stars.
At any rate, in spite of it all it was a really fun experience I wouldn't hestiate to do again. Please bring the Korean-fried chicken to Toronto, Momofuku, so we can try your fried chicken dinner, too!
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