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| - It took me a while to realize I was at a shop by the same name in Mississauga, are they related?? I stopped by this shop a year or so ago on a summer afternoon - needless to say it was quiet as we were off peak hours and it was summer - when not many want piping hot soon tofu surrounded by nature coming indoors (read: flies). I had no complaints at the time as soon tofu is a comfort food favourite of mine, and the location was super convenient. A specialty store with a high rating on Yelp - what could go wrong? It must be decently authentic, price-quality must be good, and portions must be standard at the least. Alas, back then, I was not disappointed.
Then recently, I came on a Friday right at dinner time. We were already on the latter end of the night - something like 8pm - but a table for three still took a 40 minute wait. I got it - the place was actually packed! It was cool for the season and doors had to stay closed - but the shop was steaming hot. There wasn't enough ventilation, but hey, everybody is eating a bubbling bowl of soup in the store, so it must be tough to keep the temperature down. We waited patiently and looked past the heat, and we're finally seated. The menu is simple - your classic soon tofu with the typical options - pork, seafood, beef, dumplings...and a few alternatives like bibimbap. The portions were great and what I appreciated was that my rice was moist. When food arrived the server did all the prep work for us with scooping the rice and pouring the water into the hot bowl so the crispy flaky bits will soften for later - except rice was being served out of the bowls so fast nothing really crisped up.
My tofu wasn't as smooth as the location in Mississauga - probably a source issue. I got the dumpling soon tofu and the dumplings were tasty - but nothing out of the ordinary. Everything else was as expected, and I was able to get my soup at a spice level I can handle without going completely spice-less.
Overall, everything was as expected except for the wait - if not for the wait this could be a solid location for some basic home style Korean comfort food on a cold winter day. Summertime - stay away, busy times - stay away. They offer take out and even free delivery of you're right in the area, but everybody was already so busy so I'm not too hopeful.
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