rev:text
| - 9 is a stylishly designed restaurant, located just north of the corner of Roncesvalles at Queen Street West. Interior has a balance of rough industrial plywood on one wall, higher end reclaimed wood on the back wall, and then Japanese inspired wallpaper along the bar side. I've seen pictures online and the plywood never photographs well, but in person it actually looks well put together and snazzy.
The menu is broken into a few sections: Appetizers, Sea, Land, Vegetables
We dabbled across the board, only skipping the sea section, and overall enjoyed what we had. Stand-out items included the Bulgogi Poutine and Prime Rib which was actually a bit more like a short rib meets brisket pulled beef vibe, but delicious. Spicy pork belly was tasty and well prepared in that it was still fatty but not overly chewy as some places end up with. The korean fried chicken was okay but seemed like the worst value out of the plates we had.
Overall, the food impressed and there wasn't anything that was what I would consider to be a "miss".
Drinks menu was less impressive though. We started with what I believe they call a "Soju Hurricane" or something like that. It's essentially a concoction of beer and soju which was very underwhelming as first of all it was like a 10oz glass, and it really just tasted like Sapporo and not really anything else which made me question how they could charge $8 for it. After that wasted attempt we switched to their beer menu which is basically a handful of tallboys and Sapporo on tap.
I'm not sure if Roncesvalles is the target demographic for a Korean fusion restaurant, as the place seemed pretty slow for a weekend, but 4 drinks, 2 apps, 3 land and 1 veg items came to just over $100 post-tax/pre-tip which is pretty satisfactory as we left full and even with some leftovers. I hope this place does well, as its a nice option to have some variety in a street otherwise heavy with Canadian or European influenced food.
|