We dined in on a snowy weeknight purely out of curiosity for state of the K-BBQ joints in North York. Originally wanted to try Kookminhakyo or Daldongnae but their seating just did not look comfy enough to brave a dinner with a toddler. So we decided based on the interior photo that Ssam would be our spot for the night.
Well, the restaurant is cozy but as soon as you walk into the restaurant, you notice the very sticky and slippery floor which I'm guessing is from all the airborne fat from table top grilling. They should do a better job at cleaning the floors so it's not so slippery and gross. Or consider paying for floor mats that can be professionally cleaned to minimize danger to your patrons.
We ordered a Monday night special which included many different cuts of pork (belly & shoulder) and beef (samgyup & rib eye). My little girl's favorite was the thinly shaved beef samgyup that cooked up really fast on the grill and stayed nice and juicy from high fat content. We enjoyed the pork belly, pork shoulder and the rib eye...in that order. You can't go wrong with pork belly and I like that their cut is nice and thick. Pork should was ok but a little bit of aging would make it more tender for the grill. The worst of the lot was the beef rib eye which I highly doubted was actually a rib-eye cut. It chewed more like a tough sirloin steak and was not a pleasant addition to the combo.
The rest of the meal was pretty ho hum as their banchans and sauces were way too sweet. Their kimchi was soooo bad and left a ton to be desired but since there were lettuce wraps, I was ok without digging into possibly the worst kimchi I've eaten in recent years.
I like that they provide individual wrap condiments and sauces (should really have an explanation in the menu of what these are since no non-korean person would ever be able to figure out the toasted soybean powder to dip your meat into.) but even the sauces were too sweet.
A small stone bowl of Korean miso stew accompanies the special and was a-ok. You need to order rice separately ($2).
Our overall experience was ok. I wouldn't say Ssam really satisfied my craving for a really great K-BBQ and the search for the best K-BBQ in North York still continues.