‘We’d have favored to return down from our Wagyu excessive with some dessert, however Dalgognae does not have any’
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Daldongnae Korean BBQ
610 Somerset St. W., 613-232-8880, daldongnaebbq.com
Open: Sunday to Thursday midday to 11 p.m., Saturday and Sunday midday to midnight
Costs: Meats (200-g servings) $20.99 to $79.99
Entry: steps to entrance door, then steps right down to eating room
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Throughout the first hour or so of dinner this week at Daldongnae Korean BBQ, we saved a rising tally of gripes.
The anticipate the meat that we’d cook dinner on our tabletop grill was somewhat lengthy, and we wound up consuming accoutrements and facet dishes that ought to have accompanied our beef and pork. A seafood pancake ($18.99) was barely undercooked and tasted little or no of seafood and far more of inexperienced onions. It positively wanted its dipping sauce to be interesting.
Lettuce that was meant for making meaty wraps was too soggy and somewhat gritty. The servings of sauces have been meagre, and we wanted to ask for refills. The Korean spirits, beer and sake on the menu tempted us, and would have made us somewhat extra affected person. However the restaurant doesn’t but have its liquor licence.
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Thankfully, slices of just-cooked Wagyu ribeye steak ($79.99), crisped on the surface however eminently juicy on the within, eaten with a touch of salt or maybe a dab of funkier gochujang sauce, lined a mess of sins.
Nearly as good because the crisp-fatty pork jowl ($21.99), lashings of bacon-thin pork stomach ($20.99), and lozenges of boneless beef brief rib ($30.99) had been, it was the Wagyu that made our eyes roll again in our heads. For my very carnivorous eating companion who had not beforehand eaten Wagyu, this splurge-y spotlight of dinner was revelatory. “It’s like a brand new meat I’ve by no means tasted earlier than,” he mentioned.
We’d have favored to return down from our Wagyu excessive with some dessert, however Dalgognae doesn’t have any.
The Daldongnae model launched in 2017 in Toronto, and has been increasing with a vengeance in the previous few years. There are actually 9 areas within the Higher Toronto Space and two in Montreal. Ottawa’s Chinatown location opened just a few weeks in the past and a ByWard Market location is within the works, in line with the Daldongnae website. Additionally anticipated are Daldongnaes in London and Kitchener.
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Given this multitude of Daldongnaes, the corporate is clearly doing one thing proper. However apparently some areas don’t serve Wagyu, in line with the web site. Contemplate your self warned.
We favored the vibe of the place, which opened on Somerset Avenue the place Minari, and earlier than that, Korean Palace, had been.
The model’s title comes from the Korean time period “dal dongnae,” which refers to government-sanctioned slums that sprang up throughout the Korean Warfare. So, older expats might have pangs of nostalgia as they sit on this woody, quasi-rustic area that seats about 120 individuals, typically in sequestered cubicles.
Daldongnae is way from the primary Korean BBQ choice in Ottawa. I’ve loved equally convivial experiences at Alirang Korean Restaurant on Merivale Street and the far more low-key Korean Home on Somerset Avenue West, the place, it needs to be talked about, the seafood pancake is dynamite.
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Each of these locations, in addition to the tabletop-grill restaurant Gyubee Japanese Grill within the ByWard Market, which itself is a part of a franchise operation, provide smoother grill-your-own-dinner experiences than what we had at Daldongnae.
The snags we encountered do smack of early days and undertrained workers, however you’d suppose that remedying them wouldn’t be that arduous, in order that what Daldongnae has on its menu could possibly be optimally showcased.
The menu entices with six cuts of pork and eight cuts of beef, plus three cuts of Wagyu, that hyper-marbled fetish object for meat-lovers. (Daldongnae’s Wagyu couldn’t be the top-tier A5-grade Wagyu served at Harmons Steakhouse on Elgin Avenue and elsewhere, but it surely actually did the trick at its comparatively decrease, however nonetheless important, worth level.) You’ll be able to attempt the recondite grill-able delights which can be pork skirt, beef hanging tender and beef neck chain, to not point out extra mundane however crowd-pleasing beef tenderloin, each Wagyu and in any other case.
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Whereas the meats are usually not marinated, a publish on Daldongnae’s Fb web page refers to dry-aged meats. What we had was contemporary, flavourful, and well-butchered.
No matter meat you order, the entire level, we felt, was to get that Maillard reaction taking place to elicit some delectable browning and char, which might envelop the still-succulent morsel.
Lovers of selection and greens can order some black tiger shrimp ($12.99 for 5) or mushrooms, and even the vegan assortment, which incorporates vegan sausage. That mentioned, bringing a vegan to Daldongnae would nonetheless be difficult, as she or he would nonetheless must share a grill, presumably greased with tallow, with any carnivorous friends. Plus, there’s the odor of scorching meat within the eating room.
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The grill got here with a fringe of compartments, every with facet objects, together with kimchi, an eggy slurry that turns into an omelet of types, slices of garlic and corn with cheese. Professional-tip: After the garlic compartment stuffed with liquefied meat fats, we used the liquid to baste our meats.
That so-so seafood pancake was considered one of 16 facet dishes. Had we arrived with greater appetites, we’d have ordered the spicy squid ($18.99), the stir-fried kimchi and pork with tofu ($18.99), or the Korean egg rolls ($15.99) and hoped for higher.
The menu lists in depth alcohol choices, together with seven sorts of sake, just a few cheaper wines by the glass and bottle, big-label beers, and soju, the Korean spirit, which might determine in some intriguing combined drinks. However once more, the restaurant will want its liquor licence earlier than we are able to assuage our curiosity.
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In the event you go quickly to Daldongnae, I hope you received’t meet with the frustrations that marred our dinner. However if you happen to do go, the Wagyu and different meats needs to be saving graces. Simply don’t overcook them.
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