Korean BBQ is getting a glow-up across Toronto. The tightly packed, often poorly ventilated tables are making way for airy booths, while premium ingredients like dry-aged beef and wagyu are starting to grace menus. One of the newest entrants is Hwaro Korean BBQ, the refined sister restaurant of the popular Daldongnae chain.

With its plush, lounge-like interiors, I expected the drinks menu to be more of a focus. Hwaro does offer cocktails and wine alongside the traditional soju and beer, but with only three cocktails to choose from, it was a bit of a letdown when they ran out of ingredients to make one of them. I settled on the Bae grapefruit ($18), an easygoing mix of soju, St-Germain, ice wine, and Asian pear tea. It goes down with ease, as you can barely taste the alcohol.

Being our first visit, the butcher’s set ($78 per person) seemed like the ideal choice, leaving it to the kitchen to select four cuts of beef for us. And at Hwaro, you don’t need to worry about how long to cook the meat. The staff man the grill and make sure everything is cooked and cubed to a perfect medium rare.

That evening, we were served four cuts of beef: tenderloin, chuck, ribeye, and marinated boneless short rib. Aside from the marinated beef, the other cuts were kept simple. Instead, you’re given a soy-based dipping sauce and accompaniments like fermented red bean paste, black pepper, and Himalayan salt to flavour the cuts yourself. I appreciated the simplicity, as it allowed the beef to shine. The bite-sized cubes were delicious, starting with the lean, flavourful tenderloin and moving through increasingly fatty and flavourful cuts.

In true Korean fashion, a flurry of dishes arrive at the beginning. Since our server explains each dish before setting it down, it takes a while for everything to make its way onto the table. Luckily, we started with a small bowl of warm acorn noodles in a light anchovy broth, giving me something to tide me over as the delicious-looking food kept arriving. Alas, they were gone in two bites.

Next came a simple house salad with yuzu dressing, a reminder to get some greens in before the meat-heavy feast began. We were also given lettuce leaves to make our own ssam wraps. For the most part, I left the beef to speak for itself, but once the marinated short ribs arrived, I did make a wrap topped with some scallion salad.

If I were to write about every banchan, this post would go on forever. We were treated to an impressive spread of small plates, including fried eggplant, water chestnut jelly, pickled vegetables, spicy daikon salad, kimchi, black sesame raw lotus root, white kimchi, pumpkin, and japchae.

My two favourite banchan were the pickled chayote, which had a lovely crisp texture and soaked up a lightly sweet pickle brine, and the kimchi. Both were great for refreshing the palate between bites of beef. And don't worry about the small portions… free refills are available, so you can keep the favourites coming.

The small plates weren't the only extras included with the Butcher's Set. It was my first time trying gujeolpan, a platter of assorted ingredients, similar to what you might find in bibimbap, served with a stack of thin buckwheat crepes. You assemble your own little wraps, adding a bit of sauce for a delicious, bite-sized treat.

There was also a thin napa jeon pancake, which honestly didn't taste like much. It was a far cry from the shrimp & zucchini jeon ($28) we ordered separately. Thick and fluffy with lovely crispy edges, this savoury pancake was packed with generous chunks of shrimp, zucchini, and green onions. Definitely the pancake to order!

After all those small bites, another broth was a welcome addition. The complimentary fermented soy stew reminded me of Korean miso soup, although our server explained that doenjang is made entirely from soybeans, whereas miso can sometimes include rice, and is fermented for longer. The result is a richer, more savoury broth.

One look at the towering egg soufflé and I had an overwhelming urge to grab the stone bowl for myself. Scalding hot and aromatic, the egg was steamed with kelp broth, making for an incredibly comforting dish. I could easily have this with half a shrimp pancake and call it a satisfying meal.

Hwaro's kimchi fried rice ($25) could have used a little more time in the pan to develop a crust. The sticky rice was a bit too wet for my liking, but it was generously loaded with kimchi and beef, making it a hearty dish, especially with a runny fried egg on top.

Trust me, you won't leave hungry. Since the banchan are complimentary, you can keep requesting refills until you're well and truly satisfied. The meal ends with a small dish of vanilla ice cream that looks almost identical to McDonald's soft serve. At Hwaro, it's topped with yakgwa, a dense, chewy Korean honey pastry that makes for a satisfying sweet finish.

Service was excellent throughout our visit, with different staff members checking on the meat, answering our questions, and making sure everything was cooking properly. We never felt rushed, and the food came at a comfortable pace that gave us plenty of time to chat and linger.

If you like your Korean BBQ without the smoke or having to guess how long to cook your own meat, Hwaro is worth checking out. Just come hungry and pace yourself, because the food keeps coming!

Daldongnae's lunch specials remind me of a tiffin where the main dish is circled by seven banchan creating a colourful fulsome platter. Unlike their Korean barbeque sets, lunch takes longer to arrive as the kettle pot rice is made to order. It’s worth the wait to allow the purple rice to develop a bit of crust on the bottom and to allow the beans, chestnut, pumpkin, jujube and chickpeas to soften and seep into the rice.

Given how long it takes for make the starch, I’m surprised the pork bone soup ($21.99) doesn’t arrive bubbling… this stone bowl is for show only.  It also lacks flavour and needed to be stewed longer as the bones were difficult to tear and grizzly to eat. As kamjatang go, this is mediocre at best.

The spicy soft tofu stew ($21.99) was better, even the “medium” spicy level came out flavourful without being overpowering. And while it wasn’t bubbling, this was hotter and more comforting feeling. It’s just a bit stingy on the protein with few slices of beef but adequate amounts of tofu and vegetables.

Each arrives with an array of banchan including crispy kimchi cucumber, vegetable laced japchae, a flavourful stewed eggplant, a hefty portion of rolled egg omelette, a scoop of overly sweet potato salad, savoury gelatin, and a slightly sweet creamy lotus root. Two lunch specials can be shared amongst three people, otherwise expect to leave with leftovers.

Given Daldongnae wasn’t busy during their weekday lunch, their service was spectacular. Still, if you go for lunch, I’d stick with their wheelhouse and order table BBQ as the stone bowl mains were not impressive.

If Daldongnae wants to pump up their weekday lunch service, I’d recommend they switch to something they can execute better. Perhaps something like Haidailao where they offer table BBQ but instead of having diners ordering proteins separately, they create a mixed platter priced per person (with still a minimum of two people required). Korean tiffin you should be retired.

If you’re an indecisive person, don’t go to Arisu. Their menu will start giving you heart palpitations as you realize you may never make it to the halfway point. Korean barbeque, Korean dishes of many kinds, sushi, and even more are displayed in full glory. Move over Pickle Barrel, this menu has you beat.

Let me try to help you out here. With cooking stations at every table, Korean barbeque is a natural choice. Go for the porky and piggy set for two ($59.99) that offers three cuts: pork belly, shoulder blade, and honeycomb (like pork belly but more tender). Grill up the pork and tuck slices into the lettuce wraps along with sauces and a bit of the scallion soy.

The set even comes with a host of sides: a puffy egg custard that needs to be eaten quickly; corn smothered in cheese and butter; a host of traditional banchan, steamed rice, and even fresh vegetables for grilling. You’ll have all the bases covered.

You’ll want to start off with a set before adding on extras like chicken ($18.99) to Korean barbeque. There’s not much that arrives with it, just a piece of marinated chicken leg. After all, to miss out on the steamed egg custard is a shame.

If you’re dining as one or don’t like the idea of having to cook for yourself, order Arisu’s porterhouse steak ($41.99 special price; regular is $46.99). Obviously, it wouldn’t rival a steakhouse, but I found it was prepared better than HK café places – the steak was a thick cut and cooked to a rare / medium rare. And it’s a hefty portion complete with mashed potatoes, grilled vegetables, and a bowl of spicy tofu soup.

For those dining as a group, getting a bunch of dishes to share is ideal. The seafood pancake ($35.99 for large) was one of the better ones I’ve had - the batter airy and pan-fried forming tons of crispy edges. Large chunks of seafood, scallions, and vegetables are strewn throughout so there’s a great ratio of pancake to filling.

The cheese tteokbokki ($31.99 for large) consists of soft chewy rice sticks and fish balls tossed in a mild spicy sauce (Arisu also offers a spicier version). The rice cakes are surprisingly delicate (perhaps they use the frozen versus dried variety) and being covered in cheese gives the dish an almost creamy finish.

Only the fried chicken breast ($33.99 for large) was a bit disappointing. I liked that it was freshly prepared to the point it was burn-your-mouth hot. But it also wasn’t overly exciting… a simple salt and pepper seasoning with the breading almost too light so it wasn’t very crunchy.

Unlike other Korean barbeque places along Bloor, Arisu also wasn’t too busy, which is surprising because their food was decent and the service great. Perhaps it’s because they’re further away from the bar area, but our Friday visit was relatively quiet, and they could even take walk-in clients.

The separators used in the dining room, provided some privacy to allow our group to get boisterous without becoming disruptive. After all, it takes time to order, so you can get through a bottle of soju before a lick of food arrives. Who knows, two bottles in and you may just be ordering the full menu.

Aside from soup-based noodles, a comforting dish I crave in the winter is pork bone soup. There’s almost a primal sense of survival in picking up the massive hunk of bone in your hands and trying to get to as many of the meaty bits as possible, dissecting and sucking until it’s picked clean. Kam ja tang is served in most Korean restaurants, but Owl of Minerva introduced the dish to me and it’s where I return for a fix.

As difficult as it is to transport, Owl does delivery and takeout - the kam ja tang ($10.99) is vacuum sealed so that no drop of the fragrant soup is lost. Without the hot stone bowl, it’s warm on arrival, so we always re-heat it in a pot before tucking in. It needs to be enjoyed in its full glory: blistering hot, burning the fingers, and stinging the tongue. No pain, no delicious gain.

While waiting for the pork bone to re-heat, snack on an order of gu man du ($10.99). The deep-fried dumplings still surprisingly crispy and hot despite also being entombed in plastic. Truthfully, I’d much rather Owl switch to a piece of tin foil to wrap the beef dumpling instead of using so much plastic. We can all benefit from less waste and if someone wanted to re-heat the dumplings in the toaster oven, the tin foil will even save the customer a preparation step.

Back to the pork bone. Once it’s bubbling hot and placed into a bowl, here’s how I like to enjoy my kam ja tang: I help cool it slightly by placing a couple of pieces of kimchi into the bowl. I prefer the fermented cabbage hot and enjoy that extra bit of umami spice that the sauce adds to the broth. Then, it’s a hands-on marathon – first picking off the easy bits of meat with chopsticks, before switching to the primal eating ritual described earlier.

In between it all, I place bit-sized pieces of steam rice on a spoon before adding some broth to the utensil and getting a delicious mouthful of the salty garlicky soup. Some like to add all the rice into the broth and mix it with the meat, creating a Korean congee. I like mine separated, bite by bite. To each their own.

Once the pork bone is done, it’s down to the cabbage with rice. And if I’m feeling particularly ravenous, the hunks of soft potatoes will round out the meal. A meal from Owl of Minerva leaves you stuffed and almost uncomfortably full. It’s my quintessential meal during the winter, where a girl needs to eat to survive.