Sariwon Korean Bbq Restaurant

If you’re looking for a high quality Korean bbq place, this is the place to go to. Their meat, especially their kalbi, is nice and marinated and really quite fresh. What’s also fun in this place is that they give you quite a bit of high quality side dishes.
The cost is about $ 35 – 40 per person, so it’s definitely pricey. I would definitely go again but probably for special occasions :).

Dishes I have enjoyed:
–Kbbq: get marinated or unmarinated kalbi (beef) or pork belly
–Kalbi (marinated beef dish)
–Beef shabu-​shabu (hot pot dish)
–Bibimbop (veggies and ground beef in a black bowl of rice)
–Side dishes in general. They change each time I visit this restaurant. I like the variety.
–Japchae (Korean glass noodles) as a side dish
Dishes that were so-​so:
–Japchae (Korean glass noodles) as an appetizer: too much pepper
–Jampong (spicy seafood noodle soup): didn’t like the broth
Drop in one star, because service can be inconsistent and mostly tailored to Korean patrons. Atmosphere is warm. Their booths are nice and comfortable. There’s a party room upstairs.

This is a great place for Korean BBQ!
I feel most places that serve Korean BBQ are all the same, except this one.
What makes this place special is the meats they serve are really a cut above. So when coming I always like to order non-​marinated meats, so you can really taste the flavour of the meat and not the quality of the marinade.
Place is also more pricy then others, would recommend this for occasions and dinner dates :)

Service was not great… food was ok…
The side dishes were not as plentiful as other restaurants.

Sariwon is actually my favourite Korean BBQ restaurant in the GTA, so I was pretty surprised to see that it doesn’t have very good reviews. After reading about people’s complaints, I think I get why.
The first time I was here, a few Korean friends took me here and showed me the ropes of how to eat proper Korean BBQ. Don’t come here if you want to gorge yourself in meat — that would probably wreck your wallet. You have to eat piece with care — wrap it in lettuce, add some of the soybean paste, and then add a little bit of rice. If you’d like, add a bit of garlic and/​or jalapeños for extra spice. You have to eat the meats that way if you want to fill your stomach, just eating the meats alone will not fill you up.
The quality of their dishes are generally quite good. Their meat in particular is some of the best I’ve ever had. The only one that is marinated is the one that explicitly says «marinated» kalbi (probably my favourite), the rest of the meats aren’t and it’s not supposed to be. That’s how you eat Korean BBQ. Korean Grill House is not proper Korean BBQ, so don’t expect your meat to be drenched in sauce.
It is quite pricy, I spent about $ 35 per person for their marinated kalbi, and you must order a minimum of two. Why? Because they give you quite a bit of stuff along with the meats — lettuce, salad, 6 side dishes, soy bean soup, and a small cinnamon drink at the end as a dessert. If you’re not full but don’t want to spend more money, just ask for more side dishes and keep eating that along with your meat — you should be ingesting your daily intake of vegetables anyway.
Now I do see that service is a problem. Had I not come initially with friends, I would’ve been confused as to how I’m supposed to eat everything, and the servers are not all that patient in explaining what to do (partly because of their English proficiency). The service seems to be less attentive when the manager/​owner is my there — usually they cook everything for you if they’re on top of the service, but if they’re busy or lazy, they just put the meat on the grill for you and expect you to do the rest, so you might be sitting there wondering when the meat is done. If they leave you alone, just cook the meat on each side until you don’t see any more pink, then cut it into bite sized pieces with the scissors they give you.
I came here yesterday on a Sunday night and I was a bit annoyed that instead of serving one of just two tables in the restaurant, they were busy feeding themselves and making their own kbbq — at least it’s nice to know that they’re willing to eat their own food too. There is a button by each table that you can press to get their attention — but don’t expect them to come smiling and willing to help, they’re just not that friendly (minus the manager who’s always greeting customers with a smile and asking how the food was).
I would’ve given them 5 stars if the service yesterday was a bit more attentive, oh and they started charging for extra lettuce — which makes no sense with the premium price you’re already paying. Nevertheless, if you are here on the right day with proper staffing, it will feel more like a 5-​star experience, and the food is always consistently good — that’s what’s brought me back here many times over the past 7 years. Just don’t be so nit picky about the service, and eat the food the way they’re meant to be eaten and you should have a great meal.

I had high expectations for this restaurant as I had been wanting to try this restaurant for quite a while. Convinced my husband and brought him here and we were ecstatic to try something new than our usual AYCE korean bbq.
We ordered two orders of tenderloin and kalbi. While the meats were definitely of high quality but disappointingly lacking flavour, there was almost no flavour. I recall husband and I had to mix the garlic and some sort of soy sauce and personally I never dip condiments due to lack of flavours because I find it insulting to the food.
It’s definitely pricey but we wouldn’t have mind it if it tasted good. I may revisit in the future to give it another shot but not with my husband as he was very disappointed.

Service:
Your local family run Korean restaurant. Friendly and efficient service. The waiter/​waitress might not have the best English, but will get by.
Ambiance:
The décor is simple and cozy. Relatively clean.
Food:
Traditional marinated Korean BBQ goodness. Its more on the pricey side for the amount of meat you get, but its worth it.

3.5÷5
I have been coming to Sariwon for many years now and it’s a decent spot to go to if you’re tired of the low quality all you can eat Korean BBQ joints around town.
The quality of meat is quite nice, but be mindful of what type of meat you’re ordering and whether it is marinated or not. Ask the servers to let you know how best to eat the meat, or else you may run the risk of eating unseasoned meat and have a miserable time. Service is alright and I found most of the staff don’t speak English so if you don’t speak Korean, you may be doing a lot of finger pointing while ordering.
Some issues that I have though…
— It is pricey! Be prepared to pay quite a bit if you want the nicer cuts of meat.
— The seafood pancake is quite disappointing. It has an incredibly weird texture and not a lot of seafood in it as well.
— The burners that they have are quite weak. It takes quite a while for it to cook or char the meat.

Amazing service and great quality beef! Love this place, I’ve been here more times than I can count.

This is authentic Korean food. For BBQ it is excellent! The wait staff is kind and attentive. Prices are fair and quantity of food good. I travel to Korea often, and enjoy the food. Whenever I come to canada I eat here.
Try the pork belly and sirloin on the BBQ you will not regret.

So let me preface this by saying I have been here more than a dozen times and it’s pretty much a hit a miss depending on the service and quality of food that you get. The prices are a bit steeper in relation to other Korean restaurants so it’s definitely a downer when you get bad service and bad food.
On my most recent trip there in Saturday, we had unfortunately bad service and mediocre food. We were seated away in a room even though the entire dining area was pretty much empty and pretty much forgotten about. We were given an egg baked in a dish as a service, but were not given our banchan until after we were served our first dish.
The first dish to arrive was the kampoonggi and normally this dish is pretty good or at least I deemed as one of the best, but this day they set it down and it looked like it had been slopped together and no effort was put into presentation as most of the dish had shifted to one side of the plate. The dish was very disappointing and did not taste as good as I remembered it to be. It didn’t taste like it had just been made and lacked the kick that it had.
We also ordered the bulgogi which was probably the only decent dish that we had that evening. It was tender and not too fatty. The last dish we had was the dolsotbibimbap. You can’t really go wrong with that and so I would say it was good, but the portion in relation to other restaurants was quite small.
The service was terrible in general as they failed to come back to ask if we needed anything and we were all dying of thirst with our tiny cup of water. They seated the table next to us and told them they had to eat within 50 minutes as they only had time for that. Overall, the food was just so so and not worth the extra $$$ that we paid to eat at what I would deem a premium restaurant. Their customer service definitely needs to improve dramatically. Save your money unless you really want bbq meat.

My group ate bibim naengmyun (Korean spicy cold noodles) and yukgaejang (spicy beef soup) for lunch.
I believe my last visit to the restaurant was not great — expensive and nothing noteworthy. However, this time I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the main dish as well as the side dishes. I felt that the food was great and priced appropriately. I would love to come back again and try other food.

Sariwon, located on Yonge St. just approximately 150 metres North of Clark Ave., is one of the best Korean BBQ restaurants in the area!
The restaurant is located right at the entrance of the plaza and next to the indoor parking entrances. Inside the restaurant, the air is clean and cool (which is rare for a Korean BBQ restaurant), and the table and seats are nice and clean, with no sign of oil stains or food residue anywhere.
We ordered a Jijimi (Korean pancake) as appetizer as well as two orders of meat, one pork and one beef, for the BBQ.
The waiter came very soon with our pancake and removed the metal lid that covers the BBQ grill and lit it up. Six Korean side dishes were also served at the same time.
Our orders of Saeng Deung Sim (beef) and Sam Kyub Sal (pork) came and the waiter placed the beef strips on the grill for us and left. It also came with one pot of spicy tofu soup. Both kinds of meat were delicious although I personally preferred the beef better.
The bill comes with a glass of cold Korean Cinnamon tea, which I personally don’t like so I can’t comment on that.
The restaurant is equipped with on-​demand table service bells, so trying to get the attention of the waiters in the busy restaurant wouldn’t be an issue.
Overall I think this is a great restaurant for authentic Korean BBQ in a clean and cool environment!
Washroom rating: 7.5÷10

We came in super hungry and left really full. Food tasted authentic. The kalbi was superb! Bibimbap was also really good. For an appetizer, the chapchae was huge in portion! It was pretty much an extra dish. As for service, the staff were really friendly and accommodating. If you’re in the Thornhill area and you’re craving some Korean, definitely come to Sariwon!

[Service] — /
— nice waiters and waitresses
— electronic buttons for faster service than waving or calling
— tables could be a tad bit cleaner (missed spots)
— comfortable seating
— comfortable temperature within the restaurant
— appetizers delivered within 5 minutes
— main course delivered within the next 5 minutes
[Food] — /​
— delicious, very hot or cold depending on the dish
— plenty of side dishes
— side dishes tastes good
— rice is steamy and well made
— quality of ingredients is high
[Cleanliness] — /​
— tables neatly set
— utensils and dishes properly washed and dried
— bathrooms regularly clean sometimes can be dirty)

4 stars for the food. –1 because it’s pretty expensive for what you get. They do give you a very large amount of banchan. most of which I’ve never had before in less authentic korean restaurants. They also have a pretty fancy looking ventilation system to make sure your clothes don’t smell like kbbq at the end of the night. The service was alright. I don’t think they flipped the meat as much as they were supposed though. You also get «sam”(?) Which is basically lettuce that you put the delicious meat in.

Sariwon is the place to go if you’re looking for a more authentic KBBQ experience.
I’d highly recommend the MARINATED KALBI (only the marinated one!).
I want to know how they marinate their kalbi because they make it sooo yummy.
We also ordered the SAMGYEOPSAL (Pork). It’s full of fatty good-​ness.
The dinner set comes with a tofu soup too — definitely enough for a dinner for two :)

I think the piggy restaurant across the street is better. food wise, raw meat is raw meat but the service is so much better on the other side. price wise, pretty much the same. my cooking abilities, unfortunately is the same no matter where I go. food tends to either be under cook or burnt.
when it came to side dishes, there were a few different ones here. some were good and some were, let’s say different from what you normally get (in a good way).
I think I should accept the fact that I’m the type that is, quantity over quality. no matter how good the quality of the meats are, I don’t really get a chance to appreciate it. it goes from the grill, to my mouth and down to my stomach within seconds. I think ayce formats are more my type of places. they are lighter on the pockets ($ 70 for 2 very small portions of uncooked meat here today) and heavier in my stomach. I come out wobbling but more importantly, happy.
will I come back… I guess. not necessarily to this restaurant but, can’t always eat ayce all the time.

Sariwon is where you get high quality Korean BBQ meat, definitely not the type served at all you can eat places.
We made a reservation for five at 8pm and the place was packed! I highly suggest making reservations, especially for the BBQ tables.
There didn’t seem to be a hostess so groups of people stood around the front entrance for some time. I walked towards this older gentleman in a suit and told him I had a reservation and he pointed me to my friends who were already here. Although all the staff members were busy, one improvement they can make is the seating system.
We ordered pork belly, marinated sirloin and marinated beef ribs — which didn’t seem like a lot for $ 25 per serving but when devoured with rice and the side dishes wrapped in lettuce, we were actually so full! The meat came with tofu soup, we didn’t even have room to finish that. The seafood pancake here is also delicious — not as large as other restaurants but we were so full anyways.
Service was surprisingly quickly, our server actually chastised us for over cooking the pork belly. She came back and cooked the beef for us in case we ruined that as well.
I will definitely be back — Sariwon is one of the best Korean BBQ establishments I’ve been to by far!

This place is fantastic for Korean bbq! I like their grill and the fact that we don’t have to ask the servers to change the grill every time. It’s a clean restaurant, comfortable and have enough space.
We ordered the pork belly and Kalbi from their bbq menu. At first, we thought the portions were really small when they came out, but they were so filling. Plus, the order came with salad, soy bean stew, lettuce, Korean house salad mix (green onions), Ssamjang, garlic, hot peppers and the side dishes at no extra cost. The servers were very generous with the side dishes. When we requested for more, they attended to our request and service was very quick.
The pork belly was succulent, filled with flavour. The beef was tender, well marinated and prepared. The meat were grilled to perfection :)
I really like this place. The servers are very professional and came around often. Their equipment are up to date and well kept. The restaurant itself was relaxing and very roomy. The barbeque is amazingly delicious. I will definitely come back to this place to try out other food in their menu!