Busan Galmaegi
Busan Galmaegi is a Korean BBQ spot that offers not one, but three different types of grills to cook your meat on.
Owned by the same Koreatown North entrepreneur behind fried chicken franchise Chicken in the Kitchen and BBQ hotspot Daldongnae, this cozy, woodsy restaurant isn't your usual AYCE barbecue spot.
Gluttonous consumption is less important here, as is the emphasis on high quality meats like pork belly ($15.99) and rib eye rolls ($19.99), which are ordered a la carte.
As with nearly all Korean restaurants, you'll receive a generous number of complimentary banchan dishes like squares of acorn jelly, eggplant, and kimchi.
Also complimentary are bowls of steamed egg and a delicious soybean soup.
There are three different grill styles here that you can experiment with, depending on what kind of meat you order.
A more traditional-looking iron grill is reserved for mostly un-marinated meats like beef rib finger meat ($18.99) or boneless short ribs ($23.99).
Anything with 'marinated' in the name is cooked using a mesh-like gridiron grill, a popular method in Korea and Japan, but less commonly found in Toronto.
Marinated chicken leg meat ($17.99) and marinated galbi, which is three pieces of beef ribs ($24.99), are all flavoured with a soy sauce-based mixture that also includes some Korean pear, for sweetness.
Beware of painful sizzle splash-back as your meat cooks. The net-like grill won't protect you.
The third grill type is a round stone grill reserved exclusively for the order of grilled beef intestine ($19.99), which comes with liver, a side of garlic chives and a spicy sauce.
You're supposed to cook it all together, hot plate-style. I recommend cutting these pieces of intestine into small pieces, and letting them cook until totally crispy.
Servers will help switch out your grills right at the table, but given the extensive effort, you won't be able to switch back and forth from marinated to unmarinated meats easily, which could be a deterrence if you like to have the option of eating everything at once.
Like its sister restaurant, Busan is pretty delicious. Head here for a more diverse grilling experience.
Herman Wong