Pojangmacha Restaurant

I h t s a m a p i c m a m a n w
a h o n a l a a e n o o
d e j d k a n k s d t r
u k c e s r
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This was the site of the UYE: A White Day Celebration with Karl R.[1]
The whole idea started when Karl spotted a place that serves makkoli in North York’s Korea Town. Makkoli is a traditional Korean rice wine; slightly sweet, thick and milky off-​white in color. Hungry farmers in Korea too exhausted to eat would knock back the stuff like spiked milkshakes after a long day tilling the fields.
Karl was really excited about sourcing bottled makkolli in Toronto because he believes that it’ll be the next big trendy drink. Keep in mind that Karl also believes that he can court women with the animated space bunnies on his Gelaskin.[2] So either Karl is a genius, or he is wrong about everything. Only time will tell.
Anyway, Pojangmacha sells 1-​L bottles of makkoli ($ 25) and our group zipped through it pretty quickly before moving onto teapots of flavored soju ($ 16) which were the hit of the night. Soju is a clear alcohol distilled from sweet potatoes and sold for $ 1 a bottle in convenience stores throughout The Land of the Morning Calm. It is to Koreans what Everclear is to frat boys. On its own, it has the harsh sting of cheap vodka with a lingering aftertaste of nail polish remover. But when you mix it with fizzy, fruity Kool-​Aid-​like flavors, you’ve got yourself one helluva an addictive tipple. Grape and strawberry soju were popular that night but, personally, I prefer yogurt soju because it’s less sweet. (P.S. This is not yogurt as in Dannon yogurt; it’s Japanese-​style «yakult“[3].)
I’m not sure why this place is billed as a restaurant because it’s really meant to be a bar with some shareable plates of food on offer so patrons don’t pass out on the floor. The sweet-​spicy chicken was the best of the bunch while the seafood-​scallion pancake, chewy rice cakes in spicy sauce, and cheese omelet were just OK. The lady proprietor is very nice and made sure to give our group plenty of freebies like peanuts, mandarin orange segments, grilled rice cakes, and french fries.
Bottom line: Pojangmacha is a very Korean experience, and by «very Korean» I mean it’s conducive to drinking a lot and eating spicy food while having fun with friends. Karl also organized a Korean-​themed game with Korean snacks as prizes which made the night that much more fun so I guess sometimes his instincts are right on.
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Pojangmacha Restaurant should be renamed to Pojangmacha Bar. The strawberry, grape and lemon soju are amazing. I think I have found my new favourite drink! It is sweet and reminds me of kool-​aid. Yep, this is the stuff that hits you all of a sudden. Plus, it gets served in a little tea pot and you pour it into little shot glasses. Variety — sip or shoot. We tried both. Both work.
As for food, the deep fried sweet and spicy chicken was great. The little snacks of peanuts, dressed lettuce, mandarin oranges and french fries (this was surprising) provide absorption of the alcohol.
The décor was odd. It was like a cottage up north, or perhaps fashioned to be the original Montana’s chain.
All in all — I will return for the flavoured soju and the chicken.

Koreans refer to themselves as the Irish of Asia. I think mostly because both nations are legendary for their love of the tipple. There’s a huge business in designing traditional Irish pubs for up market North American cities. You’ll probably never see that for traditional Korean pubs called «hofs». But if you can’t get to Korea and you’re tired of the faux Irish pub aesthetic, you need to experience the Korean ascetic approach to watering holes. That means tables, chairs, and if the washrooms are separated by sex, well, that’s high class. Soju posters of Korean models working their «s-​line» on the wall are de rigeur. Think dive bars bitter Chemistry grad students frequent after long hours in the lab and then lose the opulence of a beer tap.
The Pojangmacha restaurant (the name only actually appears on the sign in the Korean hanguel script with «north york restaurant» being the only distinguishing English) brings the Korean hof experience to Toronto. The name itself refers to the little no-​nonsense «soju tents» that spring up on Korean sidewalks. Think of a hot dog cart with a tented seating area and the hot dog cart proprietor can semi-​legally sell beer and soju (a high test Korean paint thinner consumed as a beverage).
I twisted the arm of Susan C to hold a UYE here to introduce Unilocalers to a Korean farmer beverage called makkoli. Some call makkoli a rice wine but others stress its closer to a rice beer. Whatever it is, it’s a smooth drinking, semi sweet, milky white beverage. It’s not a cheap indulgence. A 1 litre bottle goes for about $ 25 with tax. The same bottle would go for a buck and a half K-​side. I think archaic Canadian and Ontario liquor laws force makkoli vendors to import and then export and then re-​import and then pass it all through the alimentary canal of a civet cat to legally get it to your table.
Keep an eye on makkoli as it will be the «in» drink of the future, says your friendly K-​town Lloyd Dobler (/​me playing Big Bang’s Last Farwell
).
After trying the makkoli, you can proceed to impressively cheap bottled domestic beer ($ 3.50). The real hit of the night, however, were the flavored soju shots. Grape seemed to be the crowd favorite but I enjoyed the yogurt soju shot. Much like makkoli, the soju shots go down easily. It’s wobbly pop, really, served in a tea pot.
Food wise, you get your basic Korean hof food offerings, include a plate of silkworm pupae (bundaegi) if one dares. We dared not and I never dared four years in country (boshintang didn’t pass these lips either). The sweet & spice chicken was a real hit. It’s kind of like lemon chicken but with a red pepper and sesame base.
This place gets packed quite early with young Koreans, probably York students, Also it’s Korean table service rules which means it’s not considered impolite to flag down your waitress when you want service or the bill. Koreans generally assume if you want something, you’ll pipe up. Korean restaurant culture isn’t about checking in on the table every 5 minutes.
The waitress/​hostess speaks excellent English and did an excellent job accommodating our large, lightly Korean group.
(Curiously this is my 100^th Unilocal review. Whatever that means. Do I get Unilocal-​branded bronze epaulettes?)

This is kind of an odd location. When you walk in you feel like you’ve just entered a log cabin in the British Columbian wilderness at Christmas time (yes they still had Christmas decorations up in March). The service was alright, though as I understand it we had excellent service for a Korean restaurant.
The food was good but nothing that would make me want to trek there again because I had to have the (insert chicken dish here). The best part of the night was the drinking with all the other Unilocalers. With the combo deal of food and beer the bottles were $ 3 each. Add onto that the shots of Soju that tasted like fizzy Kool-​Ade and you’ve got yourself one table of good times.

I can still taste the sticky sweetness of the strawberry soju. While the food was forgettable, the booze; both in its cheapness and lovely flavor; will be remembered.
Due to Karl’s love of Korean, White Day was spent at this pub-​like establishment where we ingested many tiny kettles of soju and loads of red flavored rice concoctions. I say red flavoured because there is not much else that was definable about it. In fact Karl’s White day gift’s had better flavor variety.
Bottom line… as per Susan (Koran’s r us) this was not authentic Korean fare, however the booze was highly inexpensive and very tasty, so come here after dinner.

SOJU! SOJU!
Pojangmacha Restaurant aka North York Restaurant is a really cool place! Thanks for fellow Unilocalers Susan C in organizing this UYE so I have a chance to try out this interesting Korean restaurant. If not I really don’t know what I am missing!
Strawsberry, Grapes, Yogurt, Lemon Soju these are all the Soju that we tried. They served in cute little pot and drink with shot glasses. They tasted like Cool Aid and yes you suppose to down it in one shot! They are really tasty! I can drink that the whole night. One problem is I wondering how much sugar I consumed.
«Soju is usually drunk in group gatherings while eating, unmixed and portioned into individual shot glasses. It is against traditional custom in Korea to fill one’s own glass. Instead, it must be filled by someone else at the table. This promotes a spirit of thoughtfulness and camaraderie» from Wikipedia.
I did a good job doing it filling out everyone shot glasses!
The food is decent too, we have the sweet and spicy chicken, seafood pancake, spicy seafood with rice cake. The only thing I don’t like is the cheese omelette with ketchup. The portions are great and good to share with a group!
There are a lot of young Koreans hanging out here on Saturday night.
I would definitely be back for another visit and drink more Soju!
Not to mention the prices are great!
They accepts interac.