The Famous Owl Of Minerva Korean Restaurant & Bar

This is my favourite Korean restaurant in KW. I order the same thing as I always do — Bibimbap, Bulgogi Marinated Beef BBQ, and Kalbi (Korean Barbequed Beef Short Ribs). The price is very reasonable. Casual dining style. Usually, there’s Korean Pop playing on the TVs, which is always entertaining to watch. Simple place with great food, consistent taste, and great price. I’m here at least once a month or once every two months!

Good price. Always fast. Port bone soup is always a pick-​me-​up. Sometimes could get crowded, like Friday night. But most of the time they services are pretty good.
There’re not a lot Korean food in town, so I highly recommend this one. Plain and simple

Nice place for Korean food.

I always get the Pork Bone Soup. It’s a really good, reasonably price meal. Comes with rice, and the Korean side dishes like kimchi.

One of the best Korean places in town! Good pricing, food is good, prepared fresh and fast. Seated very quickly, waitress are all friendly, especially the owner, she is very very friendly, welcoming and helpful. We will keep going back for sure!

They don’t have on the menu as the website advertises. Also, I ordered the (soondaegook), and all the pieces were disintegrated into the soup because it was prob boiling in the pot all day.
Also, don’t order their, it’s not fresh and the noodles aren’t washed out enough.

What a little gem in the heart of Waterloo. First-​timer was greeted with smiles and super-​friendly service. Had the Dolsat BiBimBap which was everything you would hope for and more. Came with soup and several tasty appetizers. Met Diane who I assume is the owner and she was very sweet and engaging. Food was so good I decided to get a seafood tofu soup to go. Great experience all around.

Great Korean food in Waterloo! I ordered Soon Tofu soup, and it tastes wonderful! The side dishes that this place offers contains kimchi, potato, bean sprout and turnip pickle. I personally think that the potato is weird, but it’s yummy anyways. One thing I notice is that there is only one waiter and the restaurant owner who serve customers, but the food comes out quite fast though. Finally, the price is reasonable.

I’ve been to this location twice now. I’ve had the Beef Bulgogi and Pork Bone soup. Both were delicious and the portions were big. The only knock holding me back from giving them a 5 is the fact that I never get enough rice with the dishes. Prices are very fair ($ 12 a meal after tax)

Good food but not what I expected. No grills on the table! About half way through our meal we saw them bring out a portable grill to a table. So I guess you need to know the secret password to get actual Korean bbq.
The bulogi beef and kimchi were both the highlights of the meal!

Solid Korean food with a really fair price point. You cannot go wrong with eating here that is unless you have a strong sense of smell. The place does have bit of a strong scent but it becomes unnoticeable after a few minutes. Aside from this minor flaw the staff is very friendly and food is superb.

This is my go-​to place! Absolutely delicious! I love how they make their potato appetizer and the Kalbi is probably the best I’ve ever had. The owner is also a sweetheart! She is so friendly and welcoming. Highly recommend! :)

I ordered the Bulgogi and the dish was passable. The dish was surprisingly bland despite it coming from a reputable authentic restaurant chain.
As a party of three, we initially wanted to order two dishes to split for the three of us since we all weren’t too hungry. The waiter forced us to get each a meal despite the fact that we weren’t too hungry. We were not too happy about that.
They didn’t take American Express despite their credit card holder saying that they took American Express. The waiter told us that they were left over from the past restaurant.
Overall, not good service or good food. Don’t recommend eating here.

Very authentic delicious Korean food. I went with a group of co-​workers and everyone loved the food here. We will definitely be going back.
I lived in South Korea for a year teaching English and this restaurant brings back great memories.
The owners/​employees are so kind too!

We just stopped by for a quick late night bite to eat. The food was great, and our server was very sweet and personable. The Kalbi beef was some of the best I’ve had, and the spicy chicken dish was to die for! Next time I’m in the area I will definitely be stopping by. :)

This place was just fine. Nothing standout, but not awful. The bulgogi was subpar, but the spicy chicken was awesome.
The service was good, super attentive, but we didn’t get our appetizer until the end of our meal, which was… not what I expected.
The good: quick and decent, close to the Waterloo Hotel, where we’re staying.
The bad: they didn’t tell us that it was cash only because their machine was down until the end. As an out-​of-​towner, I had no idea where an ATM was.

Pretty solid Korean food imo. Ordered the Gamjatang (meat was tender, broth was flavourful) and bibimbap (this also came with a soup which was nice!).
Would recommend this place for a good Korean meal in Waterloo :)

Solid food. Ok, so honestly, anywhere else, it would probably just be 3 stars, but in Waterloo, where the pickings are a bit slim for good korean food, I’m happy enough with the food here.
I’m essentially getting almost like a homecooked korean meal, if I was a korean guy and put in a reasonable effort at cooking. Although my suspicion is that if I had a korean girlfriend, she would likely be able to put together a better meal than what I had here. At least before we got married.
Their dubboki was surprisingly good. Soft, tender, chewy, with just enough sauce. I also had their bulgogi. It was alright. Nothing spectacular. I would say that their food, although satisfactory, wouldn’t win any awards, but then there is a prominent sign at the front saying that they were awarded best korean restaurant in Kitchener. Then again, I think there’s probably only about 4 korean restaurants in Kitchener, and a couple in Waterloo.
Their entrance is small, easy to miss, but the inside is quite large with seating for probably 50 people. They are understaffed though, so don’t expect service to be that fast. But they seemed to care about their customers and the service.
I think people compare this place to the best korean places in Toronto, Markham, and Seoul. So, of course, compared to that, this place would be a measly 1 or 2 stars. But in Waterloo, I think we’re fairly lucky to have a diversity of restaurants and cuisines to choose from.

I went here a few days ago with a friend of mine as an escape from the brutal snowmageddon. We were sat immediately far away from the door, which we were quite happy about as we were chilly enough as it was!
We both ordered the bibimbap which was reasonably priced for the size of it. All of the sides were also great portions — we had kimchi cabbage and radish (I think?), potatoes with a sort of sweet sauce to it, and pickled cucumber. Overall the entire meal was delicious, we were pleasantly stuffed, and the bill came to $ 12 each with tip.
My only complaint was that there was a little kid running around screeching at the top of her lungs. Unfortunately that tends to make conversation and enjoying you meal in peace a little difficult.
Either way, I’m sure I’ll be back!

This is great. Casual atmosphere with authentic Korean food. The service was attentive and we really liked everything we ordered. A couple nitpicks would be that there were only three types of kimchi for the banchan (would have liked 5 – 8 sides, typically) and they didn’t have any Korean juices to drink with the soju.
The japchae was really tasty and had a good amount of sesame oil, though I would have liked more wood-​ear mushrooms in it. Yum! Pork kimchi jigae was spicy and flavourful, fair amount of pork. We got the spicy chicken as well, which was delicious and had a tangy, spicy sauce that wasn’t especially hot but tasty nonetheless. We’ll definitely be back. I want some seafood pancake, stat.
The reviewer for UW’s Imprint complained that he spent $ 7.99 on the ramen and there wasn’t any meat or vegetables in it. I’m not sure what he was expecting at that price point — this restaurant is affordable but the ramen is the cheapest thing on the menu. It looks pretty good, in fact, for under 8 bucks. You can get a really nice meal here, without the alcohol, for around $ 50 for two people. Our huge dinner for two with three mains and two bottles of soju was something like $ 73 before tip.