Restaurant Review: Chaban

CHABAN KOREAN CUISINE

872 The Queensway ~ chabantoronto.com Instagram: @chaban_toronto Co-Diner: Tim Golem

I once flew on a Korean airline from New York City to Bangkok with a layover in Seoul. As soon as they announced that the in-flight meal was about to be served, I looked at my husband and said "if they serve me bibimbap this will be the best day ever." And they did. And it was the best day ever. So when I saw that blogTO ranked Chaban as the #1 Best Bibimbap in Toronto, I clearly needed to try it for myself. They're located all the way in Etobicoke, which happens to be good for me because that's where I live. They even have parking in the back, which is quite helpful since they're located on a busy street. I visited on a Saturday evening and was easily seated right away in the bright little dining room. The restaurant maintained a steady stream of customers throughout my visit but never got too crowded. The space is fairly straight forward, with minimal decor and some cute greenery here and there. The service is to-the-point but efficient and friendly enough. I sat down to the usual complimentary cup of warm green tea and looked over the menu (which is mostly printed in Korean with English translations below). Our server was prompt in taking our order and the food arrived quite quickly afterward. The word "chaban" in Korean means "well prepared delicious food" and I am always in the mood for that! First to arrive, as always, was our Banchan. I'm always so interested and curious to find out what each individual Korean restaurant serves for banchan! There's almost always the usual suspects (kimchi) but sometimes you'll be surprised with something unexpected.

Chaban served four dishes, which is quite typical. You'll usually be served 3-4 in most restaurants. Banchan are small side dishes served similarly to an amuse-bouche in Korean cuisine. The offerings were fairly standard and of course included kimchi (Koreans do not consider a meal complete without kimchi). Fresh and palate cleansing, these were a nice way to begin. We officially started with an appetizer and chose the Deep Fried Dumpling ($7.99).

These golden-brown pouches were decently good, stuffed with some sort of meat-vegetable mixture. I enjoyed dipping them into the watery sauce for an extra hit of flavour. Our main objective was the Bibimbap, of course, a Korean mixed rice dish with a fried egg on top. Chaban has five different types available, all of the dolsot (hot stone bowl) variety. I went straight for the Chaban Dolsot Bibimbap ($13.99) which sounded the most like their signature dish.

Rice topped with vegetables, beef and optional red chili paste.

You can opt for tofu instead of beef if it suits you. This particular bowl included carrot, zucchini, bell flower and bracken, along with the fried egg, dried seaweed, and enoki mushrooms on top. The bowl arrived piping hot and dangerously sizzling away. The bright colours were eye-catching and the perfectly-laid presentation never gets old. The first thing that I always do is break up the egg and stir everything together while squeezing in liberal amounts of gochujang (red chili paste). As the bowl continues to sizzle away, the rice in contact with the bowl forms a bit of caramelized crust - arguably the best part of eating bibimbap (and the reason why dolsot is superior). This version was very nice. The vegetables were all crisp and fresh and I appreciated the inclusion of bell flower and bracken which are out of the ordinary ingredients. I found Chaban's gochujang to be more on the sweet side and less on the spicy side, which I found a bit disappointing. We didn't even get much of a crust in the bottom of our bowl and I'm unsure as to why. Maybe the bowl wasn't hot enough? It did arrive sizzling so I'm not sure what more could have been done. The dish was served with a mug of Korean Miso Soup on the side which I really enjoyed! I loved the idea of sipping on my soup mug throughout the meal. Was it the best bibimbap that I've ever eaten? Not exactly. I personally think that I enjoyed the one that I had at Cho Sun Ok better. But decently good bibimbap nearby in Etobicoke is always a welcome addition to my life! We picked one more dish to round out the meal, and after looking through the soups and stews, Korean-style casseroles (intrigued), and sizzling hot plates... We landed on the Pan Fried Spicy Chicken ($16.99).

Pan fried chicken with vegetable.

I'm a fan of bokkeum-style dishes and also spicy Korean chicken situations, making this plate an obvious choice. The chicken itself was a beautiful texture, ultra tender with an ideal mouthfeel. I loved popping morsels of chicken in my mouth after making sure that each piece was coated in as much sauce as possible. This was probably my favourite dish of the night. My only issue is that I didn't find it to be spicy enough. Again, the sauce tasted more sweet than spicy. I'm not someone who is all insane for spice, but I do like a pleasing amount of heat in my Korean food and I found this aspect to be slightly lacking. While Chaban didn't quite achieve the levels that my expectations were seeking, it was still a pleasurable experience. I'm happy to know that there's a place right down the street should I ever require a quick Korean fix (and I often do).