Jung Soo Nae Korean Restaurant - Yummy Banchans

We're always on the look out for good mom & pop type restaurants and have always wanted to try Jung Soo Nae.  Based on the exterior, this looked like it could be a "home-y" type place.  The restaurant is located at the bottom of an apartment building just north of Yonge and Finch, if you weren't paying attention you'd surely miss it.  We finally tried it a few weekends ago.

Jung Soo Nae Restaurant
Address:  5754 Yonge St., North York, ON M2M 3T6
Phone:  416-222-4267

Exterior of restaurant 

Interior

About 10 tables of decent size, most people were locals as we were one of the only patrons that drove and parked (parking at the back spots 32-50).

First Impression:  Very home-y and quiet
Second Impression:  Good quality and ample banchans (side dishes) are served!

Food:

1. Fish cakes  2. Soy bean sprouts  3. Seasoned seaweed (made from dried seaweed sheets)  4. Potato shredded
5. Seaweed stalks  6. Kimchi napa cabbage  7.  Peanuts with mini dried anchovies 

Upclose view

They served us 7 different banchans and they were all fresh and well made.  The fish cakes had the most fish flavour of any that I've had without being too "fishy".  The seasoned seaweed is one that you don't often see so it was nice to have something different.

I usually get Gamjatang (pork bone soup) but it was a hot day so I opted for cold noodles called "Chik Naengmyeon".  The noodles were made from arrowroot flour and had a nice chewiness to it, not overly chewy that you have to pull and pull  with you teeth to break it, just light enough.  The beef broth was cold as it should be, with a vinegar tang to it, mildly spicy.  Since this was about the noodles and cold soup there is very little of anything else.  You can opt to have the noodles in a sauce instead of the broth.

Half an egg is hiding near the top

My partner had the Galbijjim (braised beef short ribs) which came with purple rice.  Tender beef but not fall off the bone unfortunately.  Taste was decent though.



Service:

Staff were polite and seems to be a Korean family run place, limited English.  But at least one staff member also speaks Mandarin surprisingly.

I usually rate a place based on how well their banchans are made and Jung Soo Nae does a good job.  Overall, the food was quite good, not the best Korean food, but because of the banchans I'm sure we'll be back to try other dishes!!