Khan Japanese Kitchen ~ Korean Izayaka in Annandale

[deangold]

TL/DR: good Korean version of Japanese pub food, good value, warm service: Please get your butts and seats into their chairs as we have never seen it with more than 10 people and we don't want it to go out of business.  Of course, Korean Hipster places tend to be packed Friday & Saturdays late. We tend to go during the week.  

 

You know you are a regular at someplace when you are placing an order and the waiter say: How about your usual Makkoli? And what makkoli! it is listed as draft makkoli which I am not sure if it means off of a tap or if it is just the style but it seems like it is the style whjich includes live yeast in the bottle. In any case, this is the best makkoli in the area: Served iced cold in a brass tea pot with melamine bowls.  Lucky Makkoli is 6% alcohol or less since it seems to force you to drink it.  Booze with a self destructive mindset!

We are definitely not the target demographic at Khan, a tiny Korean style Izayaka in Seoul Plaza which has an address on Markham.  Everytie we go, the other {few customers} are either Korean salarymen or Korean Hipsters or couples obviously on a date.  While we fit this last demographic, we are old enough to be the grandparents of most of the datenight couples we see.  But the warmth with which we are treated plus the slow business conditions make me urge you to go for very fun bar food.

Disclaimers: the extremely good makkoli may have influenced some of the following opinions. Isn't that the purpose of going to an Izayaka in the first place?

Our new home is within the Door Dash delivery zone.  

 

They have a happy hour 'til 9pm Sunday thru Thursday with about 10 items for $5.  We have had:

Tako Wasabi ~ incredible version w/green seaweed salad, lots of little bits of raw octopus and a dusting of masago, served with a pile of wasabi & a pile of seaweed pieces. You plop some of the slimy mix on the seaweed, sel apply the wasabi, roll and eat.  This is our must order dish.

Takoyaki ~ One of the best in the area. Crispy on the outside balls with chewy bit of octopus in a moist doughy batter spritzed with kewpie mayo, Korean worcestershire and lots of bonito flakes {high quality flakes with large shaved pieces}

Salmon Temaki ~ very tasty, you get two small handrolls for $5

Wings ~ so good they do not need the mayo based dip.  The manu says 6 pieces but last night we got more. They cut the wings into drumettes and then the two bones section. Light batter, greaseless, crispy with moist chicken meat.

Gyoza ~ definitely a purchased product but very nicely cooked and juicy. The lease favorite and yet still a good dish.

 

The menu has pages of dishes of which we have tried:

Assorted yakitori which come with a slightly too sweet for my taste tare but I love yakitori so much I go for it anyways.

Shrimp {this is the soy cured} I loved these but Kay did not: sticky, firm texture with a funk flavor from the soy curing, about 10 head on shrimp

Onigiri: a bowl of rice, slices of nori. What you are supposed to do is use the gloves given so you can scoop the rice into the nori and enjoy. Outstanding rice.  

Codfish Soup & Seafood Soup in spicy broth: I've had better elsewhere but very fine renditions.  Lots of stuff and less broth.

Spicy Chicken Ramen: Just ok, served dry, very spicy dry ramen.  I can make this at home with a package from Super H.

 

Stuff I really want to try:

Shrimp 6 huge raw shrimp, possibly served nigiri style, fried heads

Beef tataki {saw this served and it was a huge plate of good looking seared beef in ponzu w/decorations}

Steamed Egg

Anything deep tried as they fry with a sure hand. Definitely want to try the Korean Karaage {spicy or non} and the Tonkatsu

Baitop Shell salad w/noodle

Mackerel plate: appears to be mackerel sashimi slit vertically nad stuffed with stuff, grilled mackerel and maybe more as the online photograph I looked at was pretty hard to judge.

 

Stuffed I'm too old for

Pouch cocktails, neon cocktails with popsicles in them

Anything with sausage in it as they seem to think that sausage means a mediocre hot dog with a spiral cut so that any hope of juices are cooked out of the rubbery and fake smoke flavoring. Of course I ate the two different examples that we ordered {the second time, it came unsuspectingly on the ramen.}

Assorted fries which seems to be a huge plate {enough for 6 normal people or two Hipster Korean guys who ordered two, this all based on specific observation.} However, the small version is on the happy hour menu so I am sure I will try it in a self destructive mood!

[cocobinga]

I love izakaya fare! It looks like they have okonomiyaki. 

Definitely on my "to try" list.

[deangold]

22 hours ago, cocobinga said:

I love izakaya fare! It looks like they have okonomiyaki. 

Definitely on my "to try" list.

I think we have had the okonomiyaki. In any case, the takoyaki makes me think they could do a good job on the Okonomiyki

[deangold]

We went to Khan's Friday to watch the world series game and grab some food. The food an drink was super but the game gave us upset stomachs.  We tried to stick to stuff we have not tried before.

Saying that, we started with Temaki w/Salmon and they were deliscious. Next was Yubu Chobap consisting of tofu pouches stuffed with rice and then topped with your choice of a bunch of stuff.  You have to order a minimum of $4 but they are nly $2.50 each and a lot of food. We chose takowasa {octopus with wasabi & masago} x 2, brisket {sweet, tender, lush} and stirfried kimchi & pork which was good. I preferred the brisket, Kay the pork. After that, the mackeral plate: a frozen and thawed salted mackerel of really good quality, half cut into slices stuffed with masago, green onion & ginger and the other half sliced into chunks. Again, very delicious.  Next up was curry {hot} which was a very good version of classic Japanese curry with tonkatsu {excellently fried pork, no grease, crunch breading, delicious pork}, rice, abundant curry sauce, and three kinds of pickles.  At that point, we were considering something else when a tower of two temaki salmon  arrived with shouts of service from the bartender and manager. Service is how Korean's say on the house.  While we already had a pair, we eagerly polished these two off.

For drinks, we had 2 yogurt soju cocktails which were excellent but expensive {the recipe is one bottle's worth of Yakult, 2 of Soju and one of club Soda at our house, 7 up in a bar and we can buy enough ingredients for 25 servings for under $25,} a Sapporo draft, and another drink and the total bill was $100.  A little expensive but if we had gone with our usual draft makkoli the $32 for soju cocktails would ahve been about $12. 

Wonderful warm service, nice folk at the bar on either side of us. Great spot, never crowded {which I hope is not a problem} and very chill. K pop on the sound system but at a background music level and they even turned it down to turn up the soulnd on the game as the bar had 9 people watching the game and the rest of the place had 8 people eating & drinking at tables.  

[deangold]

Another visit for happy hour plus more.

Happy Hour {5 each}

Temaki ~ 2 salmon hand roll. Small but well flavored with fish egg & green onion,

Wings: 6 pieces of super crispy wings. The regular order is 12 pieces t $13 so the HH order is a deal, just not a great one.

Takoyaki were super crisp, wet and sticky at the center

Tako Wasa ~ out favorite: octopus, seaweed salad and masgo with a lump of super hot fake wasabi and seaweed. 

$10 pitcher Sapporo on draft

Non Happy Hour

Grilled squid was a large squid, sliced into rings, tentacles, geso and sseasoned with garlic butter. We asled for lime and that made t balanced. {15}

Yubu Chobap {I think} with tuna mayo, takowasa, brisket {best choice} and salmon.

Great warm service as always.