The Other Korean Place

This city needs more Korean restaurants, I’ve always said so. So when I was told by Daryl that Shinla Garden was knocked together in what was once the Lovenest (that favored of Ethiopan food spots) I was a little heartbroken, but consoled by its category of cuisine. Before Shinla Garden, there were only two or three places I could go to offering the kind of fare that wasn’t mixed together with another national cuisine. But now that Shinla’s here, I say the more novelty the merrier. And though Shinla may not be the best Korean canteen on the block, it’s been a long while since I’ve had a hearty bowl of black bean noodles remind me of why I was so glad to be part of a movement in the first place.

No need to be harried, dear eaters, because there is something for everyone at Shinla Garden. The most expensive thing on the menu is a combination plate of 23 dollars, but that’s dinner for two. If you’re eating alone, you’re apt to spend less than 10 and be more than satisfied with a slew of side dishes, a Korean courtesy at any restaurant and always a treat for the novel eater. It’s been so long for myself that I forgot they came with any order, and by the time I was finished deciding on an ambitious bowl of Korean Style Handmade Noodles with Black Bean Sauce and Pork Bone Soup (both 8 dollars), there they were, set in front of me, reminiscent of all the times I’ve had them before, but unique to every place that served them.

So, while I took in the blushing décor of the place- flushed purple walls, a naked tiled floor robed by a single pastel rococo rug and a plasma television showing nothing more than a zoetrope of China’s landscape- I delighted in some new and novel side dishes.

Remiss in one small bowl were four green slices of what I was told was a Korean pancake. Gooey with a flavor of durum reminiscent of the fresh pasta I’m used to eating, it was a rare treat. Its cool temperature made it a chewy delight, keeping it in my mouth as long as I could in order to savor taste and texture. The pickled radish was another treat. Familiar, but with its own unique sweet and sour quality, it was a side I couldn’t get enough of. Sadly, my side of kimchi was all the same, similar to every other place, which made me wonder if everyone else was really making their own.

My noodle entrée came first. Bedded in the bottom of my bowl were what the menu called handmade Korean noodles, though I’ve still half a mind to call shenanigans of something so similar to the noodles I can buy in the store. Layered atop all that was that affable smokey, salty black bean sauce I have come to know and love. Riddled with nutty beans, ground meat, squash, and sweet onions it was a gummy mix with malty undertones that clung to every noodle and left glutinous globules of flavor behind on the bottom of my bowl, and all over my napkin. 

My pork bone soup came still boiling in its bowl, its bright spicy citrus odours percolating up to my nostrils whenever any bubble popped. A savoury broth combined with spring onions, fleshy greens, crisp sprouts, and pork that tenderly pulled from each rib make it a light dish, but heavy if its eater is brazen enough to dump in a bowl of rice. Regardless, its portioning, like its entrée before it, was perfect, and though I definitely ordered more than I could finish, I’ve no regrets about trying as much as I could.

There’s nothing particularly au courant about Shinla Garden, but there’s something certainly familiar, and since its prices are enough to spoil customers, why spend more than you have to anywhere else? 
 
Shinla Garden
183 king street east
Kitchener, on, n2g 2k8

Mon-sat 11am-10pm
Sun 12pm-9pm

Any payment

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