The Owl Could Be Wiser

Just when I thought I had uptown Waterloo licked, it hit me with another new restaurant. I should count myself lucky. We should all count ourselves lucky. We have somewhere to eat yet again. But what newest installation rests in the cultured culinary court of our uptown? Another Korean restaurant. Yes, you heard me, and I’ll whole heartedly accept your hating me for reviewing a Korean place so soon, but what else could I do? Nothing else is new. For me, anyway. 

I’ll be adult about this. No I won’t, I’ll be totally immature. To add insult to injury, the joint’s a chain. A chain you’d be better off confusing for an ESL cram school, what with its owl in graduate cap mascot and all. 

There’s a lesson here. Yearning for more Korean places leads the universe to deliver more Korean places, and that can be a bad thing, especially when all Korean places seem to be doing the same thing. The ‘Famous’ Owl of Minerva Korean Restaurant & Bar is a little bit of an exception, because it has the most expansive, different menu I’ve seen, all while offering the same things we’ve already seen. But hey, why travel blocks away to one Korean place when you can just go up the street to the other? That’s one redeemable quality, I suppose. 

Its large dining hall shares a familiar vibe with the other washed out Korean joints of bigger cities. Intense lighting, a cool open, airy chamber, and an ambience that eliminates the time of day, all copy the same atmosphere portrayed by the restaurants of Korean dramas, all of which were playing on the multiple televisions resting on the place’s walls. Exposed brick, red and yellow swatches, regal chairs and tables echoing a woody Korean aesthetic all echo something we’ve seen before, and I suppose that’s the point. It can be comforting in its familiarity, but paradoxically agitating if you’ve been eating in these places for far too long and are tired of the performative bellowing Korean hellos. I wouldn’t expect any different, however. If you want something hardy and familiar, then it’s the place to be. 

It does fall shorter than I’d like though. Yes, it has a large menu, but mixing and matching is few and far between, especially if you want to stay under a 20 dollar budget. You can squeak by if you’re really clever, and compromising. Bowls of soup and rice aren’t partner to bowls of noodles, so if you want meat dishes, be prepared to pay a little more. Oh, and if you love black bean noodles, look somewhere else. But that’s a small flaw for the amount of options. 

I ordered an honest bowl of instant ramen noodles, because I’m a sucker for inexpensive dishes, and apparently a bigger glutton for punishment. Set in a stoneware bowl was a quota of noodles lumped together with slices of rice cake, dumpling and a soft boiled egg, all in a bath of boiling fuzzy foam and salty spiced broth. The bowl lacked any balance. No vegetables, no real meat, and in a bowl too hot to warrant eating immediately, so much so that by the time the bubbles settled down, the thing became a kind of starchy porridge. 

In between that and my plate of spicy ricecakes I consumed a smattering of side dishes, meager and all too similar in flavor, featuring a spectrum from spicy to sweet to brakish. I’d expect better from such an established place, especially since other places in town offer great arrays, and half the time, it’s the side dishes customers come for. 

My plate of ricecakes, combined with vegetables and fish slices, smothered in a spicy, sandy sauce, was my favourite choice. It had balance and clear, simple flavours of sweet, savoury, and spicy, calmed by sesame. Texturally, it was a treat with chewy cakes, firm fish, and crunchy vegetables. But regardless, with a stiff opposition of already established Korean restaurants in town, I’d expect more wisdom with cuisine from a place as 'famous' as the Owl of Minerva. 

The Famous Owl of Minerva Korean Restaurant & Bar
2 King St N, 
Waterloo, ON 
N2J 2W7 
519-886-7275 

11am-11pm every day 

ANY PAYMENT

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