On the final leg of our downtown food tour, #JoyDiaggi (Joyce of @vanfoodies, Diana of @foodologyca, and I @magmei) was at Mapo for dinner and drinks.
This is Yaletown’s newest Korean pancake and rice wine social house. A great spot to wine down at (intended pun) or amp up with a large selection of unique spirits and the perfect carbs to pair with them.
For drinks we would start with the Makgeoli sampler. As taken from Wikipedia, Makgeoli is “raw rice wine, a Korean alcoholic beverage. The milky, off-white, and lightly sparkling rice wine has a slight viscosity that tastes slightly sweet, tangy, bitter, and astringent. Chalky sediment gives it a cloudy appearance.”
There is a local distillery in Surrey that specializes in it and Mapo has made it available for those in Vancouver to try. The sampler features rotating flavours, of which I am told any of their nut ones are most popular. Today we sampled Chestnut, citron, green grape, and strawberry. It drank like a creamy fruit flavoured wine, but with a much lower alcohol percentage. Even Diana, the non-drinker of the group was throwing these back, they are so easy going.
The original is simply tangy, reminding me of Yakult, the fermented and sweetened probiotic milk beverage from Japan. The chestnut is fragrant with a roasted flavour. The citrus is bright and acidic. And I wish the flavour of the grape one was more prominent.
For those who don’t like a milky alcoholic beverage they also have highballs with a twist. Served in large steins you are getting your monies worth with these. These too are created to be easy drinking, and resemble more of a spiked ice tea. Made with 1.5oz of Jameson Irish whiskey, lemon, tonic water, and your choice of flavoured syrup.
I was excited at the prospect of their house made earl grey syrup high ball, but could not taste the distinct flavour of the tea. The ginger reminded me of gingerale thanks to the bubbles in the tonic water. But the yuzu was the most prominent and they one I would recommend.
The best way to try all of their pancakes is via their Deluxe Tray option. Here you get 1 large pancake, 4 medium sized ones, and 10 of the smalls. For each category you get to choose from a list of possibilities. The following is what we had.
The large pancake is an an actual full sized Korean style pancake, we got it classic: the Seafood with green onion. This is the best seafood pancake I have had to date, the texture is amazing with the green onion julienned thin and intermingling well with plenty of prawn, scallop, squids, and crab imitation meat. Fragrant and chewy, it didn’t even need a dipping sauce. Definitely a must try, and this is coming from a person who doesn’t normally order the green onion pancake.
The medium sized pancakes are 1/3 smaller than the large, the size of a flattened hamburger patty. Given that it is a sampler for sharing, we wanted something to help slice it into individual pieces. The following was our choice of 4 out of 6 options.
The Corn Cheese Pancake was a mix of Canned Corn, Mozzarella, Parmesan, and Mayonnaise. Despite its doughy look, this did not include any flour. Sweet like corn, but with not enough cheese for my tastes.
The Kimchi Pancake had more punch to it. Zesty with a mild spice this was Kimchi, Prawns, and Squids. This one had dough and was a well flavoured by the kimchi, I just wished I got the same easy chew of the seafood above.
The Tteokgalbi Pancake was Ground Beef, Ground Pork, Onion, and Green Onion. This too had no flour or egg and what you got was more like a hamburger patty dressed in a sweet brown sauce.
The Bbq Chicken Pancake was just seasoned chicken coated in an eggy batter and panfried for a crispy coating. Not the most exciting in ingredients or flavour, but nothing all the sauce or the traditional Korean sides couldn’t help to perk up.
From what we could recall our selection of dips included Spicy mayo, Honey soy, Korean mustard, Hot sauce, Pickles, and Regular soy. And the sides were a fresh green salad and some tangy pickles.
As for the small pancakes we just got one of each. It all sounds like a lot of food, but small and medium pancakes all stacked well on a single serving board.
The following were one biters of meat or vegetable and batter. It was like tempura, but instead of an airy crisp batter this was the same pancake-like batter above. Zucchini, Mixed mushroom, Asparagus, and Tofu were the most simple of the lot.
Then there was Korean style meatball with ground beef, ground pork, carrot, onion, green onion, and no flour. Skewers jeon had ham green onion, imitation crab meat, and pickled radish. Cod jeon included cod with its flour, and eggs. Tuna jeon used Tuna canned alongside carrot, onion, and green onion; all with no flour. And Yook jeon was Sliced beef and egg.
Although the pancakes are fun and make for a great tapas, I preferred their traditional Korean dishes like the Seafood Tteokbokki. This was such a large serving that my eyes grew wide at the sight of it. Prawns, Squids, Mussels, Rice cakes, Fish cakes, Udon noodle, Onion, Cabbage, and Green Onion. The chef was kind to offer a less spicy version, which we did take advantage of. There wasn’t anything I didn’t like about this. Saucy and starchy the udon was as fun to slurp as the rice cake enjoyable to chew through.
The Smoked Pork Bulgogi was a visual treat. Served sizzling, it continued to smoke as it was set atop of a stand, lit and kept warm by candle light. Its Sweet and Salty Soy sauce coating caramelized under the heat, causing the edges to crispen-up.
In closing, Mapo is a great spot for traditional Korean cuisine and a fun one to have some drinks after dinner at when in Yaletown. There is nothing else like it in the area.
Mapo Korean BBQ 마포상회
708 Bloor St W, Toronto, ON M6G 1L4
(647) 797-7708
mapo-korean-bbq.business.site
