The Famous Owl of Minerva

I ordered Gom Tang, in the description showing Beef Bone with white soup. I was surprised when I opened it, no beef bone and only a few pieces of beef. So disappointing for a soup $23.99 on Uber

The pork bone soup is my favorite. The soup is rich and yummy, and it has tender meat. The spices and seasonings give it a tasty flavor. They also have good side dishes like kimchi. It's a cozy place to eat.

It was okay.i felt the fried rice wasn’t fresh in this location than the other ones i’ve tried.it tasted sour

The worst dish I’ve ever tasted. Never come back
instant jajangmyeon noodles even better:)

The food itself was delicious! I recommend. The shop was very calm which I don’t mind.
The server was also really nice.

However, they don’t take foreign cards. Be prepared to struggle when paying. They only take debit mastercard.

Food was good and the waitress was friendly! Atmosphere inside the mall was a little bit sad. Good quality food though for good price!

Customer service is awful particularly the old lady. She made it sound like tip of 15% is a requirement. And she was rude in talking and even smirked and turned her back on us. Very rude. Food is great tho but I think Finch branch is much better.

I've been a royal customer for 6 years, and I haven't seen customer service this bad before.
When we ordered the largest pork bone, we only got 2 bones. When we ordered before, it always came with 3. (says in the menu 3) We asked them, and they told us the reason was because the bone size was bigger. It was literally all bone. How can you say 3 in the menu and only give 2, we paid for it, so we should get it.
When we were waiting, the staff were coughing without any gesture to wash their hands.
A couple was stopped from leaving the restaurant because they didn't tip, although I think it is mandatory to leave a tip, but stopping the couple from leaving was a bit too much, in my opinion. They got humiliated and embarrassed in front of everyone in the restaurant.
The atmosphere was very toxic.

I really miss the old man who used to work at the owl. He made it feel like home. He was the real G.

What a lovely little establishment.

Came here with a few friends for lunch and the food was phenomenal and service was great. Hidden little gem. Great prices and good options for almost any type of dietary restrictions! Would definitely recommend if you’re in the area and want a quick bite of some authentic, tasty Korean food.

The food here is incredible, 5 stars, but this place, like the mall it is in, is in desperate need of a renovation. Also need real spoons not disposable plastic. The food was so good I’ll return again for sure.

Extremely overpriced and the woman working at cash station handled my food after handling money without washing hands

This should be a good place to eat at. But what would disappoint you is the employee, the server that we had was rude and did not have any clear instructions. They expect us to order more food when we’re all not able to eat everything and just be on waste, this was our first time in this location and the server didn’t even bother to ask if it was our first time here and expected that we know what their rules will be in this location, at least could’ve informed us in the first place.i’m not usually the type to complain but the server was unbelievably rude.

Disappointing.
Kamjatang was cold. The flavour was ok. Barely anything but meat (should have potatoes and vegetables).
Stone bowl bibimbap had good veggies, but they forgot the gochujang, which is the heart of the flavour. I didn't realize it at the time of ordering, but a stone bowl bbb isn't even possible for delivery as you have to cook it in the bowl, with the oil and egg yolk cooking with/into the ingredients. Just a way to charge more.
Everything too expensive, btw.
I read that they're open all night. Late night downtown would be the only reason to eat from here.
Better, cheaper options available in person, or by delivery.
Never again for us.

Open 24 hours and will hit the spot in the early hours of the day when you need something that warms the sole.

They are not holding back on flavour. The garlic is strong here my friends, and as it should be.

If you're looking for a place open late, and you're feeling Korean food, you'll leave satisfied after a meal here.

Does anyone know who the Owl of Minerva is? Bible reference?

Uber Eats experience. Half of my food was missing. They admitted fault, forgetting to give half of my order to the delivery guy. We had to order again and ask for a refund through Uber.

Fine, people make mistakes. But listen. If you delay my food by a whole hour and a half, don't you think there should be some compensation? Complimentary dish or a discount or smt small to show apology? When you admitted over the phone that it was your fault.even a small note that said "sorry for the late food" would've sufficed.

Nah we just got cold late food. Little goes a long way, but they didn't even show a little.

Food was just OK, nothing to write home about.

Found it quite by chance had amazing service delicious food this was my first time having Korean food. Absolutely love the lady who looked after us she also gave me a little chocolate because when she gave us candies with the bill I was giving the candies to my friend so as we were leaving that adorable lady stopped me and gave me a little box with some chocolate in it she didn't want me to leave without having a little treat

Absolutely love this place!

All the side dishes taste good except for the noodle. The noodle in main course taste good with sauces. Number 1 and 21 taste good. The pork is super tender! Definitely worth a try. Prices are not too expensive.

The food was a little subpar compared to other Owl locations and no tea was served, but the employees weren't wearing masks almost the entire time we were dining, which is definitely a little concerning.

If you're ordering takeout it shouldn't be an issue, but dining in was really underwhelming.

Absolutely amazing taste with generous portion. I tried something other than their famous pork bone soup and they were really good.

Beef cabage soup, bibimbop in a sizzling bowl, and the egg roll were all top notch.

Great place for a bowl of pork bone soup or a kimchi stew. Their seafood pancake is also delicious.

Horrible restaurant in terms of delivery. Advertising products they don't have. Tried once to order, and got my order cancelled for the reason that they don't have items displayed in the menu. Avoid at all costs!

I ordered delivery through SkipTheDishes. I got the tteokbokki + kimbap combo and fried dumplings.

Tteokbokki is too runny and bland, I’ve made it myself better lol. Kimbap is ok, I’ve had better but they used the purple-y rice which is awesome. The dumplings are SO MEATY and didn’t arrive soggy, still crisp! Love it.

Giving 3 stars cause packaging is immaculate lol. Fried dumplings arrived crispy, and tteokbokki is packed like bubble tea but in a bowl so no spillage whatsoever!

They gave both cabbage kimchi and radish too which is a personal bonus to me.

Will update once I try more of the main dishes cause I used to have their budaejjigae and other things back in Hamilton and they were pretty good!

Update: jajjangmyeon pretty good

I wish I could give 0 star. Literally for my five years lived in Toronto, you have the worst ddukbokgi I have ever eaton. How could you make it so horrible and disgusting?

Food is good. Love the pork bone soup and spicy rice cakes. The staff could be a bit more attentive and friendlier though.

I order off of this location fairly regularly (2-4 times a month) and usually I do not have any issues with my orders up until today. I always get an item and request for there to be no mushrooms as I have an allergy. When my food arrived via UberEats and I had opened my bag, I was met with a rather snarky message on the box telling me to get better taste buds. I can not control the fact that I can get severely sick from eating an ingredient to one of their dishes. I am extremely unhappy and disappointed with this message that I have received and I hope that they see this review and learn to do better in the future. Never judge a book by its cover. Will not be ordering from here again and will be telling others to not as well.

I have never seen a restaurant with such a poor quality. It is really embarrassing to Koreans. In my impression, the service of Korean restaurants has always been very enthusiastic and very good, but this restaurant gave me a new understanding of Korean restaurants! The staff in this restaurant are not polite at all, and they have no sense of responsibility! I think they are all asleep. I hope the boss can find some employees who are in charge, because the few employees who went to work last night will really make your restaurant go bankrupt!

The Kimchi fried rice with egg was delicious. The soft tofu soup was pretty good although I would have preferred that there was more chicken in the soup as I ordered the chicken option. We waited a little longer than we expected to but we received complimentary drinks to compensate.

My husband and I have eaten here many times! The dishes I highly recommend are the pork bone soup, seafood pancakes, rice cakes, black bean noodles, and pretty much any meat on the menu! Even through COVID the delivery has been amazing, obviously certain foods like the seafood pancake aren’t going to be crispy but that’s obvious (just reheat in a frying pan and it’s delicious!) the pork bone soup comes with 2 giant pieces of pork and potato with rice and side dishes! Definitely a favourite as the weather gets cooler at night! Highly recommend for some delicious home cooked Korean food!

I’m not a big fan of spicy food but overall everything that I’ve tried from the Spadina location has been delicious. The pork bone soup and spicy rice cake dish is delicious. The spicy pork meat and Korean bbq is always cooked well and very tasty. For the price and service you can’t be mad! Service has always been quick, we’ve ordered through Uber eats and when we could go into the restaurant before COVID we always had friendly service!

I absolutely liked their food and customer service, fantastic area right next to my house. The staff members are always super friendly. Would recommend to others.

We order two orders of pork bone soup on Ubereats and it is like one of those frozen package food instead of fresh cooked. Both the flavor and the quality are very bad compared to fresh cooked meals. I'm very dissapointed at it and I feel cheated by the restaurant. If I wanted to have the pork bone soup in a frozen package, I would just buy it in the supermarket. People order deliveries from restaurants because they expect fresh cooked, well-done food, and not this. Highly not recommend it if you are to order it for delivery.

Ordered pork bone soup on Uber Eats. Charged me $10 for microwaved frozen food that cost $5 in the supermarket. Very disappointed.
网上订餐送来的是超市的速冻汤，太敷衍了⋯⋯

Ordered food, they messed up the order numbers, got 1 item instead of 3. Delivery person went back with the item asking what happened they told him the bag was marked incorrect so someone else has my food however was told nothing they can do. And to reorder.

Food was good. But the service really2 bad. The waitress asking for the tips, and we give her tips, but she not happy with it. And she give back the money with impolite ways

Ordered some wings and fries tonight off of Uber. The wings were not tasty or well done at all and the fries tasted like Mccain frozen fries. So disappointed. Definitely not ordering from here again!

We paid 60$ for three meals for delivery: one seafood pancake, one white fish spicy stew with vegetables and one beef udon stir fry.
The seafood pancake was soggy but still tasty.
The side dishes didn't taste fresh: the cabbage kimchi was bitter and the radish kimchi wasn't that good neither.
The fish stew consisted of a tiny fish cut in four pieces. They should have advised us how bony it would be. The stew was more of a soup with a few pieces of vegetables, 1.5 pieces of tofu and a small fish.
The beef udon stir fry was a disappointment: it was very oily, there were 4 pieces of beef (we paid 3$ for protein and expected to have more.)
We wouldn't have paid half of the cost for the mediocre meals.
We won't order from this restaurant anymore. We regret it bitterly.
The only thing we enjoyed fully was the steamed purple rice. What a joke. You can do better. Don't be "famous" for your cheapness.

If I could put 0 star I would. I ordered a stir fried udon with vegetables and beef, there were 3 small pieces of beef. Rip off.

I ordered Kimbap and the rice was soggy and there wasn't enough flavour. Kimbap is a classic Korean dish that is hard to mess up, very disappointed. I was also told that I could not split the bill even though I was paying cash. The restaurant was not even busy and they made it that much more difficult for me to pay. Just something as simple as making it difficult for the customer to pay will be detrimental in deciding to return to your business and deciding whether or not to tip you/how much.

Great food! Tried most of their dishes. My favourite is still pork bone soup. Its very authentic and the meat is super tasty. Portion is big! I recommend to order food online or get take out because the place itself is not that appealing.

This is the best Owl of Minerva by far. Our go to place for late night dinner with a very reasonable price. The menu is great and the food tastes delicious. Bulgogi, L. A. Kalbi, DakChulPan and Kimbop are our favorite here.

Make sure to look for Euna, her service is the best! She knows how to deal with customers; very friendly and accommodating. She's the reason for the fifth star on this review, great job!

Decent price. Poor food quality compared to other Korea options in the area. Would not come back for a second visit.

Very poor experience. Very bad service!
The waitress never smile and was very bad to us. My other friends have been the same feeling. The food is good, hope to change to a new waitress.otherwise no one will go again later.

They have increased their prices but their portions have not changed. Increasing the price is fine but they could have at least make their portions appropriate for the price.

Funnily, even though this Owl is in Chinatown, it's my favourite out of all the locations in Toronto.

The food was great! But the look and the service is nothing to write about! Would I come back, probably not, but I did enjoy the food.

Very very good hidden gem. Didn't think it'd be that good initially, but very pleasantly surprised. Amazing pork bone soup!

One time we went on this branch and when i paid using debit i didnt gave any TIP and someone came to our table saying "TIP is not included on the total payment" so its like wow seriously.it depends if customer wants to give a TIP and not to be asked for.i better go to other branch or find other korean resto next time

Small location but the food is good and generally good value. Paid parking lots in the area and is sometimes busy. Service was generally good. Wasn't busy the few times I've been. But I generally go to another place with more seating and space in general.

They charged us 15% + hst, because we are 5 peoples on the weekend dinning. I nerve have see that in other restaurant before. After we complained it, the waitress clean up us table right away even though I haven't due my food. Never come back again.

This place is always consistent. The food is good and big portions. Open late on the weekend and I live their pork bone soup.