Toji Korean Restaurant - Portland, OR

I know how Korean food should taste like and know when I taste one. My first impression of this restaurant when I first walked in was that there was no Korean. I suddenly went, "uh oh." Also, I waited for 10 minutes to be seated even though there were empty tables because the place was under staffed. But when I tasted the food, especially the banchans, I knew Toji was a good restaurant. Cucumber salad and leek pancake were excellent. One thing I did not understand was that I did not see any fresh Kimchi for side dish. There was a cooked Kimchi dish but was not very good. I ordered pork belly barbecue and a cold noodle bowl. The meat was a good quality and the cut was a little thicker than usual but was pretty interesting looking but the taste was really good. The best part was the sauce. They gave me three different sauces for dipping the meat and the red colored one was really awesome. I could tell that this sauce is some kind of a fusion recipe but was very unique and made the meat taste good. As far as the cold noodle, the beef broth was excellent. It was very authentic and had a deep and mature taste to it. The spicy sauce for cold noodle was also good. It was not some simple crappy hot sauce often used in many Korean restaurants for cold noodle. Also, it was interesting how the place was not really all smoky inside even though the place did not have fans above grill tables. In conclusion, my only regret was that they did not have fresh Kimchi as a side dish. As far as there being not enough staff, I was forgiving since they were super nice. Overall, I really enjoyed my experience there.