Hum: Korean eateries in downtown Ottawa please with punchy flavours, affordable prices

Ottawa Citizen

03-07-2025

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For me, fried rice is comfort food. I like Maroo's kimchi fried rice ($20), available with one of those pork patties or a sunny-side egg, that adds kimchi's heat and funk and the umami lift of seaweed flakes to the mix.
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Bulgogi, the easy-to-like fry-up of sweet-salty beef, stars in multiple dishes, from a rice bowl ($18) to fajitas ($22) to a ciabatta-bun sandwich ($19, including a side dish) in which it's joined by cheddar, grilled mushrooms, garlic butter and mayo. Choose your own bulgogi adventure, I say. They've all hit the spot for me.
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The new Maroo serves several traditional Korean soups and stews that I don't recall seeing at its first iteration. Soon-tofu and seafood stew ($20) was piping hot and significantly spicy but its shrimp, squid and mussels were still plump and toothsome. A less hearty choice was the fish-stock soup ($20) bulked up with onions, mushrooms cabbage, an imitation crab, not to mention the perfectly fried pork cutlet on the side that would have made any schnitzel cook proud.
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Previously when I've had Korean short ribs, I cooked them myself at Daldongnae, the Korean table-top barbecue eatery in Chinatown, as part of a convivial, family-style dinner. At Maroo, it was worth it to have Kim do the grilling of a single-diner's version, given the nicely charred, flavourfully marinated short ribs ($33) that he sent to our table.
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Korean fried chicken ($22 to $38, half- and full-orders respectively) had all the right fast-food attributes — admirably crisp exteriors, sweet-savoury or sweet-spicy sauces on the side. Still, I prefer the KFC from the specialists at Pelicana inside the OK Mart on Merivale Road.
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Speaking of other Korean-run food businesses in Ottawa, I will note two more that recently joined Kitchen Maroo downtown.
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In Sandy Hill, close to the University of Ottawa, there's In's Kitchen, which opened in early 2024. I've paid two more cursory visits to In's Kitchen and can speak highly of its traditional, full-flavoured dishes. I thought best of its spicier items, including dakgalbi ($22), which here was a saucy stir-fry of boneless chicken, chewy rice cakes and vegetables, as well as the new-to-me and evocatively named 'troop's soup ($22), a hearty stew of pantry meats such as ham and sausage, instant noodles, plus kimchi and vegetables.
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Like Ottawa's Middle Eastern restaurants, and an increasing number of non-Middle Eastern eateries, In's Kitchen uses halal ingredients so as not to exclude Muslim customers.
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Last fall, the takeout-oriented shop Kimbap opened on Bank Street, a little more than three blocks from Parliament Hill.
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Kimbap is named after its grab-and-go specialty, which is not to be confused with sushi rolls, despite their similar appearances. While kimbap rolls do wrap cooked rice in seaweed, its cooked fillings can be meatier (think ham, bulgogi or bits of spicy chicken) or seafood-y (think spicy fish cakes, cooked tuna or imitation crab).
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I've sampled some of the Kimbap's offerings, including spicy fish kimbap ($15), spicy chicken on rice ($15) and a bulgogi bowl ($16). While the smaller portions wouldn't leave you stuffed, they should tide you over, especially at lunch, and please you with freshness and lucid flavours.
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Together, Kitchen Maroo, In's Kitchen and Kimbap make me realize that a larger wave of casual Korean food businesses have opened in downtown Ottawa in the last five years. Had I had the time or appetite to be more comprehensive, I would have gone to Maht, up the street from Maroo, or Gogiya, down the street from Kimbap.