Owl of Minerva

Amazing food. Very fast service. Must try the Pork bone soup (Kam ja tang) and BBQ ribs (La Kalbi).

First of all this place is in dire need of some renovations. Upkeep of a restaurant is very important to me and this place just looks run-​down and messy. The furniture is run-​down, the walls are run-​down and the floors are run-​down, just horrible! Even the dishes were falling apart.
Just ordered the pork bone soup, honestly nothing special just standard stuff. I feel like the prices have definitely gone up and I believe the pork bone soup is cheaper at some of the neighbouring places. I couldn’t even find a piece of potato.
The service was really meh. You can tell I really don’t like this place. They have a small selection of side dishes (This is why I come to Korean restaurants, side dishes!!!) We came in from the back entrance and it smelled kind of funny. I really hope I don’t have to come back because someone in my group thinks this is the best place for pork bone soup!

This has been a favourite for over 4 years. I love the bulgogi! If you like spicy food you can always request that they make it spicey. Staff is cheerful and adds to the experience. Another bonus? It’s 24 hours!!!

Always love going to Owl of Minerva for good Korean food. Ordered the Kimichi Fried Rice and it came out relatively quickly. Service was good and the food was pretty good. It’s always a great place for getting relatively cheap Korean food in a nice place.

This is a packed little restaurant, with parking in the back (and you can also come in from the back, just don’t get lost and trek through the kitchen). For a group of 4, we got the family size Gamjatang (pork bone soup, comes with 2 rice) for $ 23;99, japchae (glass noodles with veggies) $ 8.99 and beef kalbi (small, $ 15.99, comes with 1 rice). The kicker is that the delicious little side dishes are unlimited, so we had tons of picked cucumbers, spicy potatoes, bean sprouts and kimchi. And man, their kimchi is INTENSE in a good way — you’ll be breathing fire all night!
The pork bone soup comes in a large table-​stove, and come with about 6 pieces of pork bone, varying sizes. Nice and tender, and the broth is delicious. There’s rice cakes and other goodies floating around in the soup too. The server said it’s good for 2 people, but comes with a lot more than 2 person portion — just think of it as proportional to the individual pork bone soup (8.99).
Japchae was yummy, but there’s no meat in it. The kalbi was also good, and sizable for a «small» — overall a good meal but nothing fantastic… likely will be back in the future. More of a 3.5 star but rounding up to a 4.

The Owl of Minerva is a Korean restaurant on Yonge Street, a little south of finch station. If you’re driving, they have parking in the back.
From first glance, it’s a very small tiny restaurant. One of my friend’s and her fiancé brought me here, telling me this is amazing Korean food. I thought, why not?!
When you first walk in, it’s very packed and squished together. This is also a 24 hour restaurant, so I’m guessing since we went around 11-​midnight, it might’ve been one of their late peak times. Upon entering, the waiter already knew to get a pitcher of water to guess us started and appetizers came fairly quick, considering the amount of business they had.
I ordered a dish called «Dolsot BiBimBap 石鍋拌飯» (taken straight from their website). I’m usually used to burgers and fries, maybe some sushi but this was different for me. Nothing on the menu looked appetizing to me, not that I’m saying it wasn’t delicious because it was AMAZING but it wasn’t what I was used to.
They have a new «house» rule, one bill, no splitting, which we found was very odd but I paid the bill and it was a fair amount for the food we got. We thought it was pretty good.
I paid with my credit card and the lady accidentally hit «okay» for me, missing the tip section, I had no cash on me and they wouldn’t swipe my credit card again to tip (because it costs to use my card), so I don’t know how she expected me to tip. Tipping is optional but I eventually got a little cash from a friend and tipped.
They were pretty quick with service but it seems like they’re always focused on something else. The TV plays only Korean TV but it’d be nice to have the news on both sides of the restaurant, for one person facing the west and one facing the east.
Other than that, it was a pretty average meal!
³⁄₅

Owl is always busy, and it seems like there isn’t enough servers despite how busy the place is. I don’t usually come here, and I was craving bibimbap. Bibimbap here was not bad, comes in a standard stone bowl which in my opinion will fill you up. Don’t expect to have top notch service, they don’t exist here. Prices are a tiny bit overpriced. But it’s ²⁴⁄₇ so perfect for those that want a late night meal.

If you’re hungry and you’re a late night kind of individual than this place is worth checking out. Don’t expect much with their service bc you will be disappointed. They’re open ²⁴⁄₇.
Personally, when I find a dish I like I just stick to it. My choices are bulgogi and their seafood tofu soup. They also give you free small side dishes, I don’t like kimchi or any of their sides except their pickled cucumber which is so good. It’s pickled and the cucumber is so crunchy and refreshing. Also, I like multigrain rice and they have it here for an extra charge.
Their prices are a bit high but that’s like any shoppers that’s 24 hours… its jacked up.
I’ve eaten at a few Korean joints and other owl minera and find the food here suits my taste buds best.

A hole in the wall. This place is relatively busy throughout the night. Late at night, the party crowd is here. Its fairly noisy and crowded, but I have never had to wait a significant time for a seat.
I remember when they basically had 2 things on their menu, and now has expanded to many things. You don’t really come here for the ambiance, but for 2 main dishes: (i) pork bone soup and (ii) LA galbi ribs. Both are delicious. I’ve been to Owl at its various locations many times and always come back.
Pro tip: if you come here with a few people, get the pork bone soup that comes comes on the stove.

I took my boyfriend to the Owl of Minerva for an early dinner while he was visiting the North York area. It was around 6:00pm, and the restaurant was reasonably busy but not incredibly packed.
Ambiance:
Casual and fairly noisy, considering that the restaurant was not even full yet. I believe there were two televisions in the restaurants, both tuned to the same show on a Korean channel. The walls are covered with photos of their dishes, which is actually quite helpful when trying to decide what to order.
Service:
The staff were quite friendly, and the service was pretty speedy and efficient. There is a bell parked beside the table to call the waiter, although I didn’t need to use it that day. There are a number of quirks about this restaurant, but not enough that I wouldn’t come again. One of these quirks include the fact that they do not allow you to split the bill (one bill per table) and I’m not sure why this is the case.
Food:
The food was piping hot, and everything turned out well. I had the JeYukBokeum (stir fried marinated pork with spicy sauce on sizzling plate) and my boyfriend tried the Dolsot BiBimBap (vegetables and ground beef with rice in a hot stone bowl). The pork was really flavorful, served with a generous amount of vegetables (green peppers and onions).
Great Korean food, right in the neighbourhood!

This place sucks! Overall experience was an epic fail, from their un welcoming staff, there’s this old lady that was very rude, she did even bother to greet, their place is a mess, it stinks and their food is over priced compare to other korean restaurants thats clean, cozy and accomodating.
This place is not recommendable.

Its nyengmyeon season (lengmian).
Mmmm. Try their bibim nyengmyeon — gorgeous home-​style gochuchang, not too sweet. Mmmm, noodles nice and stretchy.
The kimchi in this restaurant is fantastic. I can go through 3 panchan bowls myself …
Love this place. They also serve a lot of difficult-​to-​find ttukbegae here — different beef broths, etc.

I dislike owl of minerva. I was dragged here against my will after a night downtown… my friends and I staggered into this shop (not drunk, just dead tired). The restaurant is dingy and dimly lit, with dirty looking linoleum and crusty looking chairs. It’s way past it’s time. Signs on the wall read «No separate bills. One table one bill» um, a little inconvenient but that’s okay I guess.
The food at owl is kind of overpriced, a dollar or two above average from other korean places. $ 6.99 for a bowl of ‘ramen’ aka instant noodles with the powder mix from H-​mart across the street? No thanks. (My friend caved in and got this though) Bi Bam Bap was $ 10.99 and I didn’t realize how much of a rip off that was until I went to another korean restaurant today and got a similar portion of bi bam bap for $ 7. The side dishes are sad and it’s only pickled cucumber, kimchi and some other hard thing. carrot? The meal was unsatisfying and I couldn’t finish the food. Slightly lost my appetite after it came. I can’t complain about the service too much. There are waiter bells and they came immediately every time after I pushed it, which you don’t see a lot after it’s past 2am.
The crowd here is really divided, a lot of quiet koreans that live in the area and then there’s the loud douchey arrogant fatasses that think they have the right to yell across the restaurant and be rude to everybody else eating. It got so annoying to the point where my friend said «is it ok if I take my pot and eat it outside?»
Don’t think I’ll be coming back here, ever. Or any other owl.

Was here again for the hotpot. Hit the spot but that’s about it. The Bossam was better before. The waitress brought us the dish with a mountain of pickled radish, another waitress passed by and said ohh and took it back and returned with a smaller one.
Not impressed with that move. Didn’t expect much from the service but my company and I enjoyed our food.

I could just eat pork bone soup everyday of the week if I lived close by…
This is by far my favourite location of the two:
— ample parking out back
— open 24 hours
— larger seating area
— detailed menu with photos
I hadn’t realized there was a second location (as I had been always visiting the one near Christie and Bloor) until a friend had informed me otherwise.
It’s crazy how I had driven by so many times 20^th out this knowledge to stop by.
As you have already read. I always get pork bone soup. Tried been bone once by accident and it could not compare.
Last time I visited, we decided to try the egg roll. Legit it was an egg patty rolled up. To me, it looked like it very much resembled an omelet that was rolled up. It had different flavours that wwre unfamiliar, which was nice.
I also learned that I have liked kimchi all along.

My boyfriend and I were thinking where to eat and I thought I’d like to try this restaurant. It was my first time here and I ordered the pork bone soup as my friend recommended me. My boyfriend had the BBQ L. A beef ribs. the food was okay, it wasn’t that bad for a first time.
I just think they need to make the place more inviting and they should replace their plastic cups as they look so old. Also, the pathway from the parking lot at the back going to the dining area is not so clean. I can see the staff cooking and preparing the food which they should be more careful. Because I would question if the food is clean.

It’s not amazing food, but it’s good for late night quick munchies.
If you want something comforting and tasty, this is the place to get Pork bone soup. I don’t know what it is, but every time I get the pork bone soup here, I instantly get addicted all over again! The soup is not to spicy but full of flavour. The pork is soft and tasty. This is pretty much the food to get here. I haven’t really ventured out to other food items on the menu.
Service is okay. The place is always packed so service is quick. Don’t expect the service to drop by your table every now and then.
Portions and price are good for what you’re getting. The pork bone soup is a good size for one person and can easily fill you and for under 10 dollars, you can’t go wrong with that.
The only thing I would want to see more of are more varieties of side dishes. I’ve been to other korean restaurants and they have more and better side dishes to offer.

I was here last night for the first time ever and my overall experience was OK. my boyfriend had been here before so i assumed it wasn’t a bad place to eat. he had bulgogi (korean beef) with rice, and i had gom tang/​gomguk (like assorted beef soup with rice) i was not impressed with my gom tang, it hardly had any taste to it. literally it tasted like water, not that water has any taste — but that’s my point; it tasted like nothing! I still ate it however i did add a lot of salt in the soup so that helped somewhat. the service i would give a 2.5÷5 because the employees don’t respond to you, even if you wave down a waiter they’ll just ignore you.
i did find my bf’s bulgogi dish appetizing, along with the kimchi.
although my gom tang wasn’t as expected, i will probably be back here on a random night craving for some korean food. i am pretty sure there are better dishes they have to offer.
pretty convenient that there’s a private parking lot. (that’s a plus for me bc we hate looking for parking and paying the ticket in general)

Came here last night a little after midnight and it was completely packed! Just finding parking was a mission. When we finally got in, we waited maybe 15 minutes before we got a table which was fine since turnover here is pretty fast. We all ordered different dishes that my Korean friend recommended and I thought it was pretty good. My friend thought it was pretty authentic for what you could get in the area and everyone was happy. Its a very casual place, which was nice for what we were looking for but its a lot more casual than places I would normally go. We also got a bunch of side dishes and I really liked the cucumber side dish :)
Nice place to get something hot and yummy and hang out with old friends late at night.

I go here just for the pork bone soup.
It’s good, hearty and a perfect fix for some comfort.