Park's Kitchen

While walking along Broad St, we saw signage with pictures that captured our attention enough to eat here for lunch.

Tucked in an alley and adjacent to a bar, this is a very cozy Korean restaurant. We ordered the japchae, udon and garlic chicken In particular, the garlic chicken was extremely flavorful and perfectly cooked. The udon and japchae were nothing spectacular, but satisfied my hunger.

A good choice for a food break while shopping!

We wanted to like Parks Kitchen, we really did...
We have been following them on social media for awhile now.
I will start with the positive, my server was lovely and beyond sweet.
The snow beer was yummy....
And that is where the positivity needs.
The gyoza were horrible and dripping with grease, we ate 2 and were done, they weren't even filled 1/2 way.
The tempura was really saturated with grease as well, had 3 different prices and that was it.
The worst part was the "$31" sweet and sour pork.
Just horrible
Fatty
I've never eaten anything so wrong in my life.
And it tasted like flour, they should be using a rice flour so it's not so glutenous.

I packed up a to go box and promptly threw it all away when we left the restaurant, it was just a bad $65 lunch.
The decor in the restaurant is just plain bad and the layout was even worse.
It's definitely needs a manor overhaul in order to gain positive and repeat customers.

Unfortunately we won't be back, our first and last visit was just an unfortunate and cruddy experience

I was walking along Broad St looking for a place to have lunch. I passed by a sign offering good value for lunch. I decided to walk towards the restaurant along Trounce Alley. They have several lunch specials. I went inside and was greeted by a server immediately. Was sat down the long table and was given the menu. I tried the Bulgogi Beef with rice and salad. It was a decent portion size in todays high inflation environment. The beef was freshly cooked salad was also fresh and crisp. I had grape juice with my meal. I think you can order beer but I was just on a lunch break and will be going back to the office. The atmosphere was dark creating an ambiance. There's a big tv on the wall playing Korean MTV. There are some tables for big groups. Overall experience was nothing spectacular but decent. Food was decent. I don't there's parking because this is located in the tourist area of downtown.

The Food is AMAZING! So Delicious! We are the Honey Garlic wings and they were so crunchy and yummy! We also ordered the fire pan with beef.. OMG, what a treat- so GOOD!
I'm from California, USA.... And My sister has been raving about this place for years... we came up for a vacation and of course we had to eat here again! The staff was so nice, the atmosphere was totally cool. You must try this place!

Absolutely Amazing Food. Made a port of call stop on the cruise ship Luminosa today and had the best lunch the wife and I ever had. Spent 3 tours in Korea while in the US Army and never had better food.

The restaurant was somewhat hidden in an alley but we were able to find it. Quickly seated and we ordered our food. Food came out pretty quick. While eating though they were
Plating k-pop songs and this particular song had very colorful lyrics. Not appropriate at all for a restaurant. Our food wasn't out of the world but considering that we just back from an 8 day cruise with no Korean food we were craving some. We were not disappointed but also not impressed with our dishes. If you have kids, Don't bring them to this place. They might pickup some new vocabulary to take home.

Park's Kitchen successfully fuses Korean and Japanese cuisine into mouthwatering menu items at fairly reasonable prices. Since being introduced here, I have taken the liberty to bring all my visiting friends and family here as well. Thus, it's not a surprise that Park's is one of my favourite restaurants in Victoria.

Some of my favourite dishes include:

- OSHI COMBO ($42.99): If you have a group with you, then you should order this for the most variety: 4 kinds of oshi, each with 6 pieces. I've tried Salmon ($13.99), Sime Saba ($14.99), Spicy Tuna ($14.99), and Chopped Scallop ($14.99), and they were all delectable and beautifully presented. The beauty of a pressed sushi is that you get to enjoy all of the layers in a compact bite or two. Since these are aburi styled, you get the nice flame sear on top too to enhance the overall mouthfeel. If you're only going to order one kind of oshi, I recommend starting with salmon as it's a good ol' classic.

- HAEMUL SUNDUBU HOT POT ($15.99): This is the ultimate meal for a cold winter night. There is soondubu (soft tofu), seafood (shrimp, mussels, squid, clams), veggies, and an egg submerged in a delightfully spicy broth. It is served with a bowl of rice and 3 banchan (side dishes). I thoroughly enjoyed this hot pot for the rich complexity of its broth and its abundance of ingredients.

- FARMERS MEAL SET - BULGOGI ($15.99): The messiest of all my recommendations, this set will have you DIY-ing your meal and gobbling it up in seconds. You have to if you want to minimize the amount of soy BBQ sauce dripping down your chin as you bite into your lettuce-wrapped bulgogi (a choice of beef or chicken). Like the individual hot pot combos, this is also served with a bowl of rice and 3 banchan.

- RICE CAKE HOT POT (Small: $29.99, Large: $42.99): A warning: If you're going to order the large, you'll need a lot of space both on the table and in your stomach. We were stunned at its size and even more so when the accompanying basket of vegetable tempura came. These tempura were wonderfully fried--crisp, light, and tasty. Dip them in the broth and you'll take it to the next level. The rice cakes, seafood, fish cakes, hard-boiled eggs, and ramen (which we had to remind them for) were also delicious. I do wish there was more ramen for the large serving though. Another warning: If you can't handle spice, then even level 1 (non) will be too much for you. My friend ended up getting a separate bowl of hot water just to immerse her hot pot items in.

If I was just reviewing Park's based on their food and ambiance alone, it would be a glowing five stars. Unfortunately, the service here--while friendly--isn't the most efficient. On my most recent two visits, we had to wait quite awhile to get our order taken. We also had servers who did not seem to know English very well; this resulted in miscommunication in ordering (e.g. receiving the wrong order and not receiving a correct order) and further added to the delay. On my last visit, my group and I ordered a large amount of food, and actually had to hold some plates by hand since there was not enough table space. It would have been better if the dishes were staggered, or if the servers helped us with arranging the dishes rather than dropping them off entirely.

Since I don't want to end this review on a sour note, I'll say this: I genuinely do love Park's and will be visiting again in the near future. I'm glad that it's becoming more and more popular amongst locals and visitors. If you're dining solo, then you might want to come at lunch for their lunch specials. Otherwise, I recommend coming with a group to get more bang for your buck.

We stumbled upon this place as we were walking and exploring, we are big ramen fans. My husband got the spicy pork ramen, I got the honey garlic chicken and we were able to get just a bowl of ramen noodles for our daughter. All were very good and at a very good price! They only had the option for the large plate of the honey garlic chicken but I was not sorry because it was so delicious. Dark atmosphere and a bit of a hole in the wall place but if we ever make it back to Victoria, we will be stopping by again.

The udon is very tasty but the pancake is not that good: too doughy, lack of pancake, each bite only with green onion and onion. A bit disappointed... prefer King Sejong restaurant!

Even when I am away from Vancouver, I still want Korean food! Recommended by a friend, Park's Kitchen is a Japanese- Korean fusion restaurant serving oshi sushi to the famous melting cheese and chicken round pan dish.

My friend and I opted to stick to the Korean menu because we noticed the chefs were Korean. We ordered the kimchi fried rice and the hot seafood hotpot.

The kimchi fried rice came with a generous sprinkle of seaweed, a fried egg and 3 banchan dishes (fish cakes, seaweed and kimchi). The fried rice had a nice heat and developed a crispy rice bottom from the sizzling hot plate. Although there wasn't much kimchi flavour or kimchi in the rice, this dish had great seasoning and satisfied my taste buds.

The seafood stew hot pot came with a large bowl of rice, 3 banchan dishes (seaweed, kimchi and fish cakes). The soup contained 2 mussels, chinese mushrooms, japanese enoki, cabbage, squid. There were more ingredients
listed but this was all I remember eating. The soup had a nice spicy level which made me sweat but in a good way.

Although prices are a bit higher in Victoria, I can definitely say it is worth coming because who doesn't like Korean food?