Braised Chicken goodness: dining at Ssangkye

Red sauce jjimdak @ Ssangkye Braised Chicken

There have been many restaurants in this Yonge/Steeles location that have come and gone, but our fam thinks that Ssangkye Braised Chicken is here to stay.

Their menu is simple. With limited offerings, they are then able to make their specialty the best. They serve jjimdak, a dish containing pieces of braised chicken mixed with a bunch of sides and served bubbling hot.

A variety of sides is mixed into the dish. There are flat glass noodles, Korean dumplings, rice cakes and veggies. For the braised chicken, you have the choice of either bone-in or boneless. We ordered the bone-in as we figured it would be tastier bone-in, but when we go back, we have decided that boneless is better for us. It was difficult to remove the meat from the bones with only chopsticks and a spoon. So, unless you are prepared to use your hands (and it is very saucy), I suggest you order boneless.

There are several sauce options for the jjimdak. The Black Sauce is soy-sauce based while the Red Sauce is gochujang-based. There is also the White Cheese option where they put mozzarella cheese onto either the Black or Red Sauce versions.

Then, you have the different sizes (S,M,L) and spice level.

We ordered the Red Sauce jjimdak and it was delicious! The sauce was quite rich with some hints of sweetness. The sauce was spicy (and required a few bottles of water), but it was not an attack on the taste buds. In fact, the sweet and spice blended amazingly. The large serving was a good size for our family. We did order some rice on the side as the dish did not come with anything else--apart from salad and pickled radish, which was a perfect spice break in between bites.

jjimdak @Ssangkye Braised Chicken

Service was friendly but not very fast. It was a good comfort meal, however, and I highly recommend this place. 

While we all cannot wait to get back to dining out, for now they have take out and delivery.