Midam Cafe And Bistro

Last week I went with some of my friends to the “Midam Café & Bistro” in Richmond, a Korean restaurant near Garden City Road & Alderbridge Way. When we arrived, about 45 min after starting business that day, the place was still quite empty and just one server was working. We ordered hot tea. However, even after more than 10 minutes the tea was not served. When we made the server aware of that she told us that the tea needs to be brewed first. Interestingly, soon after that, we had our tea (which tasted pretty good). We ordered Spicy Rice Cake Hot Pot, Pan Fried Pork Belly with Garlic Sauce, Kimchi Fried Rice and a Seafood & Green Onion Pancake. While the first 3 dishes came quite fast, the pancake was not served even when we had already finished all other item. It took as a long time to catch the server’s attention. Even the bell on our table was ignored. When we finally got her to us, she explained (similar to the excuse with the tea) that the dish has to be prepared fresh (I wonder, whether the other items that we got fast were not freshly prepared …?). When the pancake finally arrived, it was very disappointing: It was greasy, with a lot of thick dough and the seafood appeared to have been just thrown on top of it without really including it in the preparation process. Moreover, despite the provided sauce the taste was terribly bland. We ordered a Matcha Ice Cream Combo as dessert (comprising of a Hot Plate Mochi Matcha Toast and a bowl of shaved ice with red beans, mocha and matcha ice cream). The taste was quite good. And the effect of the hot plate was also nice. Few days ago, we went there again. This time two servers were working. And despite it was quite busy, the service was significantly better. Although some of the dishes appear to be different than displayed in the menu, the taste of all ordered items was good. Generally, the prices are in the upper level. And I cannot say that the quality of the served food and the service justified that. It might be nice to go there occasionally. But it is not something that I enjoy so much that I would go there frequently.

We loved their basketball decor! . . 📸 Stir-fried spicy chicken on UFO grill and stir-fried squid and pork belly udon. Seafood pancake . . The UFO grill was cool but the chicken itself wasn’t as flavourful as we would like it to be. Maybe our standard was too high having tried something similar and super delicious at another place. The udon could definitely be spicy! Their seafood pancake however was totally worth a try! We could actually taste the squid and it was big enough for us to sharing among 8 people I would say that this is a good place to catch a basketball game with friends as the environment is chill, there is a tv screen everywhere and the food was relatively inexpensive!

This place’s interior is pretty cool. As a kid growing up watching Slam Dunk, I was quite stoked to come check out the place. This place got some pretty cool decoration. Plus, the food was scrumptious. I think what surprised me most was the shaved ice. The Korean style fried chicken was crispy and hot, which I liked a lot. The corn adds extra colour to make the presentation very pleasing and instagrammable, so that’s another plus. It’s a really chill place perfect for lunch or a late night hangout with friends. I would come again!