Oh Boy… – Restaurant Omma

So did you enjoy the latest Shut Up and Eat production: “Once Upon a Curd“? I’d just like to thank the entire team that made it possible. Great feedback warrants more video content! So hopefully you guys liked it, because there’s a bunch of stuff coming your way!

I’m not Korean, however, it can be argued that I’ve eaten enough Korean food to be considered part Korean by osmosis. Well if we go by that formula, I would be considered part potato chips, sushi, noodles, cookies and haters. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t being said to be taken as though I’m some sort of expert authority on the cuisine, it’s just that, I eat what I like, I like what I eat, and what I usually like to eat is good and that’s what I write about. For the first time, this philosophy of mine challenged me. My conscience weighed heavily on the restaurant I wanted to write about and fostered one of my most difficult reviews to date; emotionally, as a son, professionally as a blogger and spiritually as a rockstar, as I hit up this new Korean place in the Mile-End called “Omma”, which means “Mom” in Korean.

This post may get a bit wordy, but bare with me, I’m trying to prove something.

While flipping through the menu, we find out Omma’s real name is Mi Kyum Kim. She prepares her dishes without the use of MSG and we learn that she will soon be serving me alcohol. Compratively to other Korean places I’ve been to, the menu is noticeably smaller, highlighting more common and popular dishes. The menus is more concise… Concise.

I started with an order of the chicken wings – “dak malge tigim”. The picture is pretty much self-explanatory; each piece was crispy and ear-shattering crunchy. Marinated in sake and gochujang (Korean Chili paste), and sesame, the alcohol did in fact do wonders for tenderizing the meat, however any sesame taste was lost, and oddly enough so was the heat or any spiciness from the gochujang. For the price and the size of the wings themselves, they are worth it… Maybe the chickens were Korean chickens, because nothing else would have tipped me off that they’re supposed to be Korean chicken wings.

Two others split the pajun – of a choice of seafood or vegetarian, they opted for the vegetarian pancake. At first glance – speaking as someone who’s had his fair share of pancakes of many varieties, the pajun looked deflated – not in the sense like it was made fun of at school, and ridiculed for being chubby, but as a matter of fact for being the exact opposite. The pancake was flat, duh, but I mean, when I think of a Korean pancake, I envision it being crispy on the outside, a fluffy in the middle battered pancake filled with delicious fresh vegetables accompanied by a sweet and sour soy dipping sauce… definitely would have been called “sally-two-backs” in school. This pajung itself was a bit muted in flavour – traditionally packed with aromatic scallions, the onion level was toned down and a bit… Cautious.

As a main, one friend had the “Saewoo Kyojachae” – grilled shrimp on spinach, bean sprouts and carrots, dressed in an Asian pear and mustard sauce topped with pine nuts. The shrimps were cooked well and the dish itself was light. Served with a side of steamed rice, this salad ate well as an actual meal and I would even go as far as saying it was pretty much a stir-fry. Again, the flavours were there; sweetness from the pear purée and the sting from the mustard. Although there was something missing from this dish I just couldn’t put my finger on. I found it to be very… Safe.

One of us ordered the “Dol Sot Bibimbap” – A heated stone bowl filled with seasoned vegetables sautéed with Korean BBQ beef, there is a chicken and vegetarian option as well, served with a side of gochujang. The first thing my friend said about the gochujang was that it wasn’t spicy and she liked it. I have to make it clear that this girl does not eat anything spicy; she guzzles milk after accidentally eating a stick of cinnamon trident. The fact that she was able to enjoy, let alone taste the chilli sauce was alarming. I’m used to having a raw egg top my stone bowl that you mix in with the rest of the ingredients and have the heat from the bowl cook that egg; but to see an actual cooked egg and have that sound of that sensual sizzle taken away from me was a borderline crime. The vegetables were fresh and the beef smokey, but there was still something that didn’t sit right with me; the experience of this dish is when the rice gets crusty in the stone bowl, when the egg gets cooked amongst the other ingredients, the stone bowl incubating the contents and keeping them warm from the first until the last bite is what a dolsot bibimbap is; the experience. And this experience… subdued.

Another ordered the “sam map galbi” – Barbecued Korean short ribs with spring onion and kim chi. Right off the bat I noticed the cut of beef; a very very generous portion of my most favourite dish. The beef was nice and smokey and extremely tender; pink to the cut, had this been my dish, I would have fought you to let me eat it topless. Again, like the previous dishes, alarms sounded in my head and there was something that didn’t seem right to me… transferring the cast iron plate over to take the picture, I was able to handle the plate with ease, not because it wasn’t heavy, but more because it wasn’t searing hot, which would explain the lack of sexy sizzle from the beef. Then I realized what the umami was missing that I couldn’t put my finger on. I’ve been eating Korean food for a while now, and the revelation was that that night at Omma, I was being served Korean food as though I’ve never had it before.

I had the “Sam dak bulgogi” – spicy barbecued chicken filets served with lettuce and kim chi. The chicken was tender, but spicy, it wasn’t. I was able to taste the chilli, but not experience the heat from it. The dish was sautéed with onions and peppers and topped with scallions, the dish was aromatic, but what frustrated me the most was the fact that gochujang was used and normally that in itself is identifiable. The sweet and tangy sting is synonymous with Korean cuisine, but it wasn’t there and I wanted to know what gives! What irked me the most was that the food itself in general was good, and solid in terms of a meal, but in the sense of it being “Korean”, it was watered down and diluted.

Fresh and crispy romain lettuce with kim chi with chilli sauce used to wrap the short ribs or chicken into little lettucy bundles of “Korean” goodness. As I ate further and recounted the moments I shared with the other dishes, it became more and more apparent to me that what Omma was offering was an introduction to Korean food, and started to think and wonder if this was due to the neighbourhood or the intentions of Ms. Kim.

I’m not sure if Ms Kim’s approach to her cooking was appropriated to the neighbourhood, or it genuinely reflects her cooking style. I would never entertain the notion of “authenticity”, because that’s a word I stay away from. The idea that the tastes and flavours I was used to didn’t really show up that night at Mom’s table of home cooked meals was interesting. From the sizzle-less and ready-fried egg on top of the dolsot bibimbap to the pseudo-spicy chicken, I got the impression that the food was “self-conscious”; it was apprehensive in showing its true colours in fear of not being accepted in this neighbourhood as being the first of its kind and for being so different. Not to say that Omma or the dishes undermine the intelligence or culinary prowess by presenting itself as something that the diner wants it to be by toning down the flavours and providing a more limited menu. Is Ms. Kim refining her own personal approach to Korean food by generalizing her dishes to introduce the cuisine to a people who might not have ever tried it before and making it more appealing to the locals of the Mile-End?

As we all know, you never go against Mom, even if she isn’t yours, that’s why this review was a hard one to write and it posed a very intricate question to me, is being “good” grounds for being written about… or NOT because it was only “good”.

Restaurant Omma
177 Rue Bernard Ouest
514-274-1464

Tagged as: chicken wings, dol sot bi bim bap, galbi, kalbi, Korean, pajun, seafood pancake, short rips, vegetarian