Kokoya

Kokoya Korean Restaurant (5515 Yonge Street, Willowdale, Ontario)
416-221-2002

Outside of this place, there's a sign that says "beer and chicken". I like both those things, so we decided to go for it.

The lady that greeted us was super friendly and very helpful. She briefly showed us the menus and invited us to ask her questions if we had any. Their Korean specials menu (what I call the menu from Korean restaurants with the alcohol and food combos) actually had English on it - bonus points! We were curious about what "half and half chicken" meant and she explained that it was half fried chicken and half spicy chicken.

Half and half chicken (combo with 5 bottles of Molson Canadian)

I liked their triangle plates and how they presented our giant chicken. The fried chicken was super crispy, and the spicy chicken was also super crispy and sweet. Both types of chicken were not dry at all, which I really appreciated. Nothing makes me more angry than dry chicken. The only thing that was that if you ate the red chicken first, the other kind tasted a bit bland since it wasn't as sauced up in flavour. The lady came back with some pickled white radishes and explained that the sourness of it went well with the sweet and spicy of the chicken. 

The complimentary sides included this mystery mashed ball. Usually in other Korean restaurants, it's mashed potato mixed with stuff, but this was sweeter and orange. 

The salad had a creamy type sweet onion dressing, which we enjoyed. Halfway through our meal, we were offered another dish of salad. I thought that was nice.

Would I return? Yes. (Super crispy + moist) chicken + beer = good. The lady that worked there was super friendly. We had fun watching and commenting on the Korean music performances on the TV. The Korean specials can substitute the 5 bottles of beer for soju or a pitcher of beer. The prices seem comparable to the other restaurants in the area. It's a bit dark and small inside, but we were a small group on a weekday that didn't have a problem with that. Washrooms are single stalls and clean. Parking seems non-existent unless there's two spots in the back, but there's free street parking on Yonge after 9 p.m. One last thing that should be mentioned is that I don't remember seeing many non-chicken items on the menu, and most stuff looks like it's meant to be shared. This place really is mostly for chicken and beer/soju.

Total damage: approximately $23 for my share of the chicken and beers.