Dotori review

sophie

we went on friday night on the strength of all these reviews and it was great. we shared a korean & japanese set meal and a korean set meal between four of us and there was just the right amount of food, the right mix of stuff for us first-time korean eaters and it was really really tasty - our friends were delighted. it was full and people were waiting in there for half an hour for a table, but they had obviously chosen to as they didn't look annoyed, they were told there would be a long wait and could easily have gone elsewhere.
i thought the main man was absolutely adorable. yes i may be a patronising idiot but he was so sweet and apologetic because they had one waitress missing and he said the service would be better next time, but i really thought the service was fine. i'm a sucker for a smile and would forgive him poor service issues if there were any.

i'm quite into chilled red wine now too. and the korean beer hite is very nice.
can't wait to go again!

Giles

I'll just add that I think this place is fantastic too.

The "main man" was very welcoming and helpful with a pram ( it was lunchtime ) and the food was lovely and reasonably priced. Definitely better quality and cheaper than the Japan Centre.

rainbow_carnage

The weather on Tuesday was horrendous. I got soaked to the bone in the freezing rain. And there was dinner to pick up. Dotori was on the way, so I though what the hell.

The man was very nice. He had me sit by the radiator to keep warm while I waited. He bought me tea and some sort of rice wine. He even put the food into two extra bags to keep it hot while I walked home.

Really, he couldn't have been nicer, which is why I'm sad to say that I probably won't be going back.

The food just wasn't that good.

To begin with, there was the ordering. I'm very familiar with Japanese food, but not Korean, so I asked the man to help me pick out a couple starters and mains. Unaesthetic is a vegetarian, and while I eat fish and seafood, I don't eat poultry or meat. I had to explain this several times because the dishes he recommended had beef in them. In the end, I got the seafood pancakes and some spicy squid dish. For unaesthetic, I got a spicy cabbage and tofu starter and a veggie version of some rice and beef dish. I can't remember the names of the dishes, and the receipt was in Korean.

The seafood pancakes were ok. The main ingredient seemed to be leeks. I'm not a fan of leeks. I don't think they were mentioned on the menu. The squid was a bit tough. The main flavour of the dish was the spice. That is not to say that it was too hot. It wasn't. There just weren't any other distinct flavours.

Unaesthetic enjoyed his starter, but the main rice dish was bland. It's hardly surprising because all they did was make a rice and beef dish without the beef. It would've have been better if they had substituted tofu for the beef.

The bill came to around £25.00, which isn't bad for that amount of food. But it's not cheaper than Hana. I prefer the food at Hana, plus they deliver.

Philistine'sMonster

Vegetarian in bland food shocker! Would substituting tofu –- the most evil thing since Zyklon B –- have made such an incredible difference, I wonder?

-- that was a joke.

This is the problem I’ve discovered when ordering vegetarian food in south east Asia. Despite the amount of Buddhists over there, some places just don’t seem to get it, do they? You ask for a prawn dish without the prawns and you end up with prawns.

You asks for “no meat, no fish,” and (after the puzzled, frightened looks from the staff) you just get rice … with oyster sauce.

Coh! Bleeding foreigners and their authentic, family-run, classic non-veg cuisine –-

–- that was a joke too.

tosscat

Io cuore tofu.

tosscat

And a lovely long post from RC. What is it with leeks? What's not to like?

Philistine'sMonster

Actually, the more I think about it, you can’t substitute beef with tofu. It isn’t a substitute. It’s like saying “I’ve run out of chalk for my blackboard. Hey! Why don’t I use this cheese instead?”

Funnily enough, I read recently that scientists have discovered chalk and cheese are, on a molecular level, identical. There’s no difference between them at all. Isn’t that fascinating?

Bizarrely, the same research uncovered that no two peas are the same in any way. It’s impossible to determine the chemical make up of peas because they are so different from each other. It’s really confusing. Apparently, peas are to each other now as chalk was previously to cheese.

As you can imagine this has had a profound impact on certain proverbials.

unaesthetic

phil, did you know that the word "gullible" isn't included in the dictionary?

vegetarian food is only bland when it's made by non-vegetarians who rely chiefly on meat for the flavour. it's perfectly easy to make tasty food that's not based on the taste of meat.

as far as "substituting" tofu (and it's not evil, kids), it's more so that you get some protein in your bowl of rice, than for taste and texture.

oh, and i really did enjoy my spicy cabbage thing.

rainbow_carnage

@tosscat - Leeks are a bastardised version of onions. They pretend to be a valid vegetable, but they're clearly not.

tosscat

Goodness me RC. I bet you don't like sprouts either, you silly thing.

katiejane

or pears!

tosscat

Or any sort of pickle, unless it can lay claim to ethnic minority.

unaesthetic

heh, you're so wrong about r_c and pickles.

but what claim can a pickle have for ethnic minority status?

matt

Anyway... Tried Hana last night - very nice indeed, although the food had a bit of a bumpy journey up the road and seemed to be everywhere inside the plastic bag. I'll try sitting in there soon.

tosscat

Lime pickle.

Philistine'sMonster

“phil, did you know that the word "gullible" isn't included in the dictionary?” you’re right, it isn’t, but I’ve only got a Junior Oxford English Dictionary. Oh, Unaesthetic, you great silly, all that stuff about cheese and peas: I made it up. I am a great fat lair (there I’ve said it) and I am here to confuse and torment you.

And tofu IS evil for it is written thus: “And I beheld a beast coming from the east and she had protein like a lamb, but was born of a bean, and she was without smell or flavour. And she deceiveth them that dwell in the west, saying that it was a good source of protein and that vegetarian food can be tasty. And in this time there was a great wailing and gnashing of teeth but no meat on which to chew, and then their fillings did fall out…”

So there. You can't argue with that. That's Jesus wot said them words.

Colette

It's in my dictionary.

unaesthetic

made you look ;)

Colette

Picked up some take away from Dotori this evening. I turned up a little earlier than I said I would, so the sushi wasn't quite ready. As I was on my bike and didn't have my lock, I said I'd wait outside until it was done. The lovely man was so horrified at the idea that I'd be waiting outside in the freezing cold that he said I could bring my bike in - there clearly wasn't room, so I happily waited outdoors. A few minutes later he appeared with a steaming mug of green tea for me to drink.
I love that place.

tosscat

That is nice, however on Sunday we turned up at midday (their advertised opening time) for an early lunch (people needed to get trains) and they still had their closed sign up. A lady inside gestured that they were closed then looked at her watch and immediately got on the phone. After 5 minutes of chat she came to the door and said that we would have to wait for half an hour, it was throwing it down outside. It was all very disappointing really. It seems to me that much of the service joy from Dotori is due to 'the man' and when he is absent it evaporates. I wonder whether he has a name.

andy

Interesting, because normally you want to stick it to The Man.

tosscat

You're in a muddle 'drew - you want to stick it to 'da man'.

kelsie

we visited dotori recently and liked it. check out our blog <http://travelswithmyfork.blogspot.com/2008/12/dotori-finsbury-park.html>;

Arkady

Attending for the first time this evening. Any recommendations?

ActionVerb

Tempura King Prawns for starter are genuinely the best tempura prawns I've ever had anywhere. Usually follow that up with one of the Bibimbaps.

Ian

Along with the tempura, which AV is quite right about; the Dumpling soup, the fried chicken thing (kangpunghi) and the seafood pancake are all good starters. The kimchi is excellent and must be tried. On the Japanese side I always have sashimi and a Rainbow Roll, I'm a creature of habit.

dion

kimchi pancakes are normally nice gyoza - either japanese or korean gim - seaweed salmon sashimi veg tempura as well raw beef bipimbab

dan4cat

Great place indeed.
I love this place since day one... unfortunately got really overcrowded because too good!