Years ago, Liz Irish dreamed of opening a Korean restaurant to honor the foods of her heritage and help demystify the cuisine.

“On and around Charles Street, there’s a cluster of old-school Korean restaurants, says Liz, “and, whenever I would talk to friends, that was their only introduction or knowledge of Korean food—we wanted to do something that was a little more modern.”

Welcome to the adorably named Toki Tako at the Rotunda in Hampden, just a few hundred feet away from The Local Fry, the other spot Liz and her husband, Kevin, own and operate.

Back in 2019, the couple signed a lease, hoping to open Toki Tako in the spring of 2020—then COVID struck. In January 2021, at long last, they opened their (rounded) pink and white doors, which are shaped like bunny ears, their sly wink to the word “toki,” which means rabbit in Korean.

“We chose that name because my parents sent me to Korean school when I was a kid,” says Liz, who was born in Baltimore and raised in Ellicott City. “They didn’t want me to lose touch with my heritage. In the school, we were taught that the Korean peninsula, with North and South Korea together, is the shape of a rabbit, so it’s cool to bring that idea back to the name.”

Despite the sound of the name, Toki Tako is not a South-of-the-Border/Korean mash-up, though the original concept was to open a Korean-Mexican fusion concept.

“As we were developing the recipes and the concept, I was like, ‘I’m not proficient in Mexican cuisine or culture, so I don’t want to cook something and pretend that I do know it,’” recalls Liz.

“I wanted the restaurant to be 100 percent Korean. “There’s no Mexican side at all here,” adds Kevin. “People come in here and they think that some things will be Mexian, but we are like, ‘This is literally straight Korean, but you can get it in a tortilla.’”

While the menu features many of the delectable dishes you’d get in a Korean barbecue joint—the spicy pork belly, the pickled radishes, the kimchi—Liz and Kevin came up with the idea of using tortillas as a vehicle to make the fare less intimidating to patrons.

DESPITE THE SOUND OF THE NAME, TOKI TAKO IS NOT A SOUTH-OF-THE-BORDER/ KOREAN MASH-UP.

“We wanted to serve the Korean food in an approachable, familiar vessel,” says Liz. Another option for holding the fillings: lettuce wraps or “ssams,” (which is Korean for wrapped).

“When people think of lettuce wraps, they think of P.F. Chang’s or something very Americanized,” says Liz. “It’s not intimidating to have the meat and pickled vegetables inside the lettuce wrap.”

In addition to the tortillas and ssams, there’s also doshi boxes, as well as elements of Korean street food such as tteokbokki (stir-fried rice cakes in fish sauce) and corn cheese (similar to creamed corn), a popular bar snack in Korea.

“I also want people to know that Korean cuisine is vast,” says Liz. “Korean food is not just rice and Korean fried chicken and kimchi. It’s very vegetable-heavy, so when you go to a Korean restaurant, typically, the meal is served with a bunch of side dishes at the table.”

“We are trying to educate people about the common items, and the ones that are not common, as well,” adds Kevin. “The majority of items on our menu, you can’t get anywhere else.”

While The Local Fry, with its spud-centric fare, honors Kevin’s Irish traditions, Toki Tako harkens back to Liz’s childhood. “I grew up eating Korean food,” she says, “but it was the adults who would make the food and the kids would just rush into the room to eat it. Other than mandu, which we sat around and made together on holidays, we were really never taught to make stuff.”

Eventually, she did learn, while living abroad in Italy, where she studied fashion for five years. “When I was living there, I missed Korean food,” says Liz wistfully. “I was always asking my mom for recipes and asking her how it was made.”

Toki Tako is considered a fast-casual concept, though it’s anything but fast food. Everything, from the hand-sliced garlic to the giant bowls of kimchi, is made with complete consideration and care.

“We use as our business model fast-casual food, because people can come in and out and get their food quickly,” explains Liz, “but on the kitchen side of it, we’ve always focused on making everything super-fresh and super-hot—and we don’t do anything frozen. We make things to order.”

In addition to educating patrons all about Korean cuisine, Liz is also keeping continuity with her culture. The latitude and longitude of Seoul are prominently displayed on a wall near the cash register, and the dishes on the pegboard menu are spelled phonetically with their Korean names.

“I am American, and my parents were immigrants,” says Liz, whose father passed away in 2001. “But even after my mom goes, and our connection to Korea is gone, I want to be able to still hold on to it.”

TOKI TAKO: 711 W. 40th St.; 443-708-4993. HOURS: Tues.-Sat. 5-8 p.m. PRICES: Ban chan and sides: $3-8; tako and ssam: $4.50 each; (or $13-14 for three); DIY meal kits: $25-28. AMBIANCE: Think pink.

One balmy spring evening, as we were strolling through Mt. Vernon, we literally stumbled upon Café Andamiro. Despite the tiny lights glowing inside this dark pocket-size spot, there was little indication it was even a restaurant, other than a white logo on the glass door and a few employees who were closing up for the night. But we knew we had to return.

Not long after, we came back to find the place bustling and bright. Shoppers from the area’s antiques and art boutiques stopped in for coffees, colleagues talked shop over lunch, and MICA students congregated to plan their weekends. Since opening last September, this little cafe on the southwestern edge of Midtown-Belvedere has become a warm, relaxed respite for the neighborhood’s artistic crowd. There are few frills to the small space—just wide front windows, abundant greenery, and modern touches, like minimalist light fixtures and a colorful collection of local art.

But don’t let the simplicity of the mini space and menu fool you. “Andamiro” means “overflow in abundance” in Korean, and the flavorful food does exactly that. Chef Ran Yun emigrated to the U.S. from South Korea in 2008 before moving to Baltimore for her daughter, Bomin Jeon, to attend MICA in 2012. Now graduated, Bomin acts as Andamiro’s general manager while her siblings assist around the shop. Together, they fuse their rich homeland cuisine with a mix of American and European cafe standards.

While easy-to-indulge-in options abound—prosciutto sandwiches, pork belly platters, the prettiest avocado toast you’ll ever see—go for the Seoul-inspired specials. The seasonal buckwheat noodle bowl was a delight to the senses, with its colorful ingredients taking us on a flavor and texture journey through chewy noodles, crunchy cabbage, creamy hard-boiled egg, peppery microgreens, and shredded chicken. A drizzle of homemade hot sauce was balanced by the sweetness of carrots and beets.

The bulgogi plate was another winner, with thin slices of marinated beef served with enoki mushrooms, kimchee cucumbers, and rice. The richness of the meat and the cool kick of the cukes made for a killer combo. Whatever the weather, don’t sleep on the savory sweet potato curry soup, filled with fresh vegetables and feel-good turmeric spice. Their full-service coffee bar features a beautiful La Marzocco espresso machine for everything from frothy cappuccinos to dirty chai lattes to accompany a selection of pastries from Pâtisserie Poupon.

A few meals later and we think we’ve found our new spot to read the newspaper or bring a laptop. The staff is super friendly, the prices won’t hurt your wallet, and the food is a fresh riff in an old neighborhood. We’d return just for a seat outside and an iced lemon ginger tea as a sweet-sour way to start our day.

›› Café Andamiro 241 W. Chase St., 443-453-9314. Hours: Tue.-Sun. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Drinks: $2-5.70; lunch: $2-15; desserts: $1.50-3.50. 

When TV personality, chef, and food writer Andrew Zimmern came to Baltimore last summer, he visited a variety of eating establishments including Angie’s Soul Food at Lexington Market and Chaps Charcoal Restaurant for pit beef. But he also wanted to go to several of the area’s Korean restaurants while filming an episode for the Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods America. At Nam Kang on Maryland Avenue, Zimmern chowed down on octopus bibimbap and fish-roe jjigae before heading to Shin Chon Garden Restaurant in Ellicott City, where he continued his eating foray. (The episode is scheduled to air in late March.) During his food tour, Zimmern said of the places he visited, “Those things are authentically Baltimore.” Indeed. Beginning in the ’70s and until the ’90s, there were solid pockets of Korean immigrants in Baltimore. Ultimately, urban flight shifted the Asian-population concentrations toward the counties, particularly Howard County with its excellent public-school system. But in the city, a cluster of Korean restaurants still remains in the lower Charles Village neighborhood, just north of where the first Korean grocery once stood (the Far East House on North Avenue) and just south of The Johns Hopkins University, which provides a constant stream of Korean students seeking comfort food. We offer a roundup of several popular restaurants with a glossary of Korean foods and a primer on eating-and-ordering etiquette. All you need to do is bring an appetite—and a sense of adventure.

Baltimore City

Nam Kang, 2126 Maryland Ave., 410-685-6237. While the original Korean restaurant in Baltimore was Seoul restaurant (which later relocated), Nam Kang ranks as one of the oldest in town. The basement space once housed a Brazilian and an Ethiopian restaurant, but now serves arguably the most consistently well-prepared Korean food in the city. Like other restaurants in the neighborhood, it is open until 4 a.m. It features Korean barbecue dishes, but they are prepared in the kitchen rather than traditionally at the table.

Jong Kak, 18 W. 20th St., 410-837-5231. One of the few remaining Korean barbecue restaurants in town (the original, Ehwa, met its demise when Light Rail construction along Howard Street closed that area to traffic), Jong Gak features tabletop barbecue. But unlike most barbecue restaurants, they use braziers with hot charcoal, instead of a gas flame, for cooking.

Nak Won, 12 W. 20th St., 410-244-5501. Located next door to Jong Gak, this restaurant has very similar offerings, as well as a space for private events.

Following Korean etiquette

• No one should eat until the eldest person at the table begins to eat. In Korea, this is often observed, even among friends belonging to the same age group. But for the sake of practicality, it’s okay to to ask if everyone is ready before starting to eat.
• Always offer to pour water, tea, and especially alcohol for others before pouring it for yourself (eldest first, of course). When consuming alcohol, pouring yourself a glass is considered bad form, so don’t be surprised if a Korean dining companion insists on pouring it for you. When receiving a pour from someone older than you, hold your cup with two hands.
• If sharing from communal dishes, do not eat directly from the plates or bowls. Instead transfer them to your own small bowl or plate. (Always ask for extra dishes in advance on such occasions.)
• Although not commonly observed among those familiar with each other, it is considered polite to transfer food from communal plates to your own by turning your chopsticks around and using the fat ends, so the narrow (germy) ends are away from the food.
• When eating something that’s accompanied by a dipping sauce (for example, dumplings), instead of dipping directly into the communal sauce dish, ladle some with a spoon onto the morsel you have transferred to your own plate.
• It’s often observed that Asians “slurp” their noodles. This is not quite true. Koreans employ more of an inhaling action, so that the noodles are sucked in along with air (lips not sealed around noodles), which helps to minimize splashing and also cools the noodles as one eats them.
• Never leave chopsticks sticking straight up in a bowl of rice and never transfer a piece of food directly from chopstick to chopstick. Both are considered bad luck.

In the ’burbs

Shin Chon Garden Restaurant, 8801 Baltimore National Pike, No. 27, Ellicott City, 410-461-3280. Despite having gone through changes in ownership, Shin Chon remains the best Korean barbecue restaurant in the Baltimore metro area. They employ tabletop gas grills and serve excellent cuts of meat, a dizzying array of condiments and banchan (side dishes), and even supply the traditional barbecue accompaniment—doenjang jjigae, which is a rich, fermented soy-based soup with tofu and squash. Andrew Zimmern declared it one of the top five Korean restaurants he’s visited in the United States.

Han Joong Kwan, 9338 Baltimore National Pike, Ellicott City, 410-461-1099. Serving mostly Chinese-influenced cuisine, the restaurant, also known as the Silver Dragon, is best known for its jajangmyun and jjamppong. The noodles, while not handmade, are regarded as the best in the area.

Kimko Seafood, 10176 Baltimore National Pike, Suite 116, Ellicott City, 410-480-1442. The only restaurant in the area that features hwe, or Korean-style sashimi, Kimko boasts entire walls of fish tanks with all manner of marine animals that provide the freshest possible raw seafood. Most raw fish dishes are served according to how many guests are in a group, or by the actual animal, such as a whole live abalone or even live baby octopus. The cooked food is also excellent, and a multi-course menu offering nearly a dozen dishes can be had for a very fair price.

Honey Pig, 10045 Baltimore National Pike, Ellicott City, 410-696-2426. Honey Pig is a Korean barbecue mini-chain known for being open 24 hours and for its low prices, which makes it popular with students and late-night revelers. The atmosphere can be rather high energy at times. The barbecue is cooked on small hibachi-style camping stoves, so it’s difficult to obtain the proper sear and char, but again, the price is certainly right.

Hansung, 3570 St. Johns Ln., Ellicott City, 410-750-2753. A local favorite that is gaining a wider following, this restaurant is a combination of Korean and Japanese food, including the ubiquitous sushi and sashimi, as well as cooked dishes like yakitori and udon.

BonChon Chicken, 3419 Plum Tree Dr., No. 102, Ellicott City, 410-465-0515. The long-awaited opening of this Korean fried-chicken chain saves devotees a trip to its location in Virginia for the crispy, juicy, spicy-sweet poultry dish. Eat in or order carryout. Call ahead or be prepared to wait. The chicken is cooked to order and takes 20-30 minutes to prepare.

Hanoori Town, 822 N. Rolling Rd., Catonsville, 410-747-8315. Located next to H Mart, this sprawling, free-standing food court with a central dining area is surrounded by counters offering items like Korean soups, rice dishes, broiled fish, sushi made with ham and American cheese, and Korean-style shaved ice topped with fruit or sweet-bean paste.

Lotte Food Court, 8801 Baltimore National Pike, Ellicott City, 410-750-9656. If you get hungry while grocery shopping in the Lotte Korean supermarket, you can just park your cart and head to the in-house food court. Individual stalls serve traditional Korean food, as well as Japanese home-style food and sushi. There is also a very good Korean bakery.

Lighthouse Tofu BBQ, 9380 Baltimore National Pike, Ellicott City, 410-461-6560. Despite its name’s implications, the restaurant (there’s another location in Rockville) is neither a vegetarian nor a barbecue place. It specializes in soon dooboo, a very soft form of tofu that is most often made into a spicy seafood-and-vegetable-based soup. Soups are customized here, from ingredients to the level of spice.

Goong Jeon, 202 Crain Highway North, Glen Burnie, 410-768-9788. Representing a dwindling pocket of Korean presence in Anne Arundel County, Goong Jeon has been around longer than its Howard County counterparts. The restaurant offers Korean barbecue cooked on gas-flame grills and friendly service.

Woomi Garden, 2423 Hickerson Drive, Wheaton, 301-933-0100. Woomi Garden serves probably the best Korean barbecue in Maryland and is definitely worth the 45-minute trip from Baltimore. It offers fresh meats, excellent marinades, and well-made banchan (side dishes). Also well-prepared are the fresh mung-bean pancakes and another traditional accompaniment to barbecue—naeng myun, which are chewy buckwheat noodles served in a refreshing cold broth.

Understanding the Food

Korean cuisine reflects a geography similar to Maryland.

True Korean cuisine is incredibly diverse, in part a reflection of the country’s varied and compact landscape. In the mountains, wild boar and pickled ferns are served at roadside inns, while just a few hours’ drive east, fresh seafood can be found in port cities dotting the vast coastline. Is it any wonder Koreans chose Maryland as a new home? Korean food is divided into groupings like “soups” and “rice dishes” and into lifestyle categories like what to eat when ill or drinking.
In Baltimore, we have access to a range and quality (if not quantity) of Korean restaurants that rival much larger communities.

Barbecue
Cooking at the Table
One of the most recognizable and influential Korean food imports is Korean barbecue. Its origins lie in a form of preparation called jeok, in which skewers are used to cook meat over an open flame. The modern form involves various cuts of beef, pork, chicken, and sometimes seafood and lamb. The meat is cooked at the table and eaten communally.

Soups
A Main Course
Korea is one of the world’s great soup cultures. There are two main delineations: jjigae, which generally refers to highly spiced, heartier stew-type soups, and guk, which usually indicates a higher ratio of broth to solid with less aggressive seasoning. Soups are always a main course. They usually start with fish or meat stock and are often enriched with a soy-bean paste.

Noodles
Two Main Types
Noodles make up a surprisingly small segment of Korean cuisine, with the most popular noodle dishes derived from Chinese preparations. The two main ones are jajangmyun, which are wheat-flour noodles dressed with a thick gravy made from fermented black beans, and jjamppong, which are the same noodles except they come in a spicy, seafood-laden broth.

Rice in a Stone Bowl
A Korean Casserole
Basically the casserole of Korean cuisine, bibimbap, which translates to mixed-up rice, is rice with an assortment of vegetables and meat (often leftovers when made at home), bound together by a spicy sauce and often enriched with a fried egg. A deluxe version is served in a heated stone bowl, which results in a crust of crunchy browned rice.

Hwe
Raw Fish
Koreans eat a lot of seafood and especially enjoy it raw. Korean-style raw fish, known as hwe, differs from Japanese sashimi in that the fish is usually a firm, white-fleshed flat fish such as flounder and is often dressed with a soy and garlic sauce without wasabi.

Korean Fried Chicken
Usually Legs and Wings
A niche product that skyrocketed in popularity in the ’90s and early 2000s, Korean fried chicken has lots of fans. The chicken is not battered; rather, it is lightly floured, then “double-fried” and glazed, resulting in a super-crispy, almost glassy exterior with a sweet or spicy, garlicky flavor. Usually only legs and wings are served with pickled radishes.

SHARED FARE: Food For Drinking. The dishes are often salty, spicy, and/or fatty, and are served in large portions meant for sharing. Popular ones include dooboo kimchi bokkeum and samgyupsal.