What’s on the menu at Piggy’s Island, a Korean barbecue restaurant in Thornhill that bounced back from a devastating fire

After nearly three years, the family-run spot is finally back in business

By Caroline Aksich| Photography by Ashley van der Laan

| March 13, 2024

The ssambap at Piggy's Island comes with a variety of goodies to wrap in lettuce and perilla leaves — Ssambap—essentially a choose-your-own-adventure with lettuce wraps—comes with an array of goodies: creamy perilla seed-dressed salad, kimchi, seafood pancake, assorted veggies (bean sprouts, spinach, fiddleheads), acorn jelly, soybean paste stew and a protein option of either marinated soy pork or spicy pork. At $20, this lunch special is a steal, but there’s a catch: there’s a minimum order of two per table, so guests should either bring a big appetite or an equally hungry friend.

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Name: Piggy’s Island Contact: 5 Glen Cameron Rd., Thornhill, 905-597-1522, piggysisland.ca, @piggysisland
Neighbourhood: Thornhill (Yonge and Steeles) Owners: Husband-and-wife team Joeun Kim and Torry Chun (Bap.Zip) Chefs: Torry Chun (Ehwa, Hell’s Chicken) and his mother-in-law, Gi Ja Lee Accessibility: Fully accessible

The summer of 2021 was supposed to be a turning point for Piggy’s Island. After 14 months of scraping by on takeout revenue, the much-anticipated return of outdoor dining promised to breathe new life into couple Joeun Kim and Torry Chun’s Korean barbecue restaurant. Their makeshift parking lot patio was bustling, and they dared to hope that the worst was over. Then, in a cruel twist of fate, just three days after reopening for indoor dining, Joeun Kim received a 5 a.m. phone call that felt like a punch to the gut: the building that houses Piggy’s had caught fire, reducing her 10-year-old restaurant to ashes.

The owners of Piggy's Island, a Korean barbecue restaurant, grill meat at one of the restaurant's tables — Joeun Kim (right) and her mom, Gi Ja Lee (left). Lee used to run a restaurant near Seoul before she moved to Canada to help her daughter with Piggy’s Island. Kim handles the front-of-house while her husband and mom helm the kitchen

The cause of the fire? Unknown. With no culprit to blame, the insurance company was dragging its feet, and a year of pandemic-induced belt-tightening had left the family’s finances in a precarious state. But Kim and her husband had no choice except to forge ahead. So, with help from their siblings and parents, the couple started to rebuild on a shoestring budget.

Since opening the restaurant in 2011 as a love letter to Korean cuisine, Kim and Chun have been meticulous about quality and authenticity—even if it means importing Korean sea salt for the perfect kimchi crunch, continuing to use AAA Canadian beef in spite of inflationary pressures and ordering a specialty Korean-made machine to churn out fresh sweet potato noodles (which are made, of course, from Korea-imported sweet potato starch).

The food

This level of commitment extends to the grill, which features five different plate types and two fuel options (Korean oak charcoal and gas), each tailored to specific cooking techniques for the meats on the menu. While many patrons appreciate this dedication, some Torontonians who are used to all-you-can-eat barbecue joints have left one-star reviews, unhappy with the restaurant’s policy of selecting one meat at a time. “In Korea, you never order multiple meats,” Kim explains. “That’s not the way it’s done because it really affects the taste.”

Since the fire, Piggy’s Island has made a concession on this front: while Kim and Chun still don’t recommend mixing meats, they’ve recognized it as a losing battle. Now, if diners want to grill pork belly and boneless beef short rib on the same grill, they’re free to do so. This is the only significant change to the menu since reopening. Everything else—the 12-ingredient beef marinade, the 48-hour ox bone broth and the house-made banchan—remains untouched.

A plate of Korean dumplings — These hefty hand-folded dumplings pack a lot of filling into their delicate wrappers. Inside is a mix of pork, beef, tofu, zucchini, cabbage, carrots and chives. $14

A person uses a ladle to pour broth into the cold noodles at Piggy's Island — In the summer, these house-made cold noodles fly out of the kitchen. To keep up with demand and ensure everything is as fresh as possible, they make up to four batches a day

A machine extrudes noodles into a pot of water — The dough is shaped by this machine, imported from South Korea. The noodles are boiled for eight seconds...

A person rinses noodles in water — ...then quickly wrung out to ensure maximum springiness

The spicy cold noodles at Piggy's Island, a Korean barbecue restaurant — Here’s the spicy incarnation of the noodles, topped with a chili sauce made from a blend of three Korean hot peppers, honey, pear, garlic, soy sauce and a dollop of ox bone soup for some extra umami. $22

Yukhoe, Korea’s version of beef tartare, is seasoned with soy, salt, sugar, sesame oil and chili pepper paste — Yukhoe, Korea’s version of beef tartare, is seasoned with soy, salt, sugar, sesame oil and chili paste. Unlike the diced style of Western tartares, the meat here is sliced into short strips

A chef adds the yolk of a hen's egg to yukhoe, Korean beef tartare — It’s elegantly presented on a nest of crispy potato and topped with a hen’s egg and diced Asian pear

Yukhoe, a Korean take on beef tartare — Here’s the finished dish. $22

A bowl of Korean short rib soup — The broth for this short rib soup is cooked down for two days, until it’s silken and extra beefy. Soybean paste and gochujang add some oomph. The dish is finished with fresh veggies: cabbage, bean sprouts and radish. $20

A person uses chopsticks to pick up a piece of barbecue meat to add into a perilla leaf — Here’s a closer look at the pork

The assorted combo barbecue platter at Piggy's Island — The new assorted combo comes with pork belly, pork collar, pork jowl, boneless short rib, beef brisket, corn cheese and tteokbokki. The fuel of choice is charcoal. It even comes with marshmallow skewers, which guests can toast over the embers for dessert. “Some other Korean barbecue restaurants offer cheaper beef, but I think the quality of AAA Canadian—which is amazingly marbled and tastes almost like Wagyu—is worth the price,” says Kim. $99

The drinks

The concise cocktail menu includes some unique whiskey highballs, like one infused with blueberry and another with Earl Grey tea. Complementing this list are some thoughtfully crafted mocktails. They also serve a selection of sake, soju and makgeolli (a lightly sparkling rice wine).

This zero-proof drink is the Sujunggwa Sikhye, a sweet sip made with sikhye, cinnamon and dates — This zero-proof drink is the Sujeonggwa Sikhye, a sweet sipper made with sikhye (a Korean rice punch), cinnamon and dates. $8

The space

Decorated by the family, the 120-seat restaurant exudes a beachy charm. To really capture the essence, they poured an epoxy floor, blending ocean-blue and sand-white hues. Surfboards hang on the walls, as if waiting to catch the next wave. Grass roof flourishes and tropical plants add to the seaside ambiance. The seating includes cozy booths, and the bench seating is ingeniously designed to open up, providing a hidden nook inside for storing jackets and purses.

While Kim and Chun are currently smitten with their newly rebuilt tropical retreat, they dream of one day sprucing up the DIY space even more—once the business finds its sea legs, that is.