Oh Geul Boh Geul

For my mother's birthday, my sister took a day off work and I brought my son to meet them for lunch. She decided that she wanted Korean food, so the Yonge & Finch area seemed like the most convenient place to go.

Restaurant: Oh Geul Boh Geul
Location: Willowdale
Meal: Lunch
Day: Monday
Son's Age: 11 months

The restaurant has limited customer parking in the back, where you can enter through the back entrance right by the kitchen. Free parking is definitely a nice bonus along Yonge.

Accessibility: ⭐
The restaurant itself is quite small, so both the front and back entrances are narrow. This is not the place to bring a stroller. They also do not have high chairs, although they did provide a booster seat to secure to the chair.

The washroom is located in the basement down a narrow set of stairs, and there is no change table or counter space.

The good news is that the toilet has a lid, so diaper changes can still be done, but it's not convenient.

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I have to give the servers credit because they were clearly not prepared for a baby, and they were even less prepared when I asked for hot water to heat up my son's food. They started by bringing a teacup with too much water so that my baby cube would cause it to overflow, then they brought a banchan dish that was much too shallow. After bringing another bowl that was too large, they finally brought me a small bowl of hot water.

They also came back to check that we had everything we needed, and they were quick to refill our banchan. In fact, we discovered that my son really liked the cold tofu, but we had to navigate carefully because there was some chilli soy sauce on it that we wanted to avoid giving the baby. When we asked if we could have another without sauce, explaining that it was for the baby, they quickly brought out a large helping of the tofu with sauce on the side. While they didn't know what the baby needed, they were more than willing to accommodate us, and I really appreciated the effort. 

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I must say, of all the Korean restaurants in Toronto that I've visited, I think this must have the most banchan. 

What I found particularly unique was that they had a green onion pancake and fresh broccoli, which is a nice change of pace from your typical kimchi, bean sprouts, and japchae. And yes, you can get refills on all of them. For my main, I ordered a bibimbap. 

This was served with some miso soup. The bibimbap was very good. I generally enjoy bibimbap and haven't had a bad version yet, so this is a good example, although it also doesn't stand out in my mind as being especially remarkable or anything. Still, the meal was satisfactory, and the banchan was great. 

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐½
This place itself is not designed to be baby friendly, and given my experience, it would seem that the staff does not see a lot of babies here. That being said, the banchan is great and the servers are so cooperative, really doing their best to make things easier for me. If you are feeling brave and want some good Korean food, this is not a bad place to try. 

Sushi Moto

I'm actually writing this post while I am on my vacation in Mexico, but I realize it's been a while and I'm just relaxing anyway so why not! I should caution that my memory is a little hazy on this one, but I know that I was near my sister's office so I decided to meet her for lunch. I asked her to pick a restaurant and she chose Sushi Moto.

Restaurant: Sushi Moto
Location: Willowdale
Meal: Lunch
Day: Friday
Son's Age: 7 months

This seemed like it would be a decent spot for lunch, and when we arrived, they seated us in a private area that was curtained off, which seemed very considerate for both the baby and the other patrons.

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️
For starters, there is a step to get into the restaurant, which is not ideal for strollers. That being said, I was able to get my stroller next to the table.

I should probably start asking for high chairs but my baby is actually quite long and skinny and extremely wiggly so I'm worried that he'll fall out. That being said, no one offered a high chair either, so I'm not clear if that was an option. The washroom was located downstairs which is also not so stroller friendly. 

There is no designated change table but if your baby isn't inclined to roll around her, there is a long counter top that could be used to change a diaper. 

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
What Sushi Moto lacks in accessibility, it more than makes up for in service. As I said, we were given a private seating area. I asked for some hot water to heat up my son's lunch, wondering in my head if a baby cube would fit into a tea cup, and the server brought the water in a small bowl.

This was perfect for me to put the cube in and take out without burning my fingers! Service overall was excellent and everyone was very accommodating to the baby.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I ordered the salmon teriyaki bento box, which interestingly enough was served with two soups.

One was a standard miso soup, and the other I'm not sure about since it wasn't noted on the menu, but as you can see, there are noodles in it. Both tasted fine - I generally enjoy soup so they were both satisfying but nothing particularly outstanding.

The bento came with salad, tempura, California rolls, and rice. Everything was delicious, but similar to the soups, it all tasted pretty standard. If you like Japanese food, particularly bento boxes, the food here will not disappoint you, but it's not very memorable either.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
The service here really helps to make the place baby friendly, and the food is good enough. I would recommend bringing your baby here if you are in the area. 

Union Social Eatery

I decided to meet up with a former co-worker of mine. She originally tried to convince me to meet her in Newmarket, but I'm a little bit of a Toronto snob (oh don't act like you aren't - if you're from Toronto you're at least a bit of a snob; I bet it annoys you when I blog about restaurants in the GTA) so she agreed to go to North York.

Restaurant: Union Social Eatery
Location: Willowdale
Meal: Lunch
Day: Monday
Son's Age: 19 weeks

There is a Union Social Eatery in Mississauga near my workplace, and it is one of the better options for lunch with co-workers in that area. They have since opened more locations in Toronto. Someone described it to me as a hipster version of Moxie's, which is pretty accurate. They even have a gluten free menu if that tickles your fancy.

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
When it comes to stroller friendliness, this place isn't designed to be accessible as there is a step right at the entrance that I had to maneuver over. Once I arrived, I had no problems putting the stroller me to the table.

Something to note if you are are attempting to keep your baby away from screens for the first two years (which is currently my plan - I'll let you know how well that worked in two years), maybe avoid pubs during the Olympics. See how my son is staring intently at something? That would be tennis. I ended up switching seats so that he was facing away from the TV, so it wasn't that big of a deal, but also something I have not previously had to contend with. As for the washrooms, there is no change table available.

The good news is that there is enough counter space if a diaper change is necessary. Not ideal, but better than nothing.

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The service here is fantastic. Our server was very helpful in explaining the menu, particularly the killer chicken sandwich of the day, and seemed very knowledgeable. She was also happy to point out where the washroom was, and was just very friendly overall. Most noteworthy, though, was when my son was sucking on his pacifier and it popped out of his mouth onto the floor. The server quickly came over and scooped it up, then offered to wash it in hot water. She brought it back out for me on a plate and it was still warm. To me, that is the perfect example of going above and beyond.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Like I mentioned earlier, this is pretty much a hipster chain restaurant. The menu items are diverse so it is safe to bring a group of people here with different tastes, which makes it a good choice for work lunches. I ordered the almond crusted chicken tenders with fries, Dijon mustard, and the U.S.E. sauce.

The food is fine. The almond crusting makes them a bit more unique than your run-of-the-mill chicken tenders and the U.S.E. sauce is nice. The fries are just the way I like them, and salted well enough that I didn't need to add ketchup (although I did dip some in the Dijon). We decided to order dessert as well, and I got the cookies with ice cream.

The cookies were warm and soft and paired well with the ice cream, so it was a satisfying way to end the meal.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Food-wise, it's your typical chain restaurant so it won't disappoint you but it won't blow you away either. The accessibility is not the greatest for bringing a baby, but the service is phenomenal. If you are meeting a group of people and you are taking your baby with you, this isn't a bad spot.

Ajisen Ramen

I was in the Willowdale area with my baby and craving ramen, but needed to find a place that could accommodate my stroller.

Restaurant: Ajisen Ramen
Location: Willowdale
Meal: Lunch
Day: Thursday
Son's Age: 10 weeks

When I arrived, there were actually already two other families with strollers seated, and I worried that they wouldn't have room for another one, but they were able to seat me near the door. I have to note that whoever was responsible for the soundtrack seemed to be a huge fan of Justin Bieber, as well as parodies of Taylor Swift. I'm not counting this towards my dining experience but in case you feel strongly about music selection, there you go.

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
They were clearly well prepared for patrons with babies. I was seated at a booth near the front and could see that there were also high chairs and booster seats available.

The server kept asking if I was all right or if the baby was perhaps to close to the door. She was actually more worried than I was, so I ended up moving his car seat into the booth next to me.

He was pretty quiet the whole time, although frankly with the music playing I don't think he would have been disruptive even if he decided to fuss. The aisles were wide enough for me to take the stroller to the washroom as well, even with the other strollers in the restaurant.

As you can see, he wasn't happy at this point, but from a functionality standpoint there is room for the strolle and there is a change table available. I was very comfortable maneuvering around the restaurant with baby in tow.

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Service was great! Even though I was comfortable sitting in the booth, the server was very concerned about my proximity to the door due to the draft (which wasn't even that bad), but unfortunately didn't have another table where I could park the stroller next to me without blocking anyone. Also, while the aisles are in fact big enough to fit the stroller, there was a box on the floor near the kitchen that blocked the washroom. When I saw it, I was worried about getting by, but as soon as I approached, someone quickly popped out of the kitchen to move it out of my way and hold open the washroom door. I never felt rushed during my visit, and my food arrived promptly.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This one was difficult for me to rate. I started with a coconut bubble tea because I saw it on the menu and I'm always in the mood for bubble tea.

This met my expectations, but I love bubble tea so it's rare for me to find one that let me down. As for my meal, I chose a spicy pork ramen.

Here is where I'm torn. I love that you can choose what level of spice you want - I went with 100%, and I like spicy, so they delivered on that front. The broth really hit the spot. Also, the menu has a much wider selection than other ramen places. The pork was pretty much Chinese BBQ pork, which I love, but it's not typically the pork found in ramen dishes so that threw me off a little. The ramen noodles themselves were also thinner than I like and the taste of the noodles themselves were okay but not great. I suppose I would rate the noodles themselves as three stars, but the broth and spice level as five stars, so netting out to four. If you are passionate about ramen noodles (and you don't have to worry about a baby), I would recommend other places, but otherwise this is a decent place to try.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Overall, if you have a baby in tow, this place is really easy and comfortable to take your baby to, the servers treat you well, and the food is decent. I suspect that you'll be hard pressed to find a better ramen place that is stroller-friendly, so if I'm out with my son and craving ramen I would probably come here again.