Sel Z.
Yelp
Excellent authentic Ukrainian food in a spacious and beautiful restaurant with great decor inside. Located near Humber Bay Park in Etobicoke, Barrel House Korchma is very beautiful inside with various Ukrainian-themed memorabilia (photos, maps, flags, traditional clothing, flowers, posters, etc.) placed along the wooden log cabin-like walls. There is a bar area in the corner of the restaurant, which looks very cozy. It seems to be a great neighbourhood restaurant. There is heated patio at the back.
For those who come by car, there is a small paid parking area (very cheap) just around the corner from the restaurant. It's also easily accessible by TTC.
The service deserves five stars and more - friendly, VERY quick, and efficient. We ordered a lot of dishes, and they all came out within minutes. Everything was presented very nicely. All the dishes we tried were excellent! They were delicious, fresh, colourful, and healthy (nothing was overly heavy, oily, or creamy).
My favourite dishes were the Grilled Salmon (came with a choice of side), Grilled Vegetables (so many different types of veggies including asparagus, green beans, zucchini, eggplant, carrots, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions - nicely seasoned while still fresh and crisp), Vegan Borscht Soup, Stir-Fried Sauerkraut, and Cossacks Potato Pancake with Mushroom Sauce (slightly crispy on the outside, soft and delicously gooey in the inside with mushrooms and other vegs). The Cossacks Potato Pancake came served with a small side of fresh vegetables and small serving of mushroom sauce / gravy.
The Coleslaw Salad came in a pretty big portion. It was different than the typical North American coleslaw (which tends to be creamy because of the mayo). The Coleslaw Salad here was made up of very fresh, crisp vegetables.
You can make a lot of the dishes vegan or vegetarian. For example: we ordered the Borscht Soup to be made vegan (using beans instead of beef). I loved the combination of beets, tomatoes, and beans in the soup - a hearty yet light soup at the same time. It came served with 2 baked buns.
We tried the vegetarian version of the Stuffed Cabbage Rolls (with rice, mushrooms, and carrots filling). It was pretty good, but the rice inside resembled more of a sticky rice consistency (or sticky risotto) with only a little bit of mushrooms. It came with a nice mushroom sauce / gravy.
The Nalysnyky (Ukrainian crepes) had 3 choices for filling (chicken, cabbage, or cottage cheese & spinach). We ordered the one with cottage cheese & spinach. It came as 2 rolled / folded crepes that were quite heavy and dense with lots of filling - mostly cheese though.
As for dessert options, they offer traditional Ukrainian / Eastern European desserts such as nalynsky with sweet cream cheese filling.
Overall, it's an awesome restaurant for a true taste of authentic Ukrainian cuisine. Some of the dishes are not ones that you'd easily find in most other Eastern European restaurants.
