Chungchun Rice Dog

582 Yonge St, Toronto

Ok, so this spot may not be news to you. If you live in the GTA, you’ve probably seen or heard of these rice-dog situations.

These Korean style hot dogs are worth writing home about, though. I’ll give you my opinion and you take from it what you will.

Chungchun has locations in Alberta, BC, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Manitoba and many across the GTA and London, ON area. We ventured to the Yonge and Wellesely location this past summer to see what the hype was all about, and boy were we in for a sweet and savoury surprise.

That’s right, we got food and desert in hotdog form! Both were excellent and went surprisingly well with one another.

Unlike traditional pogo sticks made with a flour-based batter, Korean-style rice dogs are made from glutenous flour giving a softer, thicker texture. These rice dogs are then coated in breadcrumbs, diced potato, ramen chips or rolled in sugar and then fried prior to serving.

While I can’t speak much on the dining experience because there wasn’t much of one (thanks to tight Toronto commercial real estate), I can say these rice dogs were fresh and dressed to impress.

For real though, the selection of dressings, toppings, sauces and garnishings made available are what really elevated the hotdog-on-a-stick experience. To name a few: ketchup, sweet mayo, honey mustard, teriyaki, barbecue, cheddar cheese and honey butter.

I have to say, each rice dog we tried did not fail to impress on the freshness standpoint — regardless of whether or not its acceptable to consider or describe a fried hotdog as “fresh.”

Their menu is diverse and while many options contain cheese, beef or chicken of some sort, there are vegetarian and desert options as well.

We dabbled into each category. Here's what we got:

Chocolate Rice Dog

9/10

I’m a dedicated chocolate lover and sweet tooth, so this one hit home for me. I don’t want to say it resembled a churro, because that may offend someone, but it did have a similar concept: chocolate interior coated in batter and rolled in sugar. This rice dog had chocolate sauce drizzled on it as well which made it extra decadent. You can never do chocolate wrong, so I personally loved this one.

Gamsung

10/10

You’ve probably seen this potato covered rice dog on your social feeds at some point in the recent past. The protein in this rice dog is a combination of beef and chicken sausage. I think this combination dulls the strong meat taste to allow room for the crispy, coated, carb-y diced potatoes to shine! Fries are my weakness… sorry. Garnishing was ketchup, obviously. 10/10.

Half Mozzarella

7/10

The mozzarella was not as gooey and oozey as I’d love it to have been. The beef sausage had a strong, overpowering taste. It wasn’t unbearable, but also not my favourite. The batter was excellent though and helped to deter the strong beef flavour. 7/10.

Volcano

6.5/10

This rice dog was recommended by a Chungchun employee. Inside was spicy pork and chicken sausage and cheese. The spice and seasonings inside accentuated it's already strong garlicky flavour which I did not prefer, especially together with the mozzarella. This rice dog was coated in classic breadcrumbs and garnished with sweet mayo which was a much needed kick of sweetness.

Next time, I would love to try the original chungchun rice dog with either honey mustard or sweet chilli sauce to bring down that heavy batter texture and strong beef taste.

Our dressed up rice dogs were well-priced, impressive from a quality standpoint and came packaged in a box for easy take out.

A great place to grab a quick and flavourful Korean treat.

Let me know your verdict when you try this hidden gem for yourself!

Until my next dose of YUM,

xx Sab