About a month ago, Dogeol Youn and Sungwook Kim made their dreams come true. When DNDN Asian Eatery opened on June 16, they realized their vision of opening their own eatery, complete with traditional, house-made Asian bites.
“Me and Sungwook used to be chefs and always wanted to open our own place,” says Youn. “While we went through the pandemic, we were asking ourselves, like everyone does their own, why not us? So we started to plan out our own place and here we are!”
The name DNDN comes from the Korean phrase ‘든든’, which loosely translates to fulfill and substantial. It’s not a direct translation, of course, which is why Youn and Kim decided to keep it simple and use the lettering instead.
DNDN serves, according to Youn, banchan, which are Korean side dishes, as well as fresh made onigiri, sandwiches and rolls, and even house made drinks. “We want to make this place like an Asian Deli,” Youn says, “where you can get a bunch of fresh salad and pickles along with fresh-made food as well.”
Everything on the menu is made from scratch in-house, a treat that comes from the duo’s culture and extensive culinary history.
“We were both born in South Korea and lived abroad for quite a long time. I mostly worked in a European-based restaurant,” Youn says. “I also worked in various countries, like Denmark and Australia, while Sungwook has most of his experience based in Japanese cuisine, which means we have got a strong part of both Western and Eastern cuisine.”
DNDN Asian Eatery is located at 2109 1/2 Yonge St.
