At home at Dojo Ramen: Regina restaurant serves up tastes of founder's heritage
Local foodie eats his way through Regina to share his take on what’s good
This article was originally published Dec. 1, 2021. Since then, the owners of another local restaurant, Milu, have taken over Dojo Ramen. The menu remains the same.
Ramen is one of my favourite things to eat. So when I heard that Dale MacKay and his business partner Christopher Cho were opening up a ramen shop in Regina, I was very excited.
In season three of the Netflix series Chef's Table, a Japanese ramen expert described the dish as being "like bread to the French," noting there are 80,000 ramen shops in his country. Ramen is something Japanese people eat every day. It's the people's food.
So it's perhaps no surprise that Cho credits Dojo's existence to the people of Regina. It wasn't easy opening a restaurant during the pandemic, he says.
Staffing was a challenge. Many servers and bartenders left the industry completely. Restaurants everywhere are struggling, he said.
"Places like New York, how can you even survive? The overhead. The rent is so high. The food costs are so high. The competition. And we're complaining that we're living in a pandemic, and we're in Saskatoon or Regina," he said. "But it all goes back to the people of this province. The support we get from these people is amazing. Without that, we wouldn't exist."
Dojo Ramen's packed dining room is a testament not only to the quality food and drink on offer, but also to Cho and MacKay's reputation. Together they operate three restaurants in Saskatoon and two in Regina under the Grassroots Restaurant Group brand. Cho attributes to it a feeling of home pride.
"It's like everyone roots for you if you're in Saskatchewan. Had we [started these businesses] in a different province or a different city, I just don't think we'd have gotten the recognition that we've gotten."
Having opened five restaurants in eight years, Cho and MacKay have found their groove. The two complement each other. MacKay assembles the food menus and Cho — an accomplished mixologist — concocts the cocktails and bar menus.
Two of their restaurants (Sticks and Stones in Saskatoon and Dojo Ramen) have enabled Cho, who is Korean-Canadian, to put a bit of himself on the plate. The kimchi they use is his family's recipe. It ferments for three months before it's ready to serve.
"When we opened up Sticks and Stones, we flew my parents in. They were in Korea at the time, but we flew them in to teach us how to make traditional kimchi. I just told my mom, 'Just cook the food you used to cook for me when I was growing up,'" Cho recalls.
"They were so nervous coming into Saskatchewan and cooking for Dale and our other chefs. I overheard them saying, 'No let's do this, let's add this…' I said, 'No. Make it the way you used to make it when I was growing up. That's what I want them to taste.'"
His parents ended up cooking a feast for 16, and teaching everyone how to make traditional kimchi and traditional 'banchan,' which are Korean side dishes.
"The cooks and the chefs learned so much from my parents, and my parents learned so much from them. It just worked out so great."
Cho served me Dojo's kimchi fried rice.
"This is something I grew up eating," he explains.
The rice is fried in bacon fat and Gochugaru (Korean hot pepper flake) and topped with green onion, nori, a fried egg and some house hot sauce for an extra kick.
Through the course of our conversation, Cho takes me from his birthplace of Sao Paolo, Brazil, to his childhood in rural Ontario (where he lived from age four, speaking Korean at home and English in the streets), to the myriad hotels and restaurants in which he's honed his craft.
Now in his very own Korean-Japanese restaurant in Regina, he serves food as rich and varied as his own history.
"These are the flavours I grew up with and wanted to share with other people. People often think fried rice is a simple dish, but once you eat it, it's a lot more complex than you think. It's absolutely delicious."
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