New Lucan café blends Korean roots with Canadian breakfast tastes
- Mar 11
- 3 min read
By Dan Rolph
One of Lucan’s newest additions to its downtown core is serving up a mixture of classic breakfast fare, delectable baked goods and Korean cuisine – a rarity in small-town Ontario.
On Table Café owners Eun Ju (Anna) Shim and Myunghyun (Ryan) Choi opened their restaurant in the former Donnelly Café location on Dec. 18, 2025.
Already owners of Grand Bend’s Seoul Bites, Anna said they were looking for a place where diners could sit and enjoy their food, something that isn’t easy at their Grand Bend restaurant.
After a search that lasted six months, they decided on the spot in the heart of Lucan’s downtown on Main Street. Customers can now find Anna making the café’s many drinks and Ryan in the kitchen, using his experience as a chef to create handmade meals.
Though they received the keys to the restaurant in October 2025, they were far from ready to open, and Anna said they almost immediately began getting to work on brightening the space and breathing new life into it.
“We changed almost everything,” said Anna. “We worked every day.”
When they first planned on opening in Lucan, Anna said they intended to create a dedicated Korean restaurant in a place where Korean food is rare. However, as they were working on the space and speaking with locals, they quickly discovered there was a thirst for a local breakfast joint.
“They said ‘we need breakfast,’” said Anna. “A mix of Korean food and coffee was okay, but they really wanted breakfast.”
Their menu that aims to cater to the community includes full breakfast options, baked goods, rice bowls, noodles and drinks.
With the change in approach to the menu, Anna said it’s been a learning experience, particularly as they discover the differences between South Korean and Canadian breakfasts.
“There are different cultures in Korea and Canada,” she said. “We didn’t know their breakfast.”
Despite the need to learn as they go, Anna said they’re still bringing a dedication to the quality of their food to everything on the menu, baking all of their own breads and pastries, creating their own sauces and hand-selecting the foods that go on the plate.
As well, Anna said they learned by visiting other breakfast restaurants to compare prices, learn plating and taste what was being offered in the region.
Anna described her husband, Ryan, as an honest chef who takes a great amount of pride and care in his work.
“He checks everything,” she said. “Bacon, vegetables, sauces. He makes everything he wants here.”
Anna arrived in Canada with her children in 2019, coming from South Korea looking for a healthy work and life balance. After originally settling in Nova Scotia, and with Ryan arriving in Canada about two years later, the family moved to southwestern Ontario as the children hoped to attend university in the area.
“Canada’s the perfect country for us,” she said. “It’s a very happy place. I chose Canada.”
Looking to the future, Anna said they would love to set their sights on new locations where they could bring Korean food to other small towns in the region that may not have access to it.