Hodo Kwaja

Suki Lee was just four years old when her father opened a Korean bakery in 1992, introducing Torontonians to baked goods from his home country. But that didn’t stop her from helping out with operations. “I was actually folding our boxes for a penny a piece,” Suki remembers with a laugh. “I was earning my allowance!”

Suki’s responsibilities have increased significantly since then as she’s now the general manager of Hodo Kwaja, running sales at the front-of-house. As the only Korean bakery in downtown Toronto, the shop remains busy with a constant flow of customers picking up fresh baked goods. The menu is small but mighty, featuring crisp and chewy Korean pancakes, madeleine sponge cakes and the bakery’s iconic product – bite-sized walnut-shaped cakes filled with a mix of walnut and red bean, walnut and mashed potato, or walnut and almonds. They’re incredibly addictive and affordably priced, and have established Hodo Kwaja as a Koreatown institution.