All Entries in the "Korean" Category
Hong Mi Korean Restaurant on No. 3 Road, Richmond
Polly and I chanced upon this new Korean Restaurant Hong Mi on our usual meeting. We were looking for a place for lamb hotpot since the weather is cold now and we just drove out from Lido as we were told that they dont serve lamb hotpot during lunch hour. As we pulled out from the mall where Lido is and wanted to go to Aberdeen Mall, we saw that a new Korean restaurant has taken over Kim Ga Nae (also a Korean restaurant) used to be. So, we decided to check it out.
We were told by the server that Hong Mi has just opened for a month. We like that there are pictures of Korean dishes on the windows. It’s a good way to advertise.
The restaurant is big. It is divided into two sections. The area above is for regular diner whereas the far end behind the Christmas tree is another area for hot pot. We went for the regular Korean dishes. This area alone seats about 100.
We like the menu especially the first two where the appetizers are. It is loaded with photos which made ordering much easier. You can click on the menu to have a larger view.
We ordered mainly from the lunch special menu. The server told us that 3 items on the lunch special is on promotion now which is $4.99 per item. You can click on the lunch special menu to have a larger view. The items on promotion is L7, L10 and L14.
Something that is different here from other Korean restaurant is the chopsticks. Korean restaurant usually uses metal chopsticks which have very pointy ends. The above are more like Chinese chopsticks.
Four banchans are served here; kimchee, beansprouts, seaweed in a sweet soy sauce and the last item is a jello like item served with soy sauce.
We found out later that the jello like banchan is made with some kind of yam. We saw the item in T&T supermarket after lunch when we went to get some groceries. Polly bought some for her kids to try.
We ordered an appetizer called Mini Bossam. It costs $9.95. It is steamed cabbage, pickled daikon and poached pork belly served with a bean sauce (ssamjang), raw garlic slices, jalapeno and a Korean fish sauce.
The way to eat the Bossam is to place a piece of the cabbage on your palm, top with a piece of the pork belly, a piece or two of the daikon, garlic and jalapeno (optional) and season with the sauces to taste. If the cabbage is big enough, you can wrap it up as a bundle or just place the whole stack of food into your mouth. The spiciness from garlic and jalapeno gives it a good kick.
We ordered all the 3 items on promotion from the lunch menu. It’s a table full of food. Polly pointed out that … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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House of Tofu Soup on Garden City Road, Richmond
We noticed that the Jing Long Fang location was under renovation by a new restaurant a while ago. It turned out the new restaurant is House of Tofu Soup, a Korean restaurant.
House of Tofu Soup has been in business for 10 years at the North Road, Burnaby location. When we visited this Richmond location, it has just opened for 2 weeks.
Well, Arkensen and Nanzaro did not want to have Korean food. So, both of them went to Thai Son instead, which is just nearby. Gosh, my boys have grown up faster than I expected.
Parking in this small strip mall called Yi An Centre is not easy. There are several other restaurants here like So Hot So Pot, Spicy Stage Cafe, etc.
House of Tofu Soup is very spacious. The walls are decorated with their signature dishes from their menu.
Their menu is very nice, comes with colour photos of the dishes. The photos ease the ordering for people who are not familiar with Korean cuisines. You can click on the menu to view them larger.
I ordered their signature Tofu Soup. You get to choose the ingredients and the spiciness desired. I opted for the mix ingredients and hot for spiciness.
The Tofu Soup is served piping hot. You are to break the egg into the soup yourself, a little action makes it more interesting. The tofu soup comes with … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Man Ri Sung Restaurant in Richmond: Korean Style Peking Duck Feast
Here. Take a look at this. Take a good look at this.
A picture paints a thousand words but a youtube video paints a million words.
Last weekend was a mega weekend for Suanne and I. We organized three back-to-back dinners starting on Friday where we had a duck feast. This was followed on Saturday and Sunday where we had Alaskan King Crab dinners. There are so much eating it is scary to think of it. We had never attempted such a crazy thing before but it was just a coming together of a perfect storm.
The kickoff of our feasting marathon started with the Duck Feast at the Man Ri Sung Korean Restaurant. No, it was not the the Man Ri Sung in Coquitlam where we once had a memorable meal. That Man Ri Sung restaurant in Coquitlam closed a few months ago to make way for SkyTrain construction (or so the sign says). Man Ri Sung re-opened … and they have re-opened in Richmond.
Going back a few weeks ago, vanchow reported that the Chuan Xiang Ge Sichuan restaurant closed quite suddenly. It was unexpected because this is a favourite Sichuan haunt of many chowhounds. So it is good know that a popular restaurant like Man Ri Sung is taking over the vacated spot.
You may click on the picture above to show it larger if you can’t read the words.
Man Ri Sung is well known for their Duck Feast. When they were in Coquitlam, they had the duck feast for just $50 and that is good enough for … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Hanwoori Korean on Imperial and Kingsway, Burnaby
Karl, fmed and I met up for lunch a few weeks ago. It was a rather impromptu call for lunch the day before. Karl suggested Hanwoori which I had wanted to try for a long while already. I always remembered Hanwoori as the one who was awarded the Best Korean Restaurant by the Vancouver Magazine in 2009. Despite me working so close by, I had never visited that restaurant. So, when Karl said let’s go, I said let’s go.
Hanwoori is located at around the intersection of Kingsway with Imperial. It is not exactly at the intersection but you can see the green roofed restaurant from there.
The restaurant is not really that big. From the outside it looked larger than it is. But the place is noticeably neat and organized. Service was really personal which I like a lot. I can sense it the moment I was there. They are very polite and visibly helpful.
Come to think of it, I had never been to a Korean restaurant that has bad service. All the Korean restaurants that I can think of have exceptional service.
I did not even pay much attention to the menu. I just left the choices to the fmed and Karl.
At a glance, it is obvious that the prices are on the high side. Korean meals are generally more expensive than Chinese meals.
The banchans were pretty standard. My favourite is sweet potatoes.
Come to think of it, almost all the banchans I have come across are the same. I am sure that there are a lot more types of banchans. Does anyone know of any Korean restaurants where the banchans are different from those above … like, which restaurant has the best banchans?
One look at the kimchi above and you will agree that Hanwoori’s banchans is of top quality. They were neatly cut and stacked in layers. So I can be sure that these are not recycled ones.
I know I am touching a raw nerve here saying this. Every time I eat banchans, I keep on thinking of the news that many of the restaurants in Korea recycles unfinished banchans and serve it to the other customers. I am sure that happens. So, I am really careful about banchans. The ones in Hanwoori is definitely not like that.
The first dish was amazing. It was beautifully arranged. So beautiful that it took a moment for us to decide how to start.
One thing though … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Pork Belly Beer House on Bidwell and Robson, Vancouver
This is the type of food that is up my alley. Totally.
I find it very exciting writing about places like this. This is a no name restaurant. The awning outside has no indication that it is a restaurant at all. The only sign in English that says that this is a restaurant is written on a couple of 50 cents cardboards. They must have bought it from a dollar store. On the cardboard is only the words BBQ, Beef, Chicken and Pork. It doesn’t tell you much, does it? This has got to be the worst restaurant signboard in Vancouver … maybe even in the entire country.
This restaurant is so unknown that I can’t find any mention of this on UrbanSpoon or on Dinehere.ca or Yelp. To think that this place existed right in the middle of the busy Robson St and there is nary a mention on the internet just adds to the mystery.
I would not have found this place myself. Shirley wrote to us detailing this place. She was telling us how she accidentally chanced on the restaurant and how excited she was having found this place. Yeah, she can’t tell us the name of the restaurant but she gave us directions.
That place is called Pork Belly Beer House. What a name huh?
I’ll let the food do the talking for a while.
What do you think?
It is all you can eat too. $16 per person.
That included rice, soup and bancan. We did not even bother with the rice and soup.
If you ever poke your head into the restaurant, you will likely just head out. It is greasy and disorganized. The lightings brightens up the place unevenly. The walls are adorned with pictures of pretty Korean actresses and actors … and warnings that uneaten food will incur a fine of $10.
The tables and chairs are a joke. There has to be four, maybe five different types of chairs. They probably bought it from an auction or Salvation Army … something like that. Almost all the tables that we could see are different too. They even have exactly the same IKEA table I have in my study room … just one IKEA table and that did not align quite right with the adjoining tables.
Yeah … most people will just head out seeing this place.
But the place is full. We are the only non-Korean there that night. Most of the customers are … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Lunch Special at Kyung Bok Palace at Lansdowne Mall, Richmond
It was a wet spring day. Polly and I were craving for some hot soup instead of sweet treat. We had two options, i.e. to check out the chicken soup at Jang Mo Jib or Kyung Bok Palace in Lansdowne Mall.
Since Lansdowne Mall is nearer coming from south Richmond, we went to check out Kyung Bok Palace first. We did see a ginseng chicken soup on their menu.
We were seated away from the window and the place looked pretty dim. Service was slow even though there were not many customers as we were there just about 12 noon. On top of that, some of the servers do not speak English.
We were distracted from the regular menu by the above specials. It’s pick 5 items out of the 24 for $19.95. We did see a ginseng chicken soup in the regular menu which costs about the same as the special above. Since there are also some soup items on the special, we decide to go for the special even it stated that it’s good for 2 to 3 people.
As most Korean restaurants, the utensils are made of metal and a distinctive long handle spoon. Oh, they actually forgot to serve us the tea until we ask for it.
As usual, we were served a few banchan as side dishes which include potatoes, kimchee and bean sprout.
Ox tail soup is the first item we ordered. This soup is very tasty. There were no oxtail in the soup but some beef flanks instead.
The second item we ordered was a Spicy Seafood Noodle in Soup. It was quite a large serving. We expected the serving to be smaller than regular for the specials but they actually comes in regular size. This is not very spicy despite it’s colour. The seafood include prawns and squid in scarce quantity.
The star has to be the above Mackerel Grilled with Seasalt and Garlic Sauce. This item is under special for the specials. An extra $2 charge for this. The size of the Mackerel is More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Kenzo Japanese Noodle House on Kingsway and Griffiths, Burnaby
It was one of those rare moments that everyone in the family collectively agree on what to eat.
Usually the weekend would start with us asking the boys what they wanted. I don’t know why we always do that because we almost always end up over-ruling them. Arkensen would say anything sushi – he doesn’t care where as long as it is sushi. The problem is mummy does not like raw food. Nanzaro first choice is usually a HK Style Cafe and hates the fact that mum and dad always want to go to somewhere new. As for Suanne, she will just say “anywhere you all want” and then when the suggestions came she will rule them out one by one. Don’t ask her. Me … I am always indecisive. I got such a ridiculously long list of restaurants-to-try that it ceases to be of much use.
This time it was surprisingly unanimous. When I suggested “ramen”, I got an all-round “yeah”. And then when I suggested that I drive all the way to eastern reaches of Burnaby, the boys even said “sure, OK”. Normally they would protest if we ever drive across the bridge out of Richmond. Hmmm … I was wondering if they are hiding bad grades from us, or failed to complete their homework or something. They are not normally that agreeable.
So with the boys’ blessings we drove all the way to Burnaby to Kenzo. It was quite a drive from home. All the way from south Richmond to the far reaches of east Burnaby, that drive must have been 40 minutes.
I had always wanted to try Kenzo but even though it was near my office, I did not. This is because Suanne loves ramen and I wanted to save this place so that she can be there too.
I had always assumed Kenzo is a Japanese restaurant. It was only before we walked in that we realize that there are Korean scripts on the signboard too.
The place is clean but is cluttered in some corners. You know little things like newspapers lying at a corner and such. Nothing big. We like the heavy wooden furniture. We gave it a shake — it was really sturdy ones.
Kenzo is more Korean than it is Japanese. I overheard the waitress speaking to a customer in Korean. Other tell tale signs are the presence of a Korean service bell on the table and the stack of Korean newspapers by the door.
One other thing which I felt is also a characteristic of a Korean restaurant. You tell me if you agree. It is the presence of wooden partitions between tables. I see this in many Korean restaurants which provides a little privacy and at the same time allow them to put tables together.
Service was OK. There is one waitress overseeing the entire restaurant. So she does appear harried. She served tea which was a bit different from other places. It was nothing new but it is one of those rice-tea. Not sure what it is called though.
Nanzaro was quick with his order. Being the youngest in the family, he had always been the lowest in the pecking order of things. Of late he is being a lot more aggressive in asserting himself. When he saw that item on the menu right up on the top called “King of Kings”, he immediately said he is ordering that.
The King of Kings is $10 and is described as Hot Netsu Ramen with 5 toppings. I had not heard of Netsu ramen before but anyway the broth is the lighter one and spicy. The toppings includes hard boiled egg, seaweed, vegetables and pork.
The bowls are really large. Ramen had to be large to be … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Midam Rice Cake House on North Road, Coquitlam
Right after our dinner at Ddoo Gau Bee, we decided to go downstairs and check out the dessert place.
We had passed by this place before and was attracted by the beautiful looking rice cakes displayed at the entrance. This time we made a point to save some stomach room for dessert after the dinner at Ddoo Gau Bee.
This place is kind of mysterious to us because you could not see what is inside.
We were very surprised how nice this cafe is. It looks like a very traditional Korean restaurant. But it is also so eerily quiet. Besides us, there were only two other couples. For a moment, we thought they were about to close or something.
It seems like they encourage their customers to hang out here. They have shelves of books, magazines and board games that you could use.
Frankly, we felt kind of awkward here. The waitress here does not speak English well and it seems like she is uncomfortable serving us because we don’t speak Korean.
Anyway, not knowing what to order, we just pointed to some of the more colourful rice cakes they have on display. To our surprise, she told us that almost every rice cakes are not available and need to be pre-ordered. We initially found that kind of strange.
They have a limited selection of rice cakes on display at the counter. So, we ordered a couple to try.
The one on the left is called the … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
