Updated: 26th February 2011: This restaurant has closed and will re-open in Richmond in early March 2011.
This is an “Oh Wow! Oh My!” kind of post. You really got to pay attention to this one.
Jenny of My Secret Eden went for the Duck Feast at Man Ri Sung and blogged about it. It was one of those rare finds that you only know about by word of mouth. This is the kind of feast that you need a lot of people to attend. So, we invited Angie of Sea Salt With Food and Whitney and Ken. With the kids there were 10 of us altogether.
Man Ri Sung is a Korean Restaurant. They are located on 609 Clarke Road in Coquitlam — which was a long drive away for all of us. If not for this duck feast, we would not have taken the trouble to drive that far. Man Ri Sung is a standalone restaurant with its own parking lot. However, parking is limited and some cars need to be double parked.
Forget about ambiance and decor. It is a really simple restaurant. The dining area is large but was very busy when we were there — that was a good sign.
The above was what we were there for. The duck feast is normally $62 but they had it as a special for $50. Each order is meant for four people but I felt it has more than enough even for five people.
This is quite complicated … let me see if I can explain the Duck Feast. Each order will come with three courses. The main course is the duck. Part of the duck is then used to make either a hotpot or congee as the second course. In the third course, you get to choose from Japchae, steamed gyoza or some dark rice rolls.
It worked out great for the ten of us — we ordered two sets of the Duck Feast.
BTW, you will need to pre-order the Duck Feast as it takes two hours for the chef to prepare it. When I made the reservation, the person on the phone could not understand English and asked if I speak Korean or Mandarin.
Korean eating utensils are different from Chinese and Japanese. Unless you are Asian, you might not notice the difference. For one, Korean has spoons with long handles (kind of good that they even have a paper wrapper around it) — Chinese normally issues soup spoons while Japanese does not have spoons.
As for chopsticks, Chinese uses longer, thicker chopsticks with blunt ends. Japanese uses shorter chopsticks with sharper ends. Now, Koreans uses chopsticks made of metal and has a flat side … we were not used to handling flatter chopsticks. I think the reason why the chopsticks are metal is because it is more suitable for food like Korean BBQ.
The Chef personally cart the duck and carve the duck in front of the diners. I think it’s a nice personal touch but wished that he speaks English. During the time we were there, we counted that they sold about 8 ducks in all. Not bad.
We can see that the ducks were fresh out from the oven … it was steaming when the chef carved it. Actually we were all very hungry because we reminded each other to come hungry. Waiting for him to finish carving was sheer agony for me!
The duck by the looks of it was great … it looked moist. They are very tender to the bite and most important of all, they were quite fleshy.
However, you do not eat it just like that … there are more, much more!
I am guessing what this very important sauces are. I think the lighter one is miso paste while the darker one is some sweet sauce, perhaps hoisin sauce.
There are also the bean curd skins. The texture is not the smooth type (like pancake skin) and this is used as a wrap.
Then there are the scallions, sliced lengthwise which makes it easier to pick up — lots of it is good.
Here is what you do … you dab the sauces onto bean curd skin.
This is what it is all about. Awesome goodness. I bet you can imagine the variety of taste and texture in this little bundle. It is at this point of the meal when everyone stops talking and work on the assembly.
The wings were very, very crispy. It was so crispy that you can even eat it whole, bones and all. Both Ken and I enjoyed this … the rest were not into this.
The Hot Pot were done using the remnants of the duck. It not very spicy but the soup was great after all the duck wrap.
Ken and Whitney loved the noodles in the hot pot. The noodles are like handmade Chinese “pan mein”.
The duck congee was equally good. It is made grainy and brothy with lots of duck pieces in it. The kids love this.
The Japchae is well made but a bit lighter in flavour then we expect. No complains here because after all this is just a supporting cast to the main duck dish.
Actually, the steamed pork gyoza was kind of disappointing. It is very simple, and kind of dry when it was served making them stuck together. It was nothing to shout about.
Like all Korean meals, there were lots of banchan. They served us five kinds of it.
All these for only $105 for the ten of us … making it just over $10 per head. What a deal, right?
I highly recommend this just like how Jenny highly recommended this to us. You should also check out Jenny’s review of Man Ri Sung. I am not sure when the $50 special ends but really, even at $62, it is still worth every dollar of it.
Looks so good! The duck wraps remind me of peking duck a little bit, but I don’t think I’ve ever had that kind of wrapper before.
Very interesting find. This reminds me of peking duck in Beijing, which has more meat included with each slice, and in some restaurants, the chef also slices it at your table for the freshest serving. Most restaurants in Vancouver do the crispy skin only style.
I love duck!! The duck special is definitely something that I’ll go here for. I think I’ll have to gather up some friends and drag them to Coquitlam this weekend. 😉
I am so glad you loved this place as much as I did. I loved it so much, I went for duck fest twice 🙂
Also, I didn’t know the congee was another choice, hum.. maybe I should visit it one more time… LOL
Hi Ben:
The Koreans use metal/silver chopsticks because in ancient times it was a method to detect poison. The chopsticks would turn black if it came into contact with certain poisons.
I haven’t tried the duck, but have been patiently waiting for them to fix their noodle machine so I can try their homemade jjajiangmyen.
The dark rice rolls are a form of blood sausage. I love duck!
Hey Ben,
Just letting you know the link to Angie’s site is broken.
Hi Jessica: Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve fixed it. Ben
Mmmm that looks like a nice feast indeed. Reminds me of the Chinese dish “Duck Prepared Three Ways” which is also similar to Peking Duck.
Ben, so for the $50 set you get the duck, hotpot and congee, japchae, gyozas and 5-items banchan ? Is that the entire set or were there other items ? I’m asking because I wouldn’t mind taking some family members there to try something different and I want to gauge if the $50 set is adequate quantity for 6 adults. Should I order additional dishes ? Do they also have in-table BBQ grille ?
Thx.
Hi LotusRapper:
For the set, you will get the (1) Duck, (2) Hotpot or congee, (3) Japchae or Gyozas, and (4) the Banchans. We only ordered the Duck fest and no other additional items necessary. For 6 adults, you will want to order additional items because the Duck Fest is meant for 4-5 people. I am not sure if they had in-table BBQ Grilles … I did not notice. By the way, you need to call and make the reservation because they need 2 hours to prepare the duck.
Enjoy!
Ben
OK thanks Ben.
Hey Ben and Suanne, the duck fest was awesome! We should have it again! Yummy 🙂
Hi Angie: It is gonna be hard to top this one … cheap and lots of yummy food. Eat the same thing again? LOL! Ben
Yum…reading this post is making me hungry! I’m tempted to make the drive out to Coquitlam to give this a try. 🙂
Me too, I think I’ll keep this one on the “to-do” list.
Funny, I can just envision my mom saying this is all copycats of real Chinese dishes (duck, congee, hot pot …..), LOL !
Well LotusRapper,
You’re mom wouldn’t be too far off the mark as a lot of korean cuisine was impacted by the chinese occupation in Korea. China had a huge impact on Korean culture from food, to education, arts and government.
Today, korea has put their own twist on things chinese and have made it their own, such as making better jjajianmyen than the chinese. Also, I find korean food to be much healthier and less fatty than chinese food.
Ben, do you know how long the promotion will be on for?
Hi Gourmet Bride:
I do not know how long the promotion will be on for. You should call them up and ask — that was what I did actually. Check out their website for the phone number: http://manrisung.com
Thanks
Ben
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I wanted to try duck meal and headed there to find Man Ri Sung Korean Restaurant on Clarke Road, Coquitlam closed on Dec 31, 2010
Hi Beth: Are you saying that Man Ri Sung were closed on 31-Dec-2010 or did you mean they had closed their business on that date? Ben