Won Jo BBQ & Noodle Restaurant

I'm sure it is not lost upon most people that attractive restaurant exteriors can be a determining factor when it comes to eats.  That is especially true if it is a random meal.  As much as I generally let the food do the talking, there are times I am susceptible to the "glitzy" allure of some places.  And those lineups...  People lining up for food, it must be good right?  Just like freezing your ass off in a lineup to get into a club...  To find out it is empty...  Hmm...  Well, this was not the case with this food adventure.  Won Jo, located on North Road (aka Korean food central), cannot be any further from "sexy".  In a seemingly desolate strip mall in, the place never looked inviting to me. However, I just needed to try it, especially since I started my mission to try all the Korean restaurants in Burquitlam.

Now, with cars parked in the front, the place looked slightly more enticing.  However, most people park at the back, which doesn't give the impression anyone is in the restaurant.  Walking into the place, the interior was much more typical, in a Korean restaurant sort-of-way.  We grabbed a seat and quickly decided on some items.  You see, that wasn't very hard since the menu is super simple with only a few items available.  From that small menu, we had the Mal Mandu first.  These boiled little dumplings were very good.  The dumpling wrapper was soft, yet still keeping a slightly chewy texture at the same time.  The filling was predominantly moist pork with only a few chives mixed in.  Surprisingly, the Banchan was plentiful and well-prepared.  There was kimchi, pickled daikon, sprouts, stewed potatoes, broccoli, seaweed and pickled onion.  Furthermore, they served us a big urn of spicy turnip.

Having had a pleasing bowl of Beef Rib Soup recently at Jong Ga, I decided to order it again, albeit with noodles.  Generally, the soup comes pretty mild, so I did what I usually do (which was to add salt).  The beef was pretty tender while the noodles were thin and soft. Moving along, we ended up trying out the BBQ with Chicken and Beef.  Despite the appearance of very little marinade, the meat did char nicely on the grill and was adequately flavourful.  Furthermore, the meats seemed to be pretty decent quality as well. Alas, I wasn't able to try their noodle hot pots (as they are quite popular), but if the food we sampled is any indication of everything else, there is no doubt we'll be back.

The Good:
- Solid eats and good portions
- Reasonably-priced
- Friendly, if not sparse service

The Bad:
- Sparse service
- Limited menu