Rakuraku

*Restaurant is closed*

Recently, after Sunday hockey, Gordo and I went to Au Wing Kee for some late night eats.  It was an impromptu decision which meant I did not have my camera with me.  Well, no biggie, since there was no need to blog about the place again anyways.  But there was something empty about the whole thing.  There it was - food in front of me - and not picture-taking!  It was like going cold turkey!  Upon leaving, we noticed Rakuraku next door which sported signage stating they are open late until 2:00am on Fridays.  Great, we filed that into our book of possible late night eats in the future.  That future would be the following Friday night as our game was a late one.  Despite the claim of being open until 2:00am, they are actually open only until 1:00am.

Arriving in a hot stone bowl, the Albap was decent with not overly mushy rice and enough ingredients.  As hard as we tried, by pushing the rice to the edges, we weren't able to get a good crust going.  We felt there was an ample amount of ingredients, which may have contributed to the added moisture in the rice.  Although the Japchae tasted okay with chewy noodles, it was pretty greasy with a minimal amount of ingredients.  The portion size was disappointing as well.  For the life of me, I can never understand why Japchae is so expensive.  I've made it at home and the raw material cost is modest at best.  Oh well, I digress...

Our favouite dish was the Kimchi Fried Rice.  The rice itself had a pleasing chewiness while not being oily.  There was a good amount of kimchi flavour and spiciness. We liked how the fried egg on top was buttery soft with a runny yolk. The Seafood Pancake was a fail in our books.  Consisting barely of any seafood, it was more of a green onion pancake.  It was rather greasy as well.   Lastly, we had the Grilled Skewers and much of it was pretty dry. Nothing more to say than "meh".  In fact, other than the kimchi fried rice, the food was pretty forgettable.  Not inedible by any means, but there is certainly better.

The Good:
- Open late
- Okay pricing

The Bad:
- Food is pretty "meh"
- Service was okay, but they never refilled our water