I Love K-BBQ

Honestly, I love Korean BBQ.  The grilling of the meats, marinated and non-marinated, it just makes things interactive and you can cook it to your own specifications (as long as it is cooked through!).  Also, the rest of the meal is great too, including Banchan, a soup of some sort and a bunch of sides.  Great for dining as a group whether it be family or friends.  Imagine my joy when I found out about a new place in Coquitlam called I Love K-BBQ.  My sentiments exactly!  Located in the old Tabom spot, they offer up Korean BBQ on a stone grill. 

Jackie and I came for a tasting of their menu and we ended up with 2 of their combos.   Both of them included a soup, Corn Cheese, Salad and Banchan.  The Lucky Combo had Prime Boneless Short Rib and Beef Short Rib.  The Happy Combo had Pork Belly, Pork Jowl and Marinated Pork.  Since they butcher a lot of their own meats, the quality control was evident.  I found the Prime Boneless Short Rib to be high quality with even marbling.  Hence, it cooked up buttery and soft.  Pork belly was also a good balance between fatty and meaty.

We added some other dishes to try to including the Cold Noodles and also the Spicy Cold Noodles.  First of all, the temperature was on point being cold, but not giving us brain freeze.  Noodles were appealingly chewy with the cold noodles sitting in a flavourful broth.  The spicy one was definitely so with a balancing amount of sweetness.  Both came with a half boiled egg and pickled sliced daikon.

So we got the usual Seafood Pancake as well and it was pretty loaded with bits of seafood.  We found shrimp, mussels and squid hidden within a slightly dense interior and a really nice crispy exterior.  It wasn't overly greasy either.  The Steamed Egg was excellent being fluffy and light with a consistent texture throughout.  It was also lightly seasoned being sweet with plenty of natural egg flavour.

We got one last dish in the Grilled Spicy Pork Intestine cooked with onions and cabbage as well as rice cake.  This was quite good with chewy (in a good way) pieces of pork intestine.  Sure, it was at its gamy best, but I personally love the taste.  There was a good amount of sweet spice that was caramelized.  Rice cakes were appealingly chewy and also took on the same flavours.

Looking at the Stone Grill, you can see that it is tilted so the fat could drain.  The cooking surface was most hot in the middle with the edges being just warm.  This worked well with the cooked meats being moved over so they could be kept warm.  At the end, Fried Rice was prepared on the stone grill (after a scrape clean) with nori and cheese.  We were able to create a socarrat at the bottom that was crispy and nutty.  A great finish to a tasty meal!  Overall, the food at I Love K-BBQ is solid and generally high-quality.  It is a fine addition to the cache of Korean restaurants in Coquitlam.

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- Meats are high-quality

- Loved the stone grill, can just clean it rather than replacing it

- Other dishes are solid too

The Bad:

- With the stone grill, the fat does splatter quite a bit, at least they offer bibs

- Parking can be a bit tricky on Austin