Kosoo (AYCE Korean BBQ)

It never fails.  When we asked my son what he wanted to eat for his birthday, his reply was like every other birthday: "Korean BBQ".  That would be a great choice as it is never a bad idea to go for Korean BBQ.  Well, unless you needed to go somewhere after and not smell like grilled meat...  Anyways, this time, we ended up at Kosoo in Coquitlam.  They have added AYCE to the menu and there are several tiers starting from $29.99.  We went for AYCE C (for $48.99) since it had different cuts of short rib, as well as scallops and shrimp.

I was happy to see that they offered nearly the same Banchan as their a la carte menu.  We found pickled daikon, sprouts, stewed potatoes, kimchi, corn salad, quail's eggs and fried fish cake (in addition to the usual garlic, peppers and bean paste).  Only thing missing from prior visits was the anchovies and dried shredded squid.  Mind you, it could just be rotating daily items as well.  All were good and of course, refillable.  We also got a spring mix salad too.

We ordered the sides that came with the AYCE in the form of Fried Mandoo (Yangneom, Soy Garlic & Original), Japchae and Kimchi Pancake.  We thought the dumplings were good with a crispy thin exterior with juicy and tender meat inside.  The japchae was decent with a nice chewy texture while mildly-seasoned.  There was some fish cake mixed into it.  The kimchi pancake was fine, but was a bit doughy and thin.

One of the more surprising dishes we had was the Cheese Fries.  Those fries were pretty crispy and totally covered in cheese.  They were tasty on their own and if we weren't so full, we would've ordered more of them.  Included in the meal was both the Cold Noodles and Spicy Cold Noodles.  Sure, these were missing the egg and possibly meat, but whatever, we had enough food already.  Otherwise, they were solid with chewy bouncy noodles.

Of course we have to talk about why we were here in the first place...  The meat!  For our first order, we loaded up on Shrimp, Beef Short Rib, Beef Tongue, Beef Rib Finger, Chicken, Marinated Beef Short Rib, Marinated Beef Rib Finger, LA Galbi, Scallops and Mushroom.  We felt the meat quality was not any different than a la carte.  Nicely marbled, the short rib was tender while the marinated galbi was equally good.  Even the notoriously chewy beef tongue was nicely textured.  Although the scallops were thinly sliced, they were great and came with plenty of butter.

Round 2 of meat consisted of Pork Belly, Pork Jowl, Marinated Pork Shoulder and Marinated Chicken.  We added more scallops and mushroom for good measure.  Nothing amiss with these meats either with the pork belly being at its fatty best.  Pork jowl came in large slices and were buttery and bouncy.  We weren't shy about getting more scallops too.  However, to ensure they sear up nicely, we could only cook a few at a time, otherwise, the moisture leaking out of each scallop made it boil in its own juices.  Other than that, the AYCE at Kosoo was solid, well-priced and featured quality ingredients.  I will be back!

The Good:

- Pretty good quality meats for AYCE

- Although hurried, service was solid

- Lots of tiers of AYCE for everyone

The Bad:

- Some cold spots on the grill, so have to move meats around to ensure searing

- Scallops have too much moisture and are hard to sear

Arisu Korean BBQ (Edmonds)

My son absolutely loves Korean BBQ.  I've never seen him eat so much in comparison to other cuisines.  So it was without a doubt that he would choose Korean BBQ as his graduation meal (yes, it is pretty clear I'm getting old...).  Although we like Arisu out in Burquitlam, we wanted to change it up a bit and visit their newer location out on Edmonds in Burnaby.  Loved the free parking within the complex, but not so much with the fairly tight booths, especially for a party of 6.

We ended up ordering a variety of dishes including, of course, meats for the BBQ.  With most Korean meals, we were served a variety of Banchan including cabbage salad, kimchi, pickled daikon radish, marinated sprouts and stewed potatoes.  These were all pretty solid where the kimchi had plenty of crunch and spice.  Potatoes were sweet and savoury while being soft without being mushy.  Naturally, we got a few refills of each.

Onto the BBQ, went for the Premium Beef Combo featuring boneless kalbi, premium ribeye, marinated ju-mul-luk and marinated kalbi.  Generally, the meat in this combo was very good.  We started with the boneless kalbi and each piece was buttery and tender.  The same could be said about the ju-mul-luk where it was nicely flavourful.  We found the ribeye more meaty in texture, but it was till tender.  The cream of the crop was the marinated kalbi where it was pure short rib meaty heaven.  It was delicious while the meat was buttery soft.   For good measure, we added the Pork Jowl and Chicken Bulgogi.  The pork jowl was pretty typical with a rebound texture that was tender.  With a sweet marinade, the chicken was able to char on the grill and due to the use of thigh meat, it was tender.

Although we were served soup already, we decided to tack on the Gamjatang as well.  This featured 3 really large bones with lots of meat.  The meat was generally tender, however, the bones could've used a bit more cook time.  The soup itself was flavourful with a mild spiciness as well as a certain meatiness.  Loved that they added some sliced rice cake as they soaked up some of the flavours.  On the other hand, the potatoes were undercooked and hard.

We ended up ordering 3 bowls of rice to go with our BBQ meats, but we still had to get the Dolset Bibimbap (like we always do).  Although the stone bowl came hot, it was difficult to actually get a proper rice crust.  This was even after I had mixed the ingredients and smashed the rice against the sides.  Despite this, the ingredients were good and the side of gochujang wasn't really enough, but of course we could've asked for more.

Since it was really hot inside (it appeared that their A/C was either not working or was very weak), we got the Mul-Naengmyeon.  This was textbook with chewy buckwheat noodles sitting in an ice cold beef broth.  We found the usual toppings of sliced beef brisket, cucumbers, daikon and a half hard-boiled egg.  This was truly refreshing as we were sweating just sitting there.  Loved the texture of the noodles and they stayed as such due to being cold.

Our last dish was the Claypot Steamed Egg.  This was fairly fluffy with bits of veggies strewn throughout.  Naturally, this went well with the white rice and was a nice interlude between bites of delicious meat.  Overall, the meal at this location of Arisu was quite good especially the beef.  Service was good with attentive and friendly staff.  It was really too bad that the A/C wasn't working because that made things quite uncomfortable.  If I was to go back to Arisu, I'll hit up the North Road location since their seating is more spacious.

The Good:

- Top notch premium beef

- Good service

- Free parking

The Bad:

- Seating is tight for any group bigger than 4

- Gamjatang ingredients could've been cooked longer