Stone Korean BBQ

Sometimes it is hard to differentiate between many of the Korean BBQ spots in town.  Naturally, some are better than others in terms of meat quality, banchan selection and overall value.  However, what if I told you there is a new Korean BBQ out near Lougheed Mall (right next to Price Smart) that employs large stone slabs as their BBQ surface?  Yes, do we really need another Korean restaurant on North Road?  Well yes, especially when it is a new modern space and unique.

We ended up ordering the Signature Pork Combo for $42.00 per person (minimum 2 orders).  This included a nice selection of Banchan, Jjigae and Corn Cheese.  For the Banchan, we found potato salad, spinach, slaw, kimchi daikon, spicy octopus and chwinamul.  Really liked the selection, especially a few less seen dishes. We also found romaine so we could wrap our pork belly as well as some pickled Napa cabbage that served the same purpose.

 

For our combo, we were served a good amount of meaty and fairly lean pieces of pork belly.  There was enough fat for flavour and texture though.  As you can see, things were cooked on a big stone slab.  The middle was hottest while the sides were only warm.  This was enough to keep the corn cheese (with an egg yolk) melty, the soup hot and the kimchi warm.  As you can see, the pork belly seared up nicely.  Really enjoyed the pork, especially dipped into the jalapeno condiment. 

 

About that Bean Paste Soup, it was included with the combo and it came bubbling hot.  Nice fermented saltiness to it without going overboard.  Some soft veggies in there, adding some sweetness.  We added the Seafood Pancake for good measure and it was seared up super crunchy.  It was nutty and aromatic with a soft, but not mushy centre.  There was a decent amount of well-cooked seafood with only a balanced amount of green onion.  This was pretty good and I would order it again.

 

We were served a bonus dish that was the Korean version of Beef Tataki.  These medium-thin slices of beef were tender with the slightest of chew.  It sat in a sauce that was soy-based but had sweetness and aromatics.  Lastly, we added the Jjapaghetti (yes, the instant noodles) at the end finished off on the stone grill.  Unfortunately, these noodles were overdone and stuck to the stone slab.  There was also too much moisture and prevented them from caramelizing properly.   Other than the Jjapaghetti, everything else was really good and well-portioned.  Combine that with a modern dining space with plenty of staff, Stone Korean BBQ should be one of the better options along North Road for Korean BBQ.

The Good:

- Modern and spacious

- Good value

- Delicious

The Bad:

- Jjapaghetti add-on needs to be improved upon

Sol Lee's

Some might suggest that the best Korean food outside of Korea can be found in K-Town in Downtown LA or even in NYC.  Having visited both in the past, I can attest that the Korean eats are indeed excellent at both locations.  However, I personally think that the Korean food in the GVRD is pretty good too.  Sure, I might have a bias here, but I truly believe in that sentiment.  Look no further than our very own K-Town along North Road straddling the border of Burnaby and Coquitlam for authentic Korean eats.  There are many to choose from and now, we have another in Sol Lee's within the H-Mart shopping complex.

If you have been here, you will know parking is quite the challenge, yet I assure you it is worth it for all of the available restaurants.  I will of course concentrate on Sol Lee's with their well-priced menu.  The one dish that I would absolutely recommend that you order is the Deep Fried Rex Sole.  For $18.95, you get not one, but 2 huge perfectly crispy whole sole.  Beyond the light batter, the fish itself is flaky and super moist.  With a bit of spicy sauce on the side, this is hugely addictive.  Despite being 2 whole fish, you could eat all of this since it was not heavy.

Going with one of the classics, the Pork Back Bone Soup (Gamjatang) is solid as well.  This is pretty textbook with a hearty broth bubbling within a hot stone bowl.  It is full of depth and has meatiness, tang and plenty of savouriness.  A background spiciness exists too.  There is no shortage of meaty pork bones sitting within the hot broth.  The bones feature super tender meat that takes on all of the flavours of the broth.

When in a Korean restaurant, we can never pass up the opportunity to order some Grilled Beef Ribs (Kalbi) and this one doesn't disappoint.  It arrives on a sizzling cast iron plate and each piece has plenty of beef where the fat is minimal.  They are evenly grilled on each side displaying appealing sear marks that are smoky with sweet caramelization.  The marinade ensures that each piece is a good balance of sweet and savoury.  Being tender, the meat still exhibits some chewiness for a great texture.

Sticking with the greatest hits, the Seafood Pancake (Haemul Pajeon) is another textbook item.  This is a fairly thin version, which is actually a good thing.  I find the overly thick ones end up to be much too dense and doughy.  Hence, this one has a uniformly crunchy exterior that is nutty and not too greasy.  The inside is delicate and moist with only a modest amount of green onion.  Some versions have far too much green onion and it overwhelms the dish.  There is a modest amount of seafood bits strewn throughout that gives the pancake some texture.

Onto some noodle and rice dishes, another staple is the Hot Stone Bowl Rice (Dolset Bibimbap).  This arrives sizzling hot and stays as such even after some picture-taking.  As such, I can mix the components with gochujang and I am able to get a socarrat by pushing the rice onto the sides and bottom of the hot bowl.  It also helps that the rice is not too soft, which means it can crisp up properly.  There is a good amount of toppings which in turn gives each scoop of rice some substance.

Lastly, the Cold Noodles with Raw Skate Fish is an under-the-radar dish.  This is something I don't remember having before.  Well, I've had the cold noodles, but not the raw skate fish.  It will not be the last time either as the fish has a wonderful chewy texture that exhibits a pleasing rebound.  The soft cartilage is easily chewable and the sweet and slightly spicy sauce goes well with the skate.  Noodles are pleasingly chewy too.  Overall, the food at Sol Lee's is solid and pleasing to eat.  Prices are reasonable and portion sizes are generours.  Great addition to the strip mall full of many other restaurants.

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

The Good:

- Solid eats

- Large portions

- Reasonably-priced

The Bad:

- Parking lot is a disaster

Insadong

It has been some time since we have last visited Insadong.  In fact, when we showed up for our reservation, it became evident that they had made some renovations.  The place looks much more modern and cleaner than it had been before.  This was one of my criticisms the last time I ate there.  Sure, the renos looked to be done in the past few years, so there was some wear and tear.  But so much more inviting than before.  I've always loved the food here, hence, it was a welcomed sight. 

We were here for the BBQ, so we got the Family of 4 Combo C meal that also included the usual Banchan.  We didn't get much variety (even though the menu states 10+ varieties).  As you can see, we only had bean sprouts, kimchi, spicy cucumbers and stewed potatoes (2 orders of each).  Also had a green salad as well as the usual romaine for wrapping the meats and rice, bean paste, peppers and garlic.  Banchan was good though where the potatoes were soft but still had a bite.  Kimchi was tangy with spice, would've liked some shrimpiness to it.

The fairly large plate of Japchae was not included in the combo, but we got it to supplement the meats.  This had quite a bit of components in addition to the chewy sweet potato starch noodles.  It was sweet as usual, but fairly balanced otherwise.  Overall, it was pretty decent.  For our choice of soup included in the combo, we went for the Soft Tofu (the non-spicy version).  It came out bubbling hot and the tofu was silky and smooth.  Broth was lightly sweet.  It was a little lacking in depth, but again, decent otherwise.

Onto the Meats, we had a selection that included Pork Steak, Pork Belly, Marinated Beef, Marinated Chicken and 2 types of Beef Short Ribs.  I thought that this was just the right amount of beef for 4 people, yet not enough if you had bigger appetites.  Meat quality was good where the pork was tender with just enough marbling while the thinly sliced beef was sweet and charred up nicely.  Beef ribs were fatty and had that classic short rib chew.

Seeing how we have bigger appetites, we did go for another 2 orders of meat including Pork Jowl and an extra order of Chicken.  We like the bouncy fattiness of the pork jowl and although chicken isn't what people really order at Korean BBQ (it is all about the beef!), the kids love the chicken, so we got more of it.  The grill itself needed to be turned up a bit to get a nice sear, otherwise, the meats merely boiled themselves.  Overall, Insadong provided the expected Korean BBQ experience.  Not the best in town, but definitely reliable and acceptable.  Service has improved greatly and the new decor (well, new to me) was welcomed.

The Good:
- Reliable eats
- Efficient service
- Decent

The Bad:
- Parking lot is terrible (not enough spaces for the amount of businesses
- Banchan selection is lacking

Pizza Maru

Maybe it is a bit ironic that I featured Roseto Bistro in my last post where they offer a small selection of K-Pizzas.  This is because this post is about Pizza Maru that is a new spot on North Road (Burnaby side) almost exclusively specializing in K-Pizzas.  So what is a K-Pizza?  Well, it is Korean-style pizza that features a wide range of Korean toppings.  Also, if you know Korean cuisine, they love their cheese and on K-Pizzas, they aren't shy about piling it on.

So let me feature their most striking option on the menu is the Maru 5 that consists of, as you might've guessed, 5 different themed toppings on a large pizza.  Looking at the picture, you can see that there is Bulgogi, Corn Cheese, Pepperoni, Potato Chunk and Chicken.  Naturally, there is a whack-load of cheese too.  They cut this pizza lengthwise and it is great for people who want it all in one pizza.  I particularly enjoyed the corn cheese as it was so cheesy with sweet pops of corn.  The chicken was great too with some tangy sauce on top.

Of course we tried other pizzas too including the Bulgogi and Hawaiian Shrimp.  I felt that having the whole Bulgogi pizza made a difference compared to the slices in the Maru 5.  I was able to get a whole slice with more beef.  It was hearty with tender meat that was sweet and savoury.  As for the Hawaiian shrimp, this was more about the peppers and onions than the shrimp.  They were merely there for some coldwater crunch. A bit of sweetness from the pineapple and saltiness from the olives completed the flavour profile.  As for the crust, all them so far were uniformly crunchy with a soft chewiness inside.

To get something a bit different than all of the available K-Pizzas, we tried their Real Chicago Pizza.  Now I've had some Chicago deep dish before and this was their interpretation.  I enjoyed their version as the thick crust was completely stuffed with stringy cheese.  In the middle it was a lake of cheese with tomato sauce and pepperoni.  If you like cheese, this would be the pizza for you.  The addition of powdered sugar was a small detail, but it helped balance all of the cheesiness.

In addition to pizza, they also have a selection of pastas.  We chose the Baked Meat Cheese Spaghetti loaded with onions, peppers, mushrooms and ground beef.  Now this was not any ordinary pizza joint spaghetti as the tomato sauce had white wine and stock.  Hence there were more layers of flavour than just plain tomato.  We also tried their Korean BBQ Wings and they were fantastic.  The sweet and sticky glaze was nicely caramelized while the chicken itself was moist and tender.

Lastly, we tried the Red Carbonara Topokki. This was great though as it combined Korean rice cakes with a spicy and creamy carbonara sauce with shrimp, bacon, onion, sliced mushrooms and cabbage.  Definitely a meal in itself and being so rich, best to be shared.  Overall, the stuff at Pizza Maru is pretty solid and unique enough.  The pizzas are loaded with cheese and the crust is good with a uniform crunchy texture.  The rest of the items on the menu are pretty solid as well.

*All food was complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- Pizza has a uniformly crunchy crust

- Not shy with the toppings

- Sides are good too

The Bad:

- Pizzas are on the sweeter side

Toe Dam Korean Fusion BBQ

When it was time to celebrate my son's birthday, his choice of cuisine was something very familiar - Korean BBQ.  Hey that is a great choice, but it can be a pretty expensive proposition these days.  But anything for him right?  So we decided to hit up an ol' favourite in Toe Dam Korean Fusion BBQ located in the H-Mart strip mall along North Road.  We haven't been back in awhile and this was a great opportunity to do so.  We made a reso (very much a good idea) for opening and that was a good move as the place was packed shortly after.

As usual, we started with a selection of Banchan that included potato salad, kimchi, pickled daikon and salad.  There was also the usual garlic and jalapeno for wrapping the meats in romaine.  We were also served a trio of sauces including sweet soy, sesame oil salt and spicy.  Kimchi was pretty good with spiciness.  The mashed potato salad was not as heavy as it looked.  We got a refill of that.

We went for the Monday Night Special for $100.00.  It included beef rib finger, chuck flap tail, prime boneless short rib and marinated pork collar.  That was a pretty good deal as the amount of meat would be good enough for 4 people.  The quality of the meat was quite good with the rib finger having enough fat for both flavour and butteriness while having a chewy tenderness (if that makes sense).  The chuck flap tail was a bit more meaty in texture, but it was very beefy.  Of course the short rib was the star of the show with its buttery texture with a meaty bite.  It was so flavourful due to the fat.  Pork collar was tender with its classic rebound texture.

Of course this wasn't enough food for 6 of us, so we went ahead and also got the Duck Set that consisted of roasted duck, striploin, garlic beef, rib finger, steamed egg with cheese and bean paste soup.  As much the duck is one of their signature items, I'm not convinced that I actually like it.  When placed on the BBQ, they inevitably overcook and the skin doesn't render enough without burning the whole thing.  Hence, you are left with a dry and chewy piece of duck.  However, the striploin was good though.  It was sufficiently tender and meaty.  

We added a side of Soy Sauce Marinated Blue Crab just because nothing we ordered included it.  Oh and also, I wanted to try their version of the dish.  I ended up selecting the one that had roe.  This was pretty good with well-marinated crabs, that were also of a good size.  The sweet roe and crab butter was very appealing with a sweet brininess.  The body meat was soft and sweet with enough soy marinade to balance.

Included in the duck set was a Tofu Soup and Steamed Cheese Egg.  The soup was bubbling hot and quite tasty.  There was no shortage of spice either.  Tender cubes of tofu and veggies loaded up this soup.  As for the egg, it was plenty cheesy with melted cheese on top.  However, the egg itself was a bit stiff and not as fluffy as we would've liked.  Also, there was quite a bit of residual water.

Also included was an order of Japchae that was for all intents and purposes, a good version.  It was not clumpy yet not greasy while the veggies were still vibrant despite being cooked through.  It wasn't overly sweet like some versions we've had, but it was also a touch lacking in seasoning.  Overall, the meal at Toedam was solid despite being a bit pricey.  Mind you, all Korean BBQs are not cheap due to the cost of the meat.  It really helped to have that Monday night special.  Service was friendly, if not hurried.  Not a place to linger.

The Good:

- Good meat quality

- Solid eats

- Efficient service, if not hurried

The Bad:

- With any Korean BBQ, it will cost you

- Duck isn't as good as I thought it would be

Secret Garden

I've seen many buffets within Greater Vancouver and also along my travels.  But I haven't seen many Korean buffets.  Now let me clarify, there are many AYCE Korean BBQs that I've encountered and one of them used to be in Surrey.  They even had self-service BBQ meats as well as banchan and other Korean dishes.  However, I do believe that the newly-opened Secret Garden (in the former Red Robin) at Lougheed is a rarity.  It is a classic station-style self-service buffet that offers up various Korean dishes (without at-your-table BBQ).  We recently checked out the place for a weekend dinner.

The renovations at the place has made everything brighter, but some remnants of the old Red Robin still exist.  The buffet stations have a wide range of dishes.  I loaded up a plate of smaller items to begin with like the Kimbap, California Roll, Tuna Mayo Inari, Soft Tofu and Banchan (jellyfish salad, eggplant, kimchi & squid).  Being a smaller kimbap without the tuna, it ate more like a mini-futomaki.  However, combined with the tuna mayo inari, it kinda had the same effect.  I enjoyed the jellyfish salad as it had a nice crunch and was well-seasoned.

Off to another section of the buffet where we found things like Japchae, Bossam, Fried Basa, Kimchi Pancake and Seafood Pancake.  Japchae was not bad as it was not clumpy and not overly greasy.  It wasn't too sweet either.  The bossam was tender and fatty.  I put a good amount of soybean paste on it.  Soft and fluffy as usual, the basa featured a crispy batter and was served with a sweet mayo.  I wasn't too fond of the pancakes as they were really flat and didn't have much in the way of ingredients.

What is a Korean buffet without Korean BBQ?  Well, they have that covered too with a selection of meats including Beef, Chicken, Pork and Salmon.  There was also spicy pork, but that was on another dish.  About the rest of the meats, they were all decent.  The chicken was nicely charred and tender while the pork was also charred but just a bit chewier.  Beef bulgogi was nicely marinated and sliced thin, hence being tender.  Surprisingly, the salmon wasn't that overdone.

In the middle section of the buffet, we found 2 large sections where one of them had some seafood.  We found Sweet Soy Potatoes, Beef Bulgogi Quesadilla, Steamed Prawns, BBQ Mussels, Tteokbokki, Vegetable Fritters and Fried Meat Dumplings.  I enjoyed the potatoes as they were tender with a slightly firm fried exterior.  Would've eaten more if they weren't "fillers".  There were 2 types of tteokbokki and I preferred the rose version.  Mild flavour with chewy, but soft rice cakes.  Shrimp were good, but I didn't want to spend so much time peeling them.

Right next to the previous station was a bunch of random things highlighted by the Korean Fried Chicken in regular and sweet & spicy.  These were decent but not as juicy as freshly fried KFC.  But ultimately, they were crispy and were seasoned.  The sweet & spicy was naturally more flavourful.  Would've liked to see soy garlic (which is my fav), but the 2 flavours did fine.

Also in that section, we found Vegetable Fried Rice, Kimchi Fried Rice, Green Bean Stir Fry, Braised Tofu and Korean Donkkaseu.  Didn't like the vegetable rice as it was bland and lacked caramelization.  Kimchi fried rice was better due to the spice.  Beans were crunchy while the tofu was texturally-appealing and flavourful.  Pork cutlet was a touch dry, but crispy.  There was sauce available on the side.

So this dish was a bit of everything from everywhere.  Here is the missing Spicy Pork BBQ with 2 more items from the same section as the KFC - Sweet & Sour Pork and Stir Fried Shanghainese Bak Choy.  Saucy, but tender and spicy, the pork was screaming for rice.  Maybe the vegetable fried rice would've worked here.  The sweet & sour pork was decent as the sauce was tangy.  Since it was already sauced, the pork was no longer crispy.  Bak choy was quite good, vibrant and still crunchy.

There was also a selection of soups and also a DIY Jajangmyeon.  Of the soups, the Pork Bone Soup was my favourite as it was slightly spice and plenty meaty.  The Beef Bone Soup was clean and pure with just the flavour of meatiness.  Soft Tofu Soup was a touch spicy, but lacking depth.  Squash Porridge resembled baby food.  Wasn't my thing.  The Jajangmyeon was decent with chewy noodles and a sweet and savoury black bean sauce with plenty of onions.

The selection of Desserts was a bit weak, but I give them kudos for hard ice cream and the really good chocolate chip and double chocolate cookies.  They were thick and crispy with lots of chocolate.  Also has the pain au chocolate and they seemed to be the Costco? variety.  No matter, I like those anyways.  Overall, the buffet was quite good with a wide selection of dishes.  Pricing is reasonable at $35.99 Adult Weekday Dinner and $39.99 Adult Weekend Dinner.

*All food was complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- Wide selection of Korean cuisine favourites

- Overall decent food

- Reasonable pricing

The Bad:

- As with any serve yourself buffets, some items are better than others