We went in around noon to an empty restaurant. It was much larger than I expected. Even though it was a weekend, I suppose the rain kept people indoors, or all of them are having Western-style eggs/bacon brunch (we saw a popular brunch place with a huge lineup nearby).
We were shown to a table in the middle of the restaurant, and I sat facing the entrance, which had an interesting shelf display of assorted bottles. You can see that almost every table has some sort of exhaust pipe/fan above it; this is for when you're having their table BBQ. I tried it once at the Robson location and it was a pretty interesting experience and quite worth it!
After looking at the menu and lunch specials, we decided to share a box and a lunch combo. As we were probably the first customers, they took a little while to start up in the kitchen. But since we were the only ones in the entire restaurant, it was nice and quiet for us to have a chat while waiting.
For the lunch combo, it was a huge portion of rice with spicy pork, as well as side dishes of salad and braised potatoes.
The spicy pork was spicy to a level I could handle, and it was very tasty with large pieces of green onions, slices of onions and carrot strips! The rice was fresh and perfectly cooked. The braised potato was sweet and tender, unlike some other ones I've tried elsewhere. This place is really good for their side dishes! And the salad? It's just so unique; no other places serve anything like this. It's like a coleslaw with shredded cabbage, and the dressing is this unique blend of mayonnaise, kiwi and black sesame seeds. It's sweet and tangy, goes great with a savoury dish such as the spicy pork.
The only thing that could be improved was the amount of oil they put in. I think this was just a little too greasy for my liking; my lips were coated with oil after every bite. I'm not exaggerating -- just look at the little puddles of oil left behind on the plate when we had finished the rice (which also soaked up a little of the excess oil).
Next up was our box combo! I was particularly excited because I had seen pictures and there was such so much more variety than usual box combos I've had.
I shall proceed to describe every item in this box (except maybe the orange slices!), so hold your horses!
This steaming hot bowl of noodles is so good! The noodles resembled and may even actually be angel hair pasta, but coated with sesame oil and soy sauce instead.
The toppings include green onions, fresh mushrooms, carrot strips, onion slices and sesame seeds. Everything went well together, and instead of the usual glass noodles, the pasta made it all the more richer and decadent.
Again, I think they overdid the sesame oil on the whole dish as it was too greasy for me. Other than that, this was perfect noodles with a kick of fresh black pepper.
This is simple rice topped with sesame seed for the main entree. Don't underestimate this rice! It is so perfect that each grain is chewy and not dry like rice that has been sitting for too long. Great rice, as simple as it sounds, is not available everywhere! Some places cook the worst rice -- too moist like cotton wood, too dry like wood shavings, clumpy and bland. Korean rice -- WIN!
For the entree, we chose chicken cutlet! Sitting primly on top of the same coleslaw salad as mentioned previously, the chicken cutlet was fresh and crispy! The meat was not too dry and the outside crust has such a nice crunch yet does not overpower the taste of the meat. The special dressing drizzled on top also gives it a nice punch to the cutlet. It was amazing with rice!
Lastly, there were two deep-fried gyozas and two deep-fried shrimps. It was not tempura shrimps but a nice bread-crumb coating which was also perfectly fried. The gyoza would have tasted better if it was pan-fried, I think. There was also a dipping sauce for the gyozas.
This sums up just about all the items of the box. It also came with the same braised potatoes and orange slices as the lunch combo. One odd thing: Dianne noticed there was no kimchi served with either lunch combo. Don't you agree that's a little peculiar given this is such a good Korean food restaurant? Must. Have. Kimchi!
There was so much food in these two items that both of us were stuffed and could not finish the food! So we got it to go and I took it home for dinner the next day. Yum!
This is a nice place to go to whether you are in a small or large group. It would be fun to have a table BBQ with a group of friends or even just ordering a few dishes to share! I'm not sure how much busier it will be in the evenings, but they do have pretty good deals for lunch, so I wouldn't mind going there for lunch again! It's the place to go if you're looking for quality Korean food; much better than all those food-court places.
Dae Bak Bon Ga is located at 1947 W 4th Ave., Vancouver, B.C. (there is also a branch at 1323 Robson St., Vancouver, B.C.).
♥ Nikki
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