Insadong Korean BBQ and Seafood Restaurant

Insadong is a pretty popular Korean restaurant along the Burnaby/Coquitlam border but it was very quiet when we visited for lunch during the weekday… which suits me just fine because I’ve been getting tired of fighting through all of the masses of people at the mall during xmas shopping.

There’s something about the barley tea that I like at Korean restaurants.  Unlike traditional Chinese teas, it doesn’t seem to have that bitter taste to it but it’s a little sweet and nutty instead.  The Banchan that we received at Insadong included potatoes, spicy cucumber chunks, kimchi, pickled radish, and sprouts.

The Seafood Pancake that came reminded me of a deep dish pizza in that it was much thicker than most other seafood pancakes that we’ve had at other restaurants.  The batter was perfectly crispy and not too oily (relatively speaking) and the filling of seafood and veggies was just right.

It reminded me a little bit like the seafood pancake that we had at Potter’s Garden but I still think the one we had at Potter’s Garden is my favourite to date.

Next up was the Dolsot Bibimbap that came with a side of soup.  I was a little disappointed that the bimbimbap did not come with a raw egg on top (which we would normally cook along the side of the hot stone bowl) but instead came with cooked egg slices.  That just seems so wrong!

One of the reasons why I like the hot stone bowl is that the rice will form a crispy layer against along the bottom of the bowl.  Aside from the problem with the egg, the rest of the toppings were pretty good and included carrots, radish, cucumbers, seaweed, veggies, kimchi, mushrooms, and beef.

Instead of grilling the Chicken Bulgogi ourselves, we asked for them to do it for us in the kitchen.  Somehow, I don’t think that it would have turned out as nice as this if we made it ourselves.  The dish itself had a plentiful amount of perfectly cooked chicken.

Even though they have those little call buttons at each table (like most Korean restaurants) we find that we just can’t bring ourselves to use it – it just seems so demanding.  I guess that might explain why we had some trouble with flagging down the servers when we wanted to pay.  Overall, the food was pretty good and the prices were pretty much what you would expect at a Korean restaurant.

Food:  4 / 5
Service:  3 / 5

403 North Road
Coquitlam, BC

www.insadong.ca

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