Insadong is a Korean BBQ restaurant located in Coquitlam, very close to SFU. The building itself is deceiving as the entrance is just around the corner of the Pho 99 Place that’s next to it.
The restaurant is enormous but very clean. The menu is extensive, so you can order individual items or the special combination group menus (2-3 people and up). Since I was with about 8 people, we ordered from the group menu. We ordered the Combination B off the BBQ & Seafood Menu and the Seafood/HotPot Menu.
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We started off with sliced daikon, carrots and cucumber wrapped in rice paper and in a water/vinegar sauce. It was presented very nicely, but had very little flavour.
Most Korean restaurants serve small pickled dishes including kimchi (spicy pickled cabbage), they also had spicy pickled cucumbers, radishes, sweet potatoes and a bean sprout mix.
Next up was the Seafood Salad. It’s primarily made of cucumbers and jellyfish with some cooked shrimp as well. The dressing was delish! It had the watery consistency which is normal with these types of salads but with a punch of Wasabi.
Our next appetizer was Seafood Pancake, mostly comprised of green onions, octopus, sprouts and batter. This one was a bit burnt on the edges and not quite done in the middle – soggy and it fell apart when we tried to grab a slice.
At Korean BBQ places, you have to cook your own food. This is probably one of the things I don’t enjoy that much, because I don’t like going out to eat and having to cook my own food. But it wasn’t so bad since we were a big group and we were busy talking for most of the time. But be warned, your clothes will smell like smoke!
We had a variety of meats – ribs, pork, beef, chicken, oysters, mussels and shrimp. The meats were seasoned, most of them were mildly spicy.
On the other side of the table, we had a big hot pot. In the pot: greens, fish, beef, tofu and so much stuff, I didn’t really get to try much of it but it was a mountain.
Overall, the experience was a good one, a great place to go in the winter with friends and cook your own meal.
Food – 3.5 FORKS
The food was tasty, but with any Korean BBQ place, its burn-at-your-own risk. The Seafood Pancake was a bit soggy but the Seafood Salad was impeccable.
Service – 4 FORKS
Our server came to check on us frequently and we also had a call button at the table – VERY COOL!
Value – 3.5 FORKS
I always find that Korean BBQ is too costly for what it is. I’m making my own meal so it seems strange I have to pay so much for that. For the amount of food offered, I would say you get a really decent and satisfying meal here.
Ambiance – 4 FORKS
I was very impressed with how clean the restaurant was, the earthy tones and the decor around the entrance. I don’t know how long they’ve been open for but they’ve surely kept up with the place.
Their website is hard to navigate around because if you go to the first page, it wont link you to any of the menus but if you use this link, it’ll take you directly to the menu: INSADONG