Seok Gi Si Dae

Using Urbanspoon's app, my friend and I found a nearby Korean restaurant, Seok Gi Si Dae. After reading some posts to confirm that the restaurant offers barbecue, we made our way to the restaurant - on foot. She lives close by and the restaurant is only a thirty minute walk which seemed fun at the time, until we got too cold. We ended up cabbing to the restaurant and the driver was so nice.

Making small talk, he asked for our occupation and we told him we were unemployed and should be bussing rather than cabbing (jokingly). The total was around $5.00, we gave him $8.00 and he kept on insisting for us to pay even less than what the total was because he "knows how hard life can be". Wow eh? I rarely come by good hearted cabbies.

Seok Gi Si Dae is a small family owned Korean restaurant, the owners work at the back of the house and the son oversees the front. The restaurant is located in Burquitlam next to KFC, in the same plaza as Bella Pizza.

BANCHAN, KOREAN SIDE DISHES. SLICES OF PICKLED RADISH, GREEN ONIONS WITH KIMCHI SAUCE, LETTUCE AND SLICED KIMCHI RADISH.

The green onions with kimchi sauce is for later on, when the owner's son makes kimchi fried rice. The radish has a faint pickled taste and the kimchi radish tastes flavourful and spicy.

KIMCHI PORK BELLY ($15.95) AND BONELESS BEEF RIB, "includes egg soup, miso soup and rice [steamed or kimchi fried rice]" ($20.97).

The owner's son puts everything on the grill and comes back to flip the meats. The kimchi lettuce and bean sprouts are placed at the bottom of the grill so the oil from the meat drips through the kimchi, which is later used to make kimchi fried rice. The only complaint would be that the beef ribs are pricey for deboned LA cut ribs (I prefer the traditional galbi ribs).

SPICY KIMCHI PORK SOUP ($8.50).

The kimchi pork soup is served at a boil, like at most Korean restaurants. The soup has a faint pork broth with no hint of spiciness and tastes very salty, more salty than spicy. Other than the one piece of pork bone, the soup has a couple pieces of tiny diced pork belly and small pieces of chewy beef.

EGG SOUP.

The egg soup is included with every order of beef rib. The soup tastes super healthy and has an egg flavour. A lot of people think I eat greasy and unhealthy food all the time, but I am a sucker for healthy and bland tasting food!

MISO SOUP.
The miso soup tastes extremely salty and has a strong mushroom flavour, resembling gravy. There are also slices of jalapeño but no hint of spiciness, and mushroom stems. I like that the restaurant tries to use every ingredient they can; mushroom stems for soup and caps for barbecue.

Back to the barbecue meats, the beef ribs are not marinaded (which does not matter to me) and tastes like plain beef, with too much tendon and chewy. As much as I hate to say this because I rather support Seok Gi Si Dae over Jang Mo Jib, but these are the worst beef ribs I have ever had and are expensive for $20.00.

The pork belly on the other hand, tastes fatty along with tender and are a good quality. After finishing up the meat, the rest of the ingredients are used to make kimchi fried rice.

KIMCHI FRIED RICE.

Steamed rice, grilled kimchi, bean sprouts and onions, and green onions with kimchi sauce are mixed together and left on the grill to make kimchi fried rice. The burner was turned off a bit too soon, so the bottom of the rice did not have a nice crispiness (which does not matter to me). The kimchi fried rice tastes simple, plain and is a nice filler rather than the usual white rice. Although the rice does not taste like actual kimchi fried rice, if that matters.

POSITIVES

- Friendly family

- Open late night

NEGATIVES

- Beef ribs are pricey for LA cut

- There are plenty of better Korean restaurants nearby

- Menu is limited, I recommend taking a look at the menu online before dropping by

LITTLE THINGS

- A different Korean barbecue experience

- The family is so friendly that if someone told me they got attitude or yelled yet, I'd know they're lying

- I was still hungry but there was nothing else I wanted to order :(

Food: 2.5/5 (close to a 2/5)

Service: 3/5