Insadong Korean Restaurant (website, map, photos, 403 North Road, Coquitlam, BC, Canada, phone: 604-936-3778) is one of my new favorite places to go for Korean food in the Greater Vancouver area. It’s located just on the Coquitlam side of North Road, near Lougheed Mall in Burnaby. It’s within walking distance of the Lougheed skytrain station.
Love to be there. I have been in this restaurant a few time and every time I was there it was a pleasure for a spicy Korean style. The taste of the food was so impressive with a big portion of Kim chi and beef. Shabu hot pot beef was my favorite food there and big.. even it was a small size. The taste was rich with a healthy vegetable and tasty Kim Chi ingredients. The service was fast and excellent as well. Keep maintain the quality and services like this, I will be back again.
Prices for a full meal range between $10 and $20 per person depending on which dishes you order.
The spicy soft tofu soup (with seafood, pictured below) is $8.99 and comes with a side of rice and all the usual Korean accompaniment dishes like the kim-chee (traditional spicy cabbage), the candied cooked potatoes (my favorite), sprouts, and more. The soup and side dishes are a meal in themselves.
We also ordered some fancy salads such as the Smoked Salmon Salad ($7.99) and the Seafood Salad ($9.99) which were amazing “fusion” style dishes with great Korean influences but also making use of West Coast ingredients.
Posh Japanese Sukiyaki Restaurant (map, website, blog, 101 – 1788 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone: 604-737-7674)
I think that every successful restaurant needs a “concept”, a unique identity, something that differentiates itself in such an incredibly fierce competitive market that supports the dining industry in Vancouver.
It’s an industry which demands continuous hard work from employees and owners with little respite, where margins are typically low and consumer opinion (or a lack thereof) can make or break a business.
But the rewards from running a restaurant are high: an idea, creative vision, a passion for food and culture – all these can be transformed into a physical space that is temporarily occupied by visitors who seek to experience new tastes, sensations, socialize, be merry, and above all, satisfy their appetites with delicious, healthy food.
I tend to think about restaurants as “experience engines”. As a software developer I like to look at things in terms of the input, output, and transformations that occur during a process. For a restaurant, there are the physical ingredients and energy needed to prepare food – these are the obvious inputs. But there are also the less tangible things, like the moods and attitudes of the serving staff, the restaurant decor, the background music, and then of course the restaurant guests themselves.
But I digress, I really should be talking about the food at Posh.
Posh is an example of an expanding, successful home-grown restaurant chain with an excellent concept: Japanese Sukiyaki (wikipedia).
So what is Sukiyaki you may ask? Well, it’s a form of Hot Pot, where you have a gas burner at your table with a large cast-iron pot filled with a bubbling broth. The broth is made with a combination of Sukiyaki Sauce (soya sauce, sugar, and mirin) and cabbage. You add thinly sliced raw beef into the pot along with assorted vegetables, tofu, noodles and seafood, and everything cooks right in front of you.
The nice thing is that you decide exactly what you want to eat, and if you particularly like a certain item, such as the fish cakes (yum!), just order more of it! Or if you’re vegetarian, there are plenty of options such as tofu, spinach, and several types of mushrooms to make a soup that fits your diet.
Amazingly, Posh provides an “all you can eat” experience for $11.88 per person for lunch, or $15.88 per person for dinner. The restaurant always seems packed at peak times, so it’s a good idea to try making a reservation and coming early to put your name in the queue just in case.
Posh’s other locations include Richmond (map, 1123 – 3779 Sexsmith Road, Richmond, BC, Canada, phone: 604-303-7674), Burnaby (map, 105 – 6462 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC, Canada, phone: 604-434-7674), and Victoria (map, 102 – 1063 Fort Street, Victoria, BC, Canada, phone: 250-382-7674).
Below are some photos from our dinner at Posh on West Broadway. Hope you enjoy!
Everything cooking away at Posh Japanese Hot Pot restaurant in Vancouver.
Guava yogurt mixed drink - nice and refreshing! From Posh restaurant in Vancouver.
More hotpot cooking at Posh in Vancouver.
Vegetarian hot pot ingredients from Posh in Vancouver. Mushrooms, spinach, tofu.
Pacifico Pizzeria Ristorante (map, website, menu, 970 Smithe Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone: 604-408-0808) offers Italian pizzas and pastas in a sophisticated and airy modern atmosphere. The candle-lit dining room with double-height ceiling and balcony is a popular spot for a gourmet pizza before or after a movie. It’s located right next to the Scotiabank Movie Theatre in downtown Vancouver (near Burrard and Smithe).
Formerly a pizza place called Lombardo’s (which still has a location on Commercial Drive near 1st ave), Pacifico continues Lombardo’s practice of serving pizzas with inventive and complementary ingredients. We tried the “Salmone” ($25 for large, pictured below), made with smoked salmon, capers, and red onion. A delightfully chewy crust was brushed with extra virgin olive oil, and topped with lots of cheese.
We also tried their desserts. The Mud Pie ($6.00, pictured below) was fairly run-of-the-mill (still frozen solid) but the restaurant’s house specialty Tiramisu ($7.00, also pictured below) was heavenly.
Some higher-end restaurants have picked up a trend of serving “deconstructed” Tiramisu – a mix of mascarpone cheese, custard, coffee, and some liquor in a cocktail glass, with maybe a few biscuits hidden at the bottom. This mode of presentation may be satisfying in a different way from a slice of cake on a plate – consuming the cocktail glass version is sans fuss and trendy too.
Irashai Grill, an Asian fusion restaurant in Vancouver’s Coal Harbour, serves their Tiramisu in a sleek porcelain tray, dusted with a dangerously thick layer of powdered chocolate. Both Irashai’s and Pacifico’s realizations of Tiramisu are worthy of a sweet discovery!
Large smoked salmon pizza ($25) from Pacifico Pizzeria Restorante, a great pizza restaurant in downtown Vancouver BC Canada.
Mud Pie dessert ($6.00) from Pacifico Pizzeria Ristorante in downtown Vancouver BC Canada.
Tiramisu dessert ($7.00) from Pacifico Pizza Restaurant in downtown Vancouver BC Canada.
22,948 views - Posted Saturday, October 17th, 2009
