Da Rae Oak – Korean Lunch
Have you ever had one of those days where you just never seem to fully wake up? I was experiencing one of those on this grey Thursday morning. Luckily, a walk to nearby Da Rae Oak Restaurant (located at 3510 Kingsway) for a Korean lunch spiced up my day.
Da Rae Oak’s interior is really bland and didn’t warrant a picture, but the food here is consistently good and well-priced, especially compared to other Korean restaurants in Vancouver.
One thing I love about Korean restaurants are the complementary appetizer-like dishes they serve up. These dishes are called Banchan (the most common type of Banchan is Kimchi of course). The waitress brought them out quickly so that we could snack on them before the main dishes arrived.
The first dish we ordered was a Seafood Pancake ($13.90). IHOP‘s got nothing on this. This gigantic pancake consists of various types of seafood, scallions, batter, and crispy potatoes. It’s very delicious and filling.
We also ordered beef short-ribs bulgogi, served with a bowl of rice ($12.90). Koreans really know how to marinate! The meat was sweet, tender, and tasty. It complemented the salty seafood pancake nicely.If you want the full Korean experience, Da Rae Oak might not be the best place to visit: the chopsticks here aren’t even made of metal. But if you just want some great, affordable Korean food, I would highly recommend it.
8.5 out of 10
Full from the tasty Korean lunch, I was ready to go back to slacking for the rest of the afternoon.
Haven’t been to Da Rea Ok for so long!!
Their Hea -Jang Gook (soy bean soup with beef) is also good.. ^^
I love this place, but I had a severe allergic reaction to something I ate (seafood rice maybe) last night. My whole face is still swollen today, so I probably won’t go back for a while…but the food does rock.
It seems a bit pricier than I’m used to. Is the food really worth it?
OK, I take back my earlier comment. I tried it today and was pleasantly surprised that most of the prices were very affordable. I had the bibimbap and it was one of the tastiest I have ever had. The vegetables were very flavourful and it was very filling.
I saw other people order the bbq ribs which looked delicious. Although it’s a couple of dollars more than my usual lunch special at Cho Sun, the amount of meat was at least double. I will certainly have to try it the next time.
The only downside was that I only received 2 banchans and a soup with my meal, while the other meals, (I guess depending on what you order) had a couple more.
Nice “hole in the wall” korean restaurant.
This place is still pretty hard to beat. Though I was at Insadong on the weekend, and they had the best seafood tofu soup I’ve ever had. Wifi too if anyone wants to do any live blogging. :p