Kim Ga Nae

4260 #3 Rd, Richmond

Food: 4

Service: 3

Price: Cheap for lunch

What a busy weekend, so I must start with an apology for the lack of update. Anyways, I have been going to Richmond quite often lately for various reasons, so therefore I had to find somewhere to dine.

I was just there with my parents last week, and my dad wanted to try an AYCE (All You Can Eat) BBQ he had seen awhile back. He said the place should be right across from Aberdeen center, and he was right, it was in the same square as No. 1 Shanghai restaurant.

We were there on a Sunday afternoon at about 1:20pm there were only about 3 tables. I was quite surprised given this is Richmond, and usually places are packed. This got me a little worried, and started to wonder if the food was that horrible that no body want to come back. Immediately upon entering, they asked us if we wanted regular menu or AYCE (All You Can Eat), because apparently they are two dining area. We went with the AYCE BBQ. Here is the menu for the lunch AYCE, I was surprised that the selection is actually quite large with more than just meat as choices. They had a good selection of appetizers as well.

Of course, like all Korean restaurants, first came the side dishes. It’s mostly just standard stuff: kimchi, potato, bean sprout etc.

First came the appetizers, on the left we have the spicy stir fry rice cake, and on the right is the bibimbap (stone bowl rice with various topping). Sorry for the bad picture of the rice cake, we sorta already dug in by the time I remember to snap a picture. The rice cake was pretty good, the sauce was nice and thick and spicy. I was surprised at the nice presentation of the bibimbap. For a small appetizer, this looked like a small full meal. It tasted pretty authentic too.

The 2^nd set of appetizers we tried is the tofu soup and deep fried gyoza. The tofu soup was a total disappointment; it was so bland that it’s almost tasteless. Needless to say, I think you can safely skip this side dish. The gyoza was average, nothing really interesting there.

We also tried their japchae (stir fry potato noodle) and seafood pancake. Both were really good. The japchae was served cold, but it was still good regardless. The seafood pancake was hot and delicious with lots of seafood as well. I would definitely recommend both appetizers.

Finally, our order of meat came. My favorite being is beef short rib, the marinated was very tasty. The pork belly was good, but it wasn’t really marinated, so you must dip it in the provided BBQ sauce for it to have some taste. Unfortunately no sauce or garlic was provides, so you can’t have it the authentic Korean way. However you can order the lettuce and rice to wrap it with. The chicken was surprisingly very good. Although the marinade was great, I have to say it’s also partially due to the cook, myself that is :). It was very tender, juicy and flavorful. We also tried both the pork rib and spicy pork rib. It came already cooked; you just have to heat it up a bit on the grill. Both were good, but not great. As for the veggie, we had pumpkin, onion and yam. Other then the onion, everything else is really hard to grill, it takes forever to cook, I think I will definitely skip those next time.

We were totally stuffed by the time we finished all the food, they had tons of signs everywhere to remind you not to waste any food or else you may be charged for them. It’s even on the price list sign. As you can see it is only $12.95/person for lunch. I think this is a really cheap deal for a good all you can eat BBQ. In fact, I think the quality is great for the price you pay. Also, I forgot to mention, this place seems to be operated by Korean people, as their servers are Korean, so it seems pretty authentic to me.

Overall, we really enjoyed our meal, and the service was pretty fast, although not exactly super friendly. I think servers in Asian restaurants need to smile more often. Despite the average service, I would definitely come back, because their food is definitely worth the price.