Sura Korean BBQ - Richmond, BC

Our friend suggested this place because they wanted to it try last time but there was a long line. So this time we decided to go there on a Monday night. I decided to make reservation during lunch time on the same day and was told they couldn't make same day reservation. Interesting.

So we decided to just go early around 5:30. Surprisingly a lot of people were already dining. We got a table sort of in the middle of the room because most of the window tables were occupied. The table sort of surrounded by benches with thin cushions to sit on. I like it that the table was pretty big so our group of five didn't feel crowded. And there was enough space between our table and next table to allow privacy.

There was a dish that I was curious to try which was the spicy galbi jjim. I tried making one before using some recipes I found online. So I made sure I ordered that along with the beef and mushroom hot pot. The rest of our group added a few more items including items for barbecue.



The side dishes (ban chan) were nothing too special except for the kimchee. The potato side dish was a bit mushy and the salad were okay only. There was no fish cake nor jap chae (stir fry noodle). The kimchee was surprisingly very flavorful and just right ripeness. Not too raw and not too sour.

Fried squid that we ordered though looked big but was covered with batter. And the batter was too thick so we couldn't quite enjoy the squid itself. The seafood pancake was the worst among other Korean restaurant that I had tried. The pancake felt too doughy and tasted like deep fried, maybe because of the batter used. In fact, when I tried both of them again side by side, the squid and pancake tasted the same.

For barbecue we ordered royal galbi (beef) and royal pork galbi. The beef galbi though was thin and scored prior to cooking still came out chewy. And it was cooked by the guidance of the waiter too. For sure it wasn't well done because it was partially pink. But I felt that it required too much chewing and the sauce wasn't very compatible. On the other hand, the royal pork galbi was well marinated and tasted way better.

The dish that I was looking forward to try on was the spicy galbi jjim. It came out looking like what I expected, fiery red with some green onion among the pieces of the ribs. But when biting into it the meat was still chewy and not falling off the bones. I think it's under cooked.

The winner of the night was the beef and mushroom hot pot. Though we ordered the small size because we had so many other orders it came out pretty big. The broth was very flavorful and rich especially after all those beef and onion and mushroom were thrown in and cooked. We ate the left over the following day and it was still full of beef, mushroom, glass noodle and rice cake.

All in all a good experience. Most likely we wouldn't be going back anytime soon. I feel that their barbecue wasn't as strong as Gangnam BBQ in Richmond. Which I remembered that I haven't reviewed yet. Oops.

Sura Korean BBQ
Aberdeen Centre
4151 Hazelbridge Way #1830, Richmond, BC V6X 0A4
sura-koreanbbq.com
(604) 370-5540