Over a year ago (maybe even two years at this rate…), Maki and Nigiri told us about Chuncheon Korean Pan BBQ in Port Moody. This restaurant is quietly tucked away in Port Moody, and I haven’t heard much about it before. I was really excited to try it because Maki loves their Korean ox bone soup here and said I absolutely had to try it!

The restaurant was really quiet when we came with Maki and Nigiri on a Saturday night. The restaurant was spacious, and the tables were distanced. It felt clean and COVID-safe here.

Chuncheon is actually a city in Korea, known for dak-galbi, which is a shared spicy dish that comes with chicken, rice cake, sweet potatoes, cabbage, and more. The Korean food served here is Chuncheon-style, hence their restaurant name.

Banchan: It was nice to have a bowl of salad with the banchan. We all really enjoyed the mashed potatoes, which were dairy free! They made it with mayo. A lot of people are surprised to find out that mayo doesn’t have dairy. Mayo contains eggs though.

Ox bone soup: The ox bone soup here did not disappoint, and was so delicious! You can see how clear the soup is, but it was so flavourful. I am glad that I was finally able to try the ox bone soup, and would gladly make the drive here for it again.

Chicken hot plate: The husband and Nigiri split the chicken hot plate, which was gigantic. The easiest comparison would be to Sooda, which is more popular. However, we found the hot plate at Chuncheon to be a lot better. The hot plates at Sooda are the same price (if not more), but you get a lot more here too. You can see Maki’s ox bone soup bowl in the corner, and can use that to compare the size of the hot plate!

I believe they ordered the cheese dakgalbi. The sauce was spicy, with a bit of sweetness to it. All of the ingredients inside, especially the rice cakes, soaked up the sauce nicely. The menu said that this feeds 2 people, but it could definitely feed 3-4 people because we had leftovers!

Overall, our dinner at ChunCheon Dakgalbi was delicious and I am looking forward to my next visit. Both dishes we ordered were great, and the service was nice as well. This place is a hidden gem in Port Moody! After dinner, we finished the night with Vashti Rose Ice Cream a few minutes drive away. The line is shorter than Rocky Point Ice Cream and the ice cream at Vashti Rose is just as good!

I have been wanting to go to a small ice cream shop in Port Moody called Vashti Rose for awhile. Since we were coming to this area, I thought it was a good time to see what else was around here and saw a Korean restaurant by the name of TangMaRu.

Our favourite Korean place, Jong Ga, has sadly shut down, we have been wanting to find a new place to go when craving stone bowl rice.

We also spontaneously asked Sangria and Lager if they were free to join, so the 4 of us went together!

TangMaRu is easily missed if you aren’t looking for it. They are in a strip mall that has parking, but it was full when we went and parked a couple of blocks down.

While waiting outside, you are instructed to take a look at the menu and decide what you’d like to order. When you’re ready, you go inside and put down your name, # of people, and the item # of what you’d like to order.

The process was a bit confusing to us at first and not explained well by the server.

Ox bone soup: I was happy to see what they had stone bowl here for no extra cost. Most places charge an additional $3-4 for stone bowl. When the stone bowl rice comes, you should first open the lid and spread the rice evenly to the top of the bowl so that you can have more crispy rice. Then, leave it closed for about 8-10 minutes to crisp the rice, while eating other things.

My ox bone soup was good, and I had no complaints about it. You add in your own salt and pepper as with most ox bone soup.

Beef short rib soup: Sangria ordered the beef short rib soup. Compared to the ox bone soup, beef short rib soup is more flavourful and you don’t have to season it with salt. There is usually a more garlicky and deeper flavour with beef short rib soup.

Sangria had no complaints about it and found it delicious.

Spicy pork bone soup: Lager ordered the spicy pork bone soup. He enjoyed it and had no complaints.

Beef bulgolgi soup: The husband had a really good beef bulgolgi soup at Wang Ga Mah, so he wanted to compare it. Unfortunately, he didn’t like the beef bulgolgi soup as much here.

Overall, I enjoyed the food at TangMaRu. The service definitely could have been improved though. The main server lady was not really nice, and didn’t explain the ordering process to us clearly and seemed exasperated.

Also, as we were finishing up our meal, she came by to tell us that there was a line outside. A few minutes passed, and we were getting ready to leave and finishing up our water, when she came again and told us rudely this time, that there was a line and that we had to leave. We thought it was really rude of her to rush us out when we were already gathering our things to go, and that soured our experience a bit.

Sooda has been on my list forever. I have heard many good things about Sooda but didn’t go due to my inability to have dairy for many years.

The fiance and I were in the area and he suggested that we finally try it (my dairy intolerance comes and goes, yes I also know it’s odd and it’s not something I made up mentally in my head contrary to what people feel like they need to tell me *eye roll*).

Sooda is inconspicuously located across from Brentwood Skytrain Station. The sign isn’t that noticeable but they are usually quite busy. We went on a weekday and there was still a line up.

Beef bulgolgi: Sooda is known for their giant hot plates with cheese and meat, so naturally we had to try this. I don’t know someone would come to Sooda and not order this!

The giant hot plate was, well, giant. Everything is separated neatly when the hot plate arrives on the table, and then you stir it around to melt the cheese and mix everything. After about 10 minutes, the server will come and turn off the hot plate so the food won’t overcook.

The beef bulgolgi was flavourful and not overcooked, even with the extra cooking time on the hot plate. The dish was also very cheesy and rich. This is an unpopular opinion, but I found it to be underwhelming for the price.

For the price of $40 in 2021 (I include the year because maybe a few years later this would be considered a reasonable price with inflation), it was not worth it and felt more like a fad. You could probably get a beef bulgolgi with cheese and rice at another restaurant for $25 max.

Also, the plate was very rich so if you have a sensitive stomach like me, there isn’t much you can eat here. They do have other food but it’s also very rich or deep fried. I didn’t end up eating much because of how rich it was and ended up picking up some Sushi Garden down the block after.

Overall, I’m glad we finally tried it so I can cross it off the list, but I don’t think the hot plates are worth the price. It’s nice to try it once, but not a place to go regularly.

Personally, I prefer the Korean restaurants that have comforting noodle soups. The service was also very slow and inattentive, focusing on pick up orders more than dine in, which was frustrating.