Originally, my friends and I had plans to try G-Men in Richmond, but we could not find parking. We ended up going to Aberdeen Mall to eat instead. You may think that resorting to food court food is pretty atrocious compared to a restaurant, but Aberdeen’s food court is amazing.
Continuing our streak of bad luck that night, we wanted to try a dessert place in Richmond but it was packed. We decided to just go back to Burnaby, as my friend had told us about Midam Cafe many times.
It is a pretty hard place to find, located right under a flight of stairs and tucked into the corner with no visible signage. But it ain’t an Asian restaurant unless it has those features, amirite? 😉
Green tea float, $6.99: Essentially a green tea ice cream smoothie. Yes, it was as good as it sounded, judging from how Cheese was raving about it. I would have tried it too, but that’s just asking for death when you are extremely lactose intolerant.
Rice cake with bean flour & apple sauce: I wanted something sweet that day, which is usual for me because I would take savoury over sweets usually. Sadly, my options were limited seeing that I can’t have dairy, so I settled for the rice cake from the recommendation of the server.
This was a very odd dish, and was not my cup of tea. It wasn’t bad at all, but I was expecting the rice cake to be sweet. Instead, it was very salty and had hints of cinnamon flavour. I also didn’t taste the apple sauce at all. My friends tried it and they thought it was a bit strange too. Maybe we just aren’t used to Korean rice cakes, but it was nice to try something new! I would order this if I was craving something savoury.
Strawberry sorbet, $4.99: I wanted to order this, but was afraid there was dairy. Luckily, Macaroni ordered this and confirmed that there wasn’t any dairy, so I was able to try it. It was so delicious that I ended up ordering one myself (especially since i was in a sweets mode and my rice cake ended up being surprisingly salty). It reminded me of the strawberry slush at Milk and Sugar. I found it to be a bit chunky and not blended enough, but it was still full of fresh, delicious strawberry flavour.
Oreo milkshake, $4.99: The boyfriend ordered this and fell in love with the flavour instantly. It was one of the BEST milkshakes he’s ever had in his life. Macaroni and Cheese also tried it and confirmed the boyfriend’s thoughts – it was indeed THAT amazing and delicious. To this day, they still talk about how great this oreo milkshake is while I am left imagining how delicious and heavenly this is. Perhaps if I bring my dairy supplements, I can try this out for myself but I find that those supplements do not always work for me.
All in all, we enjoyed our late night visit to Midam and I can see myself coming here again for some late night snacks/drinks. One cool thing to note about Midam is that the place is completely decked out in NBA gear – there is a basketball hoop, jerseys, posters, pretty much a NBA lovers dream in here!
Yay!
Thanks for reading!
-Carmen
We walked by Five Senses, and it looked pretty busy so we gave the menu a quick look. After seeing the high ratings on Yelp, we decided to try it! I’m glad we came here before the dinner rush because there was a pretty long line up afterwards.
Banchan, free: The banchan was pretty much the same as what you would get in Vancouver. However, I’ve never seen the clear, cold noodles mixed with veggies on the far right before. That was probably my favourite dish out of all of these. The noodles were served a bit chilled, and had a really strong sesame oil taste to it! The kimchi packed a lot of heat as well.
Sul lang tang, $12.99: I honestly don’t know why I keep ordering beef bone stock soup when it usually isn’t that tasty. I’ve come to accept the fact that Korean beef bone soup is usually pretty flavourless, and this was pretty much the same. On the right hand side of the photo, you can see the salt that it comes with, but I had to ask for another plate of it because it still wasn’t enough.
Soondubu, $13.99: I had wanted to order this as well, but wasn’t really feeling like anything spicy. This is the seafood tofu soup. It came with a generous amount of tofu and seafood, and was super filling. We found it to have a good amount of spice to it as well. Overall, a really comforting and delicious dish!
After ordering, our banchan came. Everything tasted pretty decent and fresh with no complaints. We all liked the potato banchan the most. Cheese ended up putting the leftover sauce from the potato banchan into his rice bowl and said it was the best thing ever.
Seafood tofu soup and rice in stone bowl: I was craving something comforting and warm. Korean tofu soup never fails, and this went above and beyond my cravings! The soup bowl was HUGE, I was so uncomfortably stuffed after the meal. There was a generous portion of tofu and assorted seafood in my bowl.
Beef soup with noodles and rice in stone bowl: Unfortunately, Macaroni was very disappointed in her dish because it lacked flavour. It tasted just like boiled water with some noodles and beef. After adding a tremendous amount of salt, she said it was tolerable.
Oxtail & beef soup with noodles & rice in stone bowl: This soup was drastically different than the disappointing bowl Macaroni had above! There was a lot of depth to this soup, and was simply delicious.
Bibimbap: Lastly, Cheese decided to be different and order a rice dish! He really liked his bibimbap and it came with a generous amount of toppings. When he finished his bibimbap and went on to drink the small soup on the side, he said it was very concentrated and tasted like it should have been stirred in the rice.
Banchan, free: To start, we received our complimentary Korean appetizers. Nothing too special here, just your average banchan with no complaints.
Ggorigom tang, $14.95: Slow simmered ox tail and bone marrow broth with brisket. I ordered this because I had this at Jong Ga and it was really delicious, and wanted to see it it matched up. Nope, not even close. The broth had no taste, it felt like I was just drinking cloudy water with a chunk of bone and some green onion flavour. There was also barely any brisket inside, I think I managed to find a couple tiny measly pieces.
Soontofu jigae, $10.95: Continuing on with the disappointment, Cinnamon was shocked when her ‘seafood’ tofu soup arrived with barely any seafood! There were a few pieces of shriveled up seafood, all of which could fit on her small spoon. When she told the staff about this, they brought it back with a couple more pieces of seafood but it was still a very tiny portion. The seafood also did not look fresh at all, judging from how shrunken and shriveled they looked.
Yukgaejang, $10.95: Finely shredded beef stew with mushrooms and vegetables in a spicy beef broth. Although Lollipop shouldn’t be eating spicy food, she couldn’t resist! Again, the protein in her bowl was lacking. She didn’t find it super spicy either, and thought that it would have come with more spice.
Seafood pancake, $21.95: This was probably the only decently delicious order that we had of the night. The seafood pancake was filled with a generous amount of seafood, that looked a lot fresher than what the seafood they put in the tofu soup.
Haroo wouldn’t have been that noticeable if it wasn’t for the giant bright signage they have on the corner. The restaurant itself is pretty small, but comfortable and cozy.
Most tables fit four people, so it would be a bit uncomfortable to eat here with a larger group. There were two waiters working, which I am assuming was the owner and his son.
Banchan, free: The banchan here was a lot better than other Korean restaurants I’ve been to. They take it up a level and give you a side salad, which was so delicious! The veggies were really fresh and crunchy, and had some sort of sweet cranberry sauce.
Beef tofu soup (sundubu), $11.50: We wanted something warm and comforting, so decided to order the beef tofu soup to share. The portion here was smaller than we were used to, so that was a bit disappointing.
Seafood pancake, $18.95: Another must when going for Korean food (even though it’s super easy to make at home!). Out of all the Korean seafood pancakes I’ve tried in Vancouver, this was probably the best one I’ve had so far. If I’m craving seafood pancake, I know exactly where to go!