A few months ago, I was looking up different Korean restaurants around Metro Vancouver to eat at. I came across Samsoonie Noodle & Rice in Richmond, and it had pretty good reviews so the boyfriend and I went to try it one weekday evening!
I would say that Samsoonie is pretty hard to find if you’re not looking for it. It’s tucked away in a plaza, the last store hidden in the corner. We ended up driving past the whole plaza and found it when we drove around it for a second time.
It wasn’t too busy when we went there. Seating was comfortable and spacious. Â Considering that there was only one server working that night, service wasn’t too slow.
Banchan, free: Samsoonie only gave us two appetizer dishes, which is fine because we normally don’t finish everything anyways. Normally, places give four places but I’ve been to Korean restaurants that give up to 6!
Soft tofu hot pot, $8.99: My go to dish at Korean restaurants is the sundunbu, or tofu hot pot with choice of meat. This hot pot came with an average amount of seafood but a lot of soft tofu! I was so stuffed at the end of this meal, I didn’t even finish the rice!
I found that the soup was slightly bland compared to other places. It wasn’t too flavourful or spicy and didn’t have much depth. It wasn’t entirely terrible though, and I still felt satisfied after eating it.
Beef soft tofu hot pot, $8.99: I didn’t take a picture when it arrived because it looked the same as mine. Again, the soup broth wasn’t super flavourful but the boyfriend still enjoyed it.
There wasn’t much beef to the pot, but the beef itself was really soft and flavourful. It was the boyfriend’s favourite part of the dish, even if there wasn’t a large amount of it.
Seafood pancake, small, $9.55: The boyfriend wanted the large pancake but I knew that we would not be able to finish it. It would have just been a repeat of House of Tofu Soup, so I suggested we order the small.
The seafood pancake was delicious! It was nice and crispy on the outside, but soft on the inside. There was an average amount of seafood inside, but it was stuffed with leeks.
The spoon is there for comparison. It was the perfect size for us, the large would have been too much and we would have had to end up packing it up.
Overall, Samsoonie is a pretty decent restaurant but not one that I would crave again. I wish that the broth would have been more flavourful and less watery, but service was really friendly and seating was comfortable.
There are so many Korean options to choose from in Vancouver, so the food has to be super delicious to be able to compete with each other. I would prefer to go to Jong Ga or House of Tofu Soup, both in Korea Town.
Yay!
Thanks for reading!
Carmen
House made tomato soup: For the appetizers, this is the one we had to come back for. There was a scare when we thought it would not return for this year, but thankfully it did.
Duck carpaccio: This was a feature that night, and we were sold the minute we were introduced to it.
Chickpea fritters: These were made into falafel, but it was topped with pickled red onions and a curry sauce.
Maple brined pork chop: Two people ordered it as their entrée that night.
Ling cod: It consisted of a piece of ling cod served over a brandade (salted cod and olive oil, similar to a crab cake consistency), and mussel and bacon chowder.
Lemon parfait: The lemon parfait I tried a bite of was very lemony, but had good balance with the vanilla ice cream.
I used to frequent this neighbourhood a lot, but I actually never noticed Zest and was so surprised at where it was. It is tucked behind/beside the Starbucks on 16th & McDonald.
The restaurant was pretty empty, but we had an early reservation. The restaurant slowly filled up near the end of our meal during regular dinner hours. The restaurant was very clean and the seating was very comfortable.
Wild Sockeye Salmon Sashimi, $15: Every time we go to a new Japanese restaurant, we order their sashimi and use it as a basis for comparison.
Assorted sashimi salad, $15: I’ve been having sashimi salads more lately wanted to see if Zest can make a stellar sashimi salad as well. It came with one thick piece of seaweed tempura, sashimi, fresh greens, seaweed, and grapefruit.
This is what it looked like on my plate, with the dressing on the side. The greens were very fresh and crisp, as was the seaweed. Everything about this dish was so refreshing and delicious. We would definitely order this again!
Miso Cured Grilled BC Wild Salmon, $16: This dish originally came with quinoa, but I substituted for rice as I was really wanting plain, warm white rice that day.
Roasted Duck Breast Carpaccio, $14: This was the boyfriend’s entree, I don’t think we both expected it to be that small.
Zest Roll, $13: We were glad that we ordered this since the duck carpaccio was quite small, albeit delicious. The zest roll came with albacore tuna, grilled salmon skin, cucumber, and tobiko.
