Insadong Korean BBQ and Seafood Restaurant

posted on December 18, 2013 (updated on June 22, 2016)

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We wanted to get some authentic Korean BBQ so our friends in Vancouver did some research and took us to Insadong which is located in Burquitlam. This place was very very busy on the Saturday evening. We didn’t make a reservation so we ended up waiting for about 30 minutes before we got seated.

I wasn’t sure if they were short-staffed or they were just poor with their service, the servers weren’t very attentive. We didn’t get our tea until after we repeatedly asking they for it for 10 minutes. We pressed the service button at your table so that we could order, but our service button, which would normally alert the servers on the monitor which table was calling , didn’t work. We told a server that our button didn’t work, but the server, without even checking, insisted that it was working fine.

Finally, 20 minutes after feeling frustrated and helpless, a server came to take our order. We ordered the family BBQ combination ($79.99), which came with smoked salmon seaweed salad, radish seaweed roll, seafood spicy soft tofu soup, bulgogi japche and seafood pancake as appetizers, some marinated beef, chicken and pork as well as some seafood like mussels, prawns and oysters.

Radish Seaweed Roll

Smoked Salmon Seaweed Salad

Bulgogi Japche

Seafood Pancake

Seafood Spicy Soft Tofu Soup

To be honest, I was quite disappointed with the appetizers. The radish seaweed roll and smoked salmon seaweed salad were fresh and tasted alright. However, the bulgogi japche and seafood pancake were so so, not very authentic. The tofu soup was bland and tasted watered down.

Marinated Meat and Seafood

The only thing I was happy with that evening was the BBQ. The seafood was fresh. The meat was well-marinated so they turned out flavorful after being grilled.

To sum it up, I don’t think this place is worth the long wait. They served good BBQ meat, but other dishes tasted terrible. Service was very poor.

My review: My experience at Insadong was like the Oreo chocolate sandwich cookies. Only go there for what it is famous for (i.e. Korean BBQ) because everything else is just mediocre.