Red Chicken Korean Restaurant

Red Chicken Korean Restaurant
833 Bute Street
Vancouver, BC

[Editor's note: This is a "bonus" post of sorts, as it was originally scheduled to go live on Monday - See the "other" post below or the "previous" post. However, since this coming Monday is Labour Day...!]

In a way, this post was and wasn’t overdue at the same time. See, a couple of months ago, I went there with a friend and tried their food. I was almost ready to post it when Wilson from La Petite Vancouver wrote a post. Why did I hold back? Well, according to my friend, the name of the restaurant is due to a dish – buldak: Chicken wings and legs marinated in a very hot spicy chili sauce grilled which happens to be of reddish colour. Since Wilson wrote about it – buldak included, I thought my post would fall short without it (not to mention the pictures in my original visit were a bit… below average). So, it was a matter of when I would re-visiting them and have some buldak. And I did recently…

Before I jump to the buldak, I should start with my first visit. My friend and I were working in some projects and we were both late in the office that night. So, we agreed to have dinner afterwards. I left the decision taking process to her and she mentioned a place her friends had been: Red Chicken. I was slightly hesitant: Why go all the way to Bute Street when you have several Korean restaurants further down in the West End. But, hey, it is sometimes that sense of adventure so I just agreed.

When we arrived, it was a bit late yet the restaurant was 3/4 full. I asked my friend about the restaurant name and she mentioned the story above about buldak. Unfortunately, when I mentioned my friend about my reaction to spicy food (when it hits certain threshold, I start to sweat… A LOT), she thought it might not be such a good idea to order buldak. In an unusual way, I relented… Since were sharing, we ordered…

Sundubu-jigae

Japchae

Jjin-mandu

Now, these names are taken “as is” from their take out menu so any misspelling errors, most likely it will be mine! So, starting with the sundubu, a spicy red tofu soup with squid, shrimp, clam and mushroom, I had some mixed feelings. It was hot (temperature and spiciness) yet somehow the other flavours seemed muted or overpowered by that spiciness. I might be missing the point but, hey, you ought to be able to flavour the other components of the dish, like the seafood! However, that brings another problem: there weren’t that many pieces of seafood! Despite we were sharing this, I don’t think or feel she scooped all the morsels so, from that perspective, I felt slightly disappointed.

The japchae – stir-fried sweet potato noodles, beef with vegetables – was, well, japchae. Probably I am a bit more used to eating vermicelli-type noodles so I did not notice anything too different or did not pay too much attention to notice anything different. And, finally, the jjin-mandu, steamed pork dumplings. Now, there might have been a lost in translation here because I am sure we ordered gun-mandu – panfried dumplings. When it arrived, my friend and I looked at each other in a funny way, probably asking the same question: didn’t we order the pan fried version? Regardless, we were hungry and decided not to send it back. Again, probably I “missed” the point here but I think I prefer the Chinese version of dumplings: in this case, I did not feel there was some harmony in the fillings. Now, I am not saying that Hon’s is better, I think it has more to do with style.

And your usual banchan – side dishes. This picture was taken on my second visit.

And, of course, the side dishes, which included something I have seldom get from other Korean places: potato salad (which, in the picture above, looks like scooped ice cream). In lieu of this, it is usually the seasoned potato. Regardless, it had an interesting soft, almost mash-like texture. I wonder if they use mayo and how much, hehehehe. One thing I must mention: there is a note in there menu that says you could “refill” one of these once. After that, you are charged $1.50 for each additional refill. I guess this is to prevent customers who order cheap dishes and fill their tummies by re-ordering them endlessly…

At this point, I won’t say I was impressed with their food but it wasn’t that bad either. I mean, it had the basics, nothing overly fancy and, budget-wise, it was fine. However, when there are some many other Korean eateries, doing “just fine” does not cut it. And that is when buldak came back to me. Since I did not try this dish, how could I make an assessment of this restaurant? So, after some time, I managed to convince a work colleague to go to Red chicken for lunch… And this time, no matter what, I will be having some buldak.

On this second visit, the heat wave that hit Vancouver was already history but they were selling some summer type dishes. In our case, we both ended up ordering cold spicy noodles, in my case, the regular “beef” version, my friend, the squid version. And, here they are:

I will admit these noodles were quite interesting and had some oddities as well. (As a reminder, I am more used to the vermicelli rice noodles). Here, the noodles were quite long and stringy, i.e., they did not break as easily. As a result, and partially thanks to my lack of skills handling chopsticks, they were a bit difficult to eat (imagine slurping on the noodle for half a minute…). Did I try to bite it off? Yup, I tried but did not really easily break! And, yes, as per its name, it was cold, as in icy cold. How icy? How about this icy:

I wonder if they “chilled” the liquid at the bottom (similar to the preparation of stock) or it was a “mistake”. Regardless, I did not pay too much attention to that and, instead, kept slurping and slurping! ^_^;;; Was it good? I have mixed feelings: on its own, it was a cold treat, yes. However, I was expecting something else, something with more umami characteristics. It is possible it was there but couldn’t taste it because of… The buldak…

I know that some might be wondering about the second picture. I am sure it is not that noticeable but those are gloves. Supposedly, these are so hot (when we were ordering it, the waitress warned us these are *really* hot), they give these to you “just in case”. The funny thing is that, being my colleague and me, they supplied us with only one pair. I guess one glove of each of us only? Anyway, when I took the first bite, I did feel some sweetness and after a while, I felt the spiciness. Initially it was pleasant but, after the second bite, I did not feel like eating it anymore (now, we did finish the dish). Here is the reason why: it was a burning type spiciness. In the past, whenever I have spicy food, I could eat something else and still savour the flavours of the other dishes. This, oddly, encourages you to eat another bite (and then repeat that process). But, here, that was not the case. Wait, burning? Yes, if you have ever put a spoonful of really hot soup into your mouth and burned your tongue, it would be somewhat similar to that. Reality is, unlike other type of hot/spicy dishes I have had, it overpowered anything else you could taste afterwards. I guess that is part of the reason I might have enjoyed the cold noodles as much. Now, here is the kicker: my colleague who went for lunch with me had similar thoughts about the chicken: too much “burning” spiciness, nothing else.

Overall, I can’t say I really enjoy my two visits to Red Chicken. Other than the buldak, the other dishes would be something you can find in other eateries and were about the same. No real twist… However, what my friend calls the “signature dish” felt a bit flat in my expectations. Would I come back? Well, there are many other Korean restaurants in the area I haven’t tried yet…

Tagged under: Chicken • Korean • Lunch • Vancouver