Midam Cafe & Bistro — Restaurant in Burnaby

Midam Rice Cake House is one of the many Korean cafes in the busy mini mall located on the Burnaby/Coquitlam border of North Road. In fact, this area is often called “Koreatown” given the proliferation of Korean establishments in the area.

Midam is a bit hidden – tucked away in the bottom corner of the mini mall, near the Hannam Supermarket. Walking inside this restaurant, you couldn’t be blamed for thinking that you’ve walked into a sports bar given the overwhelming about of basketball paraphernalia adorning the walls. During my visit, the interior was rather dark because they didn’t turn on all of the lights.

I wound up ordering the Marinated Beef Rib Patty Wrapped in Rice Cake Set ($13) and the Green Tea Milk Shake ($5) despite this place probably being better known for their bingsoo dishes (ie. Korean shaved ice desserts). It took quite a while for my food to come out (I think they didn’t have enough people working at the time). My shake was the first to arrive (about 10 minutes after I ordered it). Topped with whipped cream with green tea powder sprinkled on top, the shake was actually quite refreshing and light but lacked discernible green tea flavour.

My set meal came with miso soup, a basic yet crisp salad with a slightly tart vinaigrette, pickled radish kimchi, slightly pinkish and fluffy rice, and some type of appy made of beans. The beef rib was ground up and had a consistency similar to a meat patty and then covered with a thin green rice cake wrapper and served on top of shredded cabbage. Although the filling wasn’t too flavourful by itself, there was some sauce underneath that helped.

I came back for a revisit the following month and ordered their Spicy Squid and Pork Belly Set ($13) along with a Persimmon Shake ($7). While the lights were turned on during this visit, there’s still not a lot of natural light getting in here.

I found that the pork belly was a bit on the chewy side due to the fat not rendering enough but the squid was nice and tender. The pork and squid comes mixed with shredded cabbage, onions, and some inch-long rice cake logs.

The music selection here changes (probably based on who’s working)… I’ve heard both regular K-pop as well as more...

I really wanted to like this place. They had a great selection and a lot of the food sounded really good. Unfortunately I won’t be back to try their other items because of a disappointing experience.

Some friends and I ordered the deep fried plate to share. I love rice cakes, so seeing that they were a part of the platter was a big incentive for me to order it. When the platter came there were no rice cakes. I could’ve sworn they were included, so I double checked the menu, and they were stated on the menu. I asked the server why they weren’t included and they told me they ran out. I told the server that they should’ve stated that upon us ordering, it would’ve affected whether we decided to order that or something else. In the end, they did end up compensating us $3 worth to cover the rice cakes that should’ve been included with no hassle. But still, if I didn’t mention anything, they would’ve tried to just let that pass without even mentioning it, which to me wasn’t okay.

We also ordered the shaved ice to share and I was also really disappointed that the ice had no flavour. They had lots of toppings and such but the shaved ice is the main part and it tasted like I was eating frozen water.

I heard pretty good things about this place but my experience was pretty mediocre, there might be better items to try on their menu but unfortunately I’m too soured to go back and give them...

The food is pretty good and tasty! but everyone in my family agreed it wasn't the best Korean food we had. We thought the chicken in the UFO was already fully cooked but a couple of our pieces were half done / undercooked so that was just an unpleasant surprise we didn't expect. We've tried their desserts before as well. I think their beautiful presentations set too high of an expectation for the taste that it can be a little disappointing when it doesn't taste crazy phenomenal.

Service is ok but they get pretty busy so you might have to wait a while before they respond to you ringing the bell.

The place is built with very hard surfaces so it was very noisy. That along with the fact that many young adults gathered here who generally spoke very loudly. I was able to clearly overhear the conversations from every table in the restaurant and I felt kinda intrusive and experienced an auditory overload that led to a headache. My family didn't seem as bothered by it though so it probably won't affect you as much unless you're sensitive to it or prefer more privacy like me.

Overall I think it's a nice social place to eat with friends or family if you don't mind a noisy atmosphere but just wasn't the...