SOJU — Restaurant in Burnaby

I did not expect they shut down sweets and beans and yet i found out on tik tok that this same location opened a new restaurant. I Was curious to try it out since a lot of people reviewed on here enjoyed their meal.

When we entered the place we had to write down our names for 2 guests and we roughly waited 30 mins to be seated, we were expecting it to be quicker since it was a big space.

We took time in getting acquainted with the menu because at first it wasnt so clear since they had combo meals.. and honestly its a bit pricey for one dish. Expecting $30 for most of the dishes. A lot of the menu items were not available at hand because they either ran out of green onions or low on stock with other condiments which is a huge bummer.

Getting to know the menu and placing the orders took at least 10-15 mins. But the real kicker was when we waited 30-40 mins for our food to start showing up… the server recommended us the MOST popular dish on the menu which was the battered prawn and mayo on top… it was honestly the most unappetizing thing we’ve ever had, it was very soggy, rubbery, TOOOO MUCH MAYO, and thick of a batter, lack in seasoning.. its hilarious when the server promised it was going to be good and it turned out it didnt.

My mother ordered the spicy beef soup and the soup came out salty, small portion and lack of flavor… the soup did not come out 10 mins after our prawn dish. 😩.

I ordered a rice dish that supposedly had seafood on it😂 but all i saw was a few pieces of baby shrimp and a hefty load of vegetables. It was also salty, gooey, and tasteless.

This is one of the worst restaurants I’ve ever been too, wish it was better since its a perfect location. The service was horrible, a lot of people got their food first before we did judging that they came in later and were seated first before them. They lack a lot of organization, communication, and execution. There is still room for improvement, but time will tell all.

If you want a decent big size, good price, good food that would be pal pal noodles 😉 its definitely a few steps...

Sorry I had to edit my review based on the food. The unfixable common problem with the chinese korean food always seems to be the chef / cook level. I personally blame the labor market because these chefs are hard to come by because of their short career (bad wrists and health) and most younger koreans are not willing to work in the kitchen anymore especially after covid 19. Finally, the experienced chefs usually are extremely demanding and hard to work with.

The Jjangmen noticeably did have traditional cucumber decor and a lot more meat than other places like tae yang guk and 88. Unfortunately, the sauce was too bland (need more sugar and msg) its better for the customers to say its too sweet than bland. The fried chicken (깐풍기) at a glance had good smell but the sauce was too salty and the whole thing tasted like just when you accidently dropped a sushi into the soy sauce; meaning it just tasted nothing but soy sauce (no zesty, sweet / salty, little spicy). And also, it was soggy (I live 5 mins away). Anyways, I think there is a lot of room to improve and the pricing is great but I rather go to 88 than have bland Jjangmen and salty soggy fried chicken. I wont leave a one star for now but I will be back to see if the food have gotten any better time to time then decide on...

This is the worst Korean food I've had period. Food came out after 20 minutes with 1 other table. So we thought, 'oh the food must be cooked fresh that's nice'. Nope.

The yuringi (fried chicken) came onto the table and I had a moment of disbelief because the pieces were like rocks on a plate. Completely solid. The meat was weird, bland, and had globs of batter UNCOOKED inside. You know it's a bad sign when your first instinct eating fried chicken is CHECKING IF ITS COOKED INSIDE.

They brought a dip that was pretty much sesame oil and salt. Which is very atypical of a yuringi sauce, even being generous. When we asked why it looked Literally Different from the Menu picture, they said 'it has always been this way'.

When I went to check out since me and my husband were denied a refund for this dish (we couldn't finish it, yes it was that bad), the owner tried to tell us we didn't know 'real' chinese korean cooking. Um....

We didn't want to argue because we are adults who wanted edible food. I only wish we took photos to show how bad it was. Positive reviews are either fake or haven't had good Korean food in their lives :)

FULL DISCLAIMER My husband is KOREAN and I am CHINESE. We both agreed it tastes awful! Sorry to the poor server who had to hear...