Yook Korean Grilled BBQ & Bistro

Hands down one of the best restaurants for Korean food. I moved to California and back to visit. This place is a must go to. The service is very nice and friendly. Clean and well decorated environment to eat in. I HIGHLY recommend.

So good. We went there for the first time tonight for dinner. My husband and I were already talking about what to order on our next visit as soon as we got into our car after the meal.

There were 5 of us tonight and we had:

1. Deep fried meat dumplings - meaty fillings in crispy wrappings.

2. Seafood and green onion pancakes - it was the best Korean seafood pancake we've had in Vancouver. The dough was light but it was filled with seafood goodness. The outside was perfectly fried with crunchy and crispy edges.

3. Beef short ribs in sweet soy sauce - The flavour of the dish rendered it as my mom's favourite. The meat was tender and charred to perfection.

4. Plain pork belly - This was my favourite. All the pieces were also charred nicely and they were heavenly with the accompanying dipping condiment (salt and spices in oil).

Service was excellent. The staff were friendly and attentive.

I love this place.

First time for us, as we are from Toronto. Great tasting food, we always order dishes to share, this way you can sample more. Busy with every table occupied and a few ppl outside waiting, this was 6pm Sunday night, long weekend Aug 4. We weee able to book on the same day.

Dinner with the family at Yook Korean Grilled BBQ & Bistro. Featured here:

Bibimbap
Haemul Soondubu
Haemul Pajeon (Seafood and Green Onion Pancake)
Sweet Rice Drink

Bibimbap is usually served sizzling hot in a stone bowl. The rice at the bottom gets crunchy, and the whole dish in general tends to be a very warm, hearty and comforting meal. This Bibimbap however, was served to me in a metal bowl. Not only did it come in a metal bowl, but the rice was served separately from the veggies and fried egg, in a smaller separate bowl. This was really quite a disappointment as I'd been looking forward to have the sizzling hot bowl of rice that I'd come to expect from Korean restaurants.
 
The Haemul Soondubu on the other hand arrived at the table with bubbling hot soup in it. This was my second choice and I really wish that I had ordered this instead.

The Haemul Pajeon was nicely done, and the sweet rice drink which I hadn't had for a number of years, was as tasty as I remembered it being.

There were other meat dishes on the table but people started eating before I could take any photos! The meat dishes were already prepared though. This wasn't the kind of Korean BBQ where you get to cook the food yourself on a grill. That was a bit of a disappointment as we'd brought an out of town visitor here, and had hoped to give him the experience of Korean BBQ cooking at this dinner. From the name of the restaurant, we thought there would be grills on our table, but...that wasn't the case.

Service: Good
Parking: Free parking on the side street
Location: 2408 Nanaimo St., Vancouver, BC

Came here during NYE, surprisingly they have some empty tables, it can be loud time to time.

We got:
1. Kimchi jiggae: it's pretty good but you can get this flavor anywhere.
2. Spicy rice cake: I think the rice cake was a little over cooked, but there r tons of shrimp and fish cakes so I think it's good value
3. Seafood pancake: thickest seafood pancake I have ever had, it's almost like a pizza, it's more doughy than what I preferred to be since it lost the crisp, but the flavors r good
4. Grilled pork belly: I love this, nicely seasoned and properly grilled!!

What I didn't quite enjoy: we asked for water and never got it for a long time, it was also quite hard to get their attention even though we sat right next to the cash register.

Yummy spot for Korean food! Plenty of street parking and good service. Got a few dishes to try for dinner. Kalbi was cooked well and very flavorful. Seafood pancake came with a nice crunch. Seafood tofu soup came out hot and spicy. Overall great meal with the side dishes.

Came with my family for dinner tonight and really enjoyed our meal! The portions were not huge but what we ordered tonight was the perfect amount to satisfy without over indulging.

We ordered:
Seafood Pancake - this was WONDERFUL! Crispy on the edges, lots of green onions (could use more seafood) but oh soooo tasty and flavourful! It was thick but not in a way that was too doughy or undercooked! Quite an oily dish but thats how it gets so yummy!

Fried Mandu - stuffed to the brim with glass noodles and meat, very thin wrapper and a fry that did not feel too oily.

Seafood Soft Tofu Soup - not a very large bowl of soup but had plenty of soft tofu! Very flavourful and the mild was just right in terms of spice. Had a few pieces of shrimp and a mussel but could have used a bit more seafood and liquid.

Bulgogi Bibimbap with Added Egg - this is the first time I got bibimbap with rice served in a separate bowl but that didnt make this any less delicious! This bowl had all of the veggies expected in a bibimbap and they were all very tasty when mixed together. There was also a good amount of beef too!

Braised Short Ribs - this dish was meant for two and what came to the table was a very large dish of braised short ribs in a sweet and savoury sauce with some onions, peppers and carrots. I appreciated how the sauce was not too oily making it great with some white rice. Short ribs were tender too.

Overall, a delicious meal where portions weren't HUGE and a higher price but very tasty. Menu is small but each item done well.

Tried the spicy dakgalbi dupbap. About average size portion size for $16 which is perfect for lunch. The pork is well seasoned but their 'spicy' is more of a milder spice level.

Would definitely be back to try other dishes from here.

Was craving Korean beef so was in the Nanaimo area and came upon this place. We ordered rice cake soup which was good, but too much black pepper I'd say. The next thing we ordered was Galbi Jjim which is $63, which was a HUGE ripoff because most of the pieces are all fatty pieces that someone who is looking to eat healthy will not eat. With all those fatty pieces and barely any pieces with pure meat this is worth around $20, not $63. If I want Korean beef there are way better places then here. For the price you can get better quality at a local steakhouse or a different KBBQ place.

You'll probably be able to find your favourite Korean dish here as menu is quite extensive from Korean pancake to bibimbap to bulgogi to japchae to beer. Restaurant is also very spacious.

I ordered the dduck mandu gook (rice cakes and dumplings in beef broth soup) and bibimbap with spicy stir-fried chicken. Bibimbap did not seem like it was presented in the "authentic way" as the rice was served on the side in a separate metal bowl. However, both dishes were really good.

I would come definitely back. I took one star off because:
- banchan (Korean side dishes) was not very impressive; they did not have my favourite sweet potato and bean sprouts
- we were eating at 3:30pm on a Sunday (only table), yet prompt customer service was so-so; our water did not get refilled in a timely fashion. (this is not about their attitude, they were nice with the minimal interactions we encountered.) There is a button for a bell to proactively call someone over though..