10704 97 Street NW, Edmonton

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve just been a little bit busy with work and life. That isn’t to say though, that I haven’t been going out to eat… So don’t worry, I have a lot to post in the coming weeks!

So a couple weeks ago, I went to a few Korean restaurants back to back. Lee house (new location) being one of them, and B Bim Baab, and Nongbu Korean Eatery. Lee house is a family-owned restaurant. Their original location is right off Whyte, and their new one right in the heart of China town. Their old location focuses now more on fast-type dishes and their new chinatown location offers their full menu, and have built-in BBQ grills at each table, so you can GYOM!

There’s a lot of parking nearby, but it can be a little bit hectic (as is all of china town). This place used to be a grocery store, which my family used to frequent when I was much younger. The interior is completely redesigned and redone. It actually looks very nice inside and clean. We came right after work at around 5:30 and there were only a few tables occupied, so we were seated immediately. We quickly placed our order, and our complimentary banchan came out pretty readily.

We had some pickled radish, bean sprouts, kimchi, and seaweed salad. This was relatively standard. Everything was pretty good, and kept us pretty satiated before our food came out. There’s a convenient ‘call service’ button if you ever need anything, and we may have used it a couple times to ask for some more seaweed…haha

Of course, we ordered their signature dish, Kan Poong Gi, or their famous chicken balls. Korean food can get confusing, because when you hear KFC, it’s Korean Fried Chicken, and when you hear Chicken balls, it’s not the typical western-chinese breaded balls that you’d find at your every day food court. These are hand-rolled chicken, lightly battered with potato starch, and then deep fried until crispy. They’re tossed in a red sweet and sour sauce that is not too overwhelming. These were pretty good, but I found the interior to be a bit on the dry side. I just recently had B Bim Baab’s version of their chicken ball (Dak Kang Jung) and I would say I preferred the chicken at B Bim Baab.

The other dish we ordered was L.A Kal Bi. When I think Korean BBQ, I instantly think of beef short ribs. This cut of meat is so iconic for Korean BBQ that often times grocery stores will label it as “Korean-style short ribs”. You have the option of having the kitchen grill it for you, or you can grill it yourself at your table-top grill, we were feeling lazy and overwhelmed with all of the other food that we opted for them to do it in the kitchen. This cut of meat is always so good, and the marinade was very tasty. It was a mixture of Asian pear, soy, honey, garlic, and sesame. This is definitely one of my favourites of the night!

Lastly, we got the Yuk Gae Jang. It comes with a bright red beef broth with shredded beef brisket, an egg, green onion, and shiitake mushroom. To be honest, stews/soups are not really my thing. I’m not even a huge fan of pho for that matter. I always feel like it’s 70% broth, and 30% actual food, and that’s a generous serving. It wasn’t too flavourful, and as always, I felt that there was a lack of meat, vegetables, and everything else. The broth itself wasn’t that spicy, and overall, this dish was just mediocre. This dish would be made better if there were bigger chunks of meat.

Overall, I enjoyed my experience at Lee House. I’d definitely come back here again to try different things! I’d like to try and grill my own meat, and give a few of their others dishes a try. I do like how it’s right downtown and easily accessible. Don’t let its location deter you from trying this place out. The interior is really nice. Definitely recommend giving their BBQ a try!