(This restaurant is now *CLOSED* )

10828 82 Avenue NW, Edmonton

(Updated Post Below! Scroll Down!)

 

Sorry for my recent hiatus! This summer has been a pretty busy one! A few weeks ago, I went to Seorak with Jenn. We went right afterwork, and checked out the new cat cafe too while we were at it. It was a nice day so we walked down Whyte and stopped by a few shops too. It’s located on Whyte right off 109th street, so parking is scarce, but lots of side parking and some meters nearby.

We managed to arrive at Seorak an hour before happy hour ended, so that was pretty good. The space is new, nice seating, long and narrow. Their menu items are moderate to high, but their happy hour is actually quite reasonably priced, so we opted to get several dishes from their happy hour, and then the Hiroshima-okonomiyaki (along with a few of their drinks). Edit: They seem to change their menu/happy hour quite a bit, so check their website/instagram to see what’s current.

The first of our dishes was the octopus calamari. It’s exactly as it sounds, lightly breaded octopus, served as if it were calamari. The flavours were not bad, but the octopus was overcooked and rubbery. Typically I prefer squid over octopus. Would be good if it was cooked perfectly.

Of course, Jenn always has to get Beef Tataki no matter where we go, so that was one of our other dishes. Their pieces of beef are flame torched (cut thicker than most other places), and served with sliced onions, dressed in their house-made ponzu sauce, and topped with green onions and sesame seeds. Overall not too bad. The pieces of beef were generous.

Next, we had their Pajeon, which is like a Korean Pancake. They have a version with pork and a seafood one, and we opted to get seafood one. It was relatively thin, and not as soggy as the other Pajeons that I’ve had. Decent amount of seafood, and overall, not bad.

Finally, we got their Hiroshima-Okonomiyaki. They serve both Osaka-style, and Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki, which is pretty rare to find in Edmonton. Having just coming back from Japan, I was really looking forward to this! I went to both Osaka and Hiroshima, and had several Okonomiyaki in both cities, and I preferred the Hiroshima-style, as it is more hearty and has noodles. Okonomiyaki is a Japanese style pancake stack, and ours was layered with egg, noodles, bean sprout, cabbage, pork belly slice, green onion, benishoga, tenkasu, and bonito flake. Overall, not bad, but obviously not as good as the ones I’ve had in Japan. Good to try if you’ve never had it before!

For dessert, we opted to get their one of their snowbowls, the strawberry cheesecake one. Overall, not bad. It wasn’t too sweet. We didn’t have too many pieces of cheesecake, which was a bit disappointing. And looking from their instagram photos and tagged photos, they are fairly inconsistent with how it is made, presented, and served. I had a certain expectation from the photos I’ve seen, and the one that I had didn’t quite live up to that, so it was a bit disappointing! Minus points for inconsistency, but overall, it was still okay.

Overall, I had a decent time at Seorak. The food was pretty good, and during happy hour, everything is quite reasonable. Since I’ve been there, they’ve added some pressed sushi and other things to their menu, so I’ll have to come back and check it out! Pretty decent overall, and the venue itself is pretty nice. Give this place a try! More variety is always good, especially on Whyte Ave!

Updated Post (June 2017)

I came back a second time and tried a few of their other dishes. It seems like they change up their menu/Happy hour quite frequently, so it’s never a dull moment there.

For food, we got the Korean Chili Chicken burger, the Seorak Pork belly,  the Oshi Toro, (a few of the same dishes from last time), and a Matcha Oreo Bingsoo.

The Korean chili Chicken Burger comes with House chili marinaded chicken, mayo, tomato, onion, and lettuce. This can come with grilled or fried chicken, and we opted to get their fried chicken. Nice and cripsy, and the chicken was very tender. It had a nice bite to it, and was a really great to eat. I definitely recommend this dish.

Their Pork Belly was also another favourite of mine. Nice and thick pieces of pork belly. It comes with different flavours that you can choose from, such as the seoul Chili and Japanese miso. Nice and tender!

And of course, we hade to get one of their pressed sushi. The Oshi Toro is pressed tuna belly, spicy masago mayo, topped with black sesame sauce, shiso and ginger. Another favourite of mine. I really like the savoury and smokey flavour that comes out from blow torching these pressed sushi. A must-order in my opinion.

For dessert, we got their matcha oreo snowbowl. Their snowbowls are actually one of my favourite in the city. They are comparable to some of the other places that specialize only in snowbowls. It is a bit on the sweet side, so I recommend sharing one, but very enjoyable!