5818 111 St NW, Edmonton, AB T6H 3G1

Sorry for the delayed post! I went here in the first couple months that Ma Chef opened. It was all the buzz around the city, being one of the newest Korean Restaurants in the City. Jenn’s friend Kylie was in town, and loves Korean food, so we opted to give it a try when she visited.

Ma Chef is located in Lendrum Place Shopping centre, so there is lots of parking. It’s where Sushi Wasabi is, and Glass Monkey, close to South Gate Mall. Since we were doing a small food crawl, we only got a few items to share, so we weren’t too full.

The menu is somewhat limited, but still a fair amount to choose from. The appetizers a couple of tofu items, a salad, and Yukhoe, which is a Korean Style raw beef salad. This dish appealed to us the most so that’s what we opted to get to share. For mains, it ranges from soups, Bibimbap, Korean Cutlet, and Bo-ssam. We opted to get the Bo-ssam, and the Ttukbaegi Gamjatag (Spicy Pork Bone Stew). The prices of the mains start from $13-16, and then jump to $30-37, with nothing in between.

The Yukhoe was probably my favourite dish. It comes with a dome of smoke, which renders for a nice Instagram story, though it did not impart much smokey flavour at all. Overall, very tasty and the flavours of the marinade was quite pleasant.

Again, the Bo-ssam comes with a large dome of smoke, which, again. did not impart much flavour. It seems a bit more gimmicky than anything. The Bo-ssam was good and had nice accouterments to go along side the dish, but I did find that it was a small portion for $30. For lettuce wraps and other like dishes, I much prefer Nongbu.

The Spicy Pork Bone Stew comes with potatoes, napa cabbage leaves, and is served with rice. This was a more generous serving, for $13. The spice level was modest and I could have used a bit more, but this was a nice and comforting dish.

Overall, I had an okay experience at Ma Chef. It serves many kinds of home comforting food, but I did not eat anything that would really bring me back to the restaurant. It may be a personal preference of mine, but I prefer the flavours and dishes at Nongbu on Whyte, and at Hanjan in the south (Or old Don Day was my favourite for authentic). I’ve read some excellent reviews from the Sun and EJ, so give it a try for yourself!