Arisu is a Korean BBQ place in Coquitlam. I came here with a few friends on the weekend to hang out and find a new place to try out.
As a Korean restaurant, they have a variety of items besides BBQ.
Interior
A majority of the seating is booth seating. Tables all have grills and ventilation over top.
Our booth had a TV playing music videos. There was also a button where you can call the servers without looking around to flag them down. It makes the service a lot better, so they don’ have to read your mind.
Drinks
A Korean restaurant isn’t complete without a good drink menu. They have beer, soju, sake and other alcohol. I went with a beer as usual.
Banchan
Banchan are complimentary side dishes that arrive with the meal. We had 4 in total.
One of them features zucchini with onion, and carrots. Served cold and tasted good.
The next one had seaweed and had a nice pickled taste to it.
Kimchi is a staple and a good way to see if the restaurant can make a good basic kimchi. It was ok, but I like mine a bite more crunchy and sour.
Last, we got some shredded cabbage with a light dressing. It balanced very well with the grilled meat that we ordered.
Jok Bal
Jok Bal is steamed soy marinated pork hocks. The serving size was very generous, but the quality was lacking. It was tough and didn’t seem very fresh.
The dish came with lettuce wraps and some sauces to eat with it.
Steamed Egg in a Hot Clay Pot
Steamed Egg in a Hot Clay Pot looked pretty awesome but was a bit bland. It definitely needed a bit more salt and pepper.
BBQ Meats
Boneless Kalbi Short Ribs are beautifully marbled, but the biggest fault to their BBQ meats is the grill and the overly attentive service.
What I enjoy most about having the BBQ grill at the table is that you cook it yourself. Since it was a quite night at the restaurant, the meat was flipped for us by multiple servers.
Also, the BBQ Grill is quite weak and due to the thin metal threads of the grill, it cooked very slowly and let the meat cook in a weird way.
Beef Tongue was thin and the slices looked very nice. Nice cut of meat, but we still had similar problems with the grill and the servers flipping it for us.
I totally understand why they would flip it for us to ensure that it’s cooked well, but the young server that we had didn’t seem to know what he was doing.
Overall, we found more misses with their food. Their cuts of meat are really nice but everything else wasn’t able to help cook the meat to its full potential. With other BBQ restaurants in the area, they have tough competition. Also, even though they have ventilation above the grills, you will leave the restaurant smelling like meat. It’s a common occurrence with other BBQ restaurants too, so don’t wear your favourite clothes here. I really wanted to like this place, but my friends and I were disappointed.
We rate Arisu Korean BBQ: 
Address:
4501 North Rd #203, Burnaby, BC
