** This restaurant is now closed. **
Southeast is apparently where it's at for Korean restaurants. In the area around 34th Ave and 93rd St, I could already count five Korean restaurants in that small radius. Ginseng, Miga, Pocha Seoul, Korean Grill, and Daore. I'll make my way to all of them eventually, but let's start with Daore.
Daore originally opened its doors in 2015, but reopened in October 2017 under new ownership. They recently celebrated their first birthday a couple weeks ago, so it felt like a good time to try them out.
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| Super cute and clever hanok-inspired logo! |
We arrived on Sunday around noon, and there was a decent amount of customers. It wasn't super busy, but not too quiet either. It's a large space but it still feels charming.
Their menu has plenty of choice, with all of the traditional Korean dishes you expect to find. They also have a menu pictorial which is super helpful for those who are new to the cuisine.
All of our dishes ended up coming in rapid fire succession, along with four plates of complimentary banchan. Kimchi, soybean sprouts, seaweed, and braised potatoes. Fair warning, the kimchi packs quite the punch.
To start, we ordered one of my favourite Korean dishes, hameul pajeon, which is a seafood and green onion pancake. They offer it in two sizes, small ($15.00) or large ($25.00), depending on the size of your party (or appetite rather). We ordered the small and it was still plenty to be shared among three people, with leftovers even.
The pancake was nice and crispy, and packed full of green onions and squid. It wasn't too dense like most pancakes as it had a good ratio of batter to ingredients. I also think they add shredded potato (or something to that effect) in order to achieve that crispy lattice on top.
I've been seeing pictures of their mandoo ($15.00) on Instagram and thought they were too pretty to pass up. You could definitely tell they were handmade by the intricate folds. Each order comes with eight dumplings, your choice of steamed or pan-fried. We ordered them steamed just because our other dishes were fried. The filling consisted of ground pork, glass noodles, and chives. The texture was quite soft throughout, so I'm thinking the pan-fried version would make them tastier.
The classic LA galbi ($24.00), or Korean-style grilled beef short ribs, makes a grand entrance on a sizzling plate. There's about three strips worth of meat, and they cut it up for you into manageable pieces. The meat took some effort to chew off the bone, but the flavour was fine. It also comes with a bowl of rice.
Our final dish was sujedonkas ($15), deep fried pork cutlet with rice and salad. Donkas has Japanese origins (tonkatsu), which they say comes from European influence (schnitzel). Not to bore you with history but it's essentially breaded and deep-fried meat. The sauce they serve alongside is tangy and sweet, similar to the Japanese style, rather than the traditional Korean gravy. It was one of our favourite items of the meal, and super worth the price for the portion you get.
Before you finish your meal, don't forget to grab a cup of complimentary sikhye for dessert! Believed to aid digestion, sikhye is a sweet rice beverage, usually containing malt and rice grains. Daore adds a bit of ginger to theirs which lingers nicely on the palette. It's served chilled so it's really quite refreshing at the end of the meal.
I'll have to make my way around the other Korean restaurants in the area, but Daore is certainly worth a return trip.
Daore
9332 34 Ave NW
Edmonton, AB
(780) 433-0526
- CT
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