38 Sampal Korean BBQ in Richmond

Food Quality
Atmosphere / Services
Reasonable Priced
Summary

We came to 38 Sampal Korean BBQ with some friends. This BBQ focused restaurant is located in Alexander Road on Richmond where many other restaurants operate including Miss Fu in Cheng Du, and Houcailei’s Burnaby location.

Strength: Competitive pricing for BBQ resturant
Weakness: Inconsistent service when the restaurant gets busy.

Other Korean BBQ

Kook Korean BBQ Restaurant (3.5 Stars)
Dolpan Seoul BBQ (4.5 Stars)

38 Sampal Korena BBQ

38 Sampal Korean BBQ is located on Alexander road. There is free parking at the back but it usually gets full very quickly. We park on the street, which isn’t too expensive.

Interior of 38 Sampal

The inside of 38 Sampal Korean BBQ has an industrial look to it. Black metal meshes are used to divide space, but the chairs and tables are made with wood veneer. The seats here are large to accommodate customers of all ages.

Table Setup

There are many containers set up for the table to make it look very full. We hardly had any space to put the raw meat. The staff placed the lettuce too close to the raw meat so we didn’t eat it. If you order BBQ dish, you get a bucket of tools to cook them with.

The grill

The grill has a heat source in the middle that is revealed during grill change. Somehow, the coating on the grill has been scratched off which worried me a little. I am sure some customers before our visit ate some of it.

The Basics

We get the water bottle like any Korean restaurant. There is also a plate for sliced garlic and jalapeno pepper to go with pork belly. The dipping sauce is very simple with two variations of either oil-based or spicy soybean paste.

Complimentary side dish

The complimentary side dish are very simple and refreshing to go with BBQ.

Pork Combo $38

The pork combo has 3 different types of pork. I think the sea salt and pepper ones taste pretty much the same as the non-flavored ones. The one coated with soy sauce is thicker with a different texture. All the meats get stuck to the grill without exception. When the server was helping us cook, he was basically scraping them off the grill to flip.

Beef Combo $58

The beef combo is more expensive than their pork counterpart, but with less meat. I like how thick beef has an interesting texture of chewy and tenderness. The beef bulgogi (marinated beef on the right) is thinly sliced beef, which I didn’t realize until I started cooking and see the meat layers shrink at a different rate. During my visit, I enjoyed the bulgogi dish the most because of its flavour.

Soup that comes with combo

Every combo comes with a hot pot soup. We ordered the spicy version and our friends ordered the non-spicy ones. I like how flexible 38 Sampal Korean BBQ is. There are lots of onions in the soup, almost too much.

Seafood Pancake

The seafood pancake is layered with lots of squid pieces and imitated crab meat. These pan-fried crab meats give the seafood pancake a very crispy top.

604 Food Critic Assessment

For $30 per person, 38 Sampal Korean BBQ is a very affordable restaurant to get BBQ. The pork combo has a very large portion so I think that is really worth it. However, the downside is the lack of texture variation. Our staff came to cook the meat for us and came to flip them once. He never came back so it was a little confusing because we though the meat wasn’t ready until it’s burnt. Then we realize it’s because the restaurant got too busy.