Getting off the train at Brentwood Town Centre Station, avid foodies just need to walk a block away to find Metro Vancouver’s latest Korean BBQ spot specializing in pork belly.
Just head down Lougheed Highway and cross Willingdon Avenue to find this new spot (you’ll know you’re close when you can smell the pork belly cooking).
Not to be confused with Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” Porker Face is a brand new all-you-can-eat pork belly restaurant from the same team behind Sooda (who are best known for their giant sushi rolls).
What makes this spot special in comparison to other Korean BBQ spots is both its limited menu and the fact that the staff do all the cooking for you. Long gone are the days of arguing who mans the grill. You can sit back, relax, and eat as much pork belly as humanly possible while someone else worries about the cooking.
Marco Ovies/Daily Hive
For $32.99 per person for dinner or $26.99 per person for lunch, each order comes with pork belly, denjang chigae (a soybean paste stew with beef brisket), rice, vegetables, and numerous side dishes.
A staff member handles all of the prep work, so you don’t have to. They’ll turn on your grill, and once it’s hot, start cooking your pork belly and other sides like onions, mushrooms, and spicy bean sprouts. Once cooked, they returned with a pair of scissors to cut our pork belly into individual bite-sized pieces.
Marco Ovies/Daily Hive
And when it comes to cooking time, don’t worry. Each piece of pork belly is cooked sous-vide beforehand, greatly reducing the cooking time on the grill.
Given that we, unfortunately, had no idea what they were doing, our waitress very nicely taught us the best way to enjoy our meal. We received a side of lettuce and were instructed to construct our own lettuce wraps with whatever other toppings we wanted to add.
And with so many different toppings, from thinly sliced and dressed green onions to house-made kimchi, the world was our oyster when it came to customizing our lettuce wraps. Alternatively, you can skip the lettuce and eat your pork belly with the provided rice, but where’s the fun in that?
Marco Ovies/Daily Hive
One pro tip that we didn’t even think to try was to dip our pork belly into its signature corn cheese, which is also cooked right in front of you. This slightly sweet, bubbling, cheesy concoction was one of our favourite things we tried, aside from the pork belly, of course.
Each all-you-can-eat experience lasts an hour and a half, and you must finish at least half of your meat before requesting a refill. Plus, there’s a $40 charge for leftovers per person, meaning you want to pace yourself to ensure you finish your meal.
Will you be checking out this new pork belly spot? Let us know in the comments.
Address: 4455 Lougheed Highway, Burnaby
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