Finding an affordable tasting menu in Vancouver can feel like a bit of an oxymoron these days. Multi-course dinners can easily creep into the triple digits before you’ve even thought about drinks, tax or tip, which is why I’m always intrigued when I come across a tasting menu that offers something a little different without the hefty price tag.
Enter Chef Eric Lee’s Korean pop-up dinner at Stackhouse Steakhouse.
If Chef Eric’s name sounds familiar, you may remember him from Damso and Oiso, two of his previous Korean concepts in Vancouver. I’ve been a fan of his cooking for years, so when I saw that he was bringing those Korean flavours back for a special multi-course dinner at Stackhouse, I knew I wanted to check it out.
The menu took us through eight courses, drawing on familiar Korean ingredients and dishes like acorn jelly, kimchi pajeon, doenjang and kalbi, but in ways that felt a little more playful and unexpected. And considering just how much food we had? This was a lot of tasting menu for the money. This pop up is available on Fridays and Saturdays at the Abbott street location of Stackhouse Steak Sandwich.
An Affordable Korean Tasting Menu in Vancouver
One thing I really liked about this dinner was that it didn’t feel like Korean food was being dressed up simply for the sake of calling it a tasting menu.
The flavours were still very recognizable. There was gochujang. Doenjang. Kimchi. Gim. Rice cake. Burdock. Perilla. But Chef Eric played with how they were presented and what they were paired with, bringing in everything from beef tartare and hollandaise to uni and sourdough.
It felt unmistakably Korean, just through the lens of a chef having a little fun.
Acorn Jelly
We started light with Acorn Jelly, paired with kimchi, daikon, seaweed, cucumber and radish.
Acorn jelly, or dotorimuk, is one of those dishes that’s really all about what surrounds it. The jelly itself is mild and delicate, so the freshness and crunch of the vegetables, acidity from the kimchi and savouriness of the seaweed did most of the talking. It was refreshing and a nice way to ease into what turned out to be a pretty substantial meal.
Taco
Next came BBQ Pulled Pork Taco with gochujang, pickled red onion and sesame leaf.
This was richer and much bolder than our first course. The gochujang brought that familiar sweet-spicy flavour to the pork, with the pickled onion adding enough acidity to cut through the richness. The final torch before service adds a nice smokey char flavour. This was a throwback to Chef’s Milssam Tacorea days.
Beef Tartare
The Beef Tartare came mixed with a quail egg and topped with pear and garlic shoots, alongside sourdough from Fife Bakery.
I love a good beef tartare, so naturally this was one of the courses I was looking forward to most. It also felt like a natural bridge between Chef Eric’s Korean cooking and what he’s doing now at Stackhouse. The flavours weren’t overcomplicated, but the pear and quail egg gave a familiar steakhouse dish a subtle Korean influence.
Kimchi
Next up was the kimchi dish. This was such a unique and modern interpretation of kimchi. It features butter roasted kimchi, roasted brussel sprouts, hollandaise and pork bushi.
You had the richness of the hollandaise against the acidity and funk of the kimchi. The pork-bushi was so unique. It was chef’s take on katsuobushi which is simmered, smoked and fermented skipjack tuna that’s shaved into thin flakes. He did that with a piece of pork and the result is a delightfully airy tasting bacon.
Ramyeon
From first glance at the menu the “Ramyeon” dish jumped out at me because of how much I love uni. This dish feature deonjang cream, uni, water chestnut and white kimchi.
Doenjang already has so much depth and umami on its own, and pairing it with creamy, briny uni just doubled down on all of that savouriness. But it wasn’t overwhelmingly rich. The white kimchi brought in a cleaner acidity that helped balance everything out.
Land & Sea
The Land & Sea dish feature rice with burdock, aster, bellflower root, gamtae gim, scallop, clam and squid from the East Sea of Korea. This dish really brings together two sides of the dinner really nicely. Rice with burdock, aster and bellflower root gave the dish this warm, homey quality, while gamtae gim, scallop, clam and squid from the East Sea of Korea added a more refined seafood element. It was comforting without feeling simple.
Kalbee
And just when I thought we had to be nearing the end, out came the Kalbee.
The beef short rib was braised for 24 hours and served with rice cake and ginkgo nuts and potato. The beef was exactly what you’d hope for after 24 hours of braising: incredibly tender and rich, with that familiar sweet-savoury flavour you associate with Korean short ribs. I also loved the rice cake here. That chewiness against the fall-apart beef made the dish feel much more interesting texturally.
The Snowman Returns
Dessert was a bit of a nostalgic moment for me. Snowman was a yuzu sorbet dessert with dalgona, and if you ever ate at Damso or Oiso, you might recognize him.
I certainly did.
After all the richness of the previous courses, yuzu sorbet was exactly what I wanted. Tart, citrusy and refreshing, with the dalgona adding a little sweetness and crunch. But mostly, I just loved seeing a little piece of Chef Eric’s previous restaurants make an appearance at the end of the meal.
It felt like the perfect way to wrap everything up.
Is This Korean Tasting Menu in Vancouver Worth It?
If you’re looking for an affordable tasting menu in Vancouver, dinners like this are exactly why it’s worth keeping an eye on restaurant pop-ups.
You’re getting the creativity and progression of a traditional tasting menu, but without necessarily committing to the $150+ price tag that can come with some of Vancouver’s more established tasting-menu restaurants.
More importantly, this one didn’t sacrifice substance for presentation. Eight courses later, I was FULL.
What I enjoyed most, though, was seeing Chef Eric Lee return to the Korean flavours I originally knew him for. There were little reminders of Damso and Oiso throughout the dinner, but it didn’t feel like he was simply recreating his old menus. Instead, it felt like an evolution of them.
Familiar Korean ingredients, a few unexpected combinations and just enough nostalgia thrown in for those of us who remember the old days.
And perhaps most impressive of all, Chef Eric is doing it entirely on his own. He’s the chef, server, host and dishwasher for these pop-up dinners, somehow juggling it all with the same modesty and skill that has always defined his cooking.
Make sure you follow them on social media to make your reservation for his next pop up!
Stackhouse Steak Sandwich Gastown
Address: 435 Abbott St, Vancouver, BC V6B 1G8
