Lee House...

I am a big fan of Korean food and to know more and more Korean restaurants are opening up here in Edmonton is great! My friend introduced me to this restaurant, if it wasn't for her, I don't think I would ever find this place.

It's this tiny little restaurant off of Whyte Avenue called Lee House. Walking through the door you're greeted with the aroma of Korean food in the air and it just makes your mouth water. Looking around, you can see that it is a very small restaurant probably about 8-10 tables. If you wanted to book for a big birthday party or whatnot be prepared to book the whole restaurant. That's how small it is. We're greeted by a nice Korean server, who in a way sort of looks like one of my aunts, same hair, similar facial features...hmm...creepy.

 The server takes our drink orders right away (which is a plus) and scurries off to get our drinks. As I'm waiting for my drink, I take a browse through their menu. It's not a very big menu compared to other Asian restaurants who tend to have menus the size of accounting textbooks.

The server returns and gives us our drinks and asks if we're ready to order. We decided to order 4 items. We went with the chicken balls (kam poong gi), soon tofu stew, BBQ beef short ribs (kal-bi) and pork bone soup. While waiting for our food I noticed the restaurant has gotten a lot busier. I would recommend you either come early or make reservations if you want a table. This place is bumping!

The server returns with bowls of rice, 2 different kinds of kimchi (cabbage and daikon radish), and a plate of cooked bean sprouts. All complimentary by the way, when you run out of kimchi you can always ask for a refill, I believe the limit is 3 refills. I taste all 3 side dishes and I must say they are delicious. The cabbage kimchi was a bit salty, loved the daikon kimchi and not being a big fan of bean sprouts the cooked bean sprouts were pretty good. The advantage I have is that my boyfriend hates kimchi so I get to have it all to myself! Yum!

Shortly after the server brings out a little "hotpot burner" as my boyfriends calls them for the pork bone soup. Our food comes out right after. Everything looked delicious! Mental note for next time, order the pork bone soup when eating with more than 2 people. The soup was huge! Mind you it is about $32 CAD for the soup so it better be big! The chicken balls are deep fried and drenched with Korean sweet chili sauce, the soon tofu stew is bubbling hot in a small bowl, and the kal-bi comes out sizzling on the hot plate, be careful not to burn yourself. No more talking it's time to eat!

You know how sometimes food looks and smells great but the food tastes like crap? That's not the case here! Everything looked delicious and was delicious. I was stuffed like a turkey. I thought I had to get my boyfriend to roll me out to the car. We ask for the bill and I see for 2 people it was a bit pricey about $70 without tip, add the tip in and it'll be about $80.50. Keep in mind though we had a lot of food left over so we packed it up and save it for lunch tomorrow. I believe if you had more people come out and eat and share it probably would be a lot cheaper per person.

Overall, for the service and for the food I would definitely be back and also to try the other dishes on the menu. I recommend all the dishes that I have mentioned in this posting!

Strawberry Rating:

Service: 4 strawberries out of 5
Food: 4 strawberries out of 5
Price: 3.5 strawberries out of 5 (cheaper if you go in a big group and share)
Cleanliness: 4.5 strawberries out of 5 (they need hot water for their sink!)

Overall score: 4 strawberries out of 5

You can find Lee House at:

7904 104 Street NW

Edmonton, AB

Phone: (780) 438-0790

Happy eating!

"The belly rules the mind"  ~Spanish Proverb

***Please note the pictures here were not taken by me and it's not from the restaurant.