Hee Rae Deung: Korean Chinese Restaurant in Burnaby
Hee Rae Deung is a Korean Chinese restaurant in Burnaby Lougheed area.
What is Korean-Chinese food? It’s kind of Korea’s take on Chinese food. Think of the ever popular sweet & sour pork with a different twist. The whole concept of this is quite interesting actually because I find that there are a lot of different fusion or subcultures of Chinese food in other countries. For example, there’s Indian-Chinese food as well and they have things like Masala fried rice.
Lougheed is already kind of Vancouver’s “K-town” because it is notorious for having a lot of good Korean restaurants and businesses. Hee Rae Deung is kind of the OG in Korean-Chinese cuisine. And by this, I mean they serve that golden combo – jajangmyeon (black bean noodles), jjampong (spicy seafood noodles) and tangsuyuk (sweet & sour meat).
Interior
I don’t have any pictures of the interior for you because there really isn’t much to say. Hee Rae Deung is a pretty casual restaurant and kind of has a “dirty diner” vibe, but Chinese styled (lol am I making sense?).
The restaurant isn’t super big and it’s always crowded when I get there. The tables are very close to one another.
Food
Family combo A ($38)
As mentioned before, I usually come here to get the golden combo. They have much larger combos for bigger groups, but Combo A is enough for 2.5 people.
Tangsuyuk (sweet & sour pork)
Regular price for their sweet & sour pork is $20.90 so you can already see the value you get in ordering a combo.
They separate the sweet & sour sauce from the fried pork meat which is nice if you want to take it home and reheat or remake it. The sauce is not spicy.
I am thrilled by the portion size of this tangsuyuk, but I cannot say I loved the meat. It is not as crunchy as it looks in the picture and I find the pork meat inside kind of dry.
Jajangmyeon (black bean sauce)
The sauce for jajangmyeon is thick and is made of chunjang, diced pork, and vegetables. I say there is diced pork but often times, it really doesn’t feel like it. Not just at Hee Rae Deung, but in many other Korean Chinese restaurants, I find this diced pork to be scarce. The main component in the sauce is mostly onion.
I’m not quite sure how to describe the taste to those who have never tried it. It’s not overly salty, but has a savoury flavour. It’s like a thick, sweet dark soy sauce.
Again, portion is huge. By the time we finish this bowl, I feel as if the noodles are a bit too greasy. This is just how jajangmyeon is though. Regular price for a bowl of jajangmyeon is around $9.
Jjampong (spicy seafood noodles)
Jjamppong is a Korean noodle soup with red, spicy seafood- or pork-based broth flavored with pepper paste. Common ingredients include onions, garlic, Korean zucchini, carrots, cabbages, squid, mussels, and pork.
This noodle is a bit too spicy for me in a good way. It starts off very enticing – just a little bit of kick to get you hooked. The more I eat, however, the spicier I find it.
They top it off with a lot of different seafood but they use the same noodles as the black bean noodles. Regular price for jjampong is $11.
Final thoughts
I love me some cheap and greasy Korean-Chinese food every now and then. The combo is an awesome deal and you can make sure you’ll be taking some of that sweet & sour pork home to eat again. It’s almost a $15 dinner if you split it with 2 people.
If the combo is too much for you, I recommend you try their split bowls. Half of your bowl is jajangmyeon and the other half is jjampong (~$11).
In Korea, jajangmyeon is also a very popular dish among children, so you’ll see a lot of cute faces with black sauce smeared all over their lips. Note that jajangmyeon can get pretty gross if you pack it and try to eat it again tomorrow. I recommend trying to finish your 2 noodles and only packing the sweet and sour pork.
Sincerely, Loewe