Vanmak: Korean makgeolli and snack bar in Vancouver

I like to drink and one of my favourite alcoholic beverages is makgeolli, Korean rice wine 🍶. It has a nice milky taste and with different flavours, can also have a sweet or citrus taste.

My favourite local spot to buy makgeolli is at Vanmak. I have visited their Surrey location before which is more like a store (purchase only). Now they have a Vancouver location in Chinatown where you can also dine-in and still enjoy all their different flavours of rice wine.

All the makgeolli is made fresh and doesn’t contain aspartame (no hangovers 😏). Plus, it contains probiotics!

📍 Vanmak
82 Keefer Pl, Vancouver, BC V6B 0C9

The vibe

VanMak has a small space where half of it is like a convenience store – you can order the drinks you want and pay at the counter. You can view all their different flavours and sizes in the displays.

On the left side, there are a few tables in the back where you can sit and enjoy your food and drinks. It is mostly wooden bench seating or wooden chairs.

It had a cozy feeling and I can see myself drinking here with some friends in the middle of the day. One small note is that there was a pesky fly that was around our table, though.

Food and drinks review

Disclaimer: We were invited here as part of an Instagram collab, so everything featured in this post was free. I have included prices for transparency. Prices are listed in CAD and rounded to the nearest dollar for simplicity.

Makgeolli sampler ($11)

You are literally a fool if you come here and don’t drink any rice wine. To try a variety of flavours, I recommend ordering the makgeolli sampler 🍶. For $11, you can try 3 flavours (in the photo we ordered 2 samplers to try all 6 flavours).

The 6 flavours, ranked in our favourite order:

• 🍓 Strawberry
• 🍑 Peach
• 🌰Chestnut
• Original
• Green grape
• Citrus

When drinking makgeolli, you drink them out of little bowls (not wine glasses or shot glasses) so this is actually a decent amount of alcohol for $11.

Happy combo ($52)

When I think of makgeolli, I think of a rainy night and Korean pancakes (think seafood pancake, kimchi pancake, etc.). Vanmak didn’t have any pancakes on their menu but they did have an assortment of different Korean snack bar items.

Introducing the happy combo 🍱, which can feed 3-4 people for $52. It comes with:

• Spicy rice cakes (tteokbokki)
• Fish cake soup (oden)
• Pork hock (jokbal)
• Spicy pork hock
• Green onion kimchi
• 3 sauces
• + 2 makgeolli slushies!

This snack tray had a really nice variety. I really liked eating the jokbal with the green onion kimchi and wish there was a little more of that green onion kimchi. I also liked alternating between the spicy items like the rice cakes or the spicy jokbal with the comforting fish cake soup.

Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We had a tipsy meal at Vanmak 🥴. All that rice wine really got to us! It can also be quite filling too since it is made from rice.

I have always been a big fan of Vanmak and it’s really cool they are local and brew everything in-house. I love all the cute and fruity flavours they have – it makes the drink delicious to anyone!

While I have always liked Vanmak’s rice wine, this is my first time trying some of their food. I have always viewed them more as a consumer good than a restaurant. To my pleasant surprise, the food was good!

The happy combo was a lot of food for 2 people and had a generous amount of meat. To share between 4 people I think this would be perfect even for those who cannot eat spicy.

If you are a makgeolli lover like me, make sure you check out Vanmak!

Sincerely, Loewe