Review: Idol Asian Cuisine

1910 Pembina Highway
(204) 269-6688 

Once in a while, supper clube lets me give them a heavy dose of culture. Since Lewis was going to be in town this time around, I started to fondly reminisce over the $3 Korean barbecues we used to gorge ourselves on in Thailand, landing us at Idol Asian Cuisine for October supper club. 

Our party of seven chose to have the full-option all-you-can-eat barbecue, which rang in at $18.99 each on our weekday visit. Our choice bought us an assortment of vegetables, meats (beef ribs, chicken, white bass, pork belly, lamb, chicken wings, beef tongue, liver), and seafood (white bass, shrimp, calamari). Dessert was also included in the price.

We were seated at a double-table, which gave us two grills to work with. We ended up grilling seafood and veggies on one side and meat on the other, though that idea quickly got shot because passing with a table so full of bowls was challenging. I found cooking on the built-in, sunken grills frustrating because they were only pre-greased with some vegetable oil, when what we really needed was a cube of fat or our own dish of oil and a brush. Everything stuck and dried out because of the direct heat, and I had to ask for a new grill. I much prefer the style of Korean barbecue in Thailand, where it’s a cone-shaped grill that is surrounded by a moat of broth. This lets you baste and blanche food, producing far tastier results.

The food itself was okay to sub-standard. While the shrimp were a nice size, they had no real seasoning to them, which was an ongoing theme of the evening. All but one dish, the chicken, came sliced paper-thin (and therefore disastrous on the sticky grills) and under-seasoned. The assortment of vegetables was disappointing, too, with items like cucumber making it to the table. The two sauces that came with the meal didn’t add very much to its enjoyment, which is too bad since I’ve had sauces that were perfect.

Dessert was equally disappointing. All the interesting ice cream flavours were not available (I’m assuming this is a chronic problem) and the cheesecake was a store-bought, frozen (literally) affair.

While we were there, we saw only a couple other tables. The ambiance is weak, feeling very much like your typical Chinese set-up without the low prices. Overall, it didn’t come anywhere close to my expectations. A pass for me.