BIMI - Disappointing Korean

I have a soft spot for Korean food. Featuring a delicate balance of rich spicy flavours that punch through the soft pillowy rice and augmented by a number of crunchy banchans, Korean truly delivers food I can eat on a daily basis. You can understand my excitement when I discovered a new restaurant that I had missed on my initial perusal of Winnipeg's offerings: BIMI Korean/Japanese Restaurant.

Located on Grant Avenue in River Heights, the large restaurant has a modern, warm and welcoming sign that exudes an air of confidence. The interiors are similarly decorated with large oak tables, tasteful artwork and a large sprawling section dedicated to those wanting Japanese (sans footwear and all).

My biggest gripe with these types of restaurants is their need to serve both Korean and Japanese cuisine. Spying on the chefs and overhearing them speak, it was obvious the owners were ethnically Korean. The menu itself is rudimentary with a smattering of the basic Korean dishes and a large list of the usual rolls, sashimi, sushi and Nigiri. For those unsure of what to order, Bimi also has an All You Can Eat Sushi option which allows one to try as much sushi as possible without breaking the bank - a popular option amongst those dining this particular night.

This sorry excuse of a stew was their version of Gam Ja Tang. What is supposed to be a flavourful dish of pork bone in a spicy Korean bean paste stew turned out to be lukewarm thin water with overcooked and flavourless pork. My disappointment was further punctuated by the two pieces of potato in the soup: both hard, undercooked and completely tasteless.

Thankfully, the Bibimbap was much better. The large bowl of Korean rice is topped with a kaleidoscope of vegetables (carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, daikon, bean sprouts) and marinated pork with a over-easy egg in the middle. Breaking the yolk and mixing the dish together with the supplied Korean spicy sauce makes a tasty, but average, version of Bibimbap. The addition of daikon and mushrooms, both atypical, worked well here to add a textural crunch (from the daikon) and a meaty bite (from the mushroom).

Further evidence showing that BIMI does not know whether it is Japanese or Korean, the mix of Banchans were Tempura Vegetables, Kimchi, and Marinated Daikon. Altogether average, the kimchi lacked the strong pungent flavour of high quality counterparts and the daikon were too large and volumous that the spicy marinate did not puncture through to the core.

BIMI was a complete disappointment and a classic example of a restaurant making food on mass without caring about quality. In fact, the large portion sizes made it seem that BIMI tried to overwhelm me by the litany of food in the hopes that I would overlook the complete utter lack of flavour. Do yourself a favour and skip BIMI, there are better Korean food all over Winnipeg.