I've never been to the Rakuraku in Burnaby, but I have read some of the reviews, and they haven't been that great. However, let me tell you that the new Rakuraku in Coquitlam is amazing! I'm Korean and my gf and I love the food there. We were quite pleasantly surprised by the food, and my gf keeps wanting to go back there.

When we got there, it wasn't too crowded (we were there around 6 pm) and the ambiance was okay - kind of bar-like, nothing too special. Anyway, we were quite hungry (my gf's sister was with us too) so we decided to order three dishes, not knowing what the portion sizes would be like. We ended up ordering the Kimchi Fried Rice, the Boodae jjeegae (a spicy soup with spam, ramen noodles, vegetables, sausage), and the Spicy Sweet and Sour Pork.

After we ordered, the waitress brought out a complimentary dish of mackerel and bean sprout soup. The mackerel was really good and a great (free!) starter. Then the Kimchi Fried Rice came out and, let me tell you, it's the best Kimchi Fried Rice we ever had! Seriously! I know you might be thinking, "What's the big deal? It's only Kimchi Fried Rice; it can't be that hard to make." But coming from 3 Koreans, there was definitely a difference. My gf and her sister were raving about it and couldn't get enough of it. It came with an egg on top and was quite a good-sized portion. We were thinking that they must be using some amazing gochoo-jang (spicy red pepper paste) because it just tasted so different from other ones we had tried.

Anyway, after that, the Boodae jjeegae came out and that's when we knew we were in trouble - the portion was huge! It, too, was really good and filling, and made us question once again this amazing gochoo-jang of theirs. We couldn't finish the whole thing and were actually thinking of cancelling our Spicy Sweet and Sour Pork. But then it came out and, again, great portion size and really good! Seriously, there is something in Rakuraku's spicy red pepper paste that just made all three dishes taste so good. My gf raved through the entire meal and just kept on commenting on how good the food was (she loves spicy food, so she was very happy!).

We had to take the majority of the Spicy Sweet and Sour Pork to go because there was no way we could finish it - we were stuffed (and we're big eaters!). When the bill came, we were pleasantly surprised to see that they had taken 30% off! We then noticed a sign at the front of the restaurant stating that, in celebration of their first 100 days of opening (it's a fairly new restaurant), if you came in before 8:30 pm, you would receive 30% off your bill. So you can imagine how that was just the icing on the cake to a great dining experience and made us love this Rakuraku even more. Unfortunately, I don't know if that 30% off discount still remains, as we went around Christmastime. However, it's still well worth it, even without the discount.

If you love spicy (they also have many non-spicy dishes; we just didn't try any), tasty Korean food with big portions, you should definitely try this Rakuraku. We will definitely be going back!