Dae-Ji

This is a place that you can pass by and never notice. It’s just not in a place where you look. But boy will you be happy you found it. Simple good food, with filling portions and some interesting options for food. Spicy cheese pork chop on rice? Thank you very much. Pizza pork chop on rice? Absolutely.
Definitely a spot if you want a filling lunch while trying something a bit different.
Be warned. They only take cash or debit.

pretty good, nothing better then what I can make at home, but nice quick food.
only problem is the Cash only thing.
yes it says debt cards, but I don’t know what the people are smoking, but it didn’t take both my debt cards. The girl tells me they aren’t debt cards and points at the visa thing. Maybe Canada has another idea of debt cards.
Note to this location: don’t be cheap and pay to have visa or master card accepted at your place it’s 2015 not 1980.

Great cheese pork cutlet! A bit pricey, but the quantity is huge. 2 big pieces of pork plus rice for $ 10 – 11. Will revisit!

Came here for the volcano chicken ($ 20). Big ass plate of battered fried spicy chicken. Can’t go wrong. Took the leftovers home and it took 3 separate sittings to finish it up between 2 gals. Nice.

Don’t have clean facilities, dirty ventilation screen and lighting, Run-​down conditions not only worker suffering also myself.
For the food, no impression.

Now that I’ve been to two locations — Dunsmuir for lunch quite a few times, and Robson for dinner — I can say that the food is consistently very good. The Dunsmuir location is small and bustling at lunch. The Robson location is bigger, and more suited for a nice dinner with friends.
Most dishes come with a generous portion of white rice and a crunchy cabbage salad with slightly sweet mayo-​based dressing — a super complement to a fried cutlet. They also add on a few grains of cooked corn niblets, a couple of slices of pickled radish, and a small spoonful of kimchee pasta. Nice little tastes to offset the dish.
Pork cutlet dish comes with a tomato based gravy and the chicken cutlet comes with a tartar sauce. If you think the tartar sauce sounds weird, as it did to me — that’s okay. Try it anyway. It’s super good.
It might be boring but I go for the small plate pork cutlet most times now. It’s just the right size for a nice meal. The regular portion is a bit big for me. Someone with a huge appetite will love this place as the regular portion is just right for them. :)

Came here because this used to be my fiancé’s (who is Korean) favorite guilty pleasure spot. It’s a nice and clean little place, and I did not expect much from the menu. I got pork cutlet with curry. The pork was so Crispy on the outside, but soft and tender on the inside. Curry was standard Asian affair, but worked very well with the pork. This is also now one of my favorite lunch spot on Dunsmuir.

Not very well versed in Korean food, I tried the Kimchi Fried Rice at others’ recommendation. Not only was the portion ginormous, it packed one heck of a tasty punch! Only downside is that it’s a bit on the pricier end (above $ 10)

Awesome deep fried pork cutlet. Crispy and moisture. Curry is sweeter comparing to the indian style but I really like its sweetness. There is also a shot of kimchi spicyness and cheesiness in the curry.
I had a small combo for 7.99 only with one cutlet, which is enough for a small eater like me.
Highly recommend for people who want to satisfy their deep fried food desire. haha

late night quick dinner… had the Pork Cutlet with Gravy… gravy was a delicious sweet curry sauce.
Juicy pork… excellent.
came with rice (a little hard but was late so I’m sure was the bottom of the rice cooker)
cabbage with a light mayo dressing.
really enjoyed it… recommend for a fast, cheap and yummy meal

Ambience much better at their Robson. Unless you like the tons of students in the area all yapping away lol. Smaller location but as with my other review, pretty hearty meal b/​c comes with a lot of rice.
another drop in the stars is the parking, obviously surrounded by lots of one way streets: Richards and Seymour. Plus no street parking on Dunsmuir.

Came here for a quick lunch, I ordered take out and I think I only waited 5 minutes. It was super quick and the staff is really nice. I tried the fish cutlet and the pork. I think my favourite is the fish cutlet. The amount of food they give you is quick a lot (at least for me).

Yummy and good food. Even though this is a Korean restaurant I’m not sure if this is authentic korean food. But over all good price yummy food! Good location.

Food is good, price is reasonable, restaurant interior is nice but this restaurant has identity crisis. Also, the food presentation is a little mediocre.
By the way, I went to the one on Robson near Denman their new location.

I find Dai-​Ji to be a great place for a quick, filling and tasty meal downtown!
Because I had to go to class right after my meal, I wanted to try to order something that I could finish. Both times I’ve eaten here, I’ve gone for the small dish combination, which is one cutlet of your choice plus the usual sides of rice, corn, slaw and a macaroni salad. It always looks like it’s going to be too much gravy but it ends up being enough to eat with the cutlet and finish up the rice. I’ve had the pork cutlet both times and the cutlet is perfectly fried up while not being greasy at all. The sides are ultra-​comforting.
The restaurant is very simple and service is fairly basic but friendly. Tables are set with a menu for each seat as well as a bottle of water and self-​serve cutlery. The regular meals are a better value and could probably actually feed two people!

Their mission is to serve up comfort food, and I think DaeJi accomplishes that well. They’re a small diner-​like Korean restaurant with a pretty interesting menu. Beyond tonkatsu, curry dishes, and kimchi fried rice, they also serve up crazy hamburger steak plates.
In hindsight, I should have tried a pork cutlet dish or kimchi fried rice as they’re listed as their specialty, but the hamburger steak plate just called my name. At $ 10, I think it’s fair considering the huge portions.
The food certainly isn’t the best I’ve had, but the food was good flavours reminds me something sort of homey. I had the Mushroom Hamburger Steak. The gravy was nice and thick (which is the way I like gravy, so spot on!). It was savoury, but it also had this nice sweetness to it. The hamburger steaks were ridiculously huge and tender. The macaroni was a surprise but it was really nice and refreshing contrast to the heavy hamburger steaks.
It’s worth checking out, and I know I’ll be back!

We had one pork cutlet & gravy, and one pork cutlet with curry sauce. Both dishes were tasty, and in huge portions. I liked the gravy version better, my husband liked the curry. I also really liked the spicy macaroni salad with corn. I don’t know if I could eat a plateful of it, but the spoonful they give you is a nice contrasting taste to the salty cutlets. Very good value– each plate could easily have fed two, especially with some extra rice. It’s a tiny place with just a few tables, but empty on a Friday night after 6. They give you a water pitcher and glasses, but their canned pop is cheap too.

Direct translation of the word Dae-​Ji to Korean is «Pig». Once you know then it makes sense why they would name this place Dae-​Ji.
On friend’s recommendation we decided to come here for dinner. The place is pretty tiny so we thought we would have to get take outs since we both had strollers. Luckily, it wasn’t very busy and we were able to park our two strollers and eat our food there.
I got pork cutlet with kimchi soup and my friend got the fish one.
Pros:
–Food is a pretty good portion for the price.
–It was pretty tasty. The cutlet were thick and nicely battered. Good meat to batter ratio. I hate it when the meat is too thin and there is more batter coating on it than the actual meat.
Cons:
–They once accept cash or debit. No credit accepted here. :(
— Very small so it would be hard to come here with a stroller. So best to avoid the rush lunch time if you have a stroller.
Overall, a pretty good food for a good price. So this get a solid 3 stars, maybe even 3.5.

2 meals in one. literally.
their dish portions — not only their pork cutlets — are huge. personally, i prefer the chicken curry dish more than the pork tonkatsu with gravy. each bite was full of taste.
the prices are decent, pretty cheap considering the restaurant is in downtown. most dishes are $ 6.99−7.99.
good spot for a cold day or for a very very hungry day.

So rumour had it here Dae-​Ji makes a decent cutlet, so there was only 1 way to find out.
Parking is all metered here, which is bad. However, there may be a loading bay or two in the area.
The interior looked a little worn down, but it felt nice and bright. Mostly because of the orange walls. The restuarant was almost completely full. of Koreans. Authenticity test — check. The tables are all small. The largest group you can fit comfortably here is probably 5.
Staff were pretty friendly. The eating area was quite narrow. The staff kept bumping into me. I was sitting at the end of a table though.
Their classic Dae-​Ji cutlet is 2 pieces of breaded pork, crispy on the outside but nice and tender on the inside, and covered in gravy. The dishes come with salad (shredded lettuce with dressing), a bit of macaroni + cheese sauce, corn, and rice. It tasted like comfort food. Portion size was decent, and everything tasted good, including the rice. I also tried some of the spicy cutlet. This is the same cutlet, but covered with mozzarella cheese and a bit of spicy sauce. Also tasty.
One thing I noticed while eating here was that a lot of the other (Korean) customers were going for the fried chicken. Maybe someone can chime in on this one.
Overall, my friends and I left happy.