Head Downstairs to Honey Jam 2.0

Just off Whyte Avenue, you find the small Honey Jam sign and open the door. You head down the flight of stairs, with walls covered in Korean manga. You end up in a dining room, with Korean movies projected onto two walls. A chain-link fence separates one seating area from another. In another part of the restaurant, a makeshift wall has been made out of cinderblocks.

This is Honey Jam, the brainchild from the owners of Hanjan, the well-loved Edmonton Korean restaurants. The Honey Jam concept was launched last year, as a place that specialized in making “burgers” with katsu — chicken or pork cutlets, breaded in panko. The concept was refined and Honey Jam relaunched in 2022, with a focus on katsu dishes and bowls of udon noodles.

I order the pork katsu with cheese, which comes with miso soup (and it’s significantly sized bowl too, not the two- or three-sip cups we’re used to), salad and rice. The breading is very light, and there’s not a hint of grease; inside is the cutlet, and melted cheese oozes out every time I cut into it. It’s pretty substantial. The carbonara sauce is served on the side, so you can either use it for dipping or pour it over the entree. I’d recommend not going overboard; after all, you don’t want to make the delicate breading soggy.

With cheese and a cream sauce, this is one very rich lunch. I won’t be hopping that chain-link fence at the other end of the restaurant anytime soon.