Vancouver’s West End Korean Restaurant on Robson Has Quietly Closed After 8 Years

A Korean restaurant on Robson Street in Vancouver’s West End has quietly closed, weeks after a sign on the door promised kitchen renovations.

One of our readers spotted that Tabom Korean Cuisine, at 1536 Robson Street, is now tagged as permanently closed on Google.

Its Instagram account has oddly vanished too.

We’d already been keeping an eye on it.

When we walked by in late September, a note on the door said the restaurant was temporarily closed for kitchen renovations.

About two weeks later, a large FOR SALE sign was put up ontop of the building and the restaurant was still dark inside.

Tabom opened in 2018, taking over the old Norboo space and keeping a similar Korean menu of hot plates, Korean fried chicken, sets and drinks.

The menu also ran to K-BBQ and tteokbokki for two, plus a lunch menu from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Tabom also had a Coquitlam location on Austin Avenue, but that one shut down last year.

This stretch of Robson has seen plenty of turnover this year.

Photo credits: Tabom

Just a few doors down, the Li Yi Shou unit is still empty after the hot pot chain quietly shut this location.

Kuro Katsu, the gyukatsu spot at 1471 Robson, closed over the summer with no goodbye post either.

That unit is now Yoona’s Cafe & Tapas, which soft opened in mid-September.

That’s three restaurants on this part of Robson gone in 3 months without a farewell we could find.

A couple of blocks west, Unni Pastries has reopened, after the Korean bakery sat dark for about two months with no announcement.

It isn’t all grim, though.

Korean donut shop Mello opened a two-level cafe at 1400 Robson in August, and Chaiiwala soft opened a few doors away at 1478 Robson around the same time.

If you were a Tabom regular, the website’s online ordering is already switched off, so there’s no last takeout run to plan, and we’ll report on the next tenant once a sign goes up at 1536 Robson.

Tabom joins other recent Vancouver closures like Bayside Lounge, Tocador and theVenti.

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Address: 1536 Robson Street, Vancouver BC

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