chicago korean restaurants experience

[ktwinkie]

Just wanted to give a shout out to 2 good Korean restaurants in the Chicago area, if anyone is looking for one. We went to Cho Sun Ok and Solga, and both were quite tasty, with 2 different atmospheres. (full disclosure: i'm korean- american and have limited korean speaking proficiency, and my husband is Caucasian, my only reason for mentioning is this may reflect your experience/ service)

Cho Sun Ok is a small place on Lincoln Ave (http://chosunokrestaurant.com). I got the Dogani Tang (cow tendon soup) and my husband had the Daegu Maeun Tang (spicy codfish soup). Both were good, although could have been a bit spicer. We had some mandoo (boiled wontons) as well, and i have to say that on the scale of mandoo they were quite good. not quite to the scale of my mom/ grandmother, but close. It took the servers a while to get our panjan (side dishes that are a part of every korean meal) to us, in which by then i was ready to gnaw my arm off because i was so darned hungry! If you do go here, i feel that the highlight there is the bulgogi, or anything that involves tabletop meat cooking. a nice added bonus is the rice added to your table top skillet after your meat has been cooked, along with some assorted greens and hot pepper sauce to make a very nice bibimbop. the servers bustle around rapidly. Their panjan was very good, standouts to me were their mag kimchi, kkaktugi, and mook. Our own personal table service was not the most phenomenal in the sense that it took almost until our meals came out to get our panjan, and normally that is the 1st or second thing that hits your table. additionally, i had to ask multiple times for panjan, where normally it's not even something you have to ask for. However, other tables did seem to be receiving attentive rapid service. This restaurant is a small, busy one and doesn't have a tremendous amount of room, be prepared to wait outside if needed. If you are a bit more experienced in korean food eating, are korean yourself (and/ or speak korean passably well), or aren't timid in asking for what needs to come to your table, this restaurant would fit you nicely.

Solga (http://www.yelp.com/biz/solga-chicago) was our lunch choice the next day. We were a party of 4, and ordered Chap Jae (noodle with veg), kimchi chigae (kimchi stew), hae mul pae jon (seafood and veg pancake)and for the grill, galbi, and zuccimi (octopus). We had much better service in the sense that we were served panjan without asking, our grill top was changed out between our beef and octopus, and our server generally was much more attentive to what we asked for and needed. regarding the zuccimi, it had a tad fishy flavor, but nothing terribly offensive. kalbi was pretty standard. With Solga, while there wasn't anything that i would say was a huge standout in what we ate, the overall meal experience was good. If you are someone who is relatively new to korean eating, and need a little guidance in ordering, this is a good place to start. this restaurant has off street parking and a bit more room then ChoSunOk. comments on yelp has stated that this was a bit more ventilated then other places and less smoky. make sure you get their soh-jung-gwa, or persimmon tea.