Sol Lee's Korean Restaurant — Restaurant in Coquitlam

I gotta be really honest here. The food was really good. We ordered japchae and pork bone hot pot, the noodles we're perfectly sweet and chewy, full of flavor and pretty big portions. The pork bones had juicy meat and full of flavor too.

The reason why I'm giving only 2 stars despite the above is because I clearly asked the waiter if the soup was spicy as I wanted to clarify with them because we do not like spicy food, and my father literally cannot eat too much spicy foods because of health reasons. They said it's spicy but can alter it so it is not spicy as I asked for them to remove the spicy completely. Now if they said they cannot do that, I understand because I've worked at a restaurant before and food is usually premade so removing a specific ingredient is literally impossible. If they said no, we would be fine and order something else. So, the soup came and.. it was overwhelmingly spicy.. We asked "if they removed the spicy flavor" like we ordered and they said "this is mild". I clarified again with another waitress that my father cannot have this and the rest of the group is not happy with it either. So they came back with a clear broth and another bowl to dip the bones in it to remove the spice.

I didn't want to argue any further because I don't like making scenes in public or wasting food.. because I know that working at a restaurant before, once food arrives at the table, you cannot serve it to another table or eat it yourself for sanitary reasons and becomes waste basically.

so I sucked it up and accepted this. We did the soaking of the bones and removed the spice and it was good like I mentioned above.. I could have argued this even further and got this replaced with what we wanted and they had to dump a huge pot of food. But, again from my previous experience, restaurants should replace an order that was made by mistake and should remedy it in some way. I feel I made myself clear to them and the reasoning behind it was fair. Similar to allergies, this should be of been taken more seriously. So if this was what they can offer to an unhappy customer, then so be it.

As feedback to the owner, please add spicy icons to items that are spicy. Not everyone that loves Korean food can take it. I would have been able to avoid this entire ordeal by just avoiding all the spicy icons, similar to vegans avoiding dishes that doesn't have the leaf icon. It's a pretty simple technique that is very common in most restaurants now.

Also, the bigger hotpots do not come with rice.. and rice is $2.50 for a small bowl. I don't want to sound cheap but this is a bit expensive for plain white rice, which is usually...

My family and I decided to have dinner at this Korean restaurant. We were automatically served with Tea and cold water. My husband specifically made another requested to order hot water for me as I am very sensitive to caffeine. However, they still served us another tea pot of tea.

We decided to order a large hotpot as well as 1 japchae as we wanted something soupy. We were debating between the bulgolgi beef hot pot vs the pork back stew hot pot (their menu did not specify which items are spicy or not). We decided to go with the pork back stew hotpot since the waiter said they can make it "not spicy at all" for us. The japchae tasted really delicious and so were the appetizers.

However, when the hot pot arrived, the soup was bright red! We asked the server if the hotpot was spicy and she said it was "mild spicy". We told them we specifically requested "not spicy" - as my dad wasn't able to tolerate spicy food due to health concerns.

They did not offer to remake the soup for us nor did they suggest us ordering another hotpot to fix their mistake. Instead, they told us they can only give us some extra clear broth on the side so that we can rinse out the spiciness. We did not want to argue with the employee as she did not look happy at all. She did not really understand what it truly means when someone is not able to tolerate spicy food due to health concerns and that their "mild spicy" was actually intensely spicy for someone who is not used to eating spicy food at all.

Although the pork meat was really juicy and falls right off the bone, its not really worth paying $50 for a hotpot which we can only eat the pork meat (can't drink the soup). This basically ruins the whole point of ordering hotpot in the first place. Even though we rinsed the meat with broth, my throat still felt a bit sore after I got home. I am a bit worried if my dad will feel ok after eating the pork as it was still a bit spicy.

Overall: This restaurant is only good for their standard day menu: tea, cold water and standard dishes. Don't expect to be able to make customizable dishes or change the spicy level of their dishes. They do not understand some people aren't tolerant to spicy food at all...and that their mild spicy is extremely spicy for normal people. I am quite disappointed on how they decide to resolve...

The term 'service' needs to be explained to the servers. Every time I visit here the servers look like they hate their jobs and doesn't want to be there. I didn't mind too much because their food is pretty good but today, they crossed the line. When we were seated, there were beansprout and chili flakes on the table so we asked the server to wipe it down for us. As one of the server(younger?) was wiping, she told us she will grab a proper rag as she was wiping it with a napkin. Other older server came and just threw the menu which we asked to wait because other server went to go get a new rag. The older server then proceeded to tell us "it's just water from the rag you are seeing, table is clean." But she cleaned the table once again so we just said "oh , alright thank you" because it's not a big deal. We ordered our food and rice came out almost within 5 minute. Then for around 30 - 40 minutes, nothing else came out. We asked to replace the cold rice and to give it to us when the food comes out. Again, whatever. Maybe miscommunication. Part of our order(a soup) didnt come out which usually takes 15 minutes or so to make. One of our guy in the group was asking so where is the soup? Not a single notice of if the food is coming out and a reason for delay. Then again, we had to press the bell everytime because not a single server was interested in any table. Again, whatever must be busy with something, who knows. We left almost all the soup untouched but we didnt want to cause any ruckus so we went to pay. We didnt want to tip as we already paid for a $20 soup we didnt even touch. As we were leaving, the older server held us just to say," Wait! Hold on! Did you just press No? Skip? "

What a joke. A complete comedy. Imagine being surprised for not receiving a tip for their imaginary "service".

Will...