House of Seoul Restaurant — Restaurant in Airway Heights

When I first started going to House of Seoul years ago I wasn't that impressed. Sure the teriyaki beef was good, the Kim Bap delicious, yet, being a Korean food virgin I had not explored the menu to it's full potential. When I did just that, I discovered the Dol Sot Bi Bimp Bop. The heavens opened up, angels were singing and trumpets blaring, all in my mouth! Wow, what an amazing gift bestowed upon little Airway Heights and my taste buds. It's my most favorite food on Earth. Still is after years of ordering it. Basically it's a rice bowl with beef, sauteed veggies, and other stuff served in a blistering hot pot. You get small side dishes of Kim chi, pressed fish, sweet and sour cucumbers, among others that you can eat separate or mix into the bowl for extra scrumptious goodness. Oh and there's an egg on top to increase the pleasure level. Add the hot red sauce and your off to Neverland for however long it takes to down the bowl of Heaven in front of you. And a bonus is how the rice forms a layer of crunchiness while it hardens a little at the bottom of the bowl. Fantastic! I love it. It might be as good at another Korean restaurant, in the region, but then I haven't tried any other places so I don't know. My daughter got the Seafood Sun Tofu Soup that arrived boiling hot and after it cooled enough to be eaten, burned her mouth with the spices that make it such a wonderful dish. It burned my mouth too but mine was already on fire from the red sauce anyways. I don't eat spicy food that often but the food at House of Seoul is amazing and worth the tears and sinuses draining, until the last scrumptious bite. I do have to mention the prices went up by what seemed like a lot compared to last year. I get it though with everything getting pricier with the minimum wage going up, but it hits the wallet harder. So I might have to cut down the number of visits, but only if I can find a way to resist the call of the Dol Sot...

My husband and I have visited this restaurant a few times, but this visit was awful. Upon arrival one of the owners, Paul, was rude to his newly hired waitress (it was her 2nd day) and was very condescending when she asked on our behalf did a high chair for our youngest child. When my husband kindly requested to sit at a suitable location, Paul then proceeded to argue with my husband. Last but not least the appetizers and food arrived 45 min - 1 hour later.

Note: we did hear the waitress ask the owner if she would bring us our appetizers since we were waiting for some time.

I ordered the teriyaki chicken and it was poorly cooked. When I finally received my meal, the chicken appeared to have been frozen, barely cooked (slight pink), and teriyaki sauce poured on top. I hoped to have received a sizzling chicken teriyaki meal with the charred grill lines with the sauce cooked within. The owner did come out to talk with me about that food preparation and started to argue with me. I was done and declined to have the meal prepared with the same meat mind you. I was polite, but my family and I left.

My daughter (12-years-old) ordered chicken fried rice and it was not good. The rice appeared to be older rice, with the added fixings (eggs, veggies, and spices).

My husband ordered beef and it was poorly made. He was disgusted by how the meal was prepared and did let the establishment know that we will not return.

Pros None.

Cons Everything written. The House of Seoul has no “soul.”

Overall Experience If I could give a “zero” or negative...

I came here for lunch with a couple guys from work. It took a couple of minutes to get seated during the lunch rush, but the hostess was nice enough. I tried to order a drink, but they had run out of Diet Pepsi (which is by the can) - so I stayed with water. Both guys with me ordered the chicken and veggies off of the lunch menu. Their portions were good for lunch. I ordered the hot and spicy chicken off the lunch menu, which is basically just spicy teriyaki chicken/rice. For $7, this seemed like a good price. My food wasn't delivered with the food ordered by the others at the table....which is fine. The hostess said it would just be a couple of minutes before mine was done. 8-10 minutes later, she stopped by and said my food was almost out. The same thing happened two more times. After 30+ minutes and the others at my table were finished (and nearly everyone else in the restaurant had left) - I asked for my food to just be boxed up to-go since we had to get back to the office. Again, I was assured that my food was imminent. I finally got it about 5 minutes later. It's hard to understand how this could take so long to prepare. No discount or food was offered while I waited for an unreasonably long time. The food was good (not amazing), but based purely on the terrible service, I don't plan...