Daebak Chinatown — Restaurant in Chicago

I want to say that the service at this restaurant was the absolute worst I have ever experienced in my life. I came with a group for my bachelorette and had reserved it weeks in advance. I was not initially served for 20 minutes at the start - the server ignored us even when we tried to flag her down and we were not given water. When we finally got our drinks, we started to order food. There is a huge menu, but the server told us that in order to use the grill, EVERY GUEST must order from the meat section. The items on this section were very expensive, and it explicitly stated at each item feeds 1-2 people. So to do the math, they wanted us to order enough for 12 people when we were only 6 (and one of my friends was vegetarian on top of this.)

We finally decided upon some bulgogi for our meat options, only to be told that bulgogi is not on the meat menu. This has NEVER been the case at any Korean BBQ I’ve been to before. I finally said “okay, we will just not use the grill then if that is the requirement and just order from the side menu off-grill.” They said we couldn’t do that either, because we were at a grill table. I asked if we could move, but there are no non-grill tables. I am not the type to talk to the manager, but I was at the point of begging just to eat food that we genuinely wanted to eat.

The manager comes over and begins talking down to me about Korean culture and how a Korean BBQ works. For a little background info, my friend and I lived in Korea for a year and stayed with host families while working there. We are very familiar with Korean culture and how BBQs work both there and in the states. I explain that we want to give them our business, we want to eat the food, we just want to order the food we want. There was very little compromise, and we eventually gave up and ordered from the expensive meat menu. The food WAS incredible, but we did not even get to order until we were there for 45 minutes and I almost cried having to fight for our menu choices on what was supposed to be a special night. Most restaurants give a bachelorette a free dessert, but this restaurant gave me PTSD. We were also 30 minutes late for our Karaoke reservation after, so this was an expensive loss.

I would never recommend this restaurant in a million years with their current business model. There are other options that will treat you better and not ruin your...

I’m not exaggerating when I say this place has the privilege of offering the worst service in Chicago. Sometimes, an experience is so hilariously bad that it transcends frustration and becomes a form of entertainment—something you can’t wait to share with your friends. This restaurant is that kind of experience. The food? Fine. It’s your run-of-the-mill, average Korean BBQ. But the service? Oh, it’s outstanding—in the same way a dumpster fire is a standout feature of a parking lot.

Let me set the scene: our waitress, a mid-aged woman with thick-frame glasses, treated us like we were a group of misbehaving toddlers in a prison cafeteria. Fun fact: this place recently switched to an all-you-can-eat model, but don’t get too excited. The meat selection is so limited you’d think they were rationing for the apocalypse. And here’s the kicker—they only let you order three meats per round, regardless of how many people are in your party. Want more rice or soup bowls? Good luck. Our delightful waitress greeted every request with a look of utter disdain, as if we’d asked her to donate a kidney.

And let’s talk about the rules. Oh, the rules. This place has more regulations than a DMV. Our waitress repeatedly warned us that we’d be fined if we didn’t finish every last grain of rice. (Spoiler alert: the menu clearly states the fine only applies to uneaten meat, but who needs accuracy when you can just intimidate your customers?) She “took care of us” by staring us down from across the room like a hawk monitoring its prey. Honestly, I haven’t felt this surveilled since I last watched The Truman Show.

But the pièce de résistance? After exactly 90 minutes, she marched over to our table and announced, “Unfortunately, your 90-minute time is up…” Unfortunately? Really? It’s still Chinese New Year in Chinatown, and you’re hitting us with “unfortunately”? How about a little festive cheer? Or at least a fake smile?

This place has the potential to be the next Wiener’s Circle—you know, that hot dog restaurant in Lincoln Park famous for its intentionally rude service. If they keep up this level of emotional damage, they might just carve out a niche for themselves. But seriously, if you’re looking for a dining experience that makes you question your life choices, run—don’t walk—to this place. It probably won’t last long before it shuts down, so get your dose of misery while...

As a Korean myself, I’ve been to several different kbbq places around Illinois. I don’t usually write reviews but this one was worthy of a negative one. I have to say, this is easily the worst one yet. Here’s a list of things that made the experience terrible.

Workers are rude. Especially the old lady that has the really big bags under her eyes. You see her, you’ll know who I’m talking about.

Simple math is not a requirement for the job. We had 7 people and someone in our table didn’t get a bowl of rice and it’s because we were told that we only ordered 5 servings, but we ordered 19 servings. The math don’t math. They still didn’t bring out a bowl of rice even when I’ve asked for one several times.

A busboy placed a tray on top of one of our makgeolli drinks in a bowl and spilled it. They were asking us to pay for the spilled drink. Boy, you’re the one who spilled it. Give us that drink for free. Have some decent customer service. Oh wait, that’s also not part of the job requirement.

There were bones in the meat.

Quality of the meat was worse than all you can eat kbbqs. The beef brisket was super fatty. Didn’t even end up eating it all cause you can’t. You’ll be chewing on it like gum. Pork belly was the lowest quality. Cheaper than store bought that’s on sale.

They charge you $1.50 for every extra side you ask for. Never had a place charge you for sides. They stingy for real. They don’t tell you this before you order extra sides either. They also don’t have a menu, so there’s no pricing anywhere.

Same thing as 5, no pricing on the meat. We ended up paying $500 for 7 people. Y’all realize an all you can eat kbbq for 7 people is $350, WITH better quality meat. To give you an understanding of pricing, we ordered 5 servings of pork belly, 14 servings of brisket(before we even knew it was bad), 1 bottle of makgeolli, and a kimchi pajeon. $500 for this? Nah, never again am I coming back or referring daebak. More like nahbak.

English or Korean isn’t part of the job requirement. I had to speak like I was talking to a 5 year old.

The old lady there is just rude. Lol I had to mention this again. You can try to witness it first hand, or trust this review. Who am I to stop you.

Save your money and go elsewhere. For $70 per person, I’d rather be going to...