Shinhwa Korean Steakhouse — Restaurant in Chicago

Warning!! Its always Super busy and a long wait for food and hotpot and drinks that were slow to come to the table. Just for the 2 of us, we waited 2 hours since only parties of 6 or more can make reservations. Im disabled so I had to sit on the floor and lean on the wall and find a ledge to sit on, and there were no seats or spaces to stand while waiting. We saw several small groups or pairs of people get seated before us that got there after us, and the app to check in ahead of time is only available for iPhone. The hostess at the front desk dealt with quite a few pissed off Karens, but also didn't give us an honest time frame for how long the wait would be for a party of 2. She said 35 or so minutes, we waited over 2 hours. She also recorded a video of the crowd at the front waiting to be seated and we both saw her doing this and thought that was not appropriate. We did eventually get seated and it was at a table for 4 which seemed odd... we ordered our BBQ meats/foods and hotpot ingredients and drinks immediately, but we had to wait for our hotpot and drinks for 25+ minutes since our ticket was lost and they forgot we also paid extra for both the BBQ and the hotpot. On your birthday you actually get your meal for free, so maybe they didnt like losing 45 bucks from me, but the bill still came out to $80+ including the drinks and "automatic gratuity". Dont believe the social media ads, They don't have a robot bringing food, just a person pushing a cart with food on its 3 levels of shelves, the lowest being maybe 6 or so inches off the floor, through the crowded restaurant, even through the thick crowds of people waiting to be seated. It seemed unhygienic to do this, and we had to wait so long for hotpot that the ingredients sat out on our table for almost an hour at room temp, which is unsafe for eating apparently. My partner and I both got stomach pains and were "sick" that night and next day because of it. We also had to deal with the uncomfortable staring and hovering very close-by from people who were mad at not being seated yet, seeing only us 2 at a table for 4...sooo...awkward and very uncomfortable to have several people/groups angrily watch you be seated and served... The sauce station was PHENOMENAL! and so were the side dishes that we picked! I recommend the corn cheese and the enoki mushrooms that have garlic and butter and seasonings and broth that basically become it's own mini-hotpot. The flavored soju was also SUPER good! Creeps up on you if you have a whole bottle to yourself, I loved the mango flavored one, recommended by the lovely waitress, Marina! The waitress was super nice and helpful, but VERY overworked and busy managing many tables. She was 10/10 server and very kind demeanor. She apologized for the wait and the missing ticket that delayed our drinks and hotpot. The place can only seat maybe 100 or so people, but they had at least 30 people blocking the aisles and front door just waiting to be seated. Many people gave up and left when they found out the wait times. They need to expand to a larger venue and hire more staff and take all sizes of reservations, or at least have some disabled-friendly accommodations, some waiting seats, and limit who can stand inside or something so there's not a fire safety hazard for the front door. I'd never go back without a reservation to be...

First of all, I like to tell everyone the food here is delicious, whether it is hot pot or BBQ, the price is also moderate, I come here at least twice a week and have recommended it to all my friends. The reason I gave 3 stars is because the manager's attitude today was really rude, I know that the service industry is very tiring every day, both physically and mentally, I also know that you will be very busy during holidays and may not be able to take care of every customer, But I can't believe I'll be rudely kicked out of a restaurant, The manager suddenly came over and told us that our meal time was up. We politely said that we would leave immediately after finishing the little food on our plates, at this time, the manager told me impatiently“I'll give you five minutes because there are other guests waiting to use this table.”If Mr. Manager sees this message someday ，What I want to tell you is since you were very busy today, no one replaced the barbecue stove for us. We found three different waiters and told them that we needed to replace the stove. The last lady told me that they were trying to clean the new stove, so we waited for nearly half an hour before we could continue to eat. We knew that there was a time limit for dining here, so we tried to speed up our meal as much as possible. Then we found that the soup in the hot pot had dried up, and no one helped us add soup, and the remaining food we had needed to be put into the soup to cook. I swear there's no soup at all. It's completely boiled dry. We had to wait for someone to add more soup before we could continue eating. Finally, a waiter added more soup for us. After we put the remaining food in, the manager came over and started to drive us out of the restaurant.Again，I understand that everyone has bad days, and I am willing to continue coming here. But today I invited my very important relatives, I assured her that this is the best BBQ place in Chinatown, but I can't believe she was kicked out before she even finished her plate. This is unacceptable to me. We chose to wait quietly when you were busy, but in the end we were treated unreasonably by Mr. Manager. Finally, I still have to say that the food here is delicious and I would recommend you to come here. I choose to believe that this is just an...

Friends and I were visiting Chicago recently and decided to visit Chinatown. We saw Shinhwa and decided to stop here for dinner and were pleasantly surprised that the quality of the meats for the price we paid. At under $30 per person (before tax/tips) for AYCE KBBQ, this is a much better deal than back home in Georgia!

We came early for dinner, on a Wednesday, so there was no wait. The 3 of us were sat in a booth that was big enough to seat 6 people comfortably. The server does come by to check on you but the majority of your ordering will be through the tablet at the table. Pretty straightforward. Just make sure you get the correct items; we had the wrong meat delivered a few times, but it wasn't a big deal. There is also a sauce bar in the back of the restaurant where you can mix your own dipping sauces. There is a 2 hour dining limit, so keep that in mind, slow eaters.

Though Shinhwa has both KBBQ and hot pot, we opted for KBBQ (standard), knowing it would be enough to fill us up after the long day of exploring the city. We've tried all the beef offerings, some pork and seafood. Our favorites were the prime short ribs, prime NY strip steak, angus chuck flap tail, French black pepper steak, pork jowl, spicy baby octopus and beef tongue, which was sliced extremely thin and did not taste gamey at all. We didn't care for the salmon, which was too thin and overcooked too quickly, which is a shame, bc I love salmon at any other occasion. We did not like the cumin beef at all; it was during this trip that the 3 of us ladies realized that we do not like cumin. After decades of friendship, who knew? The sides/banchan were standard and nothing special. We liked kimchi and pineapple on the grill. The pumpkin, sweet potato and potato a while to cook, so keep that in mind.

To prevent food waste, they do charge for every pound of food/meat left over, so be mindful of the fact that food is scarce for other people beyond yourself and try to eat everything you order. 😀

Overall we left feeling satisfied and full. As indulgent as it felt to eat so much red meat, we did not feel gross from any excessive grease as we would at a typical KBBQ restaurant. We recommend this to all our friends visiting Chicago now and we hope to return to...