Dosirak — Restaurant in Eden Prairie

Not sure what all the hype is about. Marketing and social media stories really put Asia Mall on the map. But when I tasted the food at this restaurant, I was pretty disappointed. As a non-korean, I can make better tasting Korean dishes at home.

Chicken wings: tasted like over-battered chicken wings from a below average Chinese buffet and dipped in some sweet & sour sauce. Way overpriced. $17+ for 6 wings? No thanks. Also, y'all need to clean your wings. It has so much excess chicken fat on the wings. It's not appetizing to look at deep fried chicken wings with tons of yellow fat hanging on the edges of the wings and drummies.

Kimchi Tofu soup: Flavor was lacking. Tasted very watered down. Needs more umami and natural taste from ingredients.

Shrimp: Overly battered. Tasted like eating straight-up deepfried batter. I had no idea I was eating shrimp.

Bonchon: The only exception here is the kimchi. It actually tasted good. Other bonchon dishes were average.

Beef shortribs: Decent. Not the best, but also way overpriced.

Service: Server didn't politely hand tray to customers. Instead of going around the barrier, they decide to just hand the customer's tray of food over the counter-top barrier. Like seriously, it's literally a 5 second difference to go around the counter and politely hand your customer's food to them.

Overall, really pricey and below average tasting food. It's kind of sad because I don't think this mall is gonna last. The prices they're charging on these menu items will definitely keep the mall going, but when the customers stop coming because your food sucks, good luck on...

I'm not an expert on Korean food, but I did live in S Korea for about 15 years total between 2005~2023... and I ate out for 98% of all meals (purchased food opposed to cooked for myself). Therefore, I've had a tremendous amount of stir-fried pork (제육볶음) from restaurants - you might be able to see some of my reviews on Naver, as I started reviewing (but now finished) during the pandemic, ID kimchi4dinner.

Brutally honest opinion: The pork here, served like a typical school lunch tray in Korea (more or less the same portion size as well for a school lunch), is about a 3x mark-up. Usually, you find it for about 7,000~8,000 Korean won (9 or 10k isn't unheard of, though... I've also had buffets offering unlimited pork for 7K and under). The taste isn't bad and the quality is avg, but overall, as the single most expensive dish they offer... it's not worth it. The chicken looks good here (my friends had it), but they didn't love it. Which is disappointing, considering I talked up Korean fried chicken so much to them. They also said it was light on the spicy level, despite requesting "spicy."

As far as the other stuff in the mall, the grocery store is neat. I had the (minimum 3 for $10) doughnuts, which were pretty good. My friends tried the corndogs (what they call/Koreans call "hot dogs"), they said...

Ordered combo with pork bulgogi and kimchi jjigae ($20.95), and half-half fried chicken ($23.xx). Was about $50. We were a party of two. For the combo, we dined, and had the chicken to go.

Honestly the portion is okay for us, however, we can agree, from what others mentioned as well, that it is a small portion for its price.

The good points: Kimchi was absolutely perfect. Pork bulgogi was delicious. Touch on the sweeter side, but it’s still good and taste like what bulgogi should taste like. I like how it was not just plain white rice as a side.

The okay points: More potatoes please. Kimchi jjigae was good, but did not really taste like what a kimchi jjigae should taste like (source: Kings Restaurant and went to Korea). Tasted more like a sweet and sour jjigae. Had the flavors of the bulgogi in it or something. Kimchi jjigae is red and more spicy.

The lower points: Honestly disappointed with the chicken. I’m unsure if it could be a region thing, but it tasted more just like general tso, chinese chicken.

Overall, 3/5. The flavors were still good, still looking to try the other options. I would eat it again, especially the kimchi and the pork bulgogi. Price points, I would say are 4-5 dollars...