Cho Sun Ok Restaurant — Restaurant in Lake View Township

Extremely Poor Service, Discrimination Against Non-Koreans, Rude Staff, and Terrible Food

My dining experience at Cho Sun Ok was by far the worst I’ve ever had in my life! I’ve been coming here for many years, but after much thought, I finally decided to write this review to sum up my experience over the past decade.

10 years ago, the food was decent, and back then, there weren’t as many Korean restaurant options in Chicago. However, the service has been terrible since at least 2012. In the past, the staff was merely indifferent, serving dishes with an attitude as if they were throwing them at you. Now, it has gotten even worse—they openly scold customers, and to make things worse, the food quality has declined drastically. The only things that remain unchanged are the restaurant’s poor hygiene, greasy environment, and the staff’s unfriendly attitude! There is absolutely no reason for me to ever return.

From the moment we walked in, the servers immediately gave us a nasty look upon realizing we weren’t Korean. They were extremely unfriendly. Tables that arrived after us were served water and side dishes first, while we waited an unusually long time and didn’t even receive our side dishes. When placing our order, we clearly asked for a budae jjigae (army stew) and even repeated it in Korean, yet when we followed up, they claimed we never ordered it! The service was simply beyond words.

To make matters worse, they didn’t even give us plates or chopsticks before bringing the meat to the grill. How were we supposed to eat without utensils? When we placed our coats on the chairs, they repeatedly bumped into them on purpose, knocking them off multiple times. The entire time, the staff wore an unfriendly expression, showing no sense of hospitality. However, when white customers walked in, they were greeted with warm smiles. This obvious discrimination made us extremely uncomfortable.

The most unacceptable part was when we asked a server to repeat our order, and a middle-aged female staff member actually cursed at us in their language! After we paid, we chose not to leave a tip due to the appalling service, and upon seeing this, the staff started yelling at us again with a horrible attitude. How could anyone willingly tip for such terrible service?

Now, about the food— The cold noodles were completely flavorless, and the soup tasted like plain water. The meat was clearly not fresh, with a dark color and dried-out edges, as if it had been sitting out for a long time. The texture was extremely tough, making it impossible to chew, and I ended up spitting out more than I ate. The prices are not cheap, yet neither the food nor the service justifies the cost.

In conclusion, this restaurant has atrocious service, clear discrimination, and even goes as far as insulting customers. On top of that, the food is terrible. I absolutely do NOT recommend this place! Avoid it at all costs! It’s outrageous that customers have to endure mistreatment and insults while paying for a meal. The service here is like a nightmare, it's really terrible and can't be described. I don't mind a lack of service attitude, but I CAN NOT accept being rudely insulted! I have no idea how this place has so many...

As a chef, I was excited to come to this place because I always see a line of Korean people waiting patiently outside for a table. I also work in the area and often see cooks taking smoke breaks by the back door, and when I peer into the kitchen I really only see elderly Korean ladies on the line cooking up a storm, great sign the place is authentic and the everything is made in-house. Yesterday, I decided to finally go, but before I did I figured I’d check out the reviews and what I saw really threw me for a loop: people talking about how insanely good the food but leaving a one star review because the service was “bad.” After going in yesterday and trying this place for myself, I want to set the record straight, this is one of the best Korean spots in Chicago hands down. How they don’t have multiple locations, I don’t understand, maybe they just don’t want to. I ordered the Kimchi Jigae, the short ribs and the Chop Jae. Everything was perfect. Perfectly balanced, there wasn’t that classic overpowering sesame oil flavor that most Korean spots use to try and mask the funkiness of the fermented veggies and sauces. The umami in each dish was exactly how everyone should want it. If the Kimchi isn’t made in-house I must be going insane. I’ve tried a lot of kimchi, this is some of the best I’ve had. I will say I wish it was funkier, but I’m guessing they probably go through so much they have to make it daily so the age isn’t where I’d like it to be. Point is, these are obviously family recipes that they decided to share with us and we are all better for it. As far as service goes, honestly everyone in these reviews, in my eyes, is a cry baby. The waiters are very obviously Korean women that don’t speak very much English so there is a large language gap, and the service is exactly how it is in Korea, a bit gruff but they’re putting their heart and souls into the food so who honestly cares? Sit down, shut up, order your food quickly when they’re ready to take your order, don’t ask a ton of questions like, “Is it spicy? Will I like this? What is this?” Read your menu, take a chance, get out of your bubble and you’ll be well taken care of. If you’re coming into this place with a million allergies and you’re expecting Bib Gourmand level service, you’re going to be disappointed and honestly, I’m glad you are. The preservation of authenticity, in many cases, depends on white people with no appreciation for authenticity and the cultural elements that go into this kind of food being kept at arms length lest it turn into a counter device place with no seoul (Get it?). Anyway, I’m leaving this place a 3.5 star review because David Chang said that all the best Asian spots have a 3.5 and I don’t want to mess with that system. All that said, go here. Spend your money. Soak up everything, it’s delicious. Also if you’re afraid of Barbecue innards, grow up,...

So, I grew up with Korean food, my mom was an AMAZING COOK, as is my Imoh in Korea, and was my Halmoni. I also grew up going to NYC every summer and eating at THE FREAKING BEST Korean restaurants in Manhattan and Queens. And I've had authentic Korean cuisine in Korea. I'm disappointed that traditional Korean cuisine is impossible to find even in the biggest cities, including NYC. So this place: SERVICE: 20 out of 10 stars!!! The Ahjummas are awesome. We love them! Attentive and doting in that Korean way. QUALITY of ingredients: 2/10, bean sprouts, kimchi, shredded radish were pretty fresh, those get more like 9/10; scallions in the pancake also fresh; the seasoning in galbi, soondubu, and the "seafood" in the pancake, kinda sketchy. I suspect heavy with msg/preservatives. I got bloated and had quite the "msg headache". PRESENTATION and flavors: 2/10 banchan dishes were mediocre in flavor, nothing had a broad range of depth and brights, like Korean flavors should, but kimchi got close. Garlic was tragically lacking. Banchan was kimchi, radish, bean sprouts, that sliced fish cake stuff, 3 pieces of bland potato/carrot, and some apple in slightly old mayo. Not the traditional namul/egg/bean banchans I hoped for. The only dish that was good was oyster muchim, it was very fresh, could have been spicier but it was good with a hot bite of rice. Galbi was ok because it had a charred flavor but lacked the depth and brightness of homemade galbi marinade. Soondubu was bland, with 2 pieces of mushroom, no egg, and a couple of slices of beef, no seafood. And the worst dish was the haemul pajeon! Maybe it was the bottom scraps of the octopus bag..??? But there was no "seafood" and the scraps looked so unappetizing, small white squiggly looking things, I tried scraping off, but gave up. The pancake itself was bland and soggy. I don't think actual Koreans are cooking the dishes.. not sure who is prepping. SPACE: 8/10, Has a small family owned feel to it. It's not posh, but is homey. Lots of Koreans dining there. Our table was not totally clean, so took off a couple of stars. It was pretty busy, so I'm guessing details were missed. Overall, it was an ok experience.. I wouldn't say don't go.. clearly it's good enough that the place was packed at 3pm, and filled with Koreans, but I do hope they do a little quality check and maybe make some...