Del Seoul — Restaurant in Lake View Township

My experience at Del Seoul was fine. I was not unhappy with anything, and I wasn’t blown away either. The concept and allure of the menu were more exciting than what was delivered. __ I came in on Saturday around 1:30pm, and was surprised to find this place packed! It is counter serve, and the line was to the door when I got there. It didn’t take too long to get up to the front and place an order, and my party was able to be seated right away after ordering (you can’t get a table until you order).

We ordered: Seoul Style Street Dumplings K-town Chicken Wings Kalbi Poutine

The chicken wings came out first. They were a mostly sweet with a touch of spicy, swimming in a sticky soy-based sauce. I would have enjoyed more garlic and chili (which the menu lists in the sauce), as both of those flavors were muted. I was also expecting more crunch from the breading, considering they were advertised as K-Town wings. The Korean wings I’m used to are double fried and super crunchy, but these seemed to be a normal single fry with a softer skin texture. The menu advertises these as “jumbo” wings, but I would call them normal sized based on my chicken wing experience, which is embarrassingly extensive. All in all, they were a fairly middle of the road asian-flavored chicken wing.

Next came the dumplings. These are larger than average dumplings, about the size of a golf ball and packed full of filling (there was no loose wrapping / extra space). They arrive piping hot and slippery, so you have to wait a minute to easily pick them up and also not burn yourself. The texture was pleasing, hearty with a little chew. The stuffing had both meat and I believe rice noodles inside. My beef (pun absolutely intended) is that they ate a little bland. The meat was a bit under-seasoned, even after using the dipping sauce.

The poutine arrived last. Unfortunately as designed, it eats like a basic, loaded baked potato. There was just way too much “crema” which tasted like regular sour cream. The dousing with crema, coupled with the green onions, just planted the baked potato similarity firmly in my mind. We ended up scraping most of the crema to the sides in order to both find and taste the short rib, which was pretty solid by itself. The beef just gets completely masked if you eat it with the crema. If the crema was a thin drizzle across the top of the fries, with more of the gravy (poutine normally has more gravy) and cheese, these would have been more enjoyable.

I won’t be jumping at the chance to return here, but if a friend really wanted to go I would give it another shot but order different items. They DO have checks next to their “popular” menu items, and two of the three items I ordered were not checked. I just felt that everything I ate could have been improved with a slight change to the...

The food is authentic and the flavors are good. The short ribs were flavored just right and a little sweet and cooked well but still warm and moist. It came on a bed of onions which tasted great and the bento box also included a salad that had dressing that was perfectly light and a bit gingery and sweet and was not overbearing. Normally, I have to ask for dressing on the side, but here I can eat it the way they mix it in.And the rice had some thick sauce w oyster and teriyaki like flavor which I didn’t like because it was too strong and salty and didn’t go with the Kalbi and salad, but the rest of the box was great. The spicy tofu soup was too spicy for me, but it included enough seafood like clams, mussels, High quality chuck like meat for beef with no fat, shrimp, and lots of soft silken tofu. I wish they would allow at least mild or spicy as they told us they already make it a certain spice level and cannot change it. Next time I won’t be buying the spicy tofu soup ever again because it’s too spicy. But the other food items are good and we will be happy to return. There is indoor and outdoor seating and a very clean bathroom. They also have free water and a soda dispensing machine. But please do not throw out the silverware because it seems to happen frequently and the staff have to dumpster dive for metal silverware that people throw out by mistake. They’re doing a great job of using recyclable and reusable utensils, but they need people to not throw them out. Thank you. One last thing is that this is not a typical Korean traditional restaurant where you have free side dishes so that is not what you will get if you come here but at least the food does taste authentic. There’s also no free parking on the street. You have to pay the meter through the Park...

Our day was starting and we didn't know what we wanted to eat for our first meal of the day. A simple google recommendation took out for a ride of our lives. Delseoul located in Park West on Clark couple of blocks and walking distance from the Lincoln zoo. Long drive coming from the Midway area but definitely worth the drive for the experience you are gonna get. At first sight we didn't know what we were getting, the menu is so colorful wide from tacos, wings a completely and total Korean fusion experience. We stopped on a Saturday evening, when we arrived it wasn't that busy it was just one couple in front of us but one we seated not even 5 minutes later it was a packed line all the way out of the door. The food service was very fast and the food was beyond our expectations. They sat us right by the window and I called that the prime real estate sitting location. We had a big order to tackle and we started with Kimchi Fries: French fries with sauteed kimchi garnished with onions, pork belly, scallions, melted cheddar and sour cream in top. second order was Kalbi Poutine: fries topped with slow braised short rib, blended cheeses, seasoned cream, scallions and house-pickled red onions. it followed by the Seoul-Style Street Dumplings: Steamed handmade pork and beef dumplings and we finished with K-town Chicken Wings Jumbo “lollipopped” wings with a sweet soy, chili and garlic glaze. The Whole Experience was marvelous it all came together and we were taken to a train to flavor town. This will definitely be one of my go to restaurants. And if you have the chance, or wanna take a drive to the Park West, definitely give them a shot! The price is good and the food is...