Seoul Bites — Restaurant in Lombard

I was here to try this place. The place had kiosk, i didn’t know how to use kiosk in this restaurant. The interface was different so i needed help and the person on the counter was not very helpful i am not saying he was rude but he was an amateur and not well-trained.

There a confusion about this place, is this place a restaurant? Or a fast food restaurant? Or a boba place? So restaurants providing good service avoid kiosks. Here they bring food to your table, i mean if you can hire one employee for serving food why can’t you hire another for taking orders and provide better service?? Okay if this is a fast food place then why to serve food at the table and keep kiosk? The ridiculous part was i said was dining in and i ordered nuggets and for some reason i didn’t get much attention from the staff, maybe because i bought less? Or maybe because they were a little busy? Busy is never the excuse. Guess what happened! I was sitting at the table and asked for a to-go box so the indian guy i don’t know his name, he told me to grab the box by myself?? So what is going on here? I thought it’s a restaurant so i asked for a to go box on the table, the guy said help yourself and then the same guy is serving food and taking dirty dishes from the other tables.

The quality of the food, not so great. Nuggets were probably frozen. They felt cold from the inside. I bought a coconut boba with tapioca in which all i could taste was brown sugar. Like too much brown sugar. And then i eavesdropped the conversation between one of the customers and the owner so went like this:

Customer: sir, the food is too spicy for us we didn’t know that it was going be this spicy.

Owner: ohh i am so sorry about that.

Customer: do you guys have like spice level adjustments or something??

Owner: i am so sorry we don’t have spice level adjustments, the food you ordered is supposed to be spicy.

Customer: i mean it’s so spicy that we can’t even eat, coming from Pakistan we are used to spicy food but this is way too much can you do something about it?

Owner: sorry i can’t do anything about that it’s the recipe.

And blah blah blah.

Last thing i wanna say is that the restaurant or fast food restaurant or whatever bro it looks very congested, remove the table in the middle and it will look good. The restaurant only has enough space for one person to walk. I mean in between the tables there is little to no space.

I gave 2 stars because nobody knows what this place is.

I hope you do good with your business and other customers.

Thank you...

I recently attended the grand opening of a new restaurant and unfortunately, my experience was far from satisfactory. From the very beginning, there were signs that this establishment was not ready to handle the influx of customers. The long wait, coupled with the poor service and subpar food, left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Upon arrival, my party and I were met with a substantial wait. While we understood that a new restaurant can be busy, it became frustrating when we noticed that customers who arrived after us were being served ahead of us. The wait continued for over 40 minutes, with the server continuously assuring us that our food was being plated and on its way. This back-and-forth went on until I decided to speak with the cashier, who shockingly had no knowledge of our order.

When I expressed my frustration to the waiter, hoping for some acknowledgement and resolution, I was met with defensiveness and excuses. Instead of taking responsibility for the mistake, the waiter chose to shift the blame onto me, questioning why I was "attacking" her. It is important for any restaurant employee to recognize that they are representatives of the establishment and should respect and acknowledge paying customers.

To make matters worse, when the food finally arrived, it turned out to be someone else's order meant for carry-out, even though I had clearly specified dine-in. This showed a clear lack of attention to detail and disregard for customer preferences. The quality of the food was equally disappointing, with the bulgogi being below average and lacking the expected flavor and tenderness.

Overall, I cannot recommend this restaurant based on my experience. The poor service, forgetfulness of orders, and mediocre food were all major letdowns. If you are looking to be insulted even after paying, then by all means give this place a visit. However, for those seeking a pleasant dining experience with attentive service and quality food, I suggest...

We were really looking forward to Seoul Bites but were a bit disappointed today. Pros: Very nice ambiance, modern decor, clean tables and bathrooms (obviously they invested a lot here which leads me to my point on cost of food) Staff was friendly, although keep in mind this is a SELF-SERVICE restaurant Food was fresh however see below on taste and cost

Suggested Improvements: Food is not authentic Korean, and extremely spicy (as in Indian spicy). This is more Korean-Indian fusion. We expected the ability to change spice levels- not possible. We hope they offer this because our mouths and throats were burning after eating our meal. We literally had to go to the ice cream shop across the street afterwards. Food is too expensive for portion size. We paid around $30 per person. I completely understand inflation, but we’ve had a lot better and much larger portions elsewhere (that are also halal). Either increase portions or bring down your prices. You should not be charging $30 a plate, especially when you don’t have actual waiters to justify the overhead. Ordering food at tables is done via your own phone and zero interaction with a server. Which makes it very difficult to customize your dinner, as the app is restrictive. You also tip BEFORE you get your food??? Which brings me to my next point, it appears they expect tip when it’s 99% self service (you have to get plates, utensils, napkins and your drinks yourself). We did tip, as most customers, feeling guilty about the restaurant service industry- however it comes down to this: if you feel your workers are underpaid, pay them more. Don’t expect your customers to make that up especially when you’re a self service restaurant. Finally (another reviewer also left this), PLEASE ADD ALLERGENS to your menus. Our son also has a severe sesame allergy and there was literally sesame sprinkled on everything.

Overall, decent experience but it can be so...