Songsan Korean BBQ — Restaurant in Lower Merion Township

I'm so sad to write this, because I want restaurants in our area to succeed. I especially love having a variety of good Asian options nearby. However, I had an awful experience at Songsan Korean in Ardmore that I think deserves attention here. I've eaten at this place several times before, and was a fan before now.

Today, my sister and I went and ordered Kalbi, which is a bone-in marinated short rib. You must order two cuts of meat for the cook at your table option. We were happy to do so, but the only meat option I like is the Kalbi (I've tried the others), so I got a double order. My sister and I began eating and noticed that we were getting splinters of bone in every bite! We tried to ignore it at first, but it became ridiculous. We had to spit out splinters of bone into our napkin with each bite.

I told a waitress, who told us Kalbi has bones and walked away. We told another waiter, who listened and also walked away. Neither of them apologized. There were enough splinters of hard bone that I went to the staff with a piece of meat and asked the waiter to feel a couple of the pieces. He felt how hard they were and saw several pieces on the meat I showed him. A cook who was standing nearby started saying defensively, "this is normal."

No, this is NOT normal. They eventually took the rest of our meat back (we had grilled and eaten a couple of large pieces, but way more than half was left). They asked if we wanted to order something else. I said no, I preferred to end my meal. They brought me my check, which still had an order of Kalbi. At least they didn't try to charge me for the double order after taking it back, but they didn't take the bone-splintered entree off the bill.

The worst part: the owner came out and actually tried to argue that it is totally normal to have splintered pieces of bone in your bites of meat. Friends, this is NOT normal. I've had Kalbi in Korea, in LA, and in NYC. I understand that there are large bones in the cut of meat. Splinters should not be present throughout. It is so unpleasant to go out for a meal and 1) chomp down on something hard and unexpected in your tender piece of meat with almost every bite and 2) to have the experience of the owner FAULTING you for pointing it. He actually said, "What do you want me to do about it?” When I didn’t back down, and said I would share my experience, he threw up his hands and angrily said, "fine, I'll take it off" and re-ran my credit card.

I replied, "That's appropriate." That's what he should have done from the beginning, but with an apology.

Mistakes are understandable, even acceptable to a certain extent. But attitude and lack of accountability in customer service makes it worse. Here are pictures of the kind of pieces of bone we found in every piece of meat we cut up and cooked...

I lived in Korea for 31 years, so I know and love Korea and their food. Songsan is the first Korean restaurant that I've been to since returning to the suburbs of Philadelphia.

I came for lunch with my cousin and my younger brother. Neither of them knew much about Korean food. We alI had the dolsot bibimbap. I expected it to be an Amercanized imitation of the real thing, but I was amazed to find that it not only had authentic ingredients and just the right flavor, but was actually better than the usual Seoul bibimbap. Why? Well, nowadays in Korea, cooks tend to put a lot of rice in their bibimbap and sometimes skimp on the other ingredients. Not Songsan. There was just enough rice, but plenty of the beef and other ingredients that give it its unique flavor. When I added pepper paste and sesame oil, and mixed all the ingredients together, the dish was absolutely delicious. With the soju that I ordered, that perfect bibimbap made me feel that I was back in Korea again and I felt very nostalgic, missing my warm-hearted Korean friends.

When we'd finished, Mr. Chi, the owner, came out and chatted with me. When I used the Korean language, he very politely used Korean, too, and we conversed for a few minutes. He was polite, friendly and interested in me.

My brother and my cousin liked the meal very much and my cousin said he wants to come back, to try the samgaytang, when I told him what it is. We definitely will return to this...

The food is quite good. The only ‘complaint’ I guess I have is that they put my reservation down wrong and tried to blame me for it instead of taking ownership of their mistake. We made a reservation for 6:30pm, even confirmed it on the phone 3 times while making the reservation. Still when we get there, they acted all confused and said that the reservation was for 6 and we’re late and have to wait. No apology, nothing. I tried telling them that no, we made it for 6:30, but they dismissed me.

I don’t mind waiting, things happen. I just didn’t like the way they behaved about it.

If you go here, I recommend focusing on the bbq and leaving the a la carte items for another place. The pre-cooked dishes are overpriced and the quantity is little. For example, jeyuk bokkum was $18 I believe, but there was hardly any meat and it was jam packed with carrots instead. The pork was also tiny shreds of pork. If I wanted stir-fried veggies, I would have gotten stir-fried veggies. Places like Dubu are your best bet for things like jeyuk bokkum. Meanwhile, their bbq quantity and taste is pretty good.

Also, it blows my mind that they charge extra to refill side-dishes. I have never in my life seen a korean restaurant charge to refill side dishes before. So I guess ration your side dishes if you don’t want...