Dae Bak — Restaurant in Philadelphia

UPDATED: Went back to give them one more try and it sealed the deal. I probably won’t be back. Once again the service was awful. My boyfriend and I sat for almost 30 minutes before our order was taken. After we finally got our food and ate, but it took over and hour to get the check afterwards. A group behind us ordered a giant hot pot for the table and waited almost an hour before their server came over and said “sorry, we can’t make it”. The couple sitting next to us waited almost 45 minutes before they were greeted by a server - I ended up grabbing one and letting them know they hadn’t even been given water, to which she rolled her eyes and said “I know”. I’m sorry, but that’s unacceptable. I work in food service and I’m generally understanding - things happen, it gets busy, you forget, but at some point it gets old. The fact that the service is consistently awful speaks volumes. I hate writing negative reviews, but I am super disappointed.

I’ve been to Dae Bak a few times and it’s usually great. This last trip was very disappointing, mostly because the service was abysmal. We sat for about 10 minutes before being greeted. We ordered the seafood scallion pancake, and got a veggie one instead, which is fine. It was still good, just not what we were expecting. Our food was great though, hot and flavorful - which is why we love to come here when we’re in Philly. Our server never checked on us after getting our food. We ran out of water. My hot tea came out lukewarm. We ended up sitting for probably 45 minutes waiting for a check. I had to grab the server’s attention (and the place was nearly empty at this time) to ask for it. The food is great, but if you’re expecting stellar service, don’t...

We got 3 things: the yuhae jang, kimchi jeyuk, and the LA Galbi. Starting with the yuhae jang, it was delicious as normal. I've been here several times, and that dish doesn't fail to satisfy me. I don't know how authentic or traditional it is but it's certainly ready. I say that because the next dish I'm reviewing is the kimchi jeyuk. I should've seen it coming since I didn't like the kimchi they gave us for banchan but it just doesn't taste right. The banchan kimchi was fresh kimchi and SUPER sweet -there was barely any ferment to it. I suspect they added sugar to speed up the ferment. Which means any of the dishes the use kimchi in is sweet and my boyfriend who grew up eating at his Korean best friend's house was less than satisfied to say the least. It was way too sweet, and I tried to fix it by adding so sauce but that only exaggerated the sweetness. Lastly, there was the LA Galbi. Flavor profile wise, it was decent but could've used more char. I was pretty satisfied at first but the more I ate the more annoying it got. You see, with Galbi, since it's sliced pretty thin the bone shards get EVERYWHERE and the meat needs to be properly cleansed before you marinate it to ensure that you aren't having bone shards with a side of Galbi. And the more I ate, the more bone shards I came across. Which for the price point it was at, I'm not willing to let it go. If you charged me $15, fine, I got what I paid for. However I think the LA Galbi was in the range of $30-$35. So initially I was happy but then became quite annoyed by the end. The waitress and waiter was super nice though. And I would get the soup again, just not anything with...

Just bad. Save your money and eat elsewhere. Ordered 4 dishes on UberEats and food was not as advertised and utterly disappointing - so much so that I chose to write this review, probably my 2nd or 3rd of all time.

My wife is Korean and we were so looking forward to Korean food. I’ve eaten at plenty of Korean restaurants across the quality spectrum. I don’t consider myself a tough critic and have realistic expectations. However, tonight’s food was so below average, lazy, and bland (nearly impossible for Korean food) that I got hot and needed to review so folks don’t waste their money and this restaurant does better. Only 1/4 dishes were good.

Uber would only let me review the driver so addressing the food here. Quick hits / details below:

Bibimbap with Beef: Didn’t look like the photo. Almost no meat (literally a pinch of ground meat). Overcooked egg. Random, heaping pile of lettuce on top (not pictured or part of this dish ever).

Banchan: Moochae and Kim chi included were dry and bland. Could’ve closed my eyes and thought it was a shaved carrot.

Naengmyeon (cold buckwheat noodles): Wife enjoyed this dish.

Pajeon: Generous serving but very average dish. Seafood pancake was more like a quiche - very thick and squishy / wet, no crispiness, just weird.

Sulungtang: Honestly didn’t even try this dish yet. To avoid further disappointment, put it in the fridge for the wife to eat tomorrow and made a PB&J instead.

TL / DR - spend a fraction of the price in Trader Joe’s frozen Korean food section and you’ll...