Seorabol Center City — Restaurant in Philadelphia

We found a wonderful late dinner in center city at Seorabol. They are open until 10:30pm. We arrived about 9:15pm and were warmly greeted and seated next to the window by the host. Our waitress came by in a few minutes, she had a cheerful demeanor and made us feel welcomed. She gave us good recommendations for drinks and food. We ordered soju, dumplings, kimchi jjigae, yukgaejang. She brought several complementary appetizers along with our dumplings. Yes complementary! She served five dishes: kimchi, fish cake, broccoli, daikon, and tofu. All had varying textures and spices. My favorite was the daikon. See my pictures in the review. We shared a peach flavored soju drink. It was sweet and flavorful. It was 13% alcohol so it had a little hidden kick but you couldn’t taste the alcohol. Our soup/stew entrees came out and we were both pleasantly surprised by rich broth and amount of ingredients hiding beneath. My yukgaejang looked amazing. I could see numerous pieces of shredded beef above the rich reddish spicy broth. Both stews come worth a bowl of rice. I used the spoon to scoop up some rice and dip it in it the bowl to soak up the tasty broth. It was so delicious. I don’t like really spicy foods but it has just the right amount of heat. My friend loved his kimchi jjigae. It was quite spicy so he was loving it. Overall the food was filled with flavor, reasonably priced and the service was amazing. I will be coming back for some more Korean dishes! See my pictures of our entrees, the drink and food menus, and some of three...

Well...I might have had too high expectations about this restaurant. I am not sure how this restaurant could be the best Korean restaurant in Philly. I ordered a seafood pancake and a spicy pork stir-fried dish. The pancake was good. The pork stir-fry was too greasy. At this point, I don't think the restaurant seems to understand the fact that the customers in the Center City would be mostly Americans or Americanized people rather than Koreans. I hope the menu could be the way we could choose what to add what not to be added.

interior- it was clean, but It didn't give a cozy feeling

service- the trainer was good, but the actual server might want to be more welcoming and confident...kind of awkward and shy

Salad (small free salad offer in the beginning) -I really like the fresh dressing

Side dishes -they were not fresh in my opinion, broccoli turned brownish yellow, the radish kimchi was sour.

Seafood pancake-it was good. the ingredients were fresh.

Spicy pork stir-fried- I am not sure why they used mostly pork belly meat. As a result, it was very greasy with fat though the seasoning was good. I wish they could use a more lean part of pork meat which actual Koreans do in their cooking this dish.

I can make my own seafood pancake, a spicy pork stir-fried, and fresh side dishes on my own. Why would I come here to eat and pay for it?

I may try again at some...

I’ve been to the original location several times and have eagerly awaited the opening of their center city location. Unfortunately after dining here a few times I won’t be returning.

I didn’t have high expectations for their service as the original locations service is efficient but I never found it to be friendly. The servers here seemed to care more about whatever they were playing on their phone during each visit then they did what was happening at their tables.

The restaurant was clean as was the restrooms, all silverware and plates.

The food was disappointing each time I went. The menu is way smaller then their original location.

The spicy pork was extremely fatty and soaked in grease not once, not twice but three times. The spicy galbi was extremely tough and im unsure why it’s called spicy when I didn’t detect a bit of heat all three times ordering it.... did I mention it was TOUGH! The bulgogi wasn’t fit to feed the dog. The only consistently good thing I had here each time was the rice and the soju!

I even brought my concerns about the food up to my server and was told “I understand and have had many of the same complaints from other customers”. Seriously, that was the response I received! Three times dining here, three mediocre at best meals and that’s strike three and I’m done with Seorabol’s...