Korean Ssam Bar — Restaurant in Sarasota

I absolutely love this Korean Restaurant. Do not be fooled by the name of it, when we researched "Korean" we thought this place was a legit bar. I was wrong! It's a full restaurant with Korean drinks / service to a bar.

Highly recommended if you are in this area, this is the ONLY Korean restaurant I would eat at. (coming from a real Korean person who misses home cooking). We tried another Korean restaurant in the area and we actually thought it was so horrible that we ended up having a second dinner at Korean Ssam Bar. Once we found this gem, we couldn't stop eating here! It was sooo good that we basically ate here all week. This restaurant is owned by a family and they have the highest attention to detail.

I am not the type to put up reviews, I'm very selective of the reviews I post so when I say this restaurant is delicious, I hope you take my word for it and try it out yourself.

If you are new to Korean food, here is my list of recommendation dishes that my partner and I personally tried at Korean Ssam Bar: Galbi Bulgogi - any of them are great but personally tried the spicy pork Hae Du Bap Spicy Octopus Stirfry Grilled Mackerel Plate Kimchi Stew Eel Bowl Soon Tofu Stew + seafood Stone pot bibimbap

Appetizer recommendations: Tteok bokki (Spicy Rice cake) Kimchi Seafood Pancake Vege + Shrimp Tempura

Drink Recommendations: Jasmine Hot Tea (holy this is sooo good if you like tea, try this) Korean Rice Wine (it's not strong, has a milky light taste)

Also for spice level, level 5 is really spicy for us Korean natives. I like it at spicy level 4. If you can't handle...

I recently ate at this restaurant, it was a wonderful experience that I would recommend to others. The moment you walk the atmosphere was warm and welcoming, with soft lighting and the walls even have autographs from all the famous people that have eaten at the restaurant. The menu offered a wide variety of traditional Korean dishes as well as many different types of Korean drinks. I ordered the beef bulgogi, which was perfect. The meat was medium rare (the only right way to cook meat) cooked to perfection, marinated in a sweet sauce, and served with a side of delicious sticky rice. I also ordered a side of edamame, pork dumplings, and shrimp tempura which where all some of the best Korean food I've had in a long time. One of my favorite parts of the dining experience was the service. The staff was attentive and friendly, offering helpful recommendations and checking in regularly to ensure everything was to my liking, I even had nice conversation with the owner at the end. The portions were generous, and the prices were reasonable priced for the quality and authenticity of the food. Overall, this restaurant provides a well-rounded experience that will satisfy anybody either trying Korean cuisine for the first time or people that love Korean food. I would recommend this restaurant for the food as well as the atmosphere, overall a five...

Showed up at 2:30 exactly...exactly the time they close between lunch and dinner. Realizing this, we thought we wouldn't stay, but the woman who greeted us insisted that we sit and have lunch and not to hurry. Since we weren't incredibly hungry and just more curious to try their food for the first time, we decided to split a lunch.

Great idea since the portion was large - maybe a bit larger than usual since we were sharing, they knew it was our first time, and they wanted to win us over. They did. We had the spicy pork bulgogi which had excellent flavor with just the right amount of spice. The rice was very good, as were the vegetables - fresh and perfectly cooked. We decided to split the ginger salad, but they served us two anyway. The dressing was excellent. We enjoyed it so much that on our way back home, we stopped again to get a container of dressing to go. We also ordered an egg roll, which was another great idea.

We can't wait to go back for dinner and try the bibimbap and maybe the spicy squid stir fry or Korean fried chicken with spicy and sweet barbeque sauce. Most every dish that is spicy can be adjusted to your level of spiciness. We will definitely go back very soon.

They are open from 11 am - 2:30 pm for lunch and 5 - 9 pm for dinner. And they're...