BUL Korean Bar & Restaurant — Restaurant in Washington

As a person who comes from a Korean Background and has traveled to many Korean restaurants in the United States and in South Korea, this place is a shame. The aesthetics of the place was on point but the meals weren't. I tried three different things at the restaurant: Jjampong, Soondooboo, and the bibibap. The jjampong and soondooboo were highly priced but the ingredients were heavily lacking. For $17 dollars, you get a jjampong that barely has any seafood and vegetables. It was mostly soup if anything. In every other Korean restaurant I've been to, jjampong usually comes out at $10 with triple the amount of ingredients (including noodles). They sell a bowl a rice for $2(usually $1 anywhere else). The jjampong tasted alright but the worst part was the soondooboo. In english, soondooboo means spicy tofu stew. See how the name has tofu in it? The soondooboo that came out barely had any tofu. I saw maybe one or two small pieces. The soondooboo is an absolute disgrace to Korean Culture (the soup also tasted pretty bad). The bibibap was the only okay thing I tried. It was reasonably priced and had a nice taste. The biggest error of the restaurant is the lack of side dishes. The essence of Korean food can be linked directly to side dishes. This is the only Korean restaurant I've ever been to that doesnt serve side dishes. I can't say how the rest of the menu tastes but from my experience from the three dishes, the restaurant is overpriced and does not match up to the taste of other Korean restaurants. For a random passerby who has no idea about Korean food culture might think it is really good but as someone who is cultured about Korean food, I do not think I will be coming back to this restaurant...

TL; DR if you are 21+ the Watermelon SOJU is amazing, bulgogi fries are a must try, Budae Jjigae is worth a try!

I was just chilling at my cousins' house one afternoon and then nonchalantly one of them said that he'd been craving for budae jjigae (Korean army base stew). The next thing I knew, we were in the car headed to Adam's Morgan!

We ordered watermelon soju, calamari, bulgogi with rice, bulgogi fries, corn cheese, wings and the budae jjigae. I usually don't like alcohol but flavored soju is AMAZING... the watermelon masks the taste of alcohol so well, it ended up just tasting like watermelon juice. The calamari came out super crunchy, the bulgogi with rice was for my adorable 6 month old niece to eat, and the wings were really crunchy and had the perfect amount of sauce covering it! The bulgogi fries were out of this world, potatoes just seem to make something already good, great! The fries were the perfect vehicle for the bulgogi, while the cheese held all the pieces of crispy bulgogi and other toppings together!

My cousins' have never heard of corn cheese before so of course I had to order it! The corn cheese went really well with the korean fried chicken and the budae jjigae. The budae jjigae really hit the spot, it had everything from spam to beans, It was really good!

The service was super friendly and all our food came out in a timely manner!

I can't wait to come back to see what else they...

I made a reservation for 6:00 PM early in the morning by email per the BUL's website instructions. When I called back at 4:00 PM to confirm my reservation, I was told the restaurant wasn't taking any more reservations, but I could walk-in. I responded I had made the reservation by email early (around 8:00 AM). All the restaurant could say was they hadn't bothered to check the emails.

So, I give them one star for poor management response to the instructions on their own website. I made the reservation early in the morning. They could have figured out a way to accommodate me.

Maybe the food's really good, but the response to my reservation left a bad taste in my mouth. That said, we went at 6:00 to find many empty tables. We waited about 5 minutes and were seated.

Things turned positive after that. Service was quick and very professional. Food was delicious. We had short ribs, KFC chicken, and Sea snails with Noodles. All three dishes were well portioned and excellently prepared. I'll raise my rating to 4 stars based on the actual in-restaurant experience.

Recommendation: Call if you want a reservation. The staff's multitasking and reading chats/emails might not be a priority. Be ready to wait if you arrive much later than 7:00. By the time we left at 7:30 the restaurant was packed and the wait line stretched...