The food is great but the service was awful... I've been a few times and this last time was the worst. Our server, Young, was simply terrible. She was rude and quite curt. I hate feeling like we are an imposition when we walk into a restaurant. I'm glad they have the little call buttons on the table but I don't appreciate the huffy service that accompanies the call. This place could easily earn 4 or 5 stars when the service improves!!
Review Source:Okay, so about a week ago: there I was, turning 40 and with a craving for Korean BBQ. (Can we say party?) Â I invited a few friends and family to join me for some BBQ to celebrate.
Now, we'd all  been to the other location in Chicago, so we knew that the service might not be the best and planned to order everything up front, in case our waiter disappeared after the initial order. I had hopes from the other reviews here on Yelp that this new location might be a bit more friendly. Turns out they were right!
The new branch has MUCH nicer decor. It has a clean modern look. Black granite tables and white marble floors. Evidently the owners were aware of some of the challenges of the original location, as they'd installed buttons for summoning the wait staff at each table here.
Our server was helpful, and helped us pick out a good meal. She seemed okay with splitting the check three ways between 6 people too. There was a slight language challenge, but she went and got a menu so we could point to things and ask questions, when necessary. (BIG difference from the Chicago location!!)
The food was really good. I am a huge fan of their marinated spareribs, and those were great.,as were the numerous banchai . The sushi was good and the staff were good about making sure we had plenty of drinking water and drinks. Â The waitress came and helped us grill the octopus without our asking. They were excellent about bringing us new grilling surfaces and tongs every so often as well.
We were expecting it, Â but I was still a bit disappointed when the waitress tried to rush us out the door by pointedly turning off the ventilation hood and bringing us the check, instead of asking if there was anything else we wanted. Â I could understand that behavior if the restaurant was full with a line out the door, but it was about half empty at 4 pm on a Sunday afternoon. So, they lose a star (and some potential revenue) for that, since we all actually did want some desert.
Also, my sister told me she'd asked them to bring us a cake or desert for my birthday and was flatly told "No, we don't do that." Â
So, if you go for a birthday celebration, be sure to bring your own cake!
However, the food was excellent and we had a really good time. It's a completely unusual experience for first timers, which I highly recommend.
Good food and great service! Â The kalbi was marinated well, and the hae mool pa jeon was delicious. Â The bossam was a little salty but still good overall. Â I'm pretty picky about my native Korean cuisine, but I would definitely recommend San Soo Gab San to someone looking for a good Korean BBQ experience in Chicago.
Review Source:I couldn't decide on whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. Based on just the quality of the food it is exactly a 3.5: Nothing to write home about but you will approve of it if your friends decide to go there.
So in order to decide, I had to look at more than just the taste of the food and a few subtleties won me over:
- They bring you 18+ side dishes (banchan) and they aren't all similar in taste. A lot of times, if you go to Korean restaurants, they'll have very bland or very similar tasting side dishes in order to save money but they had everything from traditional kimchi to gaeran jjim (steamed egg souffle) to soy sauce potatoes to bean paste soup! I haven't had that many side dishes at a Korean restaurant outside of the coasts.
- Their service was excellent. I don't know if it was just our waitress but I was impressed with how well she was able to predict what we would be asking for. She gave us extra rice for free and she would look to see which banchan we would eat the most of and bring us extra. That is how service is done. I usually don't take service into consideration unless it is over-the-top amazing or ridiculously horrible but the service definitely helped push this rating to the 4th star.
I'd recommend the galbi as it is one of the best I've had in the Chicago-land area. And if the food doesn't wow you, the service and amenities should.
The food here taste about the same as the one in the city. I do prefer this location because it has more seating which mean little to no wait when you arrive. Â It also means it's better for larger parties. Â They waitresses are a bit nicer here than the Chicago location. I usually get the seafood soontofu zigae and it's at a reasonable price compared to other different Korean restaurants.
Review Source:Good service and good food!
I've been here a couple times and I get out satisfied and happy! I have tried their goat hot pot for the first time. Ok I dont really eat goat as much as I eat beef but the soup was really good! They also have BBQ which I dont always order but one time I had duck, it was phenomenal. If I want KBBQ all the way, I usually go to Woori village since they have AYCE there but when I want a good quality portioned meal, I come here. Their service is good too which I think is very important when it comes to restaurant business because it is about how well you make your customers happy.
Best value of food for the price. I was amazed at the amount of sides they give you here! Their miso soup is probably the best I've had. I didn't rate a perfect 5 star because our server told us not to handle cooking our own food, but then let the meat get mostly burnt up. Otherwise, this is one of the best Korean spots around.
Review Source:I'm giving it 5 stars because it is indeed "as good as it gets" in the suburbs.
The service was attentive and there's little call buttons if you need something right away, the meat quality is great in comparison to everything else around it, and the atmosphere is relaxed modern and breezy.
Breezy is important people. Â Unless you want to smell like Lady Gaga in her meat outfit, going to a Korean BBQ restaurant where ventilation is good is like a savior on the car ride home.
If you're a newbie, just order the Kalbee. Â You'll need to order at least 2 orders of their meat entrees to be able to cook in front of you. Â It's about $21 a pop but well worth it with all the side dishes that they give you. Â They may look scary but try them and you'll be pleased.
Happy that San Soo Kab San is in the suburbs. Â I'll def frequent this spot when I have a korean bbq craving.
FIrst off, I'm Korean so you can take this review however you want. Â In no way am I implying that because of this that I can judge Korean food better than those who are not, but I will say I can tell if it's more authentic, and I have probably been to more Korean restaurants around the U.S. than most.
This is affiliated with the San Soo Kab San in Chicago. Â Thus, it's the best Korean food you can get in Chicago. . .which isn't saying very much since it doesn't compare anywhere close to what you can get in NYC or LA. . . so to clarify their food is definitely a solid 4 stars. Â Anyways, I like this location significantly better because their service is actually decent, space & parking is not so limited, and it's new & cleaner. Â I decided a couple years to boycott the other location (Western) because of their bad service and the terrible attitude of all of the waitresses (on multiple occasions). Â There is a decent Korean population in this area (Niles, Skokie, Morton Grove) yet so many bad Korean restaurants, so it's awesome that they finally opened a decent Korean place nearby. Â They bring a good variety of banchan, the food quality is fresh and the meat is tender.
I highly recommend it.
Same food, different location with fancier digs. The food is 4-5 stars. The price definitely reflects that. Unfortunately, it's a Korean restaurant. This will sound racist (but it's ok since I'm Korean, right?), but just like every other Korean/Korean-owned restaurant, the service is bad.
Order everything you want at the beginning. Â If you need more things throughout the meal, start up a list. Then if by some miracle you can flag another server down, make sure you get in all your requests in at once. I think they're working on their service though, because I saw someone who looked like a manager attempt to help us out, which is rare.
Good food, meh service, so I guess A-OK overall.
San Soo Kab San is a relatively new Korean bbq restaurant in the area.
I like it. The meat quality is fantastic and the complimentary banchan's are extensive. Service is great too.
The place is clean and uses modern Korean bbq ventilation technology so that your clothes don't smell. It's pretty clutch, in my opinion.
Last time I went, they pulled, what I consider, a dick-move. Â When the bill arrived, they had automatically WRITTEN a tip on the receipt. Â We thought, oh, maybe they're figuring out tip for us automatically, like what a 10%, 15%, or 20% comes out to. Â But they were automatically WRITING IN an 18% tip.
This wasn't a case of, the ol' "Parties of 8 or more = 18% gratuity added to the bill". Â No, we were only 5 people. Â I decided to pay with credit card, and lo and behold, they WROTE IN THE TIP on the credit card receipt as well. Â WTF? Â You're telling me how much I should tip you?
I crossed out the tip they wanted us to pay, and wrote in my own, different amount. Â The bank statement showed the total I wanted, and not the restaurant's total, but be aware of this.
Otherwise, the food is pretty good -- I love that this place offers so MANY different varieties of banchan (we got at least 15 different varieties). Â I would return, but warily.
food is good
service blows-
just go in, order what you need all at once...ask for it all at once and know what you want and this will be a great experience.
if you think of things after the fact, like you want more of this or that...well, thats where the service breaks down..
so order enough food, get enough rice, and all your drinks..and just eat!!
This is a second location to the original San Soo Kab San on Western Ave in Chicago. Â I have been going to the original for years. Â I've tried many other places to try to find one that's better than them because they have very crappy service, but they have very good food. Â I try to convince myself that it's the Korean Ed DeBevic's, and it is okay to be ignored or treated poorly. Â But the truth is I have yet to find another place with so many tasty side dishes, and good Korean bbq ribs. Â When I heard about a new location in Morton Grove, I'd figured it was be pretty much the same but just cleaner. Â However, much to my surprise, it is waaaay better. Â This new location is more modern of course, bigger, and the seating is much roomier. Â The servers are actually nice here. Â The food is even better here than the original because I think the meat quality is better. Â It is either that, or my taste buds appreciate good service too. Â Overall, it is worth a visit, and I will be going again.
Review Source:Most of you who know me also knows my hatred for what San Soo Gab San on Western has turned into. Â So deep is that hatred that I refused to visit this newly built suburban location based on the name affiliation alone. That is until last week.
We were greeted as soon as we entered on a busy Saturday night and promptly seated.  Upon realization that we were part of a reserved party, we were moved to a  private room with apologies for the confusion.  Now that's the type of real Korean service that I am accustomed to experiencing in any other city besides Chicagoland!
So we're off to a good start and we order some live fish sashimi (something I did not think they would ever offer at a BBQ joint) and received multiple "service" dishes that came along with it.
I must warn you at this point I realized that I was a part of what was apparently a VIP party. Â Our host apparently brought much business related business to this location in the past so I suspect we were treated like some sort of royalty because the "service" (read as free) dishes just kept on coming out. Hae Mul Jun, maki rolls, etc. Â This will OBVIOUSLY skew this particular review so beware.
After feasting on all the sashimi and extras we decided to order a round of marinated kalbi. Â I have to say I wasn't overly impressed with the quality and flavor but found it proportionately acceptable. Â Presentation and visible quality was a cut above the rest and even the wife of our host remarked on the unusual quality so I'm sure there was some buttering up going on. Â Again, this is typical Korean service disparity and is accepted as completely normal amongst privileged Koreans. Unfair, I know.
I thoroughly enjoyed my meal, as did everyone else in our group, but cannot make an unbiased review of this new suburb edition until I've sampled the food and service under the guise of a lowly regular patron.
Take my review with a grain of salt until I review again later.
Had the bi bim bop bowl, and was thrilled with the side dishes that it came with. Â The hot sauce that they gave me could've been hotter, but the flavors were delicious, so I can't complain! Â The restaurant's decor was beautiful, and the service was prompt. Also, they use charcoal here instead of gas for their grills, which is really unique. Â I'm definitely coming back!
Review Source:"MAKE UP YOUR MIND, HONEY!"
Had a 6:30pm reservation for 6 people on a Sunday night for a birthday dinner and when we entered, there was no hostess. A long line was forming with no one to at least greet us or tend to the people in line. Everyone looked disgruntled and was searching the whole restaurant to find someone to help.
The hostess finally emerges only to not have a table ready for us, despite my reservation and request for a highchair. She told us to wait in the middle of the restaurant and a table will be ready within 5 minutes. We were left in the middle of the restaurant, practically staring at people eating, which was embarrassing!
They cleaned 2 tables and failed to let us know which one, so the hostess was rude and stated to me, "make up your mind, honey," which left me dumbfounded. I was appalled with the attitude and quickly sat down.
Service was beyond poor. They were very short staffed, with only 3 women running around and no one to take our order. No one asked how we were doing and only showed up at the end to give us our check.
I will only come back if service improves. The food was good and I would give that 3 stars.....
Please change your attitude and DON'T CALL ME HONEY.
I can't complain about the food, because it was decent. Â The atmosphere looked modern for a Korean BBQ in the area. Â
But the reason for me giving the 1 star was SERVICE! Â Gran-it I went in on a Monday around 9:30pm when they close at 11pm , but that doesn't mean you disregard a customer from good service. Â
My gripes... no one checked if I needed anything throughout dinner. Â After serving my food, I didn't see the waitress again till I asked for the check. Â I needed a few things but no one was around to help. Â I literally refilled my water myself as staff sat in a table talking. Â It would've helped if the waitress was easier to understand and friendlier. Â
I wouldn't recommend this place to any of my friends.
Ordered the short ribs and ribeye kal bei, soup, pot stickers. It was soooo tasty! Â The service was really good too and the waitress even saved us some money when we were ordering too much for a party of 6 adults...she stopped us from ordering more and reminded us we can always order more later. No wait. Decor was nice. Food was great. Staff was nice and attentive. What more can you want? Definitely recommend.
Review Source:So what is my luck that I had a taste for some kbbq, and lucky me drops by the day *before* it open. Â (Sighhhh). Which meant that I had to trek the 30 minutes to the city just to feed my craving.
Well fast forward a month and a half later, and me and my girlfriend finally made it to the New Sibling of the original on Foster, San Soo GAB San. Â At 6 pm, there was no wait and we sat down at a table meant for 6 seatings. Â Do trust though, you need all that table space, as 5 minutes later, our waitress brought us a overabundance of panchan. Â And boy was it greatly appreciated. Â Dinnermate had not one, not three, but six servings of her fish cakes. Â Also in mass orders were our egg omlette, seaweed, and their potato salad with chunks of apple. Â I've never seen her eat like this before, and I was smiling proudly as her size 2 figure chowed down like a champ! Â Oh, and note taken. Â Our waitress stated that the reason why the panchan was better here than at the original older sister restaurant, was because theirs is made fresh daily. Â
For our grilled meats, we chose the kalbi and their brisket. Â SSKS doesn't have anything on Cho Sun's infamous brisket, but it's good. Â I think because it's sliced thicker that the texture is a little chewier. Â The kalbi was pretty tender and seasoned nicely as well. Â
The dining room is gorgeous with extra large tables, wonderfully spaced away from other diners to prevent bumping and lots of elbow room. Â There are about 10-15 private tea rooms to kneel and grill. Â Nice for a private party. Â
And to be quite honest, the waitresses at this location are much nicer and hospitable than the original version. Whoever is managing and training this staff should go back to the Foster location and re-train those ladies. Smile here and there, don't frown when I ask for more water, and we'll all get along just fine. Â
Prices are a little more expensive, but I guess we can account for that with six servings of fish cake.
The best Kalbi/ Marinated short ribs you can get, and that's on everything.
-If your mom's/grammy's etc. is better, well then send me an invite and I'll update my shiyet.
2.5 star average...Are you people insane?
Did you burn your hands on the grill grate and get salty?
It's crazy enough to let actual Chicagoans play with red hot charcoal at 2am @ the Western location while pumping them full of clear grain alcohol.
Now these guys open up on Golf Rd in the burbs, a football field sized location and raise the bar by letting us suburbanites use gas to incinerate our meats and body parts (with gas)....AND DRINK wacky beers and potato booze? Forget the increase in menu prices...this shit is priceless.
Service is bad, yeah. Duh people...it is part of the ambiance, but what I can tell you is that I was here with the WHOLE FAM on a Saturday night...and the place was jam packed. I went to the washroom and on my way got a clear shot of the kitchen.
The prep area was SPOTLESS, the floors and counters were clean, and I mean I really rubbernecked my nosey ass head in there. CLEAN. The washrooms, CLEAN.
Bad service in that they're still comically rude, and you might be really thirsty by the time you get your water, and it is not uncommon to have to order things twice, or 3 times before you get them. Again, ambiance -and comedy if you can take a joke.
Food now, food. Firstly, and again...this is the best Korean short rib marinade around, and yeah -they're all kinda similar...but this stuff has a fresh, crisp, and subtle flavor.
It's not just sweet and "Koreany". Â The meat is butterflied off the rib and is tender while being just chewy enough. Perfect.
The San Soo side dishes which clog the table much like the red meat overload clog arteries are THE BEST DAMN SIDE DISHES EVER, and I remind you, that these little plates are just all over the table top. Yummy.
Korean sushi. Dude, I don't want to turn this into a full tirade about how people who say there are great sushi places in the city proper are TOTALLY F'ing WRONG...but, if I had to vote on this...I'd have to say the top 3 for freshness would include San Soo on Western (when they feel like serving it)...umm, Sushi Samba, and...Sushi Wabi. You maki-roll/ mayo/inside out peeps can kick rocks. Whoops...tirade.
San Soo Gab San sashimi the other night was simply delightful, and was obviously prepared by someone who understands the joys of eating good raw ass slabs of fish meat.
5 stars, 5 mics, all my love...Shiiiiyet, I don't even care if a waitress chases me into the parking lot talking about "gimme a bigger tip"...I love San Soo. You guys, stop hating.
I came here to have dinner with my four year old son. He was quite excited to cook his own food. I was surprised to see how high the prices were. Since my son does not each that much, I decided to just get an order for myself and share with my son. They said that was fine, but we would not be allowed to cook on the table then (two orders required). What?? That is what we came to do!
I explained that a full order cost nearly $20. Ordering two made no sense. They still refuse to allow us to cook at the table unless we made two full orders.
We left and went to Woori Village down the street. They have a special rate for young children that recognizes that young children do not eat that much. San Soo Kab San has no such child rate.
Shame on San Soo Kab San for being so unfriendly to children.
It's really a Korean BBQ that serves sushi and some non-Korean fare. Jalapeño poppers? Really?
The San Soo Kab San in the city is known for the variety (aka quantity) of banchan. This one is no different. We ordered the pajun and chodol (thinly sliced brisket). The pajun was nice and crispy and had good sized chunks of squid. No complaints about the chodol. I'd like to see the sliced scallions accompaniment with less white pieces and more thinly sliced. But that was a minor detail which didn't slow me down.
Service was fine. We got off to a slow start which isn't good when I'm already cranky AND hungry. But, once we put our order in, everything went smoothly. We even had a particularly delightful ajumah look after us in the middle of the meal. Super rare for a Korean restaurant.
But I really, really liked the setup for the tabletop grill. It's gas but they leave a few pieces of wood charcoal in there. Why? You can turn the gas off and leave the nearly cooked pieces on the grill without getting burned to a crisp or stone cold. Genius!
This place is HUGE!
I did see the waiters/waitresses running around. I did NOT have problem getting what I ordered. I Â liked their twenty little side dishes that comes with any order.
Their Wang (King) Kalbi was solid. What's special about this place? Their grill: for those of you who didn't know, they have a gas/charcoal grill. "So what?" You say? Oh, let me tell you:
Gas grill= you get to control the heat. Depending on how fast you want the meat to cook, you (yes, YOU) can control the heat with a dial, neat, huh? I say "you" in case you didn't know, you cook your own meat at Korean BBQs.
Charcoal grill= great smoky flavor sizzled into your meat. Much like the BBQs at the park, it's very hard to control the fire.
Combine the two= great flavored meat cooked the way you like it.
There's always more to learn with food. If you didn't notice the grills before, you can go check it out now.
Does San Soo Kab San sound familiar?
If you live in the Chicagoland area and enjoy Korean BBQ, it should. Brought to you from the same clan as San Soo Gab San, this joint is definitely nicer. It has a more modern layout than its predecessor. It's larger. It can accommodate big groups...lots of them. I was happy to see this place open in Morton Grove.
I came here with two friends for lunch one week after the grand opening. We really wanted KBBQ, but we really didn't feel like cooking it ourselves. So we ask our waitress if the kitchen can just cook it for us. She says yes. We ordered one plate of Bulgogi and one order of Kalbi. We also ordered one appetizer...the fried tofu. Ten minutes later our waitress comes back and informs us they are too busy in the kitchen and we have to cook the Bulgogi and Kalbi ourselves. Yeah...
...so we ended up cooking it ourselves. Â We cooked it to our liking and it tasted good. The Banchan that came with it (the traditional tiny plates of misc kim chee/veggies) was okay...but it was missing two of my faves...which are the sweet potato and the sweet seaweed. The miso soup was good. Our appetizer, the fried tofu, arrived last. It was nothing special. The Kalbi and Bulgogi were around 18 dollars each.
The service was the same as San Soo Gab San.
I was so excited for the second location to open! My family was counting down the days. We frequented the original restaurant on Western but being from Niles, it was so exciting to hear that they were going to have a second location here!
So imagine our disappointment when we went yesterday.  First off,the glasses were super dirty. Two had lipstick marks, and the rest had white crusty fat streaked all over. The bus boy apologized and brought us new glasses. So no biggie because we are  here for the FOOD.  What is up with the ridiculous prices!?  It was 42 dollars for Korean BBQ for TWO people! You can head down the street and get all you can eat Korean BBQ for that price. The prices were higher than the Western location.  The Korean soups were bland, they forgot to bring the garlic, green onions and only brought half the ban chon.  We also had no plates and asked three different waitresses who failed to return to our table.  Our BBQ was burning by the time we got the accompaniments. Â
Chaotic? Yes but nothing like the Western location. Â At least at the western location they were able to handle it. Â Here, it was terrible, prices were too high and service was terrible (and I am Korean and understand Korean establishment service but this was even below that).
The only good thing was the cold noodle soup (mul nyeng myun).
Sigh. I am so sad to have had such a terrible experience. I thought this place would be a great addition to all the other Korean BBQ places in Niles but it is not worth going back.
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