Seorabol Korean Restaurant Reviews

This is the best Korean food I have ever had. Including Seoul. Food is delicious. Servings and large. Service is excellent. The hibachis are real charcoal. A little out of the way, but worth the drive. Best to go in lighter traffic hours. We usually go mid week for a late lunch.

I always make it a point to stop here on my way through Philly!! As some have stated previously, yes the neighborhood is not the best but I have never had an issue or felt nervous in any way!! This place is a gem, friendly, amazing food and a great variety of traditional cuisine. Heavily supported by the Korean community makes it real deal for me, I always see other tables ordering items I've never seen or would know how to use, always makes me want to try another new food. I've literally been to over 1,000 Korean restaurants in my life all over the US and this is one one my favorites!!

Seorabol has been around forever. It's one of the first Korean restaurants I went to in Philadelphia, and it's been a staple in north Philly for what seems like decades. I've gone there after funerals (a Korean funeral parlor is up the street) and it can accommodate large groups with a handful of private rooms. On the most recent trip, we went with a group of over 30 people. The main dining room was packed and the private rooms were filled. Ban chans (side dishes) were plentiful and everyone enjoyed their food. It's a little on the pricey side, as three of us paid $35 each for 2 orders of kalbi (short ribs) and 3 naengmyun (cold noodle dish). They also gave each table two sizable grilled mackerel as part of the ban chan. Most places won't do that, so major plus for Korean eaters! The neighborhood is a little scary at night, so go with a group. They do have a security guard that works at night.

We arrived at this restaurant expecting some decent korean style food, when we entered at took a look at the decor and the workers inside the restaurant we knew then and there that it was going to be a great meal, we both ordered the bulgogi (a beef dish with onions). It was hands down the best bulgogi weve had outside of Korea, the prices were decent also. Will be returning very soon to sample more dishes. Highly recommended!!!

While visiting Philadelphia on Saturday, we stopped for lunch at Seorabol Korean restaurant. When we arrived at noon, they were doing a light business and we were seated right away. The dining room is small and sparsely decorated but very comfortable. Our server was very knowledgeable and helped explain the menu items. We started with a complimentary assortment of small plates, including Kimchi and sliced sausages. We then shared a scallion pancake, which was one of the best I have had. For our entrees, my wife ordered Korean sweet potato noodles, my daughter and grandson each had kimchi fried rice, and I had the spicy seafood hot stone, which was delicious. The only negative was there is no separate menu for lunch and prices are a little high for lunch. But the food was great and the service was also. I would certainly return. Maybe for dinner next time.

It has been a while since I came here for a delicious Doksum Bibimbap. I brought my little brother since he needed to get back his macro and micronutrients back after a long run. We got the Bibimbap and a cold restring buck wheat noodle dish. Everything from the complimentary sides dishes to the main ones were delicious.

대박! I flew into Philly this past weekend and met friends at Seorabol for dinner. I love Korean food and my friends (one of which is Korean) said they eat there often as it's very good when I mentioned it. It was every bit as great as I'd hoped! We had several dishes including bulgoki and ssamgyeopsal on the table grill. The banchan (side dishes) were plentiful and very tasty and the main dishes delicious as well. The meat was marinated just right and was tasty off the grill. Service was attentive and friendly. The atmosphere was quite nice. I definitely can't wait to get back to Philly to eat at Soerabol again!

It is sad that this restaurant passes for good Korean food in Philadelphia. $30 for a plate of galbi beef is overpriced to start but what is worst is the meat taste like some other cheap cut of beef and NOT galbi. Most restaurants usually leave the bone attached to show you're getting real galbi but the bones were off which makes you more suspicious. One of the most common dish the spicy tofu soup had more eggs than tofu and just tasteless and greasy. It seems like they put in lots of fat or greasy to try to make it taste better but it just made it more greasy and unappetizing looking. This place is definitely not worth the money or your time.

At least, that's what those who have been Korea, and trusted local food critics say! In any event, it's really good and it's different. Definitely get the BBQ -- which they cook at the table, and which comes with lots of little (all you can eat) side dishes. Family friendly, fun, great for groups. It's out of the way of any other tourist attractions in Philadelphia, but good food.

The restaurant is located in a shady area. There was an armed security guard at the front door. The overall service was good and no complaints but we weren't impressed with those food. We wanted to check out Seorabol based on social media's positive reviews. However, I was rather disappointed wig their food. We had typical Korean BBQ beef and spicy chicken. They both tasted blend and nothing special about. Perhaps their other dishes might be good but one of the most popular dishes, BBQ, were below average in my opinion.

We were at a nearby spa and asked for a recommendation, specifically asking where would you eat? This was our first trip to a Korean restaurant and we were undone by the menu. No worries though as the manager on duty was terrific and explained everything, making suggestions as he went along. The BBQ comes with a lot of side dishes, including pike mackerel grilled.fish, book chop and several other dishes. This approach worked.for us as some we favored and others we tried but probably wouldn't order specifically. Beef was fantastic!!! The bean paste sauce is.tasty and a brilliant accompaniment. The only reason I am not giving a 5 is the neighborhood which was not the worst but not the best either We will be back

The food here is simply amazing. It is a comfortable atmosphere great for any company. You can have a great night with your friends, family or a date night. Best Korean BBQ in the city.

Average prices for a Korean restaurant. Was undeniably the worst Korean meal we have ever had. Side dishes were all bland. The appitizer showed up 2 min. before the meal and the pancake was tasteless. Had the kimchi and pork, no flavor or spice. Wife had the monk soup and was equally disappointed. We took NO leftovers home, that is how bad it was. Service was medioce at best. Save your money, many other Korean restaurants in Philly. Saw a non-Korean in a white coat come out of the kitchen, maybe that explains the awful meal.

My wife did take-out. Got the seafood pancake (again) & the hot pepper pancake. Both are excellent and weighed a good pound+ each. My wife got bibim bap. Again excellent and came in a container the size of a large serving bowl. She ordered the octopus jim for me. It was $30 but she didn't think that was bad given it was octopus. We've paid more. That is until they brought out this literally catering-sized pan of it. It is excellent but I won't be able to finish it. There was miso soup & enough rice to build a house. They also gave us all the side dishes you normally get when dining in. That is something most other places don't do when you get take out. She was also the only Occidental in the place, which is always a good sign. Area is kind of sketchy but there is a guarded parking lot.

I could say Best Korean Barbecue but...it is the best barbecue I have ever experienced. Service is excellent. Very friendly staff. The chef is excellent. Sushi is wonderful. I would visit again without hesitation. Moderate prices and a family friendly restaurant. Great for 4 or more people. Sit at the tables where you can barbecue your food foe a wonderful experience.

This restaurant is located a little outside downtown Philadelphia but worth the drive. It's decor makes you feel like you stepped into a real restaurant from Seoul. The staff are friendly and the service is fast. The food is authentic and delicious. The Kalbi (korean bbq) is the best! Tons of side dishes and they even have the cinnamon tea/drink at the end. For those who have eaten real Korean food in Korea this is the place that brings you home.

I went for dinner with my brother and his family. The food was good but service was great. The staff is very friendly and food came out very fast. I notice a lot of local Koreans go to this restaurant. The restaurant serves Korean comfort food and the food remains the guests/customers like back home.

Seorabol has great Korean food. They give you the most side dishes, good tasting food, and nice service. Because of its popularity, there are times when there are huge parties of out-of-towners. We highly recommend Seorabol!

We were a party of five at Seorabol sharing 6 dishes and each one was delicious. With the starting tapas-type dishes, we had more than we could eat. The bbq meat was a highlight, with the wood-fired bbq at our table. The dolsat bimimbab was also excellent and served on an extremely hot plate.

We decided to try Korean cuisine for the first time, they start you off with a wide selection of different samples; it honestly depends on your taste palettes, we found some of them great and others that we didn't like, just a personal preference. If you are not used to the taste, you might have a similar experience but it's definetly worth a try. The staff were very friendly and explained the contents of the dishes to us. The teriyaki chicken was very good, while the sushi was good but not great we had better. Overall a good experience.

Who doesn't like Korean bbq? This restaurant definitely lives up to the expectation. We were greet with kind waitstaff and our orders were taken accordingly. We had a large group so I thought the food would take longer to come out. Everyone ordered different things but it came out relatively fast. One meal came out a little later than everyone else but our waiter made sure we knew that the food was on its way. I highly recommend this place for ANY occasion!

tried 3 different grilled items- chicken, pork belly and skirt steak- steak was good but the other two--not. Glass noodle dish was very good everything else-- not-- dont waste your money

While it is off the beaten path, it's worth the trip to this authentic Korean restaurant, where you cook your own Korean barbecue at the table. Large parties are common (we were a party of 7), and the staff was very gracious in helping those of us who hadn't been there prepare our food. Large menu, friendly service, and a fun experience make Seorabol worth the trip!

A good friend of mine took me here and I didn’t know what to expect, large variety of food, friendly knowledgeable staff, Great size portions and food is made fresh on the spot. I’ll definitely be going back!

The Main Line is replete with numerous Asian restaurants. We have Chinese, Thai, Japanese and Indian. Yet, there is one Asian country whose formidable cuisine is not represented. That country is Korea. Not having a local Korean restaurant is most unfortunate for food lovers. Korean food offers an exceptional and ethereal dining experience. Korean food sings in clean fresh melodic line with subtle under-cords that resonate in a complex taste experience. My first Korean dining was some years ago with Korean students in a summer session who introduced me to this most remarkable cuisine. They guided me through the adventure of Korean barbecue and the comfort food pleasures of big bowl soups. Since my introduction to Korean foods I had had little opportunity to try the cuisine again until the recent arrival of the Korean American grocery chain H-Mart in the Philadelphia area. H-Mart surpasses any American grocery store not only with an endless variety of Asian foods but with their fish and produce. Walk into the produce section and introduce yourself to luscious fruits and vegetables: often varieties that you have never seen. A few steps beyond the produce section the fish counter offers everything from humble Spanish mackerel to live abalone and exotic sea squirt. In another aisle a refrigerated counter displays the traditional kimchee and countless other delicacies such as tiny fish in hot pepper and miniature crabs in a paprika marinade. If you are confused but intrigued and want to learn, just ask the fish man behind the counter or the person who happens to be standing next to you. The always friendly and interesting answers taught me quite a few new dishes from the Korean kitchen. Still, when it came to Korean food prepared by Koreans I had only experienced those few small Korean restaurants where my students had taken me. It was time to find a traditional Korean restaurant. I spent hours every night for two weeks reading through review after review online. I finally settled on Seorabol in North Philadelphia. We would be four for dinner. Our pilgrimage took us up the Boulevard to Broad then north to Olney Avenue. As we learned, the choice was well made. Seorabol is one of those little shopping strip Asian restaurants hidden in plain sight. The address is Old 2nd Street but the restaurant itself is perpendicular to the street the last in a cluster of the little strip dominated by a laundromat. It took us several turns in the neighborhood to find it. On the sign outside the name of the restaurant seems to be three words, “Seo – Ra – Bol.” I don’t know how to pronounce it or what “Seorabol” means but as would discover the restaurant has plenty to say. Open the door and step down the ramp into the restaurant. As you pass under the dark wood Asian entry gate you find yourself in a very different world. While Seorabol has tables and chairs rather than floor cushions as you would find in Korea, the wall mounted televisions speak to you with sounds and images directly from Seoul. The staff was very pleasant but their English was almost non-existent. The language barrier was the restaurants only drawback. While I do not expect that Koreans in their own neighborhood in their own restaurant should speak English I was very much hoping to have someone who might explain the menu, make suggestions and guide us through our meal. In the end, while we tried to communicate as best we could, I have the feeling that our menu choices, while delicious, were clumsy from a Korean point of view. The little experience I had with Korean dining prompted me to ask for the traditional Korean barbecue, called bulgogi, as our main course. We also thought we would like a soup. Soup is always a good way to begin a meal. But would soup be a normal start for a Korean dinner? Our questions about how to proceed didn’t receive too many clear answers. Eventually the server suggested the “haemool jungol,” a hot pot of assorted seafood. Whether or not the soup was appropriate with the barbecue I don’t know. As soon as we placed the order a server delivered a large pitcher of hot barley water to our table. The barley water was an interesting surprise and better than Chinese green tea. Another server appeared and covered the table with a wonderful array of side dishes: kimchee, small fish in jalapenos, various greens, an egg pudding and even a dish of what seemed to be sliced hotdogs. At each end of the table she set a towering dish of lush green lettuce leaves. Moments later another server approached with a brazier of flaming coals that she dexterously lowered into a metal well in the center of our table. She made a quick departure and return to bring us a plate of thinly sliced beef in a dark marinade. At the same time another server appeared with a propane burner mounted with a broad pan mounded with all varieties of seafood. She set the burner and pan on an adjacent table. They were serving us both dishes at the same time. While simultaneous servings are quite common in most Asian restaurants I have found that you can ask the staff to serve only one plate at a time. For me and for the learning experience I find that I need to savor each recipe individually. Because of the language situation, I did not think it would help to make such a request. While one server went ahead adding the beautifully marinated strip s of beef to the sides of the sputtering brazier, the other server turned the clams and shrimp and fish into the seething broth on her little burner. The soup finished first. The soup server ladled out our individual bowls. The steaming golden rust colored broth announced its source of octopus and clam, fish and shrimp. Thick velvet noodles crowned with small squares of creamy tofu nested in the base of the bowl. The fragrance intoxicated. My head bends to meet the bowl as I lift it to my mouth. The broad Korean spoon gently passes the delicate broth to my waiting mouth. I switch to the chops sticks to deliver the shrimp and fish. All around me is silent. No one speaks. We are all bewitched by this Korean alchemy of the sea. The textures and flavors turn on the tongue like the interlocking patterns of a kaleidoscope turn on the eye. Another image catches the corner of my bowl-cast eye: the sight of the beef turning to a rich caramelized brown on its smoking griddle. The server was now taking the finished beef and dispersing it onto our individual plates. In something of a nervous confusion I think, “Do I have to stop this soup now so that I can get to the beef?” The two dishes at the same time were a dining dilemma. This may be where we made a cultural error. Would a Korean order a soup at the same dinner as a beef barbecue? This is where we needed guidance. Tempted by the sight of the beef, I finished my bowl of soup on the spot. I turned to the bulgogi. Our server addressed us in Korean. Without words in English but by pointing she indicated how we should take the lettuce leaf, layer it with the beef, some sauce, some garlic , some rice and some garnish roll it all inside the lettuce leaf and send it to its purpose. The first bite: a crisp and green leaf gives way to spicy jalapeno and deep garlic, rich and dense rice, tender and charcoal hazed sweet beef. The smoke of the brazier lingers on the thin beef slices in counterpoint to the rice and lettuce. Korean barbecue sings with a fresh and clean voice that opens the taste experience to subtle yet rich flavors and textures all playing simultaneously on the tongue. We did not request a dessert. After clearing our table, the server brought us little glass bowls of a cold golden brown liquid with a syrup-like appearance. She gestured for us to drink: cinnamon! The little glass cup held cinnamon and sugar in very cold water. The sweet cinnamon infusion gently closed the wonderfully complex tastes of our Korean dinner. It was time to reckon the bill. Korean food asks its worth. Korean dishes like our barbecue and our fish soup require not only the finest fresh ingredients but the time of the servers to prepare them at your table. Our bill was just over $100 for the barbecue and the soup. Expect to pay double what you might expect at a Chinese or Vietnamese restaurant. Seorabol merits a pilgrimage for any interested in quality Korean foods. The garden of side dishes opened eyes and tongue. The soup and barbecue satisfied immensely. During our dinner no one spoke. My face was buried in my bowl. My glasses were speckled with the splashes of the soup. My fingers slipped against each other as they cradled the sweet beef into leafy green rolls of crisp lettuce. My white paper placemat illustrated with adverts for local Korean businesses was splattered with all the elemental traces of our dinner. Napkins were worn to shreds within moments. This was a dinner of complete engagement. Our Korean barbecue and soup demanded a highly tactile and personal involvement that held at bay any thoughts that did not concern the consumption of the delights before us. We may have been ill-informed Americans who made cultural dining errors but culturally ill-chosen as our selections may have been they were culinary delights. Perhaps we should not have ordered two hot-grill dshes at the same dinner. I don’t know. What I can say is that the food at Seorabol took us to a new world that awaits further exploration. Note: H-Mart is located on Garrett Avenue by the 69th Street Terminal in the building that once housed, for those of a certain age who may remember, the dance hall “Chez Vous.”

I've always wanted to try Korean Bar B Q and Seorabol was the perfect to introduce my palate! We had the Galbi which was a marinated prime rib steak with the bone attached, and the Pork GUI which was phenomenal!! Both meats were seasoned well. The sides were plentiful and delicious and we even grilled some of the veggies. My only negative would be that the server didn't really explain what the sides were and that we cooked our meat. It was our first time there, maybe ask customers if they've been there before. Overall, a great find and I look forward to coming back. Oh, and don't make reservations through Yelp, use open table, they're not using them anymore. The Hostess was nice enough to accommodate us in a very professional manner. Thanks again!!

This is a large restaurant significantly north of Center City in a residential area called Olney. We were the only non Korean table there and it was full! Service was superb, food was very good. If Korean food is your thing then you'll likely love it.

My husband and I had a great time at Seorabol. The food is delicious and the staff is very friendly. I highly recommend this restaurant !

This was my first time having Korean BBQ. I am very please and will definitely be back! I went for lunch. The waiter was very helpful in helping us select a meal. They give you SO MUCH food that I had lunch for the next day as well. Everything was super yummy. The prices are great. There's free parking. All great. I highly recommend. It's only about 15 minutes outside of Center City Philadelphia (not during rush hour).

Very authentic Korean food, even my Mom and Dad approve. We had the kimchee pajeon, which is a savory pancake made with kimchee, and it was very good - crispy, not too doughy. Then we had this large share-able seafood hot pot dish which was super spicy and full of fresh seafood. The ban-chan are excellent, and delightfully free of non-Korean dishes other Korean restaurants tend to put out for American palates (like potato salad!). We had three different kimchees and all were good. I think most of the guests were Korean and there is a large screen TV in the middle of the room with Korean news on. You go here for the food. The location is kind of sketch, but I saw there was a security guy watching the parking lot.

This is an amazing comfy place up in the NE Olney area of Philly. It's definitely in a shady area, but don't let that deter you - the food is actually really great and you won't be paying center-city prices. The waitstaff and kitchen are Korean and you'll see a lot of Korean families eating here as well... always a good sign. However, be prepared for a bit of communication struggle... but still, it's worth it. The menu is extensive, and I've been there several times and have had the opportunity to try quite a bit. The potstickers and Panjeon are good but nothing to write home about - the BBQ, hotpot and stews are amazing though with an ample portion. It's actually great to go as a larger (4+) group here for a communal meal. The banchan is also great - they serve quite a good variety and rotate the selections frequently.