Solga

The phone number is disconnected and the restaurant has not appeared in quite a while It was a great place to go when it was open.

Really good Korean bbq, nice décor & friendly waitstaff make this a really good place for dinner. There’s a parking lot next door & food is affordable. Great place for Korean BBQ in Rogers park

I would have given more stars prior to the change in ownership. Whoever the new owner is, this person need to hire back the old chef. So disappointing :(

Solga’s food is decent — nothing out of this world. What makes this place unique is the fact that the wait staff were all so very friendly and funny — wait, what?
Yes, every other Korean restaurant I’ve been to in the city features crabby waitresses who all act like you are inconveniencing them. If you suggest something that they don’t agree with, they will scold you like a child. This place was different. The waiters were all younger men with a hint of humor and were making noble attempts at cracking jokes and livening up the area we were seated in (a dark and dreary corner). And they all made sure we were satisfied with the quality of our food, which we were.
Based on the service, I might return here. Maybe.

Solga has changed ownership and with that change, it’s quality has plummeted precipitously. This used to be my favorite restaurant for great galbi, excellent side dishes (i.e., banchan), and the very best nengmyun in all of Chicago. Every single one of these things is disgusting now. I gave it two tries, and have now honestly and in good faith concluded that it is the WORST Korean restaurant I have eaten at in Chicago. Here is a list of some of the problems:
1. Dukk guk soup. Way more salt than normal. Could not eat. We poured water into it.
2. Soy bean sprout side dish. Unripened; green rather than yellow beans. Two to three times the normal salt quantity used. Was so shocked and revolted that everyone that tried it spat it out and did that thing when you hock a loogie so that the salt would be cleared from our mouths.
3. Giant chunk of hardened clear plastic in one of the dishes, about the size of a quarter. Similar to the kind that you find hotdogs packaged in from a grocery store.
4. Galbi. Worst that I’ve ever had in my life. Every single piece had so much gristle and inedible fat in it, that we only ate about 20%. I get that sometimes you can get bad batches, but the owner (who was our server) should have made a judgment call, rather than serve us that garbage. The marination was horrendous — over salted and tasted cheap.
5. Nengmyun recipe completely changed. They are using store-​bought noodles in a nasty broth, rather than that remarkable hair-​thin noodle that they used to use. This went from my favorite to just mediocre/​bad.
6. Seafood pancake (pah-​jun). Wet and soggy batter; with frozen seafood medley from supermarket. It tasted like dirty sea water and shrimp poop.
7. Side dishes — low quantity, bad variety, and horrible quality.
8. Mold on the foam ceiling (which was itself disintegrating), directly above where I was sitting. (This was in one of the side rooms.)
9. Understaffed (though very nice).
10. Everything is grimy, dirty, and low lit. The walls and floors are sticky. The walls are gashed and tattered. A closet door was completely broken (off hinges) and just cast aside as if thrown against a dumpster.
11. Not a single Korean eating there the last two times I dined there. (Not a big deal, but sometimes a sign of whether it’s any good.)

Stopped by the other day for lunch. There was one table with 2 guests occupied at 1pm. I stood and waited along with another person (Korean man) for almost 5 minutes to be greeted. NO ONE came out! What’s up with that?!!
I hope someone is reading these things because that is VERY VERY poor sign of mismanagement.
Worse still, I have a unused Groupon that I paid for.

It had been awhile since I had eaten at Solga. I used to go there when I got spicy buckwheat noodle cravings, the Korean bibim nangmyun. Service was always good, efficient, and I remember their oxtail soup had been frikken ginormous! Well, things changed with the new ownership.
We went on a Saturday for dinner. All the tables were full, but we got seated after around 15 mins. I was surprised to see only two waiters manning the floor. Service was slow, understandably; our king-​sized dumplings appetizer came well after we finished our entrees lol, like an hour after we’d placed our order.
Besides the dumplings, we had ordered two of the spicy noodles with skate fish, the regular non-​spicy noodles, and some beef to cook at our table. Well, after a long wait, a waiter comes with the regular noodles, along with two small servings of the regular noodles. He explained that they were out of the skate fish, so he brought over complimentary regular noodles. That was a nice gesture of him, but he should have told us earlier. Then we tried the noodles dish. SO BAD. I was surprised that they changed their noodles from their original thin, handmade noodles into this thick, cheap, store-​bought one. They hadn’t been cooked long enough either. The broth that it came in was bland. No vegetables except for some spare slices of pickled white radish. I don’t see how the full-​sized dish of it was priced at $ 11.
We ordered the grilled beef brisket, aka chadolbaegi, which was average. Instead of having it cooked on the table’s grilltop thing, a portable gas range was used. I saw other tables doing that too. No biggie.
The dumplings were pretty to look at, but the filling was bland, the tofu not soft enough.
Side dishes can make or break a Korean restaurant, and the selection & taste of Solga’s was poor.
Solga is sitting on some prime real estate with their free parking lot, but until they fix the service and the quality of their food, I would not recommend this place. 2 stars instead of 1 because our meat dish wasn’t bad.

A lot can change over the years, apparently. Came here for Sunday dinner and it was nice and not too busy. The marinated galbi comes with rice and some traditional Korean soup. The flavors are great! And the side dishes were excellent. The kimchi was spot on. The service was great.
The fried dumplings were good, too. But i think the standout here is the BBQ.

Really enjoy this place, I go every few months.
Not too difficult to get a reservation, or walk in at this place. The food quality is great. Kalbi, seaffod, bulgogi… also enjoy the hot pot bibimbap. Huge points for authenticity!
Service is a bit mixed, you need to be proactive to ask for what you want and have expectations set accordingly.
Also, you should be prepared for the odor that will innevitably be transfered to your clothes after all that BBQ cooking!

Okay, I really want to give them a good rating because the food was really good and the serving size was just right, but man, oh man! The service sucks! This is coming from a girl who really doesn’t ask much from servers.
So we go in on a Saturday night expecting a full resto but surprisingly it wasn’t. After waiting at the entrance area for probably about 5 minutes, the only server that night lead us to our table. We were hungry so we immediately made up our mind and waited for her to swing by us to get our orders. The waiting and trying to get her attention our way was very frustrating. I wish they had at least another server there to help her out!
THE FOOD IS AWESOME, don’t get me wrong, but they served the lettuce for our bolgogi almost when were done cooking the rest of the meat! And our rice was served at almost the end of our meal! Unbelievable!
And when we were done eating, it took us probably about 10 minutes of trying to get the server’s attention while she chatted with her friends who came to dine at the resto that night.
So the 3 stars I’m giving here is for the food, not for the servers at all. I’ll go to another Korean BBQ place next time. Good thing we tried this using a Groupon.

Had a great experient here for lunch on Saturday, service was attentive without being intrusive and the food was very good!
Hubby ordered a pork dish that he said was ok, not what he expected but not bad either. He also commented that his soup was not as scalding hot as it normally is and he would have liked it a bit hotter. Otherwise, we were both very happy with our meals. We loved all the side dishes that came with it, in exception of the fish cake we finished them all and the waiter gave us an extra portion of the sweet radish right away because we commented that we liked it.
My bibimbap was good, the only complaint I had was that the beef was a little skimpy but all in all a great experience and we definitely will return!

I used to go to Solga once a week. If the people who work there read this, i’m the one who orders dol sot bim bim bop every time. Ok, so I don’t really care that the people who work there are cold and kinda ignore you, however here are the reasons that I will not go back to Solga after the last experience.
1. Its been getting more and more dirty and they are really letting it slip.
2. NO TOILET PAPER, NO PAPER TOWELS, NO SOAP in the bathroom. Seriously, if there is no soap than the employees are not sanitizing their own hands while working with food. UNACCEPTABLE.
3. Lots of burnt out lights, broken fixtures, clutter.
I think the owner has lost his or her passion. When Solga first opened it was really busy and the place was in much better shape. I rememer my Korean friend taking me there. I definitely would go back if they cleaned up and started to care.

There’s a lot of Korean bbq places in Chicagoland, and Solga isn’t necessarily a place I’d recommend.
The food is okay at best. Meat quality is also just okay. This is all fine, but the prices tagged onto each item on the menu is borderline hilarity.
Service is great when Solga isn’t busy; otherwise, it’s almost non-​existent. Going with groups larger than six will also pose a problem. They will send you into one of their party rooms, where you must sit cross-​legged on the floor. I understand that this is Korean tradition, but it can be bothersome.

Food was just acceptable; really, nothing special and nothing made me want to visit again.
The servers and the whole restaurant ambiance are sooo spooky. They don’t smile, no greeting when you walked in, no thank you after you paid the bill. Light in the restroom is not working, it”s really dark. Floor is sticky, and overall, it didn’t give me good impression about the food and restaurant itself. I think they lost the passion serving good food there.
I feel I waste my money there…

The food here was great and they have a good selection of menu items, but our server was super rude. I didn’t think anything of it when I was singled out and carded. I’m pushing 30 so it’s amusing when people think I’m under 21! Everyone ordered their drinks with ease, except for me. I wanted the blackberry/​black raspberry/​whatever it was wine. It only came in a bottle, which was fine. I planned on sharing it with a friend.
The waitress told me to get the plum wine instead, as it comes in a glass. I told her the bottle was fine. She insisted again that I get the plum wine, then mumbled something really fast. I wasn’t in the mood to argue so I complied. Hey, I look like a kid so all I need is a glass, right?! ugh
I’ve had better experiences at other Korean bbq restaurants and will stick to BYOB ones! That way I can drink a whole bottle of wine if I wish and no one can tell me otherwise. nah nah nah!

Recommended to come here if you are with someone that knows about Korean food and/​or– speaks Korean. It pains me to see someone had no clue coming here and asking about every single items on the menu… Sure you can get the soup, but you are missing out on more authentic Korean food.
We came here over the weekend with the in-​laws – they know their Korean food. So we ordered the pork belly on the grill, spicy squid on the grill, some spicy noodle soup that was sooooo good. I really don’t know the name of the dishes, but here are a few tips:
(1). Do not get red or white wine when you come here, trust me you don’t look classy with wine everywhere, and wine really don’t go well with Korean food. Get the damn soju.
(2). Skip the chicken teriyaki, it’s not Korean.
(3). When in doubt, look around, if there’s a Korean table next to you and what they have look good, ask for the same thing.
(4). Service can be slow when they are busy, this is when you need to be pushy – wave, ask loud, or even walk up to the counter – that’s the Korean way of doing thing per the in-​laws. :)

Yums! This place was very delicious.
We had a little bit of a hard time trying to find the place (Google Maps problem moreso than anything else), and then we were a bit confused because the entrance is actually in the parking lot. Solga has its own private parking lot, but even then there is parking on the street. :)
We had a groupon. We ordered dumplings, and two soups. My bf who is Korean was pleasantly surprised at how authentic and delicious everything was. I also enjoyed my spicy noodle soup broth (sorry, can’t recall the names of the dishes lol).
The side dishes were nice and fresh. Delightful experience. :)

Closed.

Under new ownership, the food at Solga has gotten a lot better. Their naengmyun is still pretty sweet, and their soups are hearty and delicious. My dad recently ordered their octopus dish and I almost ate half of it (SO GOOD). My only criticism is that their banchan offerings are a little sad — this might disappoint all of you banchan enthusiasts out there. I’m also almost certain they use msg, so get ready to take a nice long nap afterward.
Their recent renovation makes Solga less divier than other Korean restaurants in the city.
My granny approves!

3.5 stars, rounding down. Came here with a friend for dinner on a Wednesday night and it was fairly empty. We split the wang mandoo, and I ordered a soon dubu chigae while he got the bibimbap.
Banchan was okay but there was no potato salad which is my fave :(Mandoos were meh, I was kinda expecting them to have big fluffy buns but these were thin like dumpling wrappers. My soon dubu was just okay too (I got the seafood), not nearly as good as what you would find in LA but it satisfied my cravings for Korean food. My friend’s bibimbap was superb though. Prices were average, around what we would’ve expected to pay for this sort of food, and we had a groupon which made it even better. Service was pretty good. Overall decent average meal.