Seo Ra Beol

I don’t come here often, and when I do it’s to satisfy my craving for Korean food during late nights (my dad and I kind of have a tradition of doing it together). I’ll honestly say that I don’t have much dislike with the food. I can discern that it’s not the best quality food, however it just suits my taste buds from time to time. Really, the one main thing that bites me in the butt for going back every time is the customer service. I’ve experienced a sense of discrimination whenever I’m realized by the wait staff that I’m not Korean. I’ve noticed obvious changes in attitudes and tone of voice. I’m not claiming that Koreans in general display this kind of behavior. It’s just what I’ve sensed and observed the many times I have visited the restaurant, during the day and night.

We ordered a set and nang-​mun (). When the side dishes came out, we were very VERY DISAPPOINTED. It looked like leftovers and didn’t look appealing and didn’t taste well either. We were putting our hopes on the main dishes. When main dishes came out, SO DISAPPOINTING. Like. Really? They seemed like leftovers also. The amount of the food was very rude. Very little for the price that I was paying for. Taste was bad but the way they out the food on the dishes was very unprofessional and just everything seemed like leftover foods. The gal-​bi () looked very disgusting. So disappointed in this place. Never coming back.

I guess this place is just not our type. It might not be a big number for you but $ 70 didn’t give us what we wanted. I have to admit the grill smells good, look good. But the taste is… not so good. However this is not the main reason for the 2-​star rating. The waitress who served us is impatient, not respectful to us (maybe because we are Chinese not Korean) All I can remember is rushing to the end of the meal. Fortunately we won’t be here again.

They’ve got good service and really enjoyed their bibimnaengmyun! It tasted very much like the ones I’ve tried in Korea with few slices of Korean pear :) but my younger brother told me that their beef fried rice was bland.

Was driving by and stopped in for lunch. The menu is expansive and you could easily spend a lot of money there. But I had an $ 8.99 lunch I was totally pleased with.

Considering that it’s open 24 hrs, it’s great!
I wasn’t expecting much cause there aren’t a lot of 24 hr options for asian, but the food was surprisingly good!
Yu Ka Jung was delish and the other korean food was great. Will definitely return again.

LOVE this low key place. My friends and I come here very often. Great price and great quality meat =]

3.5 stars rounded up.
Of all the Korean BBQ places in Atlanta that I’ve tried this one is the oldest looking one. That’s what stood out initially. It’s probably a good 15+ years since they designed it. But with that said that same interior creates an environment where older Koreans can drink. Some of the newer places don’t resemble the Korean BBQ places an older Korean would recognize from Korea when they were younger.
We got tons of the marinated galbi at $ 29/​each (approximately). They meat was tasty but a little thin. I would expect it to be thicker for the price. A plus is the hot ask fire they create opposed to gas grills. Something about that gives it an authentic feel. The sides they provided were pretty basic but you usually don’t get a wide variety with Korea BBQ in my experience. The miso soup was very brown and tasted different from a standard miso. I didn’t care for it.
Their service was pretty friendly and quick since they had a rotation of about 5 women working. They come and cook the meat but keep an eye out on it. It was a little busy so a few pieces slightly burned.
The place is pretty large and can hold 100 easily. Again, it’s an older design but they keep it maintained so it’s not trashy looking. This is one of the few 24H places I know of in Atlanta, but I can’t imagine eating anything at 3am.
Overall, it’s a good Korean BBQ option but I have my favorites already.

Went with a friend. My first time having Korean BBQ. I could not understand anything on the menu. It was in Korean. My friend hAd to order for me. Anyhow the food was good. A bit pricey for the food I got. The servers were all sweet Korean ladies who barely knew English. Good place, good food. Definetly recommend!

Went here last night with my boyfriend after our long day at work. I was craving Korean food and the only options were to go to Iron Age or try this place we never heard of. I was disappointed in Iron Age the last time I went so I decided to go here. We got the spam, egg, and sausage hot pot with ramen and it was delicious! Really good food and it’s ²⁴⁄₇?! You can’t beat that. I would definitely come here again soon. I even tipped my server $ 10. Go here if you haven’t tried it!!!

The food is only ok for me. Had the go gi soondubu. Tasty but not in an ok sort of way. The ambience is worse but not to do with the staff. Clearly was a steak house or something in another life and little effort has been made to redecorate. I was hoping the food would be fantastic. At least it’s open 24hrs. So Gong Dong Tofu BBQ is so much better for us. We actually think Di Gong Dong restaurant and a small restaurant in the food court at assi plaza are some of the best foods we have had in the area.

Service sucks, and expensive. I don’t mind the price but at least have some good service! Food was okay, it wasn’t nasty but the service made it nasty. I’m not coming back, honestly I rather go waffle house. The bill was $ 65 and left a $ 7 tip (didn’t want to leave any, due to the service). I really wanted to just leave due to the service anywhom we stuck through it. Ate, and I went to the restroom, on my way back the short hair lady was waiting for us. She said next time we have to leave a 15% tip… oh wow. I never experience bad service plus someone who stood and wait for us to get out the restroom and gave us an ugly face saying we need to leave 15%. Wow. Astonished. So my friend gave her the extra $ 3 to make it «15%» and they said «thank you» lol… wow

Really disappointed with this place. After frequenting it regularly for more than 4 years I was never once greeted by name. I’m invisible. Typical Korean disdain for white Americans I guess. A polite Ahn Young Hay Sa Yo is met with complete silence.
Once flew back to Atlanta from Irvine and stopped in for lunch, left thinking wtf?
Typical of the Korean community in Duluth I’ve come to learn, if your not Korean your invisible 90% of the time. It’s an attitude which turns friendship into hostility. I’ll not spend another dollar there, and that’s the way ownership likes it. I said hello to the owner yesterday, rudely ignored… again.

Heard this place has good cold noodle so instead of going to my usual cold noodle place, I came here. Disappointed!
Four of us came and immediately the server asked if we want to do dinner or bbq. In restaurants like this, if you want bbq then you’ll be seated in a table with grill and there will be an air vent to suck out all the smoke. If you want just dinner then you’ll be seating on the opposite side on the regular tables. We told the server, we want to do dinner. She led us to the dinner side but then said never mind and took us to the BBQ side. Not sure if it’s because the dinner side was full or why. As we sat down, we’ve noticed that it’s really cold. Like AC full blasted cold. It was to vent out the smoke.
Four of us ordered Cold Noodle and Kalbi Combo $ 23.
Cold Noodle by itself $ 13.
Spanish Mackerel (they didn’t have the Spanish Mackerel so I got the regular Mackerel) with «Dan Jang Soup» (type of soy bean soup) $ 15.
It took the awhile to bring out the food. They took out about 6 Ban chans (side dishes). They weren’t really impressive. What I did notice is that other tables had more banchans than we did. Not sure if it’s because they ordered BBQ and we didn’t.
Once the food came out, we started to dig in. My Mackerel was big and meaty. Just a bit overlooked because it was bit tough to chew. «Dan Jang» soup was tasty but salty. It was like, they’re almost out and gave me the bottom of pot soup where all the flavors and pieces are. I had to add water to dilute the salty taste. Cold noodles were nothing special. Had lot of ingredients on top but it was just ok. Kalbi had only few pieces of meat. Think layered meat. Not worth the money.
Service was slow. There were only two servers working. They were getting busy and never bothered to stop by at our table. I had to ask repeatedly for tea.
Overall, I did not have a good experience here. However, I will be back because I know they were good last time. I’ll give them another try and we will see.

Good area, good food, and good service! Plus, open for 24 hours… can’t beat that.
FOOD: We started with the Hae-​Mu Pa Jeon, seafood pancake, which was tasty but a bit small for our table for 6. Our server could’ve suggested getting 2. For dinner, I had the Hae-​Mul Dol Sot Bi Bim Bap, seafood with vegetables in a hot pot… delicious! It was sizzling hot but plentiful and so good!

I feel like the only good thing about this place is that it is open ²⁴⁄₇.
We came here when we were hungry around midnight, craving some Korean food. When we arrived, I guess because it was not a normal dinner time, we did have to wait to get seated. Then the server disappeared for a while (I don’t think there were many people working), and then came to bring us some water. We ordered galbi and spicy squid. But the entire time, the server looked to be in a rush and not very friendly. Also, they took a while to bring out our food… and never came back to refill our water. After we got our food, they were quick to bring us our check, and again we felt rushed. My boyfriend and I are VERY fast eaters, so we usually don’t need a cue to eat our food quickly, but I did not like feeling like I was being rushed.
Also, the food I thought was just okay. I did not think it was fantastic, and I also thought it was kind of pricey.

After church, I brought my family here after seeing Daniel B’s review on 678. Usually I would have taken my parents to Buford Highway for Korean tofu soup but since we were already in the area for a grocery run at Great Wall, we gave Seo Ra Beol a shot.
We were seated by a kind Korean lady. My parents automatically received warm barley, while my sister and I got cups of ice water. I guess we did look like we were still kids. We took a little time to decide, but settled on a few main entrée dishes for everyone to share. We ordered:
Seafood pancake
Tofu soup
Galbi (short ribs)
Dolsot Bibimbap
Bulgogi
It took quite a while to get our food, which was surprising since there were very few restaurant patrons. Hungry, we were a little disappointed that the fresh banchan came arrived at our table after our dishes arrived. However, the food was all delicious, although nothing mind blowing.
Maybe it was because we were all hungry and tired from late night wedding dancing from the night before but I was expecting a little more. But this was definitely one of the better tofu soups and Korean cuisine I have had on Pleasant Hill.

If you’re looking for the words, «Seo Ra Beol,» stop looking. The restaurant will only say Korean BBQ Restaurant with the rest in Korean letters. Needless to say, my friend and I learned this the hard way. Let’s just put it that way. lol!
I didn’t like the fact that our bill was shoved in our faces before we could finish our meal. My friend was barely half way with her entrée, and mine, well, it barely had a dint since I was enjoying the side items with my rice and soup. Sadly when we were ready to pay, no one came when we rung the service bell. Really?
Her beef soup was delish as she savored the broth to its last drop. My sweet potato noodles (?) was okay. I can’t justify paying for something that’s $ 15.99 for plain noodles, lots of veggies, and very few morsels of beef. I don’t even know why this item is on the appetizer category. It was decent, but not for the set price.
Overall… I feel like service wasn’t up to par. The few things that this place had going for it was it’s unique side items (little anchovies and something that’s either squid or octopus since it had tentacles – lol) and that fact that it’s open 24 hrs.
And look at my picture of the white soy sauce… And no, this isn’t a new form of «Naturally Brewed» soy sauce. It was vinegar as my friend confirmed. lol!

Seo Ra Beol continues to be one of my favorite Korean restaurants in the Atlanta area. It seems to offer everything: delicious Korean cuisine from soups and stews to noodles and rice to BBQ meats and everything in between, ²⁴⁄₇ operating hours, multiple rooms and dining areas, outstanding and friendly service, and it’s a great place for group dining, both large and small.
This review update will cover some new dishes I’ve tried since posting my original review. It also covers better the group dining experience. Please see my original review below for additional info on Seo Ra Beol including the restaurant space, menu, and detailed thoughts on several other popular and recommended dishes.
One of my recent visits to Seo Ra Beol involved a large group of 16+. We had reservations on a Saturday night and were given the biggest room in the house — a private room in the back, past the kitchen entrance. It sports a karaōke machine, two flat screen Samsung TVs, a ceiling-​mounted projector, and a podium with microphone. Most of my visits to Seo Ra Beol have been with groups (of varying sizes). I think I’ve now eaten in every room this restaurant has to offer.
The preset menus are *highly recommended* for group dining. That’s what we did. They have four preset menus for groups, labeled «Menu A» through «Menu D.» Menu A feeds 6 ($ 135 or $ 22.50/person), B feeds 8 ($ 194 or $ 24.25/person), C feeds 10 ($ 224 or $ 22.40/person), and D feeds 12 ($ 280 or $ 23.33/person). The number of courses gradually increases from Menu A to Menu C. Menus C and D have the same dishes, except the quantity is larger for D.
We went with two orders of Menu B, which consists of:
Roast Pyun Chae — cold slices of roast beef, sprouts, jalapeño, garlic, radish, shredded greens, wasabi, spicy mustard
Hae Mul Pa Jun — seafood pancake with squid, shrimp, green onion, jalapeño
Whole mackerel
Gal Bi Gui — marinated grilled short ribs
Jae Yook Bo Ssam — pork belly cabbage wrap with pickled spicy daikon radish
Sang Dae Gu Jun Gol — cod stew
Aagu Jjim — bean sprouts and braised fish
Nang Myun — cold noodle soup
Dduk Man Doo Gook — rice cake dumping soup (hot)
Sighye — sweet rice dessert drink
Note: To avoid confusion, the spellings of the Korean names of the above dishes are consistent with the spellings in the menu.
I’ve eaten a lot of Korean food over my lifetime, yet I hadn’t tried several items in this particular spread before. I wasn’t the only one. I dined with several Koreans, many of whom are also Unilocalers, and none of them had tried any of these dishes either.
Banchan (complementary Korean side dishes) consisted of various spicy pickled vegetables including greens, bracken, bean sprouts, cabbage (kimchi), jalapeño, onion, and daikon. Overall quality was fresh and good.
The Roast Pyun Chae has nice presentation. Small, thin slices of roast beef are arranged on the outside of a circular plate. In the middle are raw veggies such as shredded greens, radish, and sprouts along with garlic and jalapeño slices. This is a «cold» appetizer, meaning the meat is not hot. One way to eat this dish is to place a strip of beef on your plate and then add tiny amounts of veggies on top. The beef strip can act as a wrap which you can then dip into the supplied dipping sauce. Clumps of wasabi and spicy mustarded are provided. Quite tasty.
The Hae Mul Pa Jun (seafood pancake) is served in a black iron skillet atop a wooden base. The pancake is pre-​sliced into individual-​size pieces. Despite the typical presence of jalapenos in this dish, Seo Ra Beol’s seafood pancake is not as spicy as most other Korean restaurants’ versions.
The whole mackerel is served with bones and all. These whole fishes are common side dishes at Korean restaurants. Most of the time, they’re deep-​fried with a crispy coat of batter. Not here. Seo Ra Beol’s version is more grilled or sauteed and meatier. The fish comes with a lemon wedge and ginger.
The Jae Yook Bo Ssam features pork belly, but not in the traditional Korean BBQ sense. It’s served «cold.» I believe the meat is steamed. You can see three layers of pork, which include the various fatty and meaty portions. The pork belly is cut into bite-​size pieces which you can combine with the supplied cabbage leaves and spicy shredded daikon radish. Relatively speaking, it’s not as greasy as its grill-​it-​yourself counterpart. Certainly a worthy change of pace if you like pork belly and want to try a different style.
The Sang Dae Gu Jun Gol (cod stew) and the Aagu Jjim (bean sprouts and braised fish) are okay. In the stew, the cod comes with bones. In the Aagu Jjim, the bean sprouts serve sort of like noodles.
The Gal Bi Gui (marinated BBQ short ribs), Nang Myun (cold noodle soup), and Dduk Man Doo Gook (rice cake and dumpling soup) are all outstanding and highly recommended on their own. I covered these wonderful Korean staple dishes in my previous review, so please read about them below.

4.5 stars in my book.
I’ve been here a few times, and it’s been solid every time. The most recent visit was with my parents and little sisters. We ordered the boyangtang (goat stew), yukaejang (beef and veggie stew), and chadolbaegee (thin beef for grilling). The boyangtang was quite good – somewhat spicy = not that spicy, so order spicy if you’re looking for some heat. The yukaejang was fine but didn’t have the rich flavor that I’m used to having in the broth. The chadolbaegee was great (and comes with dwaenjangjigae, or mung bean soup) and is served with mushrooms and onions. My family also likes to grill the garlic and jalapeños that come out in a side dish. Speaking of side dishes, ask for more if you run out! Just tell them what you want more of, and they should be willing to resupply your table. To end your meal, you’ll enjoy a refreshing bowl of shikhye (sweet rice drink) on the house.