Sol’s On the Square

I’m a Korean coming from the west coast and was excited to find that there was a Korean food place in Madison. I wanted so badly to want this place to be good for lack of other options in the area. And even so, I was really disappointed.
I get the budae jjigae is for two but $ 32??? This food was named literally «military stew» because of the cheap ingredients used from military bases to make it during Koreas food shortage. What’s worse is the food wasn’t even that great. Your best bet for quality Korean food is to go to Chicago or just make it yourself.

We ordered the Budae Jigae, which was a hot pot with an amalgamation of sausages meat, ramen, noodles and all sorts of little vegetables.
I have never heard of budae jigae before but apparently it used to be a dish soldiers made with whatever materials they could find, which eventually transformed into the delicious mess we had here.
The budae jigae says it serves 2 on the menu but, it can definitely feed 3 people easy. As it was relatively chilly that night, the hot soup was a perfect way to warm your bodies up.
Also, pricing for the food is also not too bad which is fantastic for gluttons like myself. Also, I absolutely love how big the portions are as I was very satisfied with the meal.
Overall, if I went to wisconsin madison you could probably see me here all the time. I’d recommend anyone to check this place out and eat till your belly sings, because that’s what happened to me.

We ordered the Ddeok Bokki (and received the Budae JJigae) hot pot, beef Bibimbap, and pork Bulgogi, for a total of $ 65 after tip.
The hot pot is a family style pot of spicy goodness, with rice cakes, ramen, and sweet potato noodles along with slices of spam, ground seasoned beef, sausage and kimchi. It sits atop of a tabletop gas kerosene burner and is more than enough for two people. Don’t be alarmed when it first arrives at your table, as the broth is clear, the spicy red chili paste is at the bottom, waiting to bubble up to the top. Not usually a fan of spam, but this dish will make you want to eat everything that’s in the pot.
The pork bulgogi was a plate of chopped, seasoned pork, not what I was used to with New Seoul where it arrives as one solid strip of meat. It was a bit greasy, but deliciously seasoned nonetheless.
We ordered the bibimbap in a hot stone bowl ($ 1 extra). It was very good with generous portions of sauteed vegetables, radish, and beef. They didn’t skimp on the rice either.
Banchan that day was pickled radish, kimchi, daikon, and fish cakes — all refillable.
I am going to echo many reviews before me, although we did have a very friendly male waiter, but there was a female waitress that did not seem concerned with this concept called ‘customer service’. When we had been seated and ordered for 20 without water or banchan, we notified her and she just replied, «yeah, you’ll get it».

Dined in last week, got a bimbimbap, food arrived reasonably quick and taste great! Since I am not Korean I can’t say whether it’s authentic or not, but to me it taste pretty great! Although I could see service was on the lacking side, but waitress seemed trying their best. And for the price of $ 12 for dinner dish, I can’t complain too much about the limited choices on the menu. Good experience general and will go back.

Service is lacking. The host was rude to begin with, really annoyed about seating us at a bigger table even though we came in way past the dinner rush and there were multiple empty tables in the restaurant (at least half empty).
We took a while to decide on what we wanted to order and apparently that was fodder for laughing about customers in plain sight. I don’t do well with open mocking.
Asked to speak with the manager and she never came. Had to ask again and was told it was «her choice» whether she came out or not. Everyone we spoke with has a slight attitude, as if asking for anything was absolutely ridiculous. She finally came out and told us she had no idea what was going on in the front of house. Was apologetic. Much appreciated.
Also, service has been lacking in the past. My water glass goes empty within the first 10 minutes and never gets refilled.
Limited menu. Menus are made of paper and come out all wrinkled (water damage)? Prices and exorbitant for the quality and food. Barely any side dishes (banchan).
I’ve been here multiple times and I’m sad to see the service is declining. Never has this kind of experience before! Maybe this combination of three young male servers in the front of house is not so great. Saddened.

After dining at Sujeo I was beginning to worry that there wasn’t authentic Korean food in the area and luckily found Sol’s on Unilocal!Thanks Unilocal!
As Joseph K says, I’m thankful for an actual Korean restaurant in the area (especially because I’m not a fan of Asian fusion foods) with FREE ban chan (side dishes). Although the side dishes were a meager portion during my visit, they had them… For free! And they were actually tasty! I am sad to see they no longer have the jajangmyeon (black bean noodles) which are my favorite so I decided to try their hot pots as they looked delicious in their pictures. And they were sooooo delicious!
We ordered the Ddeok bokki hot pot thinking it was very strange to have the rice cake with ramen noodles in the dish but oddly it worked for me. They used the proper rice cake for this dish and it tasted as though they made it fresh so extra points for Sol’s! It was a strange concept to have the hot pot cooking in front of us and not really knowing if we were cooking it or if our server was but we just left it alone and it all worked out as the server just came back as it was boiling and about ready. I can see where things can go wrong with the hot pot over boiling and thickening the soup to a sauce but that didn’t happen to us and the hot pot was a perfect balance of being more like stew, thick, not thin and runny. I wish I had tried the more traditional dishes like the bulgogi but throughoutly enjoyed the spicy Ddeok bokki hot pot and even had the leftovers the next day.
Sol’s is definitely refreshing given the lack of authentic Korean food in the area. I wish I could have tried out every place that claimed to serve Korean food but was happy with the food at Sol’s that I didn’t feel the need to venture out any further. If you love Korean food and have an open mind on their take of hot pots, definitely take the time to dine here. The service was good, not great, and the food quality was on point. I will definitely return to Sol’s the next time I’m in town.

My only favorite is their appetizer plate and beef bulgogi. Others were not that impressed. Would like to try the hot pot in the future though.
But since there isn’t too many choices of Korean restaurant in Madison, Sol’s is probably the best you can get in downtown.

I went here with my family. In general, this place was alright. We had bulgogi and the spicy rice cake. The bulgogi was fine, perhaps a little too sweet, but good.
The spicy rice cake was disappointing. There was too much water to begin with, so it took forever to cook that all into the thick, spicy rice cake sauce. But more than that, the type of rice cake wasn’t the correct kind for this dish. They used the rice cake used for soups, instead of the traditional long, cylindrical kind (Koreans NEVER make it with the thinly-​sliced, soup one). That’s fine, but they should have told their customers that they ran out and not to expect the proper kind. Even more than that, once we asked the waiter about it, the kitchen told him to say, «this is always how we make it.» I said that wasn’t true because I had seen photos that other customers had posted from this restaurant, and those times it came out properly. They didn’t have a response for that.
While we were annoyed that they didn’t tell us beforehand and didn’t make it properly, more importantly, they acted in an unprofessional manner (lying to customers). Otherwise, I would’ve given them another star.

We tried out Sol on the Square last night. We were greeted at the door and seated immediately. Our server was friendly and knowledgeable. The drink menu included some excellent cocktails and beers in addition to a small selection of sakes. The menu is limited. A few dumplings for appetizers; bibimbap, bolgagi, and about four hot-​pots with your choice of proteins. We tried the steamed dumplings, bibimbap, and bolgagi. The dumplings with the dipping sauce were tasty and there were plenty of them. The pork in the bolgagi is delicious. The flavors of the bibimbap were also tasty with a heat that kept rising the more you ate. These were accompanied by a relish tray of pickled cucumbers, daikon, a kimchi and something I’m guessing was soy. All of the flavors and textures were very good. We enjoyed Sol on the Square. Next time we want Korean food, we’ll be back.