To Soc Chon

decent food, awful service…
Assuming this is a family ran business… they need to hire a real waitress that knows how to greet customers, instead of someone that acts like they are helping out mommy’s guests as we felt like unwanted guests at their house… as stated food wasn’t bad at all but their attitude makes me never want to go back… definitely not worth driving 40min for their unwelcoming service!

Love this place. As the saying goes, «When looking for a good korean restaurant, follow the koreans.» (Is that a saying?) You know the restaurant is authentic, when all the customers are speaking korean.
I came with two of my friends. I got the gamja tang, and as expected it was awesome. We got a soon dae for the table to share, and as expected it was awesome. My friends both got soon dae gook, so they were obviously both soon dae’d out by the end of dinner.
Overall, I had a good experience and would come back again. The server was nice too, one of my friends was super hungry and ate two fills of side dishes and water before our food came out, and one more fill after our food came out, and the server was super cool about it.

It’s one of the new best Korean restaurants in Chicago.
My wife and I have been here time to time. We can’t forget this place.

They are always busy when I go to this restaurant.
The service is pretty nice, I have to say they have gotten a little better. When they first opened, they would say they don’t have peppers and the next server would bring out peppers. -.-
Portions are pretty small when it comes to soondae and the price are very high.
Still it is pretty good when it comes to Chicago. I would say the best Soondaegook in chicago.

The service was fairly decent.
The reason this place is only getting 1 star is because the food was overall lackluster.
My family and I ordered the Kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew) and soondae bokkum (pan fried korean sausage with vegetables and vermicelli noodles).
Let’s start with the kimchi stew, it was WAY too sweet. And for such a large bowl, you only get it filled halfway with actual soup, a handful of pieces of pork, four pieces of tofu and a super sweet broth. Kimchi jjigae traditionally shouldn’t be so sweet.
Soondae bokkum, $ 30 bucks for the whole thing is worth it. But the food itself, like the soup, was so sweet. There were massive chunks of korean chili flakes and all I had was a burn on my tongue from the heat. Don’t get me wrong, I love spice like any other korean. But, this dish was just all heat. It was like they tried masking the fact that there was no salt or pepper or ginger (as most korean dishes have) with just chili.
Last but not least, $ 2 for a tiny, half filled bowl of rice? No thanks. This was my second time dining here and both were awful, lackluster at best. I wouldn’t recommend this place.

Ok Korean restaurant. As a true Korean, raised on home cooked Korean food this restaurant didn’t wow me.
Service:
The service wasn’t very nice. During the meal, they failed to refill our water and we had to constantly ask for it. Then as soon as we were done with our meal, they immediately divided the two tables they had put together for our group and pretty much ushered us out. Now if this place wAs incredibly crowded then I would’ve understood. But they were empty! They had 2 other small parties sitting there!!! We were the largest group and it was just the 5 of us. How do you just interrupt the table and split the group’s table!?! That was the biggest turn off of the restaurant!!!
Food:
The soon dae guk was very bland and lacking in flavor. The bulgogi was a soup which is quite unusual for a bulgogi to be in a soup form. This is usually meat that is cooked in a broiler or pan fried. It was also overly sweetened. I’m also not a fan of the rice cake that was thrown in there. It doesn’t go with the rice that we already get on the side.
I am definitely being generous with this 2 star because I truly want to give them 1. The second star is simply for the cleanliness of the restaurant.

Dwae ji gook bab and Gam ja tang was horrible.
It had that distinctive pork smell which means they didn’t cook right.
Meats in the soups were cold that means they cook meats separately. It seems like they use same broth for every soup and just add different meats. No wonder soup has no flavor.
Ban chan was good and server was very professional.

I get the feeling that this is a legit Korean restaurant. Why?
1. The handwritten signs on the two front doors are written in Korean, and they were locked (we tried both), then we walked 75% around the entire restaurant until we found the back door that opened. I think it’s a trick game they play on non-​Koreans (just kidding).
2. Your hard-​to-​find dishes are here. I mean, I didn’t know most of these, and we frequent Korean restaurants in the Chicagoland area pretty often. I still don’t know these dishes and wouldn’t be able to recite them to you, so please refer to other people’s pictures and reviews. Even my kimchi jigae isn’t sold everywhere, but it was delicious — came with kimchi, a good amount of pork, and tofu!
3. They don’t waste time making panchan (you only get 3) or appetizers. It’s all about the various authentic soups here!
4. Your utensils are in a wooden box on your table.
5. All the diners were Korean.

I agree with Kevin Y., one of the best Dak Dori Tang. (sweet/​spicy chicken dish)
I think that was the only thing that I liked that I have tried during my 2 visits here.
The chicken falls off the bone and the flavor is great, though a tad on the sweeter side.
Soondae was a disappointment both times. Don’t even bother getting it. It’s not worth your money.
They also charge for the rice.
You do have to keep asking for more banchan (side dishes), but they have the kimchee done right!
I would definitely go back just for the Dak Dori Tang.

Hands down best dak tori tang in town. Plenty of chicken and potatoes… they dont’ skimp you like other places do.
They don’t give you much banchan so don’t expect anything. This is authentic korean dining at its finest!

Love the food since it served on sizzling pot… Any food served hot… extra better… i like the chicken, can’t remember the name but it was chicken in tomato sauce.

An authentic Korean dining experience can be found here. They serve mostly traditional soups or jungols (a bit more condensed than the regular soup). They provide side dishes, but most of them are kimchi. Their kimchi, radish kimchi are so beautifully made. They reminded me of beautiful Korea, the land of epicureans when it comes to food.
I love how clean and flavorful the pork soup is and I love the delightfully thick and flavorful quality of the chicken soup.
Try the soondae as well! Very very good and even though your shirt is bursting at the seams, everything is hard not to finish.
I took my friends here, and they were surprised at how clean the food tasted. Often Korean restaurants use a lot of salt, msg, and oil but most if the dishes on the menu tasted very healthy. «I feel very full, but I feel good about what I ate,» said my friend, after he ate the pork soup (I forgot what it was called in English).
I am not kidding about the five stars. Food is excellent.
The servers do speak Korean, if they detect you are Korean. If you don’t know Korean and you want to try this restaurant out, it might be better to come with someone who does.

I was very excited that this place was opening in Chicago (not many good Korean restaurants, if any at all). Here is my breakdown:
1. Soondae: it came out dry and cold. definitely not the traditional korean soondae taste. it tasted like soon-​dae off of a kid’s menu. the spicing in it reminded me of ramyun powder base.
2. Soondaeguk: nothing special about it. i’ve had better
3. Dakdori tang: tasted too sweet and it reminded me of ddukboki sauce.
I wanted to try the jokbal, but it wasn’t available when I went for lunch. I may update the review once I try the jokbal, but I’m reluctant due to my so-​so experience…

Got the pork stew and the blood sausage stew to share. Both were delicious! Broth and side dishes were perfectly seasoned. The décor is cleaner than most korean restaurants. Definitely coming back to try the other menu items.

I concurred with the word on the street; the dak tori tang was good. During prime dining hours, there will be a wait. Squeeze through and put your name on the list. My party had 6 and we had to wait 30 minutes. Other parties with 2 – 4 were seated quicker.

The lines at To Soc Chon are worth the wait. Their kimchi is the best I’ve had, and the soup was extraordinary – arrived at table still bubbling from the heat of the bowl.

I have never had such an awful experience with a restaurant before.
My friend and I got there around 6:40 and waited until 7:00 to get a table.
We didn’t mind the wait because they let us know that the wait may be up to 30 minutes.
The two younger waitresses were nice and tried to be accommodating but were clearly overwhelmed. When the waitress came to take our order we asked if we could take out one of the ingredients in a dish and the waitress said she would need to ask. No one came back to us to let us know or even take our order again for another 20 minutes. I got fed up and called the waitress over so she apologized and called over an older woman to help us. Another 10 minutes later the older woman came and was EXTREMELY rude. She had an unbelievably nasty attitude and told us that they can’t take out the ingredient so we were better off leaving. She tried to rush us out and yelled out that we were leaving so to «replace us». It wouldn’t have been such a bad thing but it was clear that she was intentionally giving an attitude and kept giving us rude looks and called us «children» in Korean. The older woman needs to get an attitude adjustment and needs to treat all customers well regardless of age.
Sorry I look so young.

Really good, authentic, comfort Korean food! The dak dori tang is spicy and so tender. The soondae is good but a little on the mushy side for my taste. The service was also great even though its pretty busy here. Glad it’s in the burbs!
Update: just went recently again and had their jokbal (pig feet) best I’ve had in Chicago. Highly highly recommend!

Soon dae is really good here, the soon dae soup is tasty as well equally.
Taste better then the one in new Jersey.
It does very well so it often runs out of ingredients so i recommend to go earlier than later (hence ending up having to close early some days)

My hubby loves this Korean comfort place. Menu is simple with pork specialty. If you’re not familiar with korean pork sausage, soondae, this may not be your kind of «comfort food». Personally, I’m not much of a pork person yet I had a craving for it soon after. I understand this is a chain but the food is well made.