Seorabol Korean Restaurant

Seorabol located at 5734 N. Olde 2nd Street is a Korean Restaurant that offers a large array of Korean food, sushi, and Korean BBQ. The place was relatively big with two rooms. The table were customized to be used for BBQ and not to be used for BBQ. There was a cover over the grill if you chose not to do the Barbeque. Another unique thing was that there were buzzers at each table for you to call the server when needed. This is what I call cool beans. They also provided complimentary Barley Tea, side dishes known as Banchon, and Cinnamon Tea. 

The Barley Tea was good and rich in nutty grain favor. It was my first time tasting barley tea. I didn't know what it was at first, but thought it was some tea made of grains. I was questioning if it was some kind of rice tea if that even exists. My friend then informed me it was Barley Tea. 

Barley Tea

The Banchon was good. As you can see below there was an assortment of foods- cucumbers, string beans, broccoli, radish, kimchi, potatoes, dried shrimp, egg, and bean sprouts. All of the mini dishes were served cold and a majority of them have the fermented taste. If I was asked to pick a favorite, I think I like the bean sprouts the best. 

Banchon

As an appetizer beside the Banchon, we got Haemul Pajeon (mixed seafood, onions, and scallions pancake). This might be one of the best savory pancakes I ever had. It was tasty, crispy on the outside, and soft in the inside. There was some kind of red hot sauce for it. In my opinion, no sauce was really necessary. It was delicious on its own. I could devour this whole thing myself, but I had to share. Sharing is caring. This is definitely a pancake I will dream about. 

Seafood, onions, and scallions pancake

For my entree, I ordered Hemul Dolsot Bibam Bap (hot stone bowl assorted vegetable and squid over rice). The stone bowl rice came with squid, clams( which I wasn't expecting), sauce already in it, limited amount of vegetable, and shredded seaweed on the top. The squid was cooked to perfection. It was very tender. The rice on the bottom was crispy. I really wanted to like this dish. I think I would if a few changes were made. I wished they had put the sauce on the side. The sauce was a little too hot and a little too much for me. It was kind of weird that they mixed the sauce in because two of friends who ordered the beef hot stone rice bowl got their sauces on the side. Also, there wasn't enough vegetables in the bowl. The only vegetable I notice was cabbage. To make up for the lack of veggies, I added the bean sprouts from the Banchon to the bowl. In addition, I don't like clams. I could do without them in the rice bowl especially since it was not mentioned in the description. I gave the clams to my friend. Next time if I decide to order a rice bowl I will make sure to specify sauce on the side. 

Vegetable and Squid Hot Stone Rice Bowl

Lastly, the dessert was Cinnamon Tea. It was refreshing. It tasted like cold water blend with cinnamon and sugar. A great way to end a meal. 

Cinnamon Tea

Overall, I enjoy all the complimentary foods and drinks. I will definitely be coming back for that as well as the seafood pancake. I will also like to try different things on extensive menu.