Bbop Lounge, Korean in Old Town

Long time lurker, first post.

Sunday a friend calls suggesting we meet at a new Korean restaurant in the old Heat space. Another friend and I both took the suggestion with a heavy dose of skepticism considering the source and the lack of info.

Counting on our friend being at least 1/2 hour late, we first went to Adobo Grill to fortify ourselves with some Tequila, Pacifico and excellent guacamole. The Partida Blanco shot was probably the smoothest Tequila shot I've had.

Properly fortified we went over to BBop Lounge. The smell of delicious grilled meats greeted us, along with cheery smiles when we wandered into the empty restaurant. We were smelling the takeout orders they were making, they said assuringly, I think to make the empty restaurant not seem so much like a negative. It wasn't to me, since I didn't expect it to be very busy at 8:30 on a Sunday.

I instantly wished I had a bottle or two of Soju, maybe that was the tequila talking. Either way, we had to settle for the red wine that we brought. Red wine with Korean?!?! I would have brought OB or at least some Budweiser. Note to self...

We ordered haemul pajeon, seafood pancake, and a couple of variety of chicken wings while waiting for our ever late friends to show up. The seafood pancake was a bit pale, needing more time in the pan, but loaded with seafood. I only had one piece, but it seemed to be mostly octopus and it was good. My friends liked it better than most of the seafood pancakes they have had. I did not try any of the chicken wings but they did not look like they were of the same type as Great Seas legendary wings.

They brought out the banchan, or panchan if you prefer, fairly quickly, all on one plate. It was made by her aunt, the owner, one of the waitresses told us, and consisted of the greatest hits again: fish cakes, bean sprouts, radish kimchee, napa kimchee, cucumber kimchee, spinach and pickled daikon. One of the times they also brought out nori. They always made sure we had plenty of it, bringing out a fresh plate before the previous plate was empty.

The menu was one page and represented the 'greatest hits' of Korean food. Everybody, except me, ordered dolsot bibimbop. I ordered Kalbi. The kalbi was excellent. The dolsot bibimbop was
The menu was short, one page, and pretty much the greatest hits of Korean food. Everyone tried the dolsot bibimbop while I ordered the Kalbi.

The dolsot bibimbop looked good but I was dissapointed to see that the dolsot bibimbop was not in stone pots, but I was told that the rice was nicely caramelized. The Kalbi was delicious and executed better than most places I have eaten at. My rice was a little dry and not of the glutenous variety, but the dryness may have been due to the fact that we arrived just before closing.

The interior has the same layout as the old Heat, but the sushi bar area is now the BBQ area with gleaming stainless steel grills in the bar. There is a large flatscreen TV hanging on the wall behind it. I was told that they could bring out a hibachi to our table if we wanted BBQ, but that seemed like too much work to me.

The prices are expensive for Korean restaurants but that may be a function of the freshness and quality of ingredients, location and target market too. Its also nice to have a Korean restuarant that isn't way up north. I would go again, and plan to so I can try their Yoo Kae Jang but I usually do not try to rate a place until I have been there several times.

And next time I'm bringing Soju!

It is currently BYOB, because they are waiting on their liqour license. It sounds like it might be a while but you may want to call ahead to double check.

BBop Lounge
1507 N Sedgewick
(312) 981-1775

How would you rate it to other Korean BBQ places you've been too?
Gas or charcoal?

Thanks for info.
I've been wondering about this place.

If you want Korean BBQ then I would go to one of the other places that are favored here. If I recall correctly, they only had bulgolgi and kalbi available.

If you want Korean food and don't feel like driving up north, want more of a trendy restaurant feel, and don't mind paying a premium and have higher quality ingredients, then this might be a good choice. It also may be a better Saturday night date place than most Korean restuarants.

Of the banchan offered, it had the best and most in quantity since they focus on keeping you well stocked with it. The variety is a bit lacking though and misses some of my favorites.

As I said before, I don't usually pass judgement on a place until a few visits because too many times my opinion has changed from the first visit. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.

I didn't look that closely at the grills, and didn't ask about them but my guess is that they are gas. Our waitress offered to bring out a gas hibachi if we were we wanted to cook it. I prefer to have the cook cook it unless someone else is going to do the work for me at the table. I know, call me lazy because that's what I am when it comes to Korean bbq.

I plan on going back and trying a wider variety of dishes, but I need to try out Kim's or go back to Solga first.

And sorry, no pictures, but I'm not much of a camera person.

jsco wrote:I did not try any of the chicken wings but they did not look like they were of the same type as Great Seas legendary wings.

Consider yourself lucky. The wings were the low point of a forgettable meal I shared at Bbop Lounge a couple months ago. You're absolutely right that they have little in common with the excellent version at Great Seas. The small serving (all their portions are small) went mostly uneaten at our table.

hamcha wrote:Gas or charcoal?

Gas.