San Chae Dolsot

After reading a couple of the positive reviews on this website about San Chae Dolsot, my girlfriend and I visited on Friday night to escape the cold weather with some warm Korean food. We had an excellent experience -- this is certainly one of the best Korean restaurants that I have visited in Chicago. My girlfriend (who is Korean and therefore much more knowledgable of Korean food than me) ordered for us: one large soup, one bulgogi dolsot, and the teuji-bulgogi (pork marinated in a chili sauce). The dolsot, we both felt, was alright, nothing spectacular. But I can't speak highly enough about the teuji-bulgogi and the extremely good panchan that came with the meal. Really top-notch stuff. My girlfriend declared it the best that she'd had aside from her mother's, which was good enough for me.

Although it's gotten some attention here, I think that San Chae is a place that deserves a bit more credit for putting out quality food at very reasonable prices. I'll definitely be headed back there -- don't know if I'll go for the dolsot a second time around, but I'm game to check out what else they might offer.

Based on previous posts about the dolsot bi-bim-bop at this place, a friend and i went a couple of weeks ago. It was good, very good, but not outstanding in my opinion. I also really really like this dish with the egg on top - but apparently that isn't the standard way of serving this dish. it was a doozy of a time asking the woman who was serving us to get them to put an egg on top (they served it on the side). and apparently i wasn't mixing my dish as quickly as she thought i should be, so she took my sticks outta my hand and proceeded to rapidly mix the ingredients in my dish herself. I was amused - it was a very mom-like thing to do!

I really did enjoy the service, as my friend and i were the only people in the restaurant late afternoon on a saturday and the staff was very attentive to us. I especially enjoyed all the little dishes of accompanying items. Not sure what all of them were, but immediately after eating, my friend asked me if i was ok. not sure what she was talking about, i looked in a mirror and to my surprise - my face and neck were beet red! i felt ok, but must have had a reaction to some spice i was previously unfamiliar with...

but i liked san chae - and i'll definately go back to try the teuji-bulgogi.

Yeah, I've noticed the same tendencies when it comes to the bi-bim-bap: everyone tells you that you have to mix it the "right way" but no one can describe exactly what that means. As far as I can tell, it just means to mix vigorously for a long, long time. Anyway, glad to hear that you had a relatively positive experience there, as well.

as you can see/read from the post here...
san chae's panchan, tho modest, is indeed tasteeee. it's never as good as MOM's tho as far as the dolsot bibimbap, i wouldn't even rank it as 'good', but just 'ok'.

jkt: why would you go back considering the namesake dish barely holds its own? just for the panchan? ask your gf to get her mom's taeji bulgogi recipe. i wager a bottle of San soju it'd take only an hour to make (even if it involves 'SECRET' ingredients like pear nectar & mashed kiwi), and will taste better than what's avail in this city...