05/08/09

Friendly Staff, great food!

by Cullen75

This place has the very BEST cucumber salad. It is one of my most favorite Korean dishes. The staff is friendly, and the "sushi and misc items" that go through the restaurant on a conveyor is a treat in its self! Great Korean food on the East side!

• Pros: Cucumber Salad O-E Muchim
• Cons: a bit far from me

09/30/08

Fabulous service and Delicious Food

by sundidi

Everytime I go I'm always impressed by the service and food. The owners/staff are very friendly and welcoming. They've done a lot of remodeling as well. Their food is consistently wonderfully prepared. I've been going here for a number of years and will continue to do so as well. I love bringing friends to this place because no one has ever come away unsatisfied!

• Pros: Service, Food, Atmosphere
• Cons: none

09/15/08

Best Sushi & Fantasic Service

by cor94vet

We have been to many different restaurants in the Portland Area and this has been the freshest sushi yet. The service is excellent especially when we were there last as they were short-staffed but the ones left were actually running around to the tables to deliver the food or help the customers. We have been here many times (at least 6 in the past 2 months) and the food quality and service have both been consistently good. We have not had all the menu items but of the ones we have had, they have been very good! I wish more Restaurants in Portland took after this one.

02/05/08

Well deserved praise for a wonderful Korean restaurant

by earthbeing12

Having lived on the economy in Korea we have the benefit of direct experience with the foods Korean's eat every day. Sorabol serves exactly the same dishes we ate on the streets of Seoul in an expansive and comfortable space. For the uninitiated, Korean food is incredibly diverse, robust, adventurous and, for lack of a better word, pure. Despite the abundance of American fast food, and TGI Friday?s-styled ?restaurants? in urban Korea, and the integration of Japanese cuisine into the fabric of Korean life, Korean food is remarkably and distinctly Korean. It draws upon itself, and is little influenced by outside cultures unless one dials back thousands of years. Sorabol?s offerings are authentic, and reflect a minimalist sampling of all that Korean cuisine has to offer. They have not dumbed-down the food to suite the bland American palate, so unlike the typical Mexican, Thai, Japanese, Chinese restaurants have in order to draw in the locals. Order Dwen-chong Chigai, a hearty stew which is as common a dish as one will find in Korea, and you will be tasting Korean food as it is in Korea. Bi-Bim-Bop, and particularly the excellent Tol-sot Bi-Bim-Bop at Sorobol, were dishes we survived on during our first weeks in Korea as we assimilated. Sorabol?s sushi bar offers typical Japanese imports, common in Korea, but try the Korean pan-chan, small dishes of traditionally served with the main course. Kim-chee, picked lotus root, marinated mushrooms, and a broad array of other temptations should not be missed. Wash it all down with Bori-cha, a tea made with roasted barley, served cold in summer, hot in winter, or a Hite beer, a very light Korean pilsner. Take time to chat with the staff, and seek their help in making selections. After a couple of visits, and some very pleasant conversations with the owners and staff, we were treated like regulars and welcomed upon walking through the doors. Certainly Sorabol is our favorite Asian eatery.

• Pros: Authentic Korean, great sushi, fine staff.
• Cons: None - keep your expecations to a minimum and enjoy.

01/12/08

One of my fav places in Portland

by yaewonie

Wow I'm surprised at the bad reviews I read. I have always found the service prompt, friendly, and polite. The food is really tasty, I recommend the kimchi jigae or kimchi bockum for those that like spicy food and the bulgogi for those that like mild but tasty beef, I found the portions plenty filling and I always seem to bring home leftovers. It also has a good atmosphere, kinda cool modern casual unlike the rather stiff feeling of more traditional korean places. I'm still getting used to the mix of sushi with korean food, but the stuff I got off the sushi belt is good and has plenty of options. I think this is a good place for people new to sushi, since I didn't see too much raw fish and their are lots of other alternatives. Yup, I like this place lots!!!

• Pros: friendly service, tasty food, casual ambience
• Cons: Can't bring in a huge party of 12+ impromptu

01/10/08

Great Korean Food! Good Sushi!

by chillip

I decided to give Sorabol Fusion Restraunt a shot. I've always eaten down at the Beaverton Korean restaurants. So today my girlfriend, my brother, and I decided to go in for lunch today. They got great daily lunch specials during lunch hours. For example, every Mondays it'd be 50% off Korean stews... Tuesdays 50% off Korean soup... and etc. Not only that, the waiter was extremely friendly and service was great.

We ordered BiBimBop, Mackerel BBQ, Hot & Spicy Pork BBQ, along with Soft Tofu Kimchi Stew! We had one hell of a delicious lunch... Very reasonable prices!

Definitely a must go to place for Korean food!

I am definitely coming back here again!!

• Pros: Service
• Cons: None

01/10/08

Not a same old typical Korean Restaurant

by ya1222

I tried this place again for my family gethering for the new year. And I don't understand why some reviews are so bad. We ordered one of thier set menu for 4 people, while the food was being prepared we picked up few sushi plates from the rotating belt, there were so many different kinds of fish, rolls, and other Korean stuffs, and for us the plates were interesting to look at, and good enough for the price they charge. There are tons of plates for under $2. And just by looking at the moving plates made us to lose the bordom of the wating for the main menu. and again, the main menu was not the top of all of the Korean Restaurants, but it was tasty enough for us. Also, the menu came with some 9 different little side dishes. The server was friendly but her accent was very hard to understand; however, she responded very nicely to my requests, such as refilling the side dishes, and such. At the last, green tea ice creams which were included the set meal gave us a nice cool feeling after eating the hot and spicy Korean BBQs.

In overall , the restaurant is not a traditional authentic Korean restaurant, but with a little loud Korean and Japanese pop music, tons of tvs with music videos on all the time, more likely for the trendy younger generations who cares not only the food, but also the surroundings of different auras. We spent a little over $70, and all of my 6 party members including the kids were satisfied with the restaurant with the reason.

• Pros: Main Korean menus with sushi snacks
• Cons: Somewhat too spacious ambience, Hard to understand server

10/13/07

Food okay, services *thumbs down*

by kioko

I've been to this place twice, before and after their remodeling. Before the remodeling, it was really packed and the place didn't look that nice. It often gets quite "warm" because of all the grill setting off. The food was okay. They aren't great, but you can eat them without gagging. After the remodeling, the places became more spacious and tidy. The food remains the same. They now have a "sushi bar", which serves "sushi all day long" (old). I've only tried their Korean BBQ and Rice dishes. They do not provide side dishes with their Korean BBQ. You have to grab them from the sushi rotating belt, and yes, they do charge you for them. I tried their Eel Rice Bowl and Spicy Squid/Calamari Rice Bowl, and they are absolutely not the best that I've had. Like I previously said, their food is nothing special. If you wonder about the sushi, I don't have much experience with that because they look absolutely disgusting and OLD. They seem to rotate on the belt all day! Their services is...I don't know the right word. They don't check on how you're doing and you really need to ask them if you want anything; after they took your order and after they brought out the food, that's it. I guess there's a reason why they're often so slow...

• Pros: Quiet, Spacious
• Cons: Bad customer services, "okay" food

08/14/07

Worst Korean food I've ever had.

by cabada

Wow, this place now has the largest, and worst sushi conveyor belt in Portland, and the most limited lunch menu in town, basically you can get bbq chicken, or bbq beef. its not that good, and very fatty, not good pieces of meat. i love Korean food, and this place is a never again. on top of that i waited 1/2 hour for water after asking, and 1/2 for the check after finishing i had to get up and ask for it, which i find embarrassing, and there was almost no one in the place! i love food, but this was my worst dining experience in Portland yet. OH, AND NO KOREAN PICKLED APPETIZERS come with the food, i dont think there even on the menu!!! not worth it.

• Pros: prompt seating
• Cons: everything else

08/13/07

Horrible Service

by pdxdesigns

So my girlfriend and I just got back from dinner at Sorabol restaurant and I would have to say that our experience there was quite forgetable although due to the service I will be reminded never to go there again. Although everything at surface seems well and dandy, the restaurant is a joke. I've never gone to a Korean restaurant that charges people for side dishes like kim chee. That itself is ridiculous, every Korean meal comes with kim chee, without charge! The service really put me over the top. The waitress never came by our table even though the restaurant was slow. When she did come by our table she was unhelpful, unfriendly and generally useless. We had to ask two times for everything, including asking for a glass of water. It was aggravating and mainly due to the service but also because of the unexpectedly expensive tab, I'd definately not recommend this place to anyone.

• Pros: A Pearl District throwback for people in SE, if thats a good thing
• Cons: Service