Touch of Seoul

I wouldn't know how good the food is... I've been waiting for over an hour. No one in the joint has food...

Now my review here is not a complete one since I never got to eat the food. In fact I've heard decent things about their food. But our service here was epically terrible so I think they deserve to have a one-star review on their record. We went there with three other couples on a group date. We arrived with about 1.5-2 hours between our arrival and the start of the play we were going to attend right around the corner at Provo Theater Company (another one-star establishment incidentally). The restaurant wasn't crowded at all so I was relieved.

We were seated at a table relatively quickly and then left without menus for a good 10-20 minutes. Which I found odd. When menus arrived it didn't take us long to come to a consensus on what we wanted but it did take us quite a while to flag down the one harried server in the restaurant. She was single-handedly taking all the orders, seating all the customers, bringing out all the food, filling up water classes, cleaning tables, and maybe even cooking? Of course she also spent a large chunk of her time chatting with people, which is what made it more than a little bit annoying.

I was actively trying to get her attention throughout all of this, even calling out to her with no result. Finally I was able to get her attention and she came over and took our order. By this time we had a little less than an hour before our show started and I emphasized to her that we were really in a hurry and asked her if we would be able to receive our food in time to make our show in 45 minutes. She said that would be no problem at all and then hurried off.

Ten minutes passed, 20 minutes passed, 30 minutes passed and she hadn't shown any hint of returning with our food (or filled up our long-empty water glasses). We eventually left and I'm not even sure we were able to get her attention long enough to inform her of this fact.

This is the only time in my life I have had to leave a restaurant before my food came out and I was extremely disappointed since I was excited to have my first taste or real Korean food. I don't give out many one-star reviews but unfortunately I feel like I have to here.

I went here with some freinds from work and I have to say it's a good thing I didn't have to pay for the food. To start the kimchi was horrible, and it tainted the taste of everything I ate. I ordered the pork bulgogi and it was also lacking in flavor. One member of our group ordered the kimchi bokkum bop and it was so bad that he was forced to eat off the plates of others for the remainder of the meal. If your looking for Korean food I would recomend avoiding this place.

Whenever I stayed at Provo, I made it my point to visit here. I needed to get my Korean kick :) Now, having had Korean food in LA, Korea, home cooking, etc., I would rate this place 5 between 0 to 10. Of all the dishes I enjoyed the most - its miso soup and spicy squid. Their kimchi is edible - nothing fancy - edible :)

The service can be slow, its mother and daughter operation. If you end up in Provo and need Korean kick, this place will do. Check it out and judge it for yourself.

I have taken my American friend and a friend from India and they enjoyed it. So, from someone that doesn't eat Korean food on a regular basis, its worth visiting :)

day 19 the quest for rice.

i haven't had rice in days. i been just eating breakfast food for the past week! and what do you know, theres one korean restaurant in the provo/orem area. one review. i had my hunches and had to check it out.

a touch of seoul? yes. but just a touch haha.

there was a decent number of people and quite a few asians. i didnt see one asian this whole time til i went to an asian restaurant, go figure haha. i had to wait around 20 mins to be seated and around 35 minutes for my food. wow and i think i'm being conservative with the wait.

they only had one server too. i dunno if thats normal but this is too much for one server. i had the food. it was alright. i was certain i was going to give it a 1 or a 2. but the waitress apologized and did remember everything i asked for even if it took a while and even chit chatted with me.

here is me eating my 2nd bowl of rice.
http://static.px.yelp.com/bphoto/r6Zm9o8jagCvveooD25FUA/l

but the thing is. im no foodie or a snob and its not fair to be. you gotta really curve things. i cant rate this off of my experience in la, thats like la-ism. maybe here this food is exotic enough for the wait.

if la had a zimbabwe restaurant and the wait was long, people would think its worth it even if the food isnt that great.

now the food here was ok, decent. and they hooked me up with extra rice and extra meat cuz of the wait. so i give it a 3. cuz its special. but the wait and lack of extra servers is ng. ng means no good haha.

now utah is not known for a lot of asians or koreans. i remember growing up in oregon and you would run into people who were from a place with even less asians and would tell me about the one korean guy or girl they knew, even would show me a pic sometimes haha. now their basis on my whole cuture is off that one or two or few people in their town. and usually its never a good impression. either an awkward looking guy or girl dressed badly with a hair cut their mom musta cut. and its like...

going to australia and the only american there was screech and tellin zach about it and thinking they must be the same.

why am i bringing this up haha? i saw no attractive koreans or asians at all here haha. and i hope the people around there don't base their judgment on my peeps off that. i was thinking, do they think i look like that???

its hard for everyone to understand. but i know theres some minorities out there who will be like, yes i get you man!

like lets say you are a cool handsome black dude and you go to france and all they know about blacks are from family matters and think you are like urkel. its that kind of feeling haha. well i dunno if thats true but that would be scary if that's all people here knew about us haha.

this all relates back to the restaurant. competition makes everything better. the first korean restaurant in la must have sucked. when the second one came, it made the first one better. competition forces improvement. haha. if you are the only korean around, you don't have to be that cool, to be cool. when theres a million, you gotta be pretty damn cool to be cool haha.

haha i dunno. its just something i was thinking about. if you were the only american in abu dhabi, whats the chances you will look like brad pitt?

This was my first time trying Korean food, and I loved it! I got the bim bam bo, partly because I had it recommended to me, and partly because it sounds like the Cantonese word for ping pong and is extremely fun to say.

I enjoyed experimenting by adding the different sauces, pickles, and condiments to spice it up. The best part of the meal, though, was probably the ginger tea at the end. To think, I almost passed it up... until the waitress informed us it was caffeine-free. Funny, it was like she knew what we were thinking... Bet she gets it a lot in Provo. Anyway, I still dream of that tea and someday I will go back to Provo just to get some.

If you love Korean food, you don't have many choices in Provo, but Touch of Seoul is a good option. Check out the Bi Bim Bab, one of the most unusual asian dishes. The variety of little pickles keeps things interestings, while the marinated meats are a solid example of yummy korean BBQ. Best of all is their homemade kimchee. Buy a jar of this good stuff to take home with you!

Korean is my go-to comfort food of choice. I am not Korean, nor have I ever been there. But there's something about the menu at Spicy Korea that keeps me coming back for more. Their service is friendly. Their portions are very generous.

I recommend the kalbi ribs - solidly the best ribs in town. I also love Jaeyook and dakkguk.

After a recent trip to Korea I came hone looking for a local place that served BiBimBap. I found it and it was great. Order it in a hot stone bowl mmmm