Prejudiced and unprofessional staff and just average Korean food. Now let me start out by saying that my father is in the restaurant business and I was raised by my stepmom(who was born and raised in Seoul) so I know more than a thing or two about Korean food.
I went to Seoul Oak with 4 of my other friends. We were originally planning to go to Monta Ramen however, they were extremely busy so we decided to try this place instead. My friends have never really had Korean food before but I convinced them to try it out and away we went.
As soon as we entered we were greeted by a seemingly friendly waitress that asked us if we wanted to sit a a normal table or at a grill to which we responded by saying we wanted to sit at the grill. I helped my friends navigate the menu and the waitress got out drinks. Now she actually messed up our drinks twice but we didn't really mind. She was an older women (seemed to be in her 40's) and her English wasn't too great so we tried to be understanding. Three of my friends ordered some meat to be grilled and I ordered kimchi jjigae. One person in our party was a vegetarian and but wanted to try a particular noodle dish so we asked the waitress if it would be possible to order it without the fish. She told us that the kitchen could make the noodles without the fish and she went off and returned shortly with our sides. She kind of lingered around for a couple of minutes and talked to us about how it was nice of us to try Korean food and we sort of awkwardly nodded and smiled in reply. My friends were a little anxious to try their food and I assured them that they would be happy with their meal but I WAS SO WRONG.
From the moment our entrees arrived it was all wrong. First of all my vegetarian friend's noodles arrived and had loads of fish in it. EVEN THOUGH SHE TOLD US THAT THEY WOULDN'T PUT FISH IN IT. So, we asked the waitress if we could get a replacement dish (WITHOUT MEAT) OR just get it taken off the tab. (This is standard practice at most restaurants) But she told us that she didn't recall such a request and told my friend to just pick out the fish. So, my friend tried to pick out the fish and eat the noodles but lost her appetite.
Meanwhile my friends who ordered their bulgogi (that was to be grilled) arrived already cooked. And one of them actually received chicken....And we so we calmly told the waitress that their order was wrong. She disagreed with us and told us that our order was correct! I eventually told her that SHE WAS WRONG because WHY would we sit at a table with a GRILL and order meat that was ALREADY COOKED. She then became VERY defensive and accused us of trying to take advantage of her and try to order food for free. It was like she was bipolar because then she got all smiley and told us that the already cooked meat was better anyway and that everything would be taken care of then she just walked off. We all just sat there in shock and tried to eat our food but our meal was already ruined. We hardly even touched our plates before we decided to just get our check and leave.
BUT THATS NOT ALL. SHE CHARGED US FOR EVERYTHING ON OUR CHECK. She gave our vegetarian fish, and didn't give us anything we asked for. The only thing she got right was the kimchi jjigae....We asked her why she charged us for all of this when we clearly weren't happy with our food and even told her that we hardly ate any of it. She than got load with us and AGAIN tried to accuse us of trying to take advantage of the restaurant and eat for free. We argued with her and tried to get her to AT LEAST take off the messed up noodles that the vegetarian ordered but she wouldn't even do that. She called the manager/owner but he walked over and didn't really say or do anything. We eventually just gave up and paid but left EXTREMELY UNHAPPY.
There are 4 other great korean restaurants that I would rather go to than go to that place again.