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| - The atmosphere threw mixed messages on all levels: style, mood, and formality. There was no sense of brand or cohesion. The dining area felt unfinished as if the designer had started on a concept but quit in the middle of the process and the rooms were left incomplete and the decor was put together by a well-meaning but untalented amateur let loose at TJ Maxx. The restaurant didn't feel mindfully, purposefully minimal but rather lacking and empty. It's a shame because I can see artifacts of what seemed like a really cool concept coming through in things like the logo and light fixtures.
The women's bathroom seemed to be forgotten in the effort to do something about the dining area. It was dark, dingy, dirty, and even more confusingly decorated, loosely speaking, than the rest of Yori Q.
Nevertheless, the menu had a solid selection of casual, fast/pub-style fusion dishes, and the food was good, and that's the most important part. Yori Q is somewhat Americanized so don't come with the wrong mindset and expect to find anything like soondae or lotus root side dishes. I thought the menu was appealing to a Midwestern college area.
When we arrived, we had the choice to sit at a table with or without a grill. We sat at one without. We ordered the corn jeon, galbi, and kimchi jjigae. The food was yummy. Nothing truly phenomenal in taste or presentation. However, the corn jeon stood out among the dishes we ordered. It was a sinfully good combination of chewy, fried dough, corn, spicy mayo, and sweet sauce. I've never encountered this dish in Korean cuisine and it was a pleasant, new experience. The price for everything was appropriate and the meal was more than enough for two hungry people.
Service was really great, too, though we went when it was nearly empty, so I can't speak for peak times.
I would probably come back just to eat the corn jeon lol.
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