Ambience: 4/5
Cost: 3/5
Food: 4/5
Service; 3/5
I had heard good, authentic Korean food being served here at SongCook's and came here tonight to give it a try for dinner.
We had to wait a little bit for a table (not too long, 5-10 minutes); it was probably around 7pm on a Sunday and we didn't have reservations. It was actually packed, which I was quite shocked to see considering the time of day.
The restaurant seating is interesting as you get to pick between sitting in the area with tables and chairs, or the other more "home-y" side where you have to take off your shoes and seat cross-legged at a short table (I wonder if the idea came from how Koreans traditionally ate?). We didn't realize until we said "it doesn't matter, just as long as we get a seat" that they then brought us over to the other seated situation. There was a large screen TV playing the Olympics, so I actually felt like I was at someone's house being served Korean food!
The menu is quite large with an assortment of rice (white, brown, brown and barley, etc), but we ended up getting a dolsot bibimbap, gamjatang, and another soup-based dish that was in a photo labelled "Pork Delicacies!". This was eaten with our complimentary appies of kimchi, brined vegetables, and beansprouts.
The food was relatively good, I enjoyed my dolsot bibimbap in its hot stone pot and the two soup-based dishes tasted good as well; a little on the bland side, which I don't mind at all (I think that means less MSG :D). Generally speaking, I think they have better food than some of the other chains I've visited (Nak Won, Owl) though I think those had better banchan.
The service was a little bit lacking; it took a while for someone to come and take down our drinks, took someone even longer to place our order, and several of our requests after that were usually forgotten (i.e. water jug, more napkins, more tea) and we'd have to ask multiple people, multiple times.
Tip: if you are self-conscious about exposing your (smelly :P) feet nor enjoy sitting cross-legged, opt for the table/left side of the restaurant! The tables here usually fill up faster though.