Lunch - Sunday Jan 20th 2019 around 2pm
Had a late lunch here today and ordered two sets and a marinated beef thing.
The food was nothing special. What stood out to me was once we ordered, the server just said “ok, salad bar.” *points to table*
I was wondering why she couldn’t complete a full sentence but whatever. I looked over to a table across the way and saw a sad looking plate of salad with empty bowls around it.
The crappy service is actually more about how they asked us to pay due to them closing shop for the afternoon at 3pm.
I totally understand why you would like people to pay first for your accounting purposes and what not. But it’s the way they handled it that really pissed me off.
By 2:50pm The cashier lady was running around with receipts asking people to pay first. Ok no problem, we gave her our credit card.
But when she came back round to get our signature, she had a receipt booklet in each hand and our table was full of food. I was in the process of eating a bite and there was nowhere for her to put the receipt down.
She just stood there with her hand out.
I scrambled to put my chopsticks and spoon down to get it from her and she hurriedly walked away.
I mean I don’t expect to be treated like royalty but come on, you could get someone to clean up the table first or have another staff to assist you to take some plates away.
This was a really crappy experience and will never eat at Sorabol again. There are so many better Korean options in Hong Kong.
By the way, Arirang is 1000x better than this place.
We ordered:
Two Lunch sets:
- Sundubu (Tofu soup) set.
- The bulgogi rice set
One A la carte:
The marinated beef thing, I think it's called Galbi-jjim
The salad bar presentation was a bit sad.
Taste wise I thought the salad was actually pretty good if not a bit too salty.
Did not try the soup as there was barely any left in the pot.
My bulgogi rice set was OK with very generous portion.
Just didn't like how the whole bowl felt a bit sloppy and wet. As if the rice had been cooked with too much water.
The Tofu soup was...really just tofu and kimchi soup. Kind of boring when compared to other Korean places where they would add their own twists with additional ingredients.
I know Sorabol has been in HK a long time and I've eaten quite a few times but this experience left a really bad mark in my mind.
Not exactly cheap and they plaster "Michelin Recommended" on the walls, in their menus. This creates a higher expectation but it really falls short of even basic service levels.
There are just so many places to eat in Hong Kong, people have more choice now than ever and Sorabol seems to have forgotten this reality.
I wish them the best of luck but will not be going back again. Ever.