SEOULMATES
ADDRESS: 8320 W 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90048
WEBSITE: https://www.seoulmatesla.com/
Last month, I was with my friends Angel and Julie down in Hollywood before we were getting ready to see a musical, and we were looking for a place to get a bite to eat before the show. We looked around at a few different spots that were located further from the theater, including Seoulmates, which I had found out about through TikTok. The food offerings sounded pretty good, so that was the spot we decided to give a shot.
The outside of the restaurant was definitely very vibrant, with a contrasting color scheme of sky blue, white, and black. Inside, there was really only space to order the food at the front counter, and then bar seating along the front window of the restaurant. There were tables located outside in front of the restaurant, which is where we ended up sitting.
Food-wise, the place billed itself as Korean street fusion, with a primary focus on tacos, bowls, or sandwiches, along with an assortment of fries. Since our show was going to be over two hours long, I didn’t want to weigh down with anything too heavy, so the tacos were looking like the best option to me. Honestly, all four of their main protein choices (galbi, bulgogi, Korean fried chicken, sesame chili shrimp) were sounding pretty good, but I was able to narrow it down to the galbi and Korean fried chicken options. We also decided to get an order of the kimbap to share between the three of us as well.
It was early when we arrived to the restaurant, right around 5:30PM, so just at the start of dinnertime. There wasn’t anyone else at first, but then several other groups came in after us as the evening continued on. For the most part, I thought that our food did come out to us at a relatively quick pace, with the tacos all coming out right around the same time. The kimbap did take a little extra time to come out, actually closer to when we were halfway through our main food already.
I went in for the galbi taco first, giving the lime wedge it came with a squeeze over the taco before taking a bite. The marinated American wagyu short rib in the taco was topped with coleslaw, kimchi remoulade, onions, and cilantro, served on a corn tortilla. The flavor within the short rib was good, and there was a nice char flavor from the grill on the cook of the meat. The only downsides for me were that the coleslaw was too much filler in ratio with the meat, along with the remoulade only being right in the middle, making it hard to get the flavor in every bite. It probably would have been better if applied length-wise to the entire taco.
Next up were the Korean fried chicken tacos, which had a similar topping composition as the galbi tacos, with the addition of pickles and radishes. The chicken was nice and crispy with the breading, but because the remoulade was only at the middle of the taco again, it caused some of the bites to eat a bit dry. I thought that better distribution of the sauce would have definitely helped improve the taco a bit. The pickles were a nice contrast to some of the other flavors from the ingredients, and a classic flavor combo with the fried chicken.
The kimbap was still super warm when it came out to us, and that was probably caused by the bulgogi inside the filling. The downside to the warmth, however, was that each roll piece kind of collapsed after handling it for a little bit. But the flavors between the burdock root, carrots, and bulgogi were nice with the rice, and the kimchi remoulade dipping sauce was a nice touch as well.
Was the food good? Yeah, I’d say so. But was the food great? That’s where I’d hesitate. I wouldn’t categorize it as something I would drive down to the area specifically to eat again, but I am glad that I gave it a try. The menu items did sound pretty good in concept, and the flavor combinations were nice. But the dryness in some of the tacos is where I thought the execution could have been a little better. If the concept of Korean street fusion appeals to you, it’d be worth giving Seoulmates a shot to see if it’s something up your alley.
Let’s now take a look at the Seoulmates Dish Spotlight. Asterisks (*) below mark my recommended dishes.
** Galbi Tacos **
Marinated wagyu short rib, topped with coleslaw, kimchi remoulade, onions, and cilantro, on corn tortillas.
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** Korean Fried Chicken Tacos **
Crunchy fried chicken topped with coleslaw, kimchi remoulade, pickles, and radishes, served on corn tortillas.
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Kimbap
Korean seaweed rice roll with carrots, burdock root, and bulgogi inside. Served with kimchi remoulade for dipping.
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Churro Fries
Churro pieces dusted with matcha and sugar, served with white chocolate dipping sauce.
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And finally, here are my rankings for Seoulmates:
Food: 3.75 / 5
While I thought that the flavors of the food were good, there were small elements of the execution I felt that could have been improved. There were, however, a good amount of food types that you could choose from on the menu.
Atmosphere: N/A
The exterior décor of the restaurant was definitely nice, with the color scheme helping it to stand out from the other storefronts nearby. But since the interior is so small with very limited seating, I didn’t feel there was enough to rate the atmosphere on.
Service: 3.75 / 5
The food timing was definitely on two ends of the spectrum, with our tacos and rice bowl coming out in pretty quick fashion after we ordered. But the kimbap and churro fries, on the other hand, ended up taking pretty long after we were into our main food and we were almost going to go back inside to ask if they had forgotten about them.
Price: 4 / 5
For where the restaurant is located, I thought that the food pricing for the tacos were pretty fair, with the quality of the ingredients representative of the price point.
Overall:
11.5 / 15
(77%)
Categories: California, Restaurants
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