No need to get your passport out to enjoy authentic Korean food. Seoul Avenue opened in early July at 728 Lake St. in Oak Park – the former location of Papaspiros.
Tteokbokki dishes, soups, rice bowls and fried favorites fill the menu. There are five Korean BBQ options, including beef bulgogi – soy marinated thin-cut strips of beef, grilled and served with rice and a mix of grilled cabbage, onion and carrots.
When restaurant owner Minha Sung first arrived in the U.S., he took ESL (English as a second language) courses at Dominican University. He later moved to New York for culinary school. Upon returning to the Chicago area, he worked briefly at a sushi restaurant where he met Chef Anthony Jung. Though Sung moved on to open his own restaurant/bar in Glenview, the two kept in touch.
They got back together when Sung sold his Glenview business with an eye towards opening a new venture with a Korean menu.
“I sold my previous restaurant and then I looked for a location near downtown. I was looking for one year,” Sung said, but nowhere seemed quite right. Then he remembered his time in the Oak Park and River Forest area and, “There was no Korean restaurant here.”
After an extensive renovation, Seoul Avenue is up and running.
“We’re serving authentic Korean food. No fusion. OK, a few items is fusion, but like bulgogi is really authentic Korean and taste is almost same as in Korea,” Sung said. “We serve popular Korean food. Everybody knows kimchi, but we serve also rice cake dishes and some soups.”
According to Chef Anthony Jung, it was an easy choice to join the venture when Sung invited him in.
“Because I know he’s a hard worker. We worked together short time at the sushi restaurant, but we matched personality,” Jung said.
The two take pride in the quality of their dishes. All meat is prime grade. And other ingredients are up to the same quality.
“We go every morning before opening to the Asian market in Schaumburg. So, everything is really fresh,” said Jung.
“Every sauce we made ourself. And for every dish it is different,” Sung said. “Beef bulgogi and pork bulgogi both are spicy, but the sauce is totally different. And then we also serve fried tonkatsu. Everybody think is from Japanese, but this is Korean style, so really different. I want customers to try that.”
Tonkatsu, spelled donkatsu on the menu in reference to the Korean version, is a breaded and fried pork cutlet, served with a house-made sauce with optional top of melted cheese.
Another menu stand out is dolsot bibimbap – a rice dish, traditionally served in a very hot stone bowl. The heat of the bowl crisps the rice on the bottom and comes with sautéed carrots, mushrooms, bean sprouts and other vegetables. The rice is topped with a fried egg and served with gochujang sauce, which is a Korean chili sauce that is a staple of the cuisine.
The drink menu offers many flavors of soju and flavored beer. And a private dining area will open in the future. But the focus is on the food.
“We’re gonna do a higher standard,” Chef Jung said. “We want to show people what’s the best of Korean food.”