Buba

Nice place with good drinks and music. Soccer and basketball are always on with exceptional Mongolian cuisine. RECOMMENDED.

Order their Huushuur and Buuz made my Tseegii Egch. They have the best Mongolian traditional dishes in Chicago. Highly recommend

Definitely has changed a lot, I long for the old days when you walk in and everyone knows your name and you can be best buds with the bartenders (nerdy girl talk all night)! The management switch was okay at first but now nowhere near the same place as before, now a girl cant go in and relax ALONE. Bring back the old spirit of Waba!

So Waba changed management (Mongolian instead of Korean) and it’s name (by two letters) to Buba. At first glance, it may seem this is largely a invisible transition. After all, the interior and décor is largely the same. But to me, it’s a jarring switch that makes me long for the good old days.
Maybe it’s the fact I was close with the old management and staff or maybe I loved the home-​cooked Korean food that I take this so personally. But this place just doesn’t feel as comfortable or homey as it did before. To be fair, I didn’t get a chance to try the Mongolian dishes, so I really can’t comment on that, but that spicy beef stew that the old owner personally made? To die for. And it’s nowhere to be found on the new menu. Not that I would want them to try to replicate it.
The Korean food I did order was largely bland and generic. Nothing tasty or distinguishing about it. And at the prices they were charging, it was enough to sour the evening.
I suppose I owe it to the new management to give it another shot, particularly the Mongolian dishes, but it’s gonna take some time to make the transition for me.

I was here for an afterparty a few nights ago — and I must say, almost everyone there was came from the same event. I wonder what it’s like there when no one holds an event — does anyone even go?
Overall, I thought the venue was the definition of «Meh.» Service at the bar was incredibly slow and disorderly — they seem to take the orders of whoever is the most aggressive or manages to spit out their order the most quickly. There’s no coat check, so belongings are piled haphazardly over benches and chairs, meaning that, at the end of the night, being able to find all of your belongings — let alone together or in the same general area and condition in which you left them — is basically a coin toss.
I’d probably go again if another afterparty was held there, but I definitely wouldn’t choose to go there on my own.

Buba was barren on a Friday night at 12am. There were only two tables, including mine. Should they consider more aggressive marketing?
The three of us shared a soju cocktail with pineapple juice and Korean seafood pancake. The soju cocktail came in missile-​shaped plastic bottle. It was not particularly strong but the tropical flavor was refreshing. Our seafood pancake came with banchans of kimchi, seaweed, and cucumbers. Can almost never go wrong with these typical side dishes! The pancake was soft and flimsy. It was a good portion to be shared.
Karaōke rooms are offered at a reasonable price and their menu also contains a few Mongolian dishes. Would definitely like to return and try out the other menu items!