Minari Oriental Restaurant

I’m a Korean American college student, it was my birthday, and I absolutely insisted on eating seaweed soup (meeyeokgook) as per tradition. Discovered this place after calling 15 other Korean restaurants in Chicago that all said they didn’t make seaweed soup. When I called Minari, the owner lady said that she could make seaweed soup (she didn’t even ask why I was looking for it), even though it wasn’t on the menu and I had called the day of – turns out, there’s a Korean market across the street, so she went to get the ingredients just for me. I Über-​ed from Hyde Park with a Chinese friend, but when I got there, the owner lady had packaged our meal to go because she thought we were taking it home. When I explained that we were going to eat there, she nicely and quickly unpackaged the food and served it to us in bowls – the food was still hot (or maybe she reheated it?). Also ordered bulgogi for my friend, who liked it a lot. Best service I’ve ever encountered at a Korean place. The owner couple were so friendly and attentive to our needs. Definitely will go again, despite the 30-​minute Über ride.

Soon do bo was good, but too cha (salty)…

Below average food and customer service. Would not recommend to anyone. Came for lunch on a Wednesday between lunch and dinner rush. Place was completely empty besides two employees working. My three companions and I were forced to seat ourselves. The waiter was not friendly and didn’t introduce himself. I ordered the mixed rice bowl. It was bland, not well seasoned, luke warm. They served our drinks from soda pop cans while the waiter touched our drink glasses around the rim of the glass. The waiter didn’t take the time to explain any of the Korean dishes. Ambience was equal to that of a doctor’s waiting room. Played Korean news loudly on the lone TV.

One of my fav Korean spots.
Love their banchans (small dishes)! Good service.
Try their Abalone congee soup and ttok bok ki

Great Korean food. Reminds me of home cooking. I really like Korean restaurants for the side dishes and they did not disappoint here! Had the dak gae jang. Chicken was tender and the soup was perfectly spicy. The fried mandoo was amazing as well!

It’s legit, authentic Korean food, cooked home style. They only make/​prep a certain amount of ingredients for each dish, so you might not be able to order some dishes towards the end of the night.
Their banchans are amazing, especially their seasoned cucumber! I got the ahgujjim, and omg it was just the right amount of spicy with just the right amount of bean sprouts!
Service was great, food was great, it’s baby friendly.

I went with a friend of mine last night I loved it. I had Hae mool Duk Bok Ki (Sea food spicy rice cake) even though it was very spicy. It was sooooo good. I also had Bi Bim Bop. The owner was so nice and friendly also.

This place has been around forever and they seriously keep it so traditional.
The owner is the cook and has always been this way.
You can expect the same great tasting food each and every time because its prepared and made by the owner.
Awesome food.
Their side-​dishes are delicious as well.

We stopped by this place in the last closing minute for a quick snack. This is a regular Korean dining place, but not a late-​night drinking lounge, so there was basically nobody and the owners were almost ready to go home.
We ordered one ddukbokki (spicy rice cake). for 9 dollars it was adequately cooked, but the dish lacked some ingredient, most prominently fish cake. Also, the rice cake wasn’t perfectly cooked, but some of them were a little hard. On top of that we were able to feel that the owner is so eager to go home. Nobody would know if we would have been given more time for a comfortable dining if we ordered more food.
Anyway, I think it’s not fair to bash on a restaurant after visiting it at their closing time and ordering only one dish for two people. So I will write a more fair review to the restaurant after my next visit, but I have no idea when that will happen.

I couldn’t trust So Gong Dong Tofu House to prepare a carryout dinner for my husband after being served under cooked food there, so I went next door to Mee-​na-​ri to order some take out. The lady owner was super welcoming and cheerful, which is a totally different attitude from the SGDTH’s owner’s attitude. I was a little nervous about ordering from here without reading the reviews first, but for some reason I thought it was okay to take a shot in the dark that night. I ordered marinated beef spare ribs and grilled mackerel. My husband enjoyed both of these dishes. The fish was especially fresh and juicy. Although the variety of banchan sides were not abundant, the sides were very tasty and in generous portions. The rice here was not your regular Korean white rice. It was sticky sweet rice with different types of legumes such as red/​black beans and garbanzo beans, which was quite tasty and had a unique texture. I look forward to returning here and trying more dishes!

I will give this place a lot of slack because it appeared the ahjumma (literally aunty, but in this case referring to owner), seemed to be the only one working the place (both in the kitchen and in the front) the night that we went. We wanted to order this chicken stew dish but was told that they don’t make it anymore, not that they ran out of it and stopped for the night but it seemed that they just stopped making it (if you no longer serve a dish please please please remove it from the menu so as to not tease customers like that). We ordered other dishes and I have to say that they were okay, not the best but certainly not the worst and the banchan (side dishes) was not that impressive. She did take a long time to fill water glasses and such and I think it was because she was the only one there working which is why I’m giving this place 3 and not 2 stars…

I live right near this restaurant and I’m glad I do. We’ve gotten takeout and dined in. The food is good and the owner is very nice. I only have a few complaints. They don’t have some dishes that I like, like the cold noodle soup, and they don’t offer a huge array of panchan. The restaurant is clean and comfortable and again the owner is very nice and friendly. Another plus is that they have a tv which is tuned sometimes to gossip shows. ;)

Came in here b/​c So Gong Dong Tofu House lady felt like she would close early at 8pm. Kwoky L is correct, there is no English sign, just Korean words in neon lights and the smell of bbq when you walk in the door.
Came in here for a simple meal… I enjoyed my dolsot bibimbap and my gf really liked her kimchi jeegae. Less banchan than most places, though they did include good kimchi and fermented egg. No sprouts or dried bean curd though. Similar to SGDTH, there were few people here, though the owner/​server didn’t seem to care. Sitting near the windows though, the neon lights buzzing was a little discomforting. And it was hot inside, we killed a mosquito when we sat down. Still, food was good, and were we to venture back here with a larger group, there is quite an expansive menu to try; the blue crab entrée looked tempting. Probably 4 stars for food, but the mosquito and heat in the place get a minus one.

This place has the best korean food hands down. I love this place, the food is so tasty i love it! A+++

While a small and informal establishment, the food was phenomenal and so fresh. I enjoyed the grilled white fish and liked our side dishes. The extra rice was appreciated.
Service was prompt and attentive.
I need to work on my Korean.

This place was so hard to find, partly because the sign is in Korean. Thank God I saw the photo before I went there. Otherwise, I would be lost. The reason I wanted to try this place is because I had really good Gam Ja Tahng in Vancouver and I found that Minari serves seafood spicy soup. So, I kinda wanted to relive the whole experience.
I ordered pan broiled squid, grilled white fish, and a deluxe seafood pot. The squid was excellent — sweet and spicy but the whitefish was just okay. It did not seem very fresh to me. There were a variety of stuffs in the seafood pot: crab, prawns, fish, radish, and even brains or brain look-​alikes etc. However, the soup seemed like it was made 10 minutes ago. A good soup base is boiled for hours and it’s hearty and flavorful. Clearly, this is not.
The side dishes are great and my favorite is the anchovies. The server kept giving me more side dishes when he saw that the dishes were empty. And there’s no charge for extra rice! I was kinda disappointed though that kim chee weren’t part of the sides.
The service was not bad but the server was not very good at speaking English. There were only two people working in the restaurant: the cook and the server. It makes sense because there are only 9 tables. So, do not expect fast service. I think I was the only non Korean in the restaurant. The signs inside were mostly Korean except the menu. If you want to try some cook-​it-​yourself Korean BBQ, this is not the place to go because they don’t serve any. I would rate them a 3.5 but I can’t. That said, this place is definitely worth trying.