Seoul Soon Du Bu

Ordered the No. 11. Cashier was no smiles, no greet. As a matter of fact, everyone there looked dead, for an unbusy place. Took very long to prep cold noodles, never offered chopsticks or fork, had to make do with a spoon, a chinese guy eating noodles with a spoon, DAFUQ?! the kimchee was good though. Wanted to make a visit for the seafood tofu soup, but never mind already. I bet there’s better healthy /​vegetarian options than this sad place. P. S. I shoulda took a hint when there was no asian working an asian stand, only micronesians.

Service was excellent and the spicy pork kimchi soon du bu was delicious. They have purple rice, which is awesome!

This place had a 20% coupon in Shirokiya’s holiday mailer ad, so my husband and I decided to try this place after some Black Friday shopping at the mall. Since this is one of those eateries in Shirokiya’s food court, you order at their counter and take your food to one of the benches in the middle of the food court to eat. It was nice that we could order just one item and share since we didn’t want to eat too heavily.
We ordered the pork kimchee soon du bu and were told to take the ticket and pay at the cashier station. When we went to pay, the cashier said that the 20% only applies to the bi bim bap (this was a separate special going on where u didn’t need a coupon). The coupon was pretty clear «20% off entire menu» with the exception of the bentos. So after going back and forth with the cashier and the lady working at the counter, they finally honored the coupon.
The tofu soup was a little too heavy on the pork flavor but it was ok. Sides included two small scoops of rice (1 white, 1 azuki mochi rice) and about 5 different ban chan. The ban chan was so-​so and portions were small.
With the 20% coupon, total was around $ 8.50. I definitely wouldn’t pay full price for this but might consider going back to try something else if they had another coupon that they would honor without giving me a headache.

I think I was actually meant to be a Korean girl, not Japanese Chinese Dutch. I love Korean food, beauty products, everything!
I was craving Korean but my bf wanted ramen so the only logical place to go to settle both of our cravings was Shirokiya.
On the menu, it says they only have a seafood green onion pancake but ask mamasan to make you a kimchi jun and she will gladly do it for for $ 2 cheaper. I also ordered a pork tofu soon du bu.
Their payment system is a little weird as other Unilocalers have mentioned. Don’t forget to give one copy of the receipt to her or no food for you!
The soon du bu was really small for $ 11. My bf joked that I could’ve gotten one at chodang for just $ 5. It’s ok though– I bet her rent is sky high.
It still tasted good and satisfied every spicy Korean craving I had. The pancake was really good also, it wasn’t too thin and stuffed with veggies.
I’ll definitely be coming back and making this a weekly visit. Nomnomnom

S– SOON Du Bu at Shirokiya Yataimura Food Court just like the name states.
E– EVER had that craving for spicy hot Korean soup? Sometimes nothing else will do. You know who you are!
O– OVER priced some say. Hmmm? Problem is that this is at Ala Moana Mall. Overhead is high here, that’s just the way it is.
U– UNUSUAL location and unusual ordering system. Waaay in the back corner! Tell the lady your order, take the paper next door to the cash register, take the receipt back to the lady. Yeah, she is going to talk you out of ordering «spicy» unless you speak Korean. She knows from experience.
L– LIKED it enough that I would go back when I get the craving. Served in a sizzling stone bowl. Hot temperature and hot spicy taste. Comes with white and red rice and banchan. See the photos.
Clean and Fresh: This is food court style Korean food. Quality is clean and fresh unlike some more «authentic» Korean places that I’ve experienced. Nope this is probably not the most high end Korean soup that you have ever had either.
I had the Miso Tofu Soon Du Bu. I liked it. Also tried the Seafood Tofu Soon Du Bu. Not a lot of seafood but the flavor was there. This was the red spicy soup. Medium was spicy enough for me and my wife.
3-​Stars! A-​OK !

I remember having seen Seoul Soon Du Bu in the middle of Yataimura, and I recall that I wasn’t quite expecting to see a soon du bu place in the middle of a food court with curry, katsu, ramen, and udon. I stopped by today after picking something up at the Apple Store.
All in all — some pretty good parts, some not so good parts — a mixed bag.
Pretty good was the beef soon du bu. Not sure what the heat level was (the menu says choose plain, mild, medium, or spicy), but the person at the counter didn’t ask me. I assume it was medium. Yep, I could feel the chili pepper tingle on my soft palate, but it didn’t get to the point of agony, although it did get close a few times. Nice soft tofu too.
Not that great was the banchan — so you get the picture, the side dish was a standard 9″ diameter partitioned plate. In the big part was one scoop of white rice and one scoop of black bean rice. Then divided between the two smaller parts were about nine or ten TINY portions of various banchan — maybe about one bite each. OK, maybe I’ve gotten spoiled with Yummy BBQ and its clones where you choose four banchan from a smörgåsbord. However, I would rather have that and enjoy my meal without wasting food, than have a dozen tiny portions, only about half of which look appetizing, forced on me, take it or leave it.
In the end I ate the white rice and about half the banchan portions. Sorry, I wasn’t feeling very adventurous in the banchan department, as eating the soon du bu was an adventure in itself.

I decided to try the soon du bu instead of my usual ramen or musubi at Shirokiya. Being swayed by the last customer telling me that it is really good, I decided to try it:
Soon Du Bu — 2 stars — for $ 9.45 plus tax, the price is not worth the dish. It’s ok, but I’ve had much better tasting soon du bu and pan chan that will fill me up at Korean restaurants right outside of Ala Moana. Something was missing from the dish that didn’t have that unique flavor I always crave at other places. There were a lot of clams, but I think it was frozen because it wasn’t with it’s shell either. I liked that mochi rice they offered which was different.
Pan Chan — 2 stars — I couldn’t eat the panchan that came with the soon du bu. It didn’t taste as fresh or have the flavor offered at other korean fast foods. I think the only one I could eat was the japanese root and the seaweed.
Service — 4 stars — the lady kept asking me if I wanted to order as I stood there deciding which place to eat — on the left — ramen or on the right, korean. She was friendly and mentioned they also have mild, which is a miso soup style. I craved for spicy so I ordered the medium, and she mentioned that they offered mild because a lot of people can’t order spicy because they have stomach problems after.
P. S. In addition to Nicole’s review — I’ve come to accept, and feel really old, but the lady didn’t mention that I should get the mild because of my age. Maybe she learned not to say it anymore from previous customers reactions. ;)

My poor mind reading skills led to a not-​so-​stellar service experience here so I thought I should provide an informational review to help others.
Apparently on this side of Shirokiya, ordering is a three step process.
ACTUAL Step 1: Go to counter and tell them what you want to order. They give you a little card with that menu item on it.
ACTUAL Step 2: Take card to register. Pay for food. (CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE HERE — Select WRONG STEP 3 for crazy times or ACTUAL STEP 3 if you like food without spit in it).
WRONG STEP 3: Sit down. Relax. Eat half of your boyfriend’s delicious food and partake of his beer. Glance back at the counter repeatedly, hoping your Miso Soon Du Bu will come out soon. Feel sad and forgotten.
WRONG STEP 4: Go to counter to ask about food. Get scolded by lady at the counter because BRING RECEIPT or NO FOOD.
WRONG STEP 5: Rummage through purse, rummage rummage rummage, where the f*ck is my receipt, (Boyfriend suggests cancelling order, refuse to cancel order), RUMMAGE RUMMAGE, realize you folded up receipt into a tiny square, unfold said square, (Lady from counter comes over to scold you for not understanding the process, tell lady SOMEONE — either her counter-​person or the cashier — should have TOLD ME THIS lady goes and yells at cashier but can’t yell at her employees at the counter because they don’t speak english or korean), give lady rumpled receipt, receive Miso Soon Du Bu, ask why it’s not spicy, learn from Lady that MISO SOON DU BU IS CHEAPER AND NOT SPICY BECAUSE OLD PEOPLE CANNOT EAT SPICY. Stop arguing with Counter Lady because I don’t understand the logic and I am not old.
ACTUAL STEP 3: Go give the receipt and the little card with the food on it back to the counter. Sit down and await your food.
I’ll add that in this case, my food was the aforementioned NON-​SPICY Miso Soon Du Bu which nonetheless had lots of flavor which may or may not be because there was angry saliva in it. The soup comes out boiling hot in a stone pot and is accompanied by one scoop of black rice, one of white, and assorted banchan some of which are tasty. I added the kim chee to my soup to get that spicy flavor I was hoping for since as mentioned above I AM NOT OLD.