Dae Bak

I’ve only came here after I get off work at 12 am. Big plus: they serve hot pot! My favorite! Lol
I tried the kimchi broth beef with ramen, it definitely satisfy my cravings for a late night munchie! It’s always crowded even at night, must be a hit place for the young people.
Kimchi fried rice $ 12 not bad too. I asked for extra spicy. The only bad thing is that they play really loud music, like club status. I couldn’t talk to someone across from me without yelling lol

Love this restaurant! We usually came here really late at night with a batch of friends. Can’t believe they open until 2am which is so rare in Bay Area. And their service is always great!
Definitely remember to order their fruit soju with your friends. And the 1 person hotpot is tasty and good value.

we randomly found the spot while driving down el camino and neither of us has ever heard of it before, so we parked it and went in. i like how dim the place is and how they didn’t try to sell me anything i explicitly didn’t order. service was great. homie and i both got the seafood ramen. he ate it up quick, the food was way better than we expected. i liked how there was plenty of the little sea animals in the soup, most places don’t put as much.
the music sucked, it reminded me of quickly, but at least they don’t inflict the entertainment as loudly as quickly does. they have tv’s and a small bar area. the staff is very friendly.
definitely coming back for drinks with friends.

Came here one late and and really loved it. First of all it’s one of the few places around the neighborhood that is open late. I currently live around the LA area so I’m not used to how few places are open so late but luckily dae bak happens to be one of them.
All their soju drinks are really adorable, especially their watermelon soju and I loved the kimchi fried rice I got there.
If you’re looking for a place to hang with friends late night over good food and drinks then this is definitely the place to go.

Food:
we ordered octopus, and a few other dishes. All pretty good and well made. But can’t say it’s the best In town. By hey no complaint here. I enjoyed it. Decent portion. Price, considering the kind of place this is, it was reasonably priced. All food came out steaming/​sizzling hot!
Service:
Very nice, attentive, checks on your often to refill water and/​or small dishes. They also take time to explain /​answer any questions you may have on the menu (for you none Asians). and yes they can speak almost perfect English.
Atmosphere:
Nothing fancy. But it’s clean and well decorated, for an Asian restaurant at least. Lively, but not obnoxiously loud. Nice place to enjoy some food and hang out with some friends.
Summary. Food was good, and servers were very attentive. Beer is beer and straight soju is soju. But, flavored soju was well mixed, and strong.

Watermelon soju — can barely taste the alcohol for the first few shots… Do the refill for fraction of the cost!
French Fries — big portion
It does get busy so call ahead and reserve a table!

We went here after having KBBQ from a nearby restaurant with the intention of trying out their soju served in a fruit!
We ordered the watermelon soju! It was really good! I thought it wasn’t really enough for a group of four (and it wasn’t all that strong). But the good thing is they do offer refills for half the original price, so drink away!
Will definitely be back to try their other soju flavors and the foods! Great customer service also!

DAE BAK FRIES ⁵⁄₅
YAASS. These fries are AMAZING. I mean… potatoes, melted cheese, sour cream, bacon bits, ground beef (?) and jalepeno pieces… who can resist?! I surely can’t. Potatoes are my Kryptonite. Specialty fries are my poison. That’s all I have to say.
PINEAPPLE SOJU ⁵⁄₅
mmm yes! Deliciousness. Soju comes out in the actual fruit, holstered ontop of a dish that has dry ice underneath, giving it a super awesome fogging effect. This would have to be my favorite fruit soju and I’ve tried the watermelon and honey dew ones.
When I came with my friends, we got 3 rounds of the soju… pretty worth if you ask me! Refills are about half of the total cost.
Be aware, you might want to make reservations if you plan on coming on the weekends because this place gets packed. Parking is limited due to it being in a very small strip mall, if you can even call it that.
Food is pretty good, but expensive. I’d just stick with the fries. YUM

I basically came here for the soju! It was served in the honeydew itself.
Yes it was large, shared between 2 felt nothing. Guess it was just juice/​water?
Ordered fried rice kimchi and calamari, honestly I felt were kind of expensive?
Chairs/​booths so uncomfortable. Def could not have an intimate dinner.
The music they place is like kpop with? R&b break up songs it’s kinda depressing.
The servers were ok.
Eh just a sucky place to visit.
Go somewhere else
Tab was 60 $ for 2appetizers and a soju…

If it weren’t for the fruity soju they serve here, I probably wouldn’t come regularly.
1) The food is very overpriced. The restaurant prides itself in that everything is served family style. But you’re still looking at spending around $ 30 per person when you come here. They have very good pajeon I have to admit. Their kimchi jjigae is also quite delicious and comes with a lot of ingredients. I would say if you decide to get the kimchi fried rice, skip the cheese. It was too heavy and kinda disgusting in my opinion.
2) You must try one of their fruity soju! We had the pineapple and it was delicious. Their watermelon is very popular as well but definitely ask the server what fruits are in season right now so they can let you know if you’ll be getting a bang for your buck as the larger fruits are $ 22 a pop.
3) This place is VERY Korean. They play Korean entertainment shows and Korean music everywhere. So… come with Koreans? Either way, I had a very pleasant time here.

Someone needs to explain to me why most korean restaurants are so darn expensive. Some more then others. Seems like the going rate of sizzling meat is around $ 18 – 20, portions varying.
The pictures on Unilocal were interesting so we decided to give it a go. Wish we got a chance to try the soju’s served in fruit but wasnt in the mood to get liquered up.
The food was mediocre. Nothing stood out really and the bulgogi was portioned small vs the price. Pass on the calamari and hot pot. So if you’re here to not drink but just eat, I would go elsewhere.
Service was nice. They werent that busy so hard to tell how it would be if the place was packed. Probably wouldnt be back unless I want to get my buzz on with some korean food.

So we came here for those crazy soju bowl drinks everyone was raving about. We ordered the watermelon one to split between us as was recommended by reviewers.
I was sad to see it was a whole $ 22, and the other dishes were similarly more higher priced than we were expecting.
The soju wasn’t super strong, but sweet and good, with some slivers of watermelon in it. When it was served, it had a lot of steam coming from the bottom. Pretty cool.
Glad we tried it. I would bring someone back to try the drinks, but the gyoza we ordered was just okay. But it was a very large amount — so I guess that makes up for my pricing complaint.

Hands down best ever late night korean hotspot in town!
If you’re looking for fusion korean bar food stop by.
Every time I bring people to this place, I always order the cheese corn. Every single person is in love with the cheese corn.
What really drew me to this place is the fruit soju in the actual fruit! It’s amazing! $ 22 for one. I think it’s the perfect amount to share for 2.
Surprisingly the service is great too!

Great variety of food you can get here besides the usual korean bar stuff. Everything was pretty tasty. The fruit soju is a lil overrated but its cool to get it for ur first visit. Taste was actually not that sweet but the soju wasnt overpowering either. DONT GET THE COCONUT SOJU. Its the worst one… taste is bleh.
You can’t really go wrong with your order but I recommend the steamed pork ribs.
Overall, even tho I think everything is a lil on the pricier side, I enjoyed the food and would def come back.

I wanted to give more stars but *cringe/​tear* I can’t.
I was super stoked to come in and give Dae Bak a try, after passing by many times on my way to other Korean restaurants. Our favorite had a line out the door so we drove down the street and walked right in.
Here are the things that deserve SHINY Unilocal Stars:
Beef Bulgogi — A+ Super delicious. Chef is doing something RIGHT.
Fruit Soju– THANK you for being one of the few that enhances this wonderful creeper spirit.
Salad– Great flavor, I ate the entire plate and still wanted more.
Here are the other things I felt were not done so well:
Kimchee fried rice– Umm… how can you mess this up? Did I taste KETCHUP in here? I have had kimchee fried rice many places and it’s always the same. Flavorful and very kimchee forward. Are they skipping an important step or trying to get creative? The flavor was… odd.
Soft Tofu Soup– I asked for med spicy and was wondering why it came super bland– I am Latina. not ‘other’. Also did not taste very «Korean». These are classics that no matter where I go, all taste the same. I felt like this was a version that I would make at home and feel like I was «missing» something b/​c it didn’t taste authentic.
Service was OK. No one was super friendly but they weren’t rude either. Not sure I’ll come back for dinner, given I really am a classic Korean food freak. However, I might come to pre-​game and drink the Soju out of a huge cup instead of a little shot glass!

Small restaurant with private rooms towards the back if you have a bigger group, but by bigger group I mean about 8 – 10 people — otherwise the private room will be too cramped. Luckily, I had a group of 7 so we had plenty of space.
The fruit soju bowls are amazing and we had 3 (watermelon + pineapple) between the 7 of us. You get half off refills on the fruit bowls also.
Food was good, nothing amazing but definitely hits the spot when you’re on a drinking mission. Fried chicken is yummy, corn cheese is a weird concept but still good, loaded french fries are a tad bit overwhelming with stuff on it (next time I’ll opt for either garlic or regular fries), spicy baby octopus isn’t bad, kimchee fried rice with spam is pretty delicious, and the personal hot pots are good also.
I’d come back here mostly for the fruit sojus :)

3.5 Stars, but rounding up for great service (thanks Vi-​Ann!)
We got here really late for a Friday night. 11 – 11:30pm ish. Luckily a table was just leaving so we didn’t have to wait too long, given we had a large group and no reservation. Since it was so late, we just grabbed some plates and shared family style.
Spam Kimchee Roll — Decently sized and tasted good
Fried Chicken — Chicken wings that taste like McDonalds nuggets, weird
Jalapeño Pork Belly — Just ok. Didn’t have too much flavor
Spicy Baby Octopus — Probably the best dish we got out of everything
Watermelon Soju — More on the sweet side with watermelon pulp, tasted fresh!
Our door bell on the side of our table didn’t work, and since we were sitting towards the back, it was hard to flag down servers. But then again, they were super busy that night as we could see all of them running around like crazy. As many others have mentioned, excellent service, mediocre food. This place has potential, but with all the other late night food/​drink spots open on this street, it’s gonna be tough with just so-​so food.

Came here for the first time during 4^th of July week (Saturday around 12:30 a.m.) and it seems like all the drunk people were finishing up. It was still pretty busy because the servers were scrambling around getting bills and cleaning tables. I wish I knew the name of the girl who helped us because despite all the craziness, she was very nice and remembered to clean a table to seat us!
I do agree this place is on the pricey side, but I love the fresh fruit soju concept (I hate artificial flavoring). We went to another soju place prior, so we were really full. I wish we didn’t though because refills are cheap! I believe the first fruit soju is like $ 20−22…but a refill is $ 12-​$ 14! We got the watermelon soju and it’s VERY refreshing! I’d say it’s stronger than most fruit soju but not to the point where it’s thatttt strong.
We also got the nachos and I love that they use nacho cheese instead of shredded cheese! The only thing I really didn’t like is the sweet stuff they add in the nachos. No idea what it is, but it throws the whole taste off.

I was drawn to Dae Bak because of the fruit sojus they had that came in the real fruit itself. I totally thought that was a SoCal thing so when I saw it here, I wanted to give it a try. And I am so glad I did!
A group of friends and I came here around 8pm and though we had to wait for a seat, it wasn’t really a big deal because we just chatted with each other. The wait was about 30 minutes because people tend to just socialize as they eat and then stay after they finish eating to drink some more so the tables don’t clear very fast. We were finally seated at a big booth.
The service here is just one of the most friendly and speedy service I’ve ever had. Our waiter always cracked jokes with us, never hesitated when we made weird requests (I asked him to charge my iphone because we stayed there till 1am and my phone was dying and my other friends asked for two lemons for their soju) and even drank with us. The vibe overall at Dae Bak is just super chill and friendly. Everyone’s here just to have a good time.
The food is amazing as well. My friends and I ordered the honeydew soju which was really delicious. We also got the mussel soup which had a clear broth, tasted very savory, and was pretty good overall. We also tried the pork belly kimchi fried rice which was yum yum yum and of course the spicy fried chicken wings. They were bomb dot com. Such great flavor, though not too spicy, and came with a side salad and pickles that cleansed the palate. After we ate, we just ordered more soju, just chatted, and stayed from 8pm-​1am. It was a great time thanks to Dae Bak (which means thumbs up). Woot!

I may have had too high of expectations from the current score, but given the smaller amount of reviews, it’s understandably inflated at the moment.
We went with a group of 4, and we were totally excited on coming in. I’ll break things down on my impressions:
Décor: While the outside leaves very much to be desired, the inside is actually quite nice and pleasant. They do a solid job of making sure everything is well-​kept, and there’s a box where they keep their utensils on the side of the table which is a fabulous idea. The utensils are metal and re-​usable, no chopsticks with splinters here. (⁴⁄₅)
Service: Their service is pretty friendly, although for opening up so recently it looks like they’re still getting their act together a bit. New hires, or lack of menu knowledge was what was on top of our minds while we were asking our questions. (⁴⁄₅).
Food: Okay, so the price is easily about $ 2 more per item than most other Korean locations. We ordered everything to our hearts content, and I must say we were utterly disappointed. For the Price increase, we were expecting either to be wowed in quantity, or in quality, but we were met with neither.
While the food itself wasn’t horrible, it definitely tasted like something I could (and have) made at home. For example, the veggies in the Fried Rice reminded me too much of the kind you get in a freezer bag. And charging over $ 25 for a soup meant for two is understandable, except when most of the meat is Vienna Sausages (literally).
And while the complimentary Ban Chan was quite tasty, there were only three items: Fish Cake, Pickled Daikon, and Asian Veggies. Not that I expect them to have everything available, but no Kim Chi? That’s like… a must! (²⁄₅).
I would give them an overall ³⁄₅. I probably won’t be back given that there are much better alternatives in the area, but I do wish them luck.