Sodam Korean Restaurant

Sodam Korean Restaurant is a Korean restaurant in the Genesee Valley Regional Market (large sign on Jefferson Road). Behind Lori's Natural Foods.

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    See Archive Page for comments prior to 2009.

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2009-08-15 18:05:50   A GREAT restaurant. I have been here twice, both times finding the service to be cheerful and very helpful (I'm a vegetarian and they will happily make almost any dish fit my needs). Once, I went on the 4th of July and they were going to close early for a banquet, but insisted that my party come in to eat! Furthermore, the food is DELICIOUS! I highly recommend the Kim Chi Hotpot (I get mine with tofu). Don't let the exterior scare you- it's a great restaurant! —Kyara

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2009-08-26 22:56:01   The best korean pancake in the area! The servers are extremely nice and willing to help you get what you want. —Jessica

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2009-09-19 21:17:38   excellent service, great food, a great choice. —h1d3m3

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2009-10-17 19:18:38   Stopped in here today for a quick pre-movie bite to eat. It was a cold and rainy fall day and I had a serious craving for some hot savory spicy Korean stew. I have to say they've really come a long way with the decor since I was last there over a year ago. It looks really nice in there now. The banchan was so-so, no complaints there. I ordered a spicy seafood stew, I don't recall the name, but it was outstanding and really hit the spot. A savory rich broth full of red pepper and sesame oil full of scallions, mussels, octopus or squid, shrimp, and noodles. It totally lived up to my expectations. —AlexD1234

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2009-11-24 13:15:39   I've only been there once The food was delicious, love the BBQ ribs. No complaint on the service. Can't wait to go back again. —Liren

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2009-12-05 12:15:59   I have been going to places like Young's and Seoul Garden for years. Sodam's Korean Restaurant just doesn't compare to these. The service here was awful. The waitresses rarely came by and we could barely get their attention when we needed something. They were even telling customers the second they finished their food that they needed to leave right away because they needed the tables. The food was awful. The dish I had was slimy (a dish that I have had before at other places... it should not be slimy). The flavors just didn't add up. This is not somewhere that I would recommend to anyone, and I created this account just to write this so that maybe I could save people the awful food and service awaits you at Sodam. —pepperduck

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2009-12-18 22:52:25   I come here once or twice a month. You would never stumble upon this place if you were just driving, hunting for a restaurant to stop in. Anyone that arrives here has made a deliberate choice. I enjoy the food here, and being vegetarian does not interfere with meal options. Service here is adequate. I have always had a lot of assistance from the server to explain what it is that I'm ordering, and teaching in the proper way to eat it. I prefer the smaller, more out-of-the-way places, and this fits the bill. I will say that sometimes the portions and greasiness of the dishes changes when I order the same thing on different occasions, but overall, it's a good experience every time. —puddleofsick

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2010-02-09 22:15:05   They were absolutely packed on a Friday at 6:30pm. We had to wait around 15 minutes for a table. Our servers were attentive despite being insanely busy. 5 types of banchan were offered: kimchi, spicy cucumber, spicy fishcake, bean sprouts and some very fishy greens. These were mostly good - the greens were too fishy for me but this may be a personal preference. We ordered the vegetable pancake appetizer and it was excellent - crisp and bountiful. I got the bulgogi. and it tasted burnt. The beef was also really dry. The food here is cheaper than Young's Korean Restaurant - on average, it is about $2-$3 less. The service is more friendly here. However, I think the food (or at least the bulgogi)at Young's is much better and they offer you a lot more banchan options. I would definitely pick Young's over Sodam next time. —OneLove

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2010-06-04 14:14:32   Yum. Love it here.

Another vegetarian who's hooked on their stir fried tofu and vegetables.
Also the Korean savory pancakes here are the best in town. Enough to feed two really hungry people or as an appetizer for 4. The Bibimbap (stonepot rice) is also superb. Those three dishes are enough to keep me coming back again and again.

The place is small and cute, better than the atmosphere at Youngs (which kind of reminds me of an empty classroom).

Service is great - friendly and attentive. —pdx87

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2010-08-25 16:40:18   Awesome food. Been here a dozen times and never had anything that wasn't good. The older female waitress doesn't always allow my wife to order spicy dishes, but that's just funny to me. —AdrianMartin

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2010-09-06 07:37:44   A group of us went Saturday night and had a wonderful meal. I liked the interior: simple with nice earth colors and good lighting. The pancake was a great group appetizer, and I had the bibimbop with bulgogi, very very good. Others had their bulgogi with beef and pork; both were good. One friend had the Kalbi Tang, and that was a delicious soup with the most tender beef. Highly recommended. —KatieSchmitz

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2010-10-27 01:04:35   Good Korean food for a good price. —SargtGrumbles

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2011-01-01 21:57:55   I'd say Sodam is good for some things and Young's is good for other dishes. The meat dishes (bulgogi, dae-ji bulgogi etc) and dol sot bibimbap dishes are king at Sodam, but I like the soondubu and other spicy soups at Young's better as they tend to be too careful with the spice level at Sodam. Overall, lovely place though! —jberna

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2011-09-16 11:09:41   This used to be my favorite restaurant in town (I would go several times a month), but after my most recent experience I won't be back. There are several reasons for this. Sodam has excellent food, and it's still good, but the prices have jumped on some items significantly. I understand adjusting prices to fit demand, etc, but doubled prices on many appetizers and entrees is just too much sticker shock for this broke student. Raising prices by a couple of bucks, gradually, would have made much more sense. The items which have doubled in price aren't even the ones that make sense — the scallion pancake appetizer used to be around $4, and now it's about $9, while many of the meat entrees only popped up a buck or two. Why the spike for such particular, seemingly random items?

I have been putting up with the higher prices, although I have felt food quality has gone downhill a little (and I'm not alone in this). But the service last time, along with some of the weird "dining rules" they have inaugurated, was just appalling. I'm not sure who's in charge here, but they're making some big mistakes. For example, the free dishes at the beginning of the meal (banchan), which are a Korean staple, are now limited. You get one free round, but then you only get one free "refill" before they start charging you $3 per. It's understandable that they want to limit the amount of free food they're doling out, but 1 seems a bit paltry, and the number *doesn't change* based on the number of people at your table. If you're dining alone, you get one. If you have 12 people, you get one.

The worst part of our meal came at the end, when our table of 4 tried to split our check. Our very rude and condescending waitress (I hadn't ever had her there before, though apparently this policy extends beyond her) told us that it was impossible to split a table's check more than 2 ways. We needed it split 3. We were safely over the $10 minimum for each order. We didn't have any cash. Our waitress pointed us to a (small) sign at the front of the register that she was "sure" we had read on our way in, which informed us of this strange rule (and many others — it has at least 5 weird rules on it). When we told her we had never read or even seen the sign before and we hadn't known about the rule, she accused us of lying. It takes a lot to make me lose my temper at a waitress — I have many friends working in the food industry and I know how hard the work is — but she was completely intolerable, and she didn't get any nicer. When it was clear we would not be paying unless she split the check, she finally did it for us. I suppose that if we had sat at 2 separate tables, side by side, we could have paid the way we wanted to with no hassle? The policy is completely ridiculous. I am sympathetic to restaurants not wanting to lose a lot of money to credit card companies, but these people have forgotten that the customer comes first. When I go out to an expensive meal, I should have the option to pay however I want (I'm even fine with a single rule about minimum charges!), and I shouldn't be accused of being a liar. This experience was just awful. —AliMcGhee

• Ali-I am not defending the restaurant as I have never been there. I am curious, however, if you tried to speak with a Manager about your concerns??? Anytime I have ever had waitstaff issues at any restaurant, the first thing I do is speak with a Manager. —PeteB
  

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2011-11-21 16:33:51   This is a review I originally posted on Yelp:

Firstly, let me say that I am NOT Korean, nor am I terribly knowledgeable about Korean food, other than the fact that I've eaten at all 3 Korean restaurants listed here. The only reasons that I'm not giving this place 5 stars is because the service was a bit haphazard, and the decor in this place is rather bad. The food, however, is spectacular.

In other Korean restaurants locally, you often find that about 75% of the clientele is ethnic Korean, and you get the distinct feeling that you are intruding on "their place". Not so here, where I'd say that the crowd was about 75% non-Asian (and many of the Asians I've seen there were non-Korean), so obviously this place caters to a wider audience.

I had one of their soups, and my dining partner had Chicken bulgogi. My soup was filled with lots of meat and tofu, and was spicy, as well as being very hot (note to the inexperienced-let the soup cool for several minutes, and if you aren't used to spicy Korean soups, bring LOTS of kleenex, because your nose is gonna run!). The bulgogi is served on a hot plate, served still sizzling, and was also quite tasty (but thankfully nowhere near as spicy..), and the typical setting of 6 different pickled veggies was also quite nice, although I wish the would've set this out BEFORE the main dishes arrived. Korean tea is also served, which is quite similar to Japanese tea (toasted rice added, probably).

I'm still wondering if the location for this place is really good for business. They don't have much parking, and they don't serve any alcohol, but for lunch, the location is quite good. Also, the question on just what the name of the place is should be resolved (and really, they ought to use the slogan "Sodam good!"). Also, I suspect many people go looking for them, only to stumble upon the other Korean place over on Mushroom blvd. This place is worth seeking out.

—Alex-C

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2012-06-28 22:26:57   Probably my favorite place to eat in western NY. You do not go there for the decor and when it gets busy (and it often is) you do wait your turn but that is not that long. But the food is so good and there are so many great choices for vegan (my girl friend thinks the best place for Vegan), vegetarian and for us carnivores. I worked with Koreans in Viet Nam and eat the food they were served and cooked. And I wow is this a great place to experience GREAT Korean cooking. Go, if you can find it. Yes it really is down on the end of all the closed for the evening rubber stamp companies. —ctoakes

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2012-08-08 18:21:53   First time trying korean, wanted to after so long ordered their Bulgogi and kim chi fried rice, both were good and makes me want to go back again to try other things as well. service was great, the waitresses were really nice and friendly. —Ryeka

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2012-11-27 13:52:53   I try to eat here at least once a month. It's my favorite restaurant in Rochester. I've never had a bad meal. —AdrianMartin

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2017-05-10 09:59:35   I came here more than 6 years ago and had a great meal with a bunch of friends. I returned last Friday the 5th and had another great meal with a good friend. We both had the kimchi-chigae hot pot soup (#16), deliciously spicy with the kimchi, and we shared the rice pancake appetizer. The only negative for me about this place is the lack of beer or wine: not sure if you can bring your own. —KatieSchmitz