Attention, kimchee lovers: Sorabol is the place for you

Published 3:24 pm Thursday, February 26, 2009

Kimchee never creates a mild response. It’s like black licorice. You like it or you hate it. Me? I like it.

My fondness for the Korean cabbage dish has earned me points among my Korean in-laws. Not so with my friend who has informed that anywhere near him is a kimchee-free zone.

Sorabol in Lynnwood is not a kimchee-free zone. Consider yourself warned. However, if you think kimchee is a dandy side dish, and tasty with some rice and barbecued meat, then this is the place for you.

We visited Sorabol twice. First, my husband, Jerry, and I went by ourselves. It was a cool evening and we decided on a hot pot, a kind of large soup that is cooked at your table. We order the Bul-Nak-Jun-Gol ($27.95), which comes with octopus, bulgogi (Korean beef), vegetables and rice noodles. All of this is cooked at the table in a large pot on a small burner.

The meal comes with a selection of small side dishes, called banchan. You can snag bites out of each little bowl with your chopsticks. Or, if you’re clumsy, they’ll bring you a fork.

About two seconds after our side dishes arrived, we regretted not bringing Jerry’s mom, Sun, along with us. She’s Korean and a fantastic cook. We recognized the kimchee, konomo (bean sprout salad) and tofu, which are available at every meal we eat with her.

The soup cooked quickly at the table, and it stayed nicely warm for second helpings. The server combined all of the ingredients, except for the hottest spices, leaving us to add spiciness to our own tastes.

We savored the soup in its rich broth. I enjoyed mixing the kimchee in my soup and eating it with bites of the cooked beef. My husband found the octopus to be too chewy. But it’s octopus, and it’s hard not to be chewy. It was in small pieces, though, and the flavor was nice.

The menu says that the hot pots are for two people, but I’d say it’s enough for four. Other hot pot options include seafood ($32.95), black goat ($32.95) and beef intestine ($29.95).

We left the restaurant that night really full and vowed to come back soon with Sun.

When we came back for the promised meal, my mother- and father-in-law joined us. We ordered some green tea, delicious by the way, and selected the barbecue combo ($49.95) for dinner. (The meal serves at least three people.)

We had to move tables when we ordered this, because it’s cooked at your table and not all tables have grills and an exhaust hood. If you’d like to try this, ask to be seated at one of those tables.

While we were sampling our banchan, our server arrived with the meat for the barbecue. The special is huge. While the meat cooked at our table, the server brought our Bee-Bim-Naeng-Myun ($8.95), cold buckwheat noodles with beef, vegetables and a spicy sauce.

I began picking up bits of noodle and trying to eat them. Turns out the noodles are hard to bite through. I kept trying to eat them, sucking in long pieces and making a mess. My mother-in-law noticed me and took pity.

“Cut them up,” she said. Oh, right. If you need them, the staff will bring you some handy scissor.

Once the meat was cooked to our liking, we simply snared pieces of it off the grill. Like most Korean meals, the food was mostly eaten from a communal dish. We shared beef short ribs, bulgoki, marinated pork, chicken and pork fatback (basically uncured bacon).

The pork and chicken were my favorite. The pork came spiced with Korean hot paste. The chicken was simply flavored. The bulgoki was a bit of a disappointment. Sun said it was too weakly flavored, and we agreed.

This restaurant is an excellent place to have a group meal. It’s nice to linger over the food, pass things around and share everything. I found the food extremely Korean, although my mother-in-law found it slightly Americanized. She thought some things were too heavily sugared and the bulgoki definitely could use more flavor. She enjoyed much of the food, though, and I know she’d happily join us there again for another family meal. My father-in-law, who is not crazy about Korean food, enjoyed the chicken and the bulgoki.

Sorabol is not the restaurant for everyone, but it’s great for those open-minded or adventurous about food — or at least really fond of kimchee.

Sorabol

18623 Highway 99, No. 150, Lynnwood (hard to see from the road)

425-778-4717

Specialty: Korean food, including hot pots and barbecue

Credit cards: Visa, Mastercard, American Express

Alcohol: Limited beer and wine

Disability access: No barriers noted

Price range: Moderate