Shilla Restaurant

I remembered when I paid my first visit here during their ‘golden’ era (like 8 – 10 years ago), it was more crowded and food was tasty. Sadly, it hasn’t been that way during our last visit December, 2015.
We were here because our friends got a Groupon deal ($ 25 for $ 50) and it was the last day before expiration. It seems like all the previous memories of better food and services have also expired. As such, I believe this will be our last visit):
Their food and service were both below par. The Groupon promotion is not worth it due to food are overpriced! We ordered the bbq combo — beef, chicken, and shrimp, tofu soup and bibimbap. They are all bland and overrides your expectations of a decent Korean bbq joint; especially the bbq combo with a tiny portion ever and cost $ 40! I was still half full when I headed home):
All in all, this restaurant has a lot of room for improvement in order to ‘bound back’ to their once golden era again; not just some Groupon deal as short term fix!

Got here at 1140a before lunch rush. We were seated right away. I asked what was popular, and the waitress listed 3 items. One of them was the soft tofu stew, which I ordered with beef, mild. My friend had another Korean soup.
They brought out the free tiny apps, kimchi, pickle radish?, and marinated fish cake?. They were good.
Our meals came in clay bowls still simmering. My bowl was delicious with mushrooms, zucchini, soft tofu, thin beef slices and a raw egg which I pushed to the bottom to cook more thoroughly. It was exactly what I needed on a chilly day like today. The rice was sticky as expected. I wish there was more meat. There was a lot of soft tofu, I wasn’t even able to finish all the soft tofu.
The interior was fine. Clean.
Service would’ve been great had they refilled his water before he had drank it all and had to sit without water for quite a while.

This place looks adequate for a Korean/​Japanese restaurant in downtown Seattle, but the food here is just not worth it. First off the prices here are high for what you get and secondly the food here is very bland compared to other Korean restaurants I have been to. When I think of Korean food I think of kimchi which should be spicy, but for our entire meal that was the only real spice I tasted.
We had ordered three items to share between the four of us. The first one was the combination barbeque platter which came with beef, shrimp and chicken. The serving size was ridiculously small for the cost of the serving. I had expected a nice big platter for $ 40, but we each only had one shrimp per person and the beef and chicken we had two pieces each. The food seemed to never had been marinated as it was very bland with no taste. The second item we tried was the soft tofu soup which wasn’t bad with all the ingredients added inside plus it was the most flavorful. The third item was the stone pot bibimbap which was again was tasteless and just wasn’t very appetizing at all.
Service here was only ok as they only came around once to ask if we wanted more small plates that came with the barbeque and again filling our water glasses. A plus for coming here is that they do have their own free parking garage located underneath the restaurant.
I was hoping for a good experience here after driving past this place many times while I was working in downtown, but sadly for my first time here it was a disappointing dinner. The high prices and tasteless food will point me to other Korean restaurants. I can see this place can have high potential especially with its location with a change in ownership.

An average Korean place. The food is not bad but nothing too special. The tofu stew is served in a larger bowl than usual but also more expensive than most places ($ 12). The kimchi fried rice was pretty good as well. They gave us 6 small dishes for 2 people and you can always ask for refills. Wouldn’t come out of my way for this place though. Very average Korean place but nice staff and pretty good food.

When the management changed several months ago, Shilla went from Excellent (5 starts), to good (4 stars), and now OK (3 stars). While the staff are pleasant, the quality of the food has progressively decreased, to the point where I’m not sure I’ll go back.
The Ban Chan Set of Korean pickled vegetables has decreased in variety (from 7 to 6), size of portions, and quality. The same can be said about the Makanoushi bento box: smaller portions, less variety, lesser quality sashimi and sushi, and OK presentation. This bento not only used to taste great, it looked great. Now the presentation and the contents look tired.
Lastly, the hot saki and miso soup were tepid. In the past staff would have made sure these were hot before bringing them to the table.
I would have cast these shortcomings off as an «off night», but this has been the third «off night» in a row, so I think it is more of a trend.

Poor quality dishes that are not tasty at all. Also, the male owner was hitting on my wife in front of me and it creeped her out. Strongly recommend just walking down the way to Seoul Tofu House for dishes at about the same price point but way better quality and taste.

So many mixed reviews. And i came here because it was close to where i was staying at. Not a local to the Seattle area and living in LA, I’ve been to several KBBQ spot. This is my experience…
Went there after a Seahawk game and the place looed dead. Figured it have my food out in a hurry but it wasnt the case. FINLY, my female server brings over the side dishes and what do i see on the potato salad… a baby roach. NO JOKE. I shoulda made a scene and stormed out but i didn’t. Instead, i just ate the meats. The waitress then brings me ice cream on the house and she gave us solid 10% discount on our bill. WOW!

Have been here a couple of times unfortunately. Given a choice I don’t think I would want to go back here.
First off, roaches on the tables is a normal thing here. The server casually squishes them under a paper napkin and dusts them off like it’s a daily routine which I’m sure it is. The food is very average and unnecessarily expensive. I’ve tried their bento boxes which are terrible and the bibimbap which is just about average.
I don’t think those high prices justify the mediocre food and the terrible hygiene. The servers are very friendly and courteous. I wish the restaurant gave them more/​better to work with.

This review is purely based on the delivery service. When I placed the order, the estimated delivery time was approx 45−60min. I was expecting closer to the hr given my past experiences with delivery. That being said, I didn’t prepay the tip, as I was going to add it in and sign the receipt for a card transaction pending service.
The food came 2hrs later. Additionally, I didn’t realize that by opting out of prepaid tip, that the only option to tip at the door is via cash. But seeing as the delivery was 2hrs late, I didn’t feel that a tip was deserved. The delivery guy gave me a lecture about tipping and told me to next time prepay the tip. Yeah, not gonna order from here again.

Foodwise, it was not bad. I had yukgaejang (spicy beef soup) and it was just average. But I have to mention about the service. To be specific, all the staff were hard-​working and kind, except the boss or the «owner».
Today, saturday @9:00pm, 1 hour before the closing time (10:00 pm). As I arrived, the lady (maybe the owner) said «we are going to close» and escorted me to the table at the corner inside, so I moved myself to windowside-​table with the permission from other staff. But she came and asked me «why did you move? We gonna close.»
I was so dissapointed about all the gestures she showed to me.
I was almost indigested as she urged me so I ate in hurry. Even the time I finished my meal after 30 min from I arrived, there were the new customers entered and served. If was too late to be served, she could excuse me to be come back next time with kindness, but why should she open the door accepting customers and should complain to herself and me?!

Ordered delivery for dinner so this review is only based on the food.
I’m not korean but having lived in LA for half a decade and gone to explore many korean restaurants from fancy korean bbqs to hole-​in-​the-​wall gems in koreatown, I’ve developed a deep enthusiasm for korean food… it’s my go-​to comfort food and one-​cuisine-​for-​the-​rest-​of-​your-​life choice: p
As a wave of my korean food craving hit one night, I searched for restaurants that would deliver and found Shilla. We ordered kimchi fried rice, galbi tang, enoki mushrooms, and korean fried chicken.
1. Kimchi fried rice: bland and extremely greasy. You know when you get greasy pizza find yourself dabbing at the pizza repeatedly with an already-​grease-​drenched paper towel before taking a bite? Well, this was the kimchi fried rice version of greasy pizza, except dabbing at grains of rice would be futile. In terms of flavor, maybe you’re hoping that the grease would make it taste good since greasy foods usually do… not so, my friend. I could barely taste the kimchi unless i was actually biting into a piece of kimchi. The kimchi fried rice left me wondering where all that grease came from, and what it was for, since it didn’t serve any of its functions. Good thing I have a penchant for mysteries.
2. Galbi tang (one of my all time favorite korean soups) was a-​ok: it gives a hint of galbi. Given that truly flavorful excellent broths are hard to make, with the stewing time and etc, I think this soup was decent. It was not packed with flavor, but it also wasn’t just hot water with some chunks of beef in it. The soup had a slight taste of galbi in it and the galbi itself was about a 4 on the soft-​to-​chewiness scale (with 10 being rubber). This soup suffices as a bandaid to severe cravings for galbi tang.
3. Enoki mushrooms. This was the laziest «dish» ever. It was wrapped in aluminum foil and lightly steamed. Not that the complexity of a dish translates to deliciousness consistently, but these mushrooms were not even seasoned or lightly coated with butter. Enoki mushrooms are fool-​proof, so I think buying some enoki mushrooms from the market or even ordering for grocery delivery would have been a better investment of time and $.
4. Korean fried chicken was also a-​ok. The batter was not soggy but also wasn’t light/​crispy or flavorful. The chicken was not dry nor was it juicy. On a scale of 0 to fried chicken from hue ky mi gia, this chicken was a 4 or 5. Just another garden variety fried chicken.
Overall, the experience was disappointing but a convenient fix for a korean food dry-​spell.

The good part about Shilla is that it’s one of the few places close to my office that offers Asian selection. Their menu has a mix of some basic Korean and Japanese dishes, so it’s easy to just take people to without having to worry if they would find the food they like.
Although the prices there aren’t abnormally expensive (especially their lunch set which is around $ 10 – roughly how much you pay if you were to have lunch around SLU area these days anyways). The food though is subpar, and far from being authentic. I’ve been there 3 – 4 times already and have tried their dishes from Korean pancakes and Korean Fried Rice to various bento sets, and have yet to think of anything I tried there as «woww…this is good!» Most of them is not that memorable that I would forget what I had the next day following the meal anyway.
Overall, I think of Shilla as just a convenient enough place to go. If anything I go just because it’s a place that does the job of getting food and a place to chat done if someone in your group wanted some Asian food in the area. It’s probably not the place to go, however, if you are looking for good Asian food.

Went to Shilla a few days ago for the first time. The food was really enjoyable. The sushi was pretty standard, nothing super special. I got the beef bulgogi bibimbap in the stone pot and it was delicious. As I sat tasting each part of it, one of the servers (not even ours!) came over and help add the sauces and mix it up for us — it was amazin! I also got the beef spare ribs and they were absolutely my favorite part — suuper tasty and not too salty.
The only reason I’m sticking with three stars is that I spent the next 24 hours feeling exhausted and had a ton of brain fog — I don’t usually include that as a factor in how I feel about a restaurant, but the connection was pretty obvious.
I’d liken my experience to a wonderful night drinking — amazing while it lasted, but with a terrible hangover.

With the Groupon/​Livingsocial deal, I would say that this restaurant offers fairly priced meals. Without the coupon, the food is priced a little higher than most places that I’ve been to.
The location of this restaurant is pretty nice since it is conveniently located near SLU. There was plenty of street parking on a Saturday night. The restaurant in itself was pretty clean and nicely decorated. The staff graciously welcomed us in.
We decided to order the seafood pancake, hot stone bimbimbap with combo of beef ribs and sondubu (sp) — beef tofu stew with rice with tempura. The food also came with bonchans — my favorite. The bonchans were really good. They had a good selection of bean sprouts, pickled daikon/​napa cabbage, fish, broccoli and other good stuff that I can’t remember. If you order the meals, the bonchans come with. You also get a miso soup. The bimbimbap was really tasty. It had a hearty amount of vegetables and meat. This was deliciously consumed under 10 minutes. The sondubu, however was not that great. Usually, when the tofu comes out, it is bubbling. This however was not. The hot plate wasn’t even that hot. There was an egg cracked inside that looked like it was not cooking. We had to set it aside in hopes that it would cook. After all, we didn’t want to eat raw eggs. The seafood pancake was a little disappointing too. I just didn’t think it tasted all that great. If I were you, I would stick to ordering the bimbimbap. I think it is the best thing on their menu.

Came here because of the groupon deal.
The servers were nice but the food took forever to come out. The place was not that busy so I don’t know why it took so long.
The food was mediocre, nothing special.
What I can’t believe was the price of the meal. Everything is overpriced and you got barely any food.

Ambience. C
Service. B
Food. B
Price. B
The place is dated and bathrooms are old. I do like that they have free parking below the bldg. for patrons.
Service is friendly and helpful and they check periodically, but if you need anything, just ask for it. Very helpful in ordering of you don’t understand the menu. Found out that you have to order at least 2 meats or items if you want to grill at the table.
Everything we ordered was tasty. You can order extra kimchee favorites of you want more, otherwise it comes out sparingly.
Had the kimchee pancakes which I thought was different with A chopped up kimchee batter? Had the pork bulgoki which was heavily flavored and stir fried with Korean chili paste (Gojuchang) and onions. The Endamamee and gyoza were just okay. It was ordered by my occidental friend. My favorite was chop jae– the buckwheat noodles with beef. Very flavorful/​nice spongy textured noodkes and filled with various veggies and tender bites of beef.
I used a groupon and you can usually buy one readily lately. It’s not my fave Korean restaurant, but with a Groupon — it’s okay.

Wear machine washable clothing!
We ordered the korean bbq. I recommend having the kitchen cook it as then it will be likely properly cooked… and you won’t smell AS MUCH.
The spicy bulgogi pork was the best. Tender and perfectly seasoned with a touch of heat. The Kalbi boneless beef was ok, but pieces were a bit chewy and difficult to eat and bite. It could use more seasoning also. Two dishes were good for the two of us.
The banchan was good and they gave us more kim chi when asked.
At a different visit, I got the japchae and the spicy seafood hot pot. Both were very tasty! The pajeon was a bit to squishy for me but others enjoyed it.
Service was really great. Friendly and attentive!
Decent wine selection with average prices $ 9 – 11.

First and last time at this restaurant. I came here on my 21^st birthday and the service and pricing of the food is horrendous. The servers stared at me every time I came out to get service and they did not come in whatsoever during the duration of my meal. I wanted to include karaōke during my meal as well and apparently the machine was broken, or the servers did not want to bother setting it up for me, the birthday boy. According to what Marco D. said on Unilocal from 10/​24/​2014, they included 20% gratuity in my meal along with a «food tax.» My meal was $ 180, I had a groupon for $ 50. The «food tax» ended up coming out to be 17.05, including the 20% gratuity of $ 35.90. I ended up paying more than the total purchases originally without the groupon. Ridiculous.
In Seattle, the sales tax is 9.5%. If this is the «food tax,» this should be $ 12.30. Just like what Marco D. said about the 20% gratuity, the should go with what their menu says, which is 18% gratuity for a party over 6. This is fraud.
In addition, coming from a culturally aware background with Korean and Japanese culture, tipping is not necessary whatsoever. I find it ridiculous how the over charged me with the «food tax» and the «gratuity.»
Overall, if you want better Korean BBQ, go to The Palace in Bellevue. Better service, better food, and most definitely, you will get a better experience. Do not come here unless you want to be overcharged for food.
I will never come back here ever again. Take your business elsewhere.

The first thing to know about Shilla is to not judge it by its looks. Yes, Jack Tripper and Larry Dallas would be comfortable in a booth here – the place has a very 70’s vibe, and could use some extensive décor updating. But all other aspects of the experience more than make up for a dated appearance, and the restaurant easily earns 4+ stars.
The dishes span both traditional Korean and Japanese favorites, with the menu slightly favoring the former. Bento dishes on the back of the menu are large and will probably give you something to take home. Splitting is an option, too. (But make sure you eat the tempura in-​house since day-​old tempura is a rung below 2-​day old fries in sogginess). Staff allow for substitutions within the bento, and if something isn’t your style, it can easily be replaced by something more to your liking.
Sushi and sashimi were fresh and well-​prepared. Nothing world-​beating and probably not good enough to go here just for the sushi, but squarely in the «good enough» bin.
We ordered a side of kimche, and, I have to say, it may have come from a jar: not too fresh and definitely not the best we’ve had. (Candy bowl could use a refresh, too, while we’re at it. It is very much in the vein of what you grandparents may have next to their plastic-​covered couches.) But, really, these are small gripes that can easily be corrected.
Service is quick and polite. It seems the waitstaff rotate around, always keeping an eye on things when one server becomes overwhelmed/​engaged at another table. No complaints here, especially considering the long and winding layout of the place that complicated servers’ areas.
Unlike other reviews, I did not find the prices too high. Having a $ ²⁵⁄₅₀ Groupon in-​hand helped considerably, and deducting it from our bill was easy. No Grouponer cold shoulder from staff here.
Fair selection of beer, wine, and hard alcohol.
The parking lot is bumpy and a bit confusing. It doubles as a pay commuter lot, so you may find it packed even when the restaurant isn’t. We walked and were glad we did.
Small issues aside, we will def return when in the area.

So we came here on New Year’s Eve 2013. We have been here before, years ago. We didn’t order the KBBQ, for one thing it’s not AYCE, and we didn’t want to smell like KBBQ before hitting our next destination for NYE festivities.
Parking is a premium in Seattle, and Shilla has it’s own parking underneath the restaurant, which is nice and convenient. The building and inside the restaurant are tired. It really hasn’t changed in over 10 years. Since we weren’t doing KBBQ, we decided to each get a Bento Box. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised with it. The Premium Bento had tuna and salmon sashimi, short ribs (kalbi), jap chae (noodles), tempura, salad, rice and miso soup. It was pretty decent for a Korean-​Japanese hybrid restaurant. Now, this place wouldn’t be my first choice for bento, but in a pinch, it does the job. And service was pretty good.

Sehr gute japanische und koreanische Küche. Freundlicher und aufmerksamer Service (in USA selbstverständlicher als in Europa).
Man sitzt in einem schlichten und doch gemütlichen, nicht überladen dekorierten Raum (keinerlei Asia-​Kitsch), kann sich gut unterhalten, ohne dass andere das Gespräch verfolgen könnten.
Das Essen ist prima! Wir hatten Bulgogi, die koreanische Nationalspeise, die aus marinierten Rindfleischstreifen besteht, die am Tisch gegrillt werden, Dazu gab es vorzüglichen Reis, und natürlich viele, viele sidedishes wie eingelegter Rettich, Kimchi (super!) Gurken, Algen, Tofu mit Sesam es sind immer mindestens acht verschiedene Sachen.
Das Preisniveau ist ähnlich wie in Deutschland, vielleicht etwas günstiger. Wir haben umgerechnet etwa 55 Euro für zwei Personen bezahlt. Für das tolle Essen und die entspannte Athmosphäre keineswegs zu viel.
Übrigens liegt das äußerlich unauffällige Restaurant in Sichtweite von Wholefoods, dem großen Bio-​Supermarkt (in dem man auch sehr lecker essen kann).