In Korean-heavy L.A., grill-it-yourself bulgogi or kalbi is as much a hometown food as tacos from a truck. So it might seem strange that when my mother, who is Korean and lives in Chicago, would visit me in L.A., she’d say, “Let’s get Korean food! But not barbecue.” Soups and stews are the things she misses, not smoke from the grill in every fiber of her clothes.

So I was surprised that she wanted to take me to a Korean barbecue house in Chicago. But her favorite thing at this place, she told me, was not the beef but the fried rice they make in the same stone griddle used to cook the meat, after you polish it off. It sounded like something I’d had, with pork, at L.A.’s fantastic Honey Pig.

Cho Sun Ok is a small corner establishment doing modest lunch business with businessmen, young couples and lunching ladies, all Korean.

They gave us a nice spread of panchan. These are side dishes, but it’s impossible not to pick at them when they arrive if you’re hungry, so they end up as de facto appetizers.

Unfortunately, the kimchi, the most important panchan of all, was utterly bland. “Too young,” pronounced my mom, but I disagree. I have a fondness for crisp, young kimchi, and in L.A. kimchi rarely comes fully fermented. No, this was flat-out flavorless.

Instead of a grill, the beef is cooked on a stone griddle slicked with toasty sesame oil. I can’t remember what cut we ordered — it’s just thinly sliced unmarinated beef.

But the beef was so lean, it overcooked really quickly. Most of what made it to my plate was dry, dry, dry. But it’s not about the beef, right? I waited.

Ah, the pièce de résistance. The waitress came by and dumped what was left of our vegetable panchan in there, stirred it around and left it to toast. It comes off more like a Korean paella than fried rice, with the crunchy toasted grains at the bottom. A real pleasure, and I only wish we could’ve fast-forwarded to it.

Cho Sun Ok
4200 N. Lincoln Ave.
Lincoln Square/Ravenswood neighborhood
Chicago
(773) 549-5555