Ssaboo Hourglass

Sign on the door says the building is up for lease. Too bad because my cousins and I always ordered the fried chicken and cheese tonkatsu with some 1000cc beers in frosty mugs. Service had been steadily getting better and they added a larger selection of craft beers last time we were there but I guess it wasn’t enough. Hopefully we’ll see them again in another location

The location on Milwaukee and Golf closed. Does anyone know if this place re-​opened at another location? They had the best duk bokki and tong dak. It’ll be sad for me and many of my friends if this place is closed forever.

The food is awesome, the drinks are cold and cheap (er than most), and the service is better than most Korean places in the area. Go here for late nights of drunken happiness and you won’t be dissappointed.

This is one of the typical Korean bar/​restaurant where drinking is more of the mainstream than eating meals. I tried this place with some church members for Sunday lunch after the morning service. We ordered typical Korean bar food like spicy rice cake (Dukbokki), donkastsu and others. I think they serve good food as bar food (meaning they are set up better for a drinking night), but the flavor was a bit too strong for a Sunday lunch.
Service was alright. He wasn’t optimally attentive, but was usually available when we needed him. Overall a reliable place for a weekend night.

Food: 5 stars — The spicy rice cake was for sure the best that I’ve ever tasted. It was a pretty giant portion and had a lot of other veggies inside which complimented the rice cakes. It was made at the perfect spice level for me and you could really taste the sweetness of the sauce as well. The sauce also had a great texture and consistency. We also ordered the fried chicken wings and (when it finally came out) it was smoking hot temperature wise but oh so delicious. The waiter said something about how they double fry it so that even when the chicken gets cold, it’ll still be crispy. Still, eating it hot is the best way to go! It was also a plus that they gave us those plastic gloves to use so that your hands don’t get all sticky from trying to eat the chicken.
Now, with all the talk about the excellent food, why the 3 stars? Well, the spicy rice cake took over 40 minutes to come out and the fried chicken took even longer. I can wait 20 minutes or so but over half an hour… that’s a problem.
It’s also really quite dark in here. I get that it’s a bar, but it’s too dark even for a bar. It’d be nice if they could put some dangly small light over each table just to brighten it up a little. Also… the music is way too loud. I was sitting probably 2 feet away from the person across me but felt like I was shouting over the entire dinner… and the music wasn’t even good!
So overall, Ssaboo is a great place to get good food but I would probably do take-​out instead of eating inside.

Ok, not sure if it was the absence of Korean food for so long or just a good night in the kitchen but this trip here blew me away. My roommate dragged me and my wife here on a craving last night so we went. I’m Korean and so is he, my wife is not yet she loves the food. The spicy rice cake stew (dukkbookie) was probably THE best i’ve ever had… and i’ve had a few places in Korea. The perfect blend of sweet and spicy, i sh*t you not my mouth is watering right now just thinking about it. This was from 15hrs ago…
The fried chicken… after how many times i’ve had many types of fried chicken, but still find this one so delicious amazes me. The hacked pieces with a side of salt and sweet radish and a healthy serving of home made slaw.
The cherry on this sundae is the beer. Cheap beer never tasted so good. The huge mugs are so frosted, after pouring in the beer you see ice ‘plates’? I really don’t know but my freezer is never this cold.
All in all, amazing food. Sort of like Korean style upscale bar foods. Check this place out right meow.

If you don’t remember what you ordered, you might not be able to tell what you’re eating. I don’t know if it’s a budget cut issue but they need to turn up the lights a little more. I always thought steakhouses and Cheesecake Factory were dark, but Ssaboo took it to a whole other level.
Food-​blindness aside, The taste wasn’t too bad. The Ddukbokki actually had a ton of flavor and it was packed with odeng (soft fish patties). It’s a little on the spicy side so be prepared to drink. I was really craving some Yang nyum Tong Dak (Fried chicken covered with a sweet and tangy sauce) so we ordered that as well.
(Note: most of the dishes here are about 1.5 normal portion sizes so it’s best to be in a group and share. The best way to figure out how many dishes you need is to multiply the number of people by .75 and then round up or down based on how hungry you guys are and how many girls are in your group. For example, we had 7 people, times .75, which gets us 5.25. We had 2 girls in our group so we rounded down to 5. If you can’t figure it out, message me on Unilocal and I’ll do the calculation for you.)
It had a weird aftertaste that I couldn’t get over (which I think came from the sauce) and there were just way too many bones, but they fried it perfectly.
The only beer they have on tap is MGD. I hate MGD. But the server did give us a free pitcher after our first two. I think they’re trying to bring a younger crowd in so if you’re in your 20’s/30’s, come here and they should give you pretty solid service.
Lastly, don’t come here if you’re in a rush. We ordered the food at the start of an NBA game and didn’t get our food until almost halftime.

The food there is great! The drinks aren’t overpriced! This place is a solid place to go to chill with a group.

I came here on a week day evening. and it wasn’t even that packed… was able to get seated immediately; however, it took 30 – 40 minutes for us (2 ppl) to get the food. when we only ordered 1 dish…
food: tasted ok, not bad. ordered spicy octopus noodles.nakjibokum.
service: bad… if you don’t mind having a couple drinks and slow service on the food. maybe it’ll be an ideal place to come with friends…
atmosphere: looks just like any other Korean bar/​restaurant.
if you want to eat food from here. I would say. either pre-​order. or just order carryout and hopefully you don’t have to wait too long. or just go when you’re not too hungry and then you’ll be hungry by the time that the food comes out.

Definitely better at night than in the day.
The place was packed, partially because of the Pacquiao fight (BOGUS by the way!), partially because it’s a go-​to nightly hang out spot for a lot of Koreans in the area. The food was much better this time around – due to the fact that the bf and I were wise enough to go with the safe choices. Though there are bones and it’s hard to see exactly what’s bone and what’s crispy, fried skin because of the dark atmosphere, the fried chicken is spot on. One whole chicken is more than enough for two people to share. The bf and I being fatties, we also ordered the samgyupsal kimchi bokeum (pork meat stir fried with kimchi) served with tofu. Both dishes were delish and we were more than satisfied.
Minus one star because we were waiting to be seated and they seated other people who came after us first.
Minus another star because we waited 10 minutes before I finally asked for menus.
Minus the third and last star because the servers didn’t come around to the table once the food was served and I had to ask for water.

Saboo aka Moraeshigae is one of my favorite Korean bars. I’ve never gone during the day… strictly in that 9pm-​1am time frame.
They have some really good bulgoki ddukbokki and I hear some other good foods. But honestly, when I go here it’s not for the food. So let me focus on the Korean bar aspect. It’s a great little place for soju, both flavored and regular. The music is a mix of Korean and English (albeit it’s usually one cd of 20 songs that repeats through the night lol), the servers are all very nice & include some twinkie servers which is always helpful and some nice tables outside if you need to go for a smoke (I don’t but go out with friends sometimes). Not to mention they have a bowl of tootsie pops by the door… love it~!
This bar is small though so it can fill completely to the brim quickly, but lately has not been as popular when I’ve gone. That may be thanks to all the other Korean bars in the area (Ju Rang, I’m looking at your newbie). The service is good thanks to the bells at your table to call them over (gotta love the korean bars that still have that). In my opinion, the newly invented Moraeshigae in the form of Saboo is better then the last (used to be further up Milwaukee in the city). Def give it a try until it closes at 1 then head over to DMZ up the street! :)

Good late night place to go. I probably wouldn’t go any other time.
Dduk-​bogi is awesome here. Fruit sojus are better here than other places. My fave was the apple soju — I love the balled chunks of apple in it. Other sojus tried — grape, strawberry, and yogurt. Grape tastes like grape soda slushy, strawberry tastes like really sweet strawberry candy with chunks (a little too sweet). Yogurt is just like typical korean yogurt sojus (the little asian yogurt drinks).
I’ve decided that go-​chu-​jang (that red pepper paste) is to koreans like ranch is to white people. They put it on everything. Like raw cucumbers.
Oh and if you come on a Saturday night like we did, you’ll probably hear a lot of Far East Movement.

PREFACE: I’m only giving this 2-​stars because I’ve experienced better, not because it was BAD. This review is also based on the TAKE-​OUT and not dine-​in.
We picked up some dduk-​boki (spicy rice cakes) and yang yum ttong dak (seasoned chicken) the other day.
Dduk-​boki. Based on other Unilocal reviews, it appears that they are known for their dduk-​boki. Yes, I agree, that their portion size was HUGE. As someone mentioned, it is probably enough for 4 people to split (in combination with other dishes). They did give 2 eggs, which is fantastic. It was extremely spicy, so if you’re into spicy, it should be good. =) All in all, I enjoyed the dduk-​boki. They had some of the most random veggies in it, like broccoli, … can’t remember what else. I just remember thinking, «What a random veggie to put in dduk-​boki!» Hey, but whatever works!!!
Yang-​Yum Ttong-​Dak. I definitely liked the sauce for this. One thing I was not a fan of was the random chicken pieces. Call me spoiled because I come from Atlanta, where the Korean food is all pretty awesome, but I am used to getting chicken drumsticks or wings (LARGE) in Atlanta. Here, you might find a wing and thigh, one drumstick, and whatever other part of the body. My friend told me that they probably (literally) take one chicken and chop it up and give it to you like that. If that is so, I can understand why we got such random pieces of chicken. I just wish that we had more chicken drumsticks, legs, or wings so that there’s more meat than bones.
All in all enjoyable and I would go back, especially since there aren’t too many of these type joints in the burbs.

Watermelon soju? Yes, please!
It’s life-​changing, I kid you not.
One of those special treats in life… usually associated with birthdays or other milestones in life. Soju is tricky, too. You hardly taste it, so you don’t think it’ll hit you as hard. Oh, but it does. The watermelon goodness just masks the fact that it’s deadly.
Try it.
Fried chicken and katsu? Delicious! Like, the 10 of us crowded around that chicken and dug in, frealz.
I adore + love this place. I’m so sad that it’s in the ‘burbs now. (Used to be in AP!) On the plus side, parking is plentiful and it’s alot bigger than its old space. And we loved the music — hello, Usher + Will.I.Am’s ‘OMG’. Official anthem for Spring 2010. Love.

Food = ¹⁰⁄₁₀
Atmosphere = ⁵⁄₁₀ (if you’re not drinking), ⁹⁄₁₀ (if you’re drinking)
The food is very good. Good selection of Ban Chan that comes with your order. I had one of the best Boo Dae Jjii Gae bowl and the price is decent. Deep fried chicken was also done perfectly, I recommend trying w/​spicy sauce.
If you’re not going to be drinking there, the music tend to be too loud for non-​drinkers.
Overall I recommend this place.