SGD DUBU SO GONG DONG TOFU & KOREAN BBQ - WICKER PARK

Specialty Korean restaurant that offers several classic Korean dishes for a competitive price. The restaurant has plenty of seating parties between 2-4 people. The chicken bento box was a good value for the portions but it could've used a little more spice in the chicken bulgogi. The service was consistent and the food came out promptly. There is limited street parking. This restaurant is best accessed by public transit or by foot.

I’m surprised the ratings are as high as they are with how poor the service was for an empty restaurant, small portions, and high prices. Flavors were good, and kimchi had spice. Honestly, would probably come again when desperate for Korean food because of its proximity but might take food to go.

September 2025 BYOB New find by Western and North. Lovely eatery with very limited menu and only 2 side dishes accompanying the main. The taste was good and very nicely spiced. The size of the portions was good. The taste was very good. I would definitely go back!

Can’t stop thinking about these flavors! Everything was so fresh and flavorful! The owner explained the dishes and taught me how to properly eat them. The tofu in the soup melts in your mouth and the beef short ribs are addicting! I will be ordering those for future parties! Love that the location is BYOB!

Terrible service. Never had such an unwelcoming experience. The waitress was rude, dismissive, and gave constant attitude from the moment we sat down. This was off-putting from the beginning but we tried to not let it affect us and stayed. However, most of the menu was unavailable—the waitress kept repeating “only beef and pork left”, with no other explanations on what was or wasn’t available. So we tried to be understanding of the menu, despite the bad service, and tried to placed our order anyways, knowing there were only beef and pork left and having to make accommodations of what we originally wanted when deciding to come here. But when we tried ordering galbi (a beef dish) and a plain tofu soup with noodles (both of which should’ve been available according to what the waitress told us), those weren’t available either... When we asked for a recommendation, she just repeated “only beef and pork” in an unhelpful, rude tone that didn’t even answer the question. The entire time, waitress was trying to respond to us with as little words as possible and kept shrugging, rolling her eyes, stomping, frown on her face, acting as if we were stupid, etc. Most of us understand since we have dealt a lot with customer service before too, but this was unacceptable behavior. With almost nothing available on the menu and such unwelcoming service, we ended up having to walk out. Why give our business to a place that couldn’t provide the basics of a restaurant? I usually love SGD and have been to 5 other Chicagoland locations with great experiences, always receiving amazing service and food in a comfortable attractive setting, but this location was completely unbearable. Too bad, I had high hopes since this SGD is in my area, but next time I will just have to drive further to the suburb locations until their service improves here.

Beef sundubu soup and beef bibimbap are my all time Korean favorites flavorful, comforting, and always hit the spot. Highly recommend if you’re craving something hearty and delicious!

Petite SGD location that I think is the best of all the Chicago locations. Came here twice in a week because it hit the spot, and didn’t disappoint the second time. I’m so happy this is in the neighborhood and I’m able to have authentic soondubu in WP! Highly recommend for the food and sweet service!

Small, clean and cosy restaurant with delicious food. Service wasfast. We got chicken bulgogi which came in sizzling to our table. It is served with rice and 2 sides dishes. The chicken tasted great! The pork dumplings were tasty and I loved the sauce served with it.

Amazing food! Definitely recommend getting the seafood soup (best i've had) and pork bulgogi. Even the rice is great.

Hi all that are considering coming to a Korean bbq spot, def stop in we got the pork bento box so fire so much pork I couldn't even eat it all, my girlfriend had the pork belly she cleared her plate, the food is amazing cooked fresh to order worth the hype, def will be coming back very soon!!!!

So Gong Dong - 2411 W North Ave, Chicago I'd been looking for a cozy little spot for a while and finally decided to check out So Gong Dong on North Avenue. This Korean restaurant sits right at the corner of North and Western. There's street parking available, but since the area is usually busy, be prepared to circle the block a few times before finding a spot. I also recommend checking their hours ahead of time, they keep a pretty unique schedule. The interior is warm and inviting, with a comfortable, homey feel. It's worth noting that this isn't a self-serve Korean BBQ place; it's more of a made-to-order restaurant with a solid lunch-style menu that includes some vegetarian-friendly options. Most of the soups can be customized with beef, chicken, or pork, which I appreciated for the variety. The bathroom is located through the kitchen, something you don't see every day, but I noticed the kitchen itself looked very clean. The only issue was that the bathroom didn't have soap at the time, so hopefully that's something they address. The staff were friendly and attentive, and the background music added a nice touch, mostly K-pop with a few American songs mixed in. For food, I ordered the kimchi soup with beef, while my friend got the tofu soup. We also shared an order of vegetable fried dumplings. Everything we tried was solid, nothing overly fancy, but everything tasted fresh and flavorful. Given that there aren't many Korean restaurants in the area (maybe just one other nearby), this is definitely one of the best options on this side of town. Overall, it was a satisfying first experience. I'd rate it a 3.5 out of 5, good food, great service, and a cozy atmosphere worth returning to.

I've had SGD in other locations before and it was incredible so I was disappointed in my recent order. I ordered their tofu stew with seafood and it had 2 shrimp (which were not devained/cleaned) and 2 mussels the size of my pinky finger. The mussel shells were also broken inside the soup. Soup itself had no flavor- you could make a better one with a soup kit from the grocery store. If this was my first time trying them, I wouldn't come back. Maybe it's just a location issue??

MY NEW FAVORITE. I highly recommend the famous soon tofu noodle. You even get a chance to adjust the level of spiciness so no worries if you can't handle typical Korean spice. The service was awesome and undramatic and the food came super quickly! I will absolutely be back for more. - AD

I usually order SGD through door dash. It's become our go-to carryout restaurant. We've alternated between pick up and delivery. The service is always quick. Our order is consistently the beef and pork bulgogi; can't go wrong! The entree portions last us at least two meals. The complimentary bonchon of kimchi and sides of rice are small, but we just supplement with fresh rice at home the following day with our leftovers. So happy that SGD came to the neighborhood! Could be wishful thinking, but I'd put money down that more and more southloop/Chinatown businesses will make their second home in Wicker Park. *prayer hands*

So excited to have a location in the city! Always good food with great service! Some limited seating but have never had trouble getting a table. Love stopping by when I'm craving Korean food!

OK, so, you gotta really be careful when you order for takeout here. Getting here is OK, although if you drive, you may have to park a block or more away to get free street parking. They do have metered parking in front, if you're rolling in dough. I ordered the Korean Beef Bento box. It's OK, although the beef portion was underwhelming in that it was less flavorful and greasier than I like. I finished it off but it sat in my belly reminding me of its presence for a couple hours afterwards. The rest of the bento box was fine. I might be inclined to give it another try at some point. Here's an interesting tidbit about So Gong Dong: it's a chain! They have a bunch of locations dotted around the country. It's not even regional, particularly--they have several in New Jersey, several in Illinois, a couple in Florida, and single locations in Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, California, Virginia, Massachusetts, and New York (midtown Manhattan, of all places!). So, my guess is that they are selling franchises to whoever wants to buy one and put it their town, and since there are no other chain Korean places I can think of, I wouldn't be surprised to see hundreds of franchised So Gong Dong locations pop up around the country in the next five to ten years. They do have seating there, but it's kind of fast-food-type seating in that the seats are designed to get you to leave once you're done, since they're not altogether comfortable to languish about in. OK, now for the "gotcha" part when you order takeout. I typically use Seamless to order takeout because most places use Seamless and I have an account, so that's what I did here. The bento box I ordered was listed on the takeout menu as being $23.99. That's more than I saw on the online menu, but lots of times online menus are out of date, so I didn't think much of it. So I went in to pick up the order, and while they were bringing my order to the counter, I notice at the menu screen above the counter, and there's the beef bento box listed at $18.99. So I asked, why the difference in price? And here's the answer: it's because I ordered through Seamless, and SGD tacks on an extra five dollars onto the order for Doordash delivery charge. Oh, OK. Well, I didn't get delivery. I came to pick it up. You're gonna refund my five dollars, right? Ohhhh, ha ha ha, no-o-o, we can't do that. It's automatic on the order. Five dollars for Doordash delivery. But I didn't get Doordash delivery. I came to pick it up. You can't charge me five dollars for a delivery i did not get, can you? Ohhhh, ha ha ha, I sorry, we can't refund you money. It's five dollars for Doordash. I'm sorry. So wait, every time I order for pickup it's five dollars extra for the food? If you order online yes. If you call on phone, not five dollars. Wha-ha-ha-haat? You can't be serious! You charge customers less if they tie you and your labor up on the phone to order instead of freeing you up by ordering online? Ha ha ha, I'm sorry. So--that's how they get you, and either they can not or will not refund you the money for the thing they charged you for that you didn't even use, apparently only because you had the temerity to order online through Seamless instead of calling them on the phone. So the moral of the story is: beware coming to So Gong Dong. Because if they "getcha" in this way, they'll probably "getcha" in other ways as well.

I had the BiBimBap with chicken. Really fresh ingredients and very tasty. The serving size was huge- 2 person portions. Thus, the price is great! My order came out fast and my server was attentive. The only turn off is that the windows are a bit dirty and it makes me wonder about the cleanliness of the place. By all accounts, it looks fine inside.

I'm so excited to have some good Korean food in the neighborhood! I went in around 8:30pm, ordered a beef bento, and it was ready within 10 minutes! The bento was fantastic and everything tasted fresh and well seasoned. The staff were very warm and kind. A small space but very open and clean inside!

FINALLY! A SGD close to my home. I know this place is a chain but there's something about their soondubu that I just loveeeeee. I also love ordering the soondubu with ramen, japchae, and pork belly. This location doesn't have the beef short ribs but that one is one of my favorites as well. This location has excellent service. Looking forward to coming back again.

I've been coming here about every other week since they opened. I love the soondubu, and the japchae. The service is always great. Since moving back to Chicago it's been hard to find consistent soondubu, but this place has it - lots of choices to put into it as well. I still need to try some of the other dishes, but will keep coming back.

Have been trying to find a good Korean spot in the city and this place has been the best so far. Their soondubu tasted the most authentic out of the places we tried. Will definitely be coming back to get my Korean fix.

I love SGD and this new location didn't disappoint. The menu is a little different than the locations in the burbs but the food was just as good! The service was Impeccable.