Seoul Bowl (Lincoln Square)

This food adventure started by us being totally baffled as where to eat for lunch today.  Yes, that happens and especially when we didn't do any research, it made it just a bit harder.  We tried to hit up several spots but they were all completely full.  Serves us right for not making any reservations for a weekend.  We made our way to Lincoln Square in Downtown Bellevue and stumbled upon Seoul Bowl.  It is located in a really tiny food court and they go by a self-service ordering system.  That worked pretty well, but the food did take awhile to come out.

We decided to try out their Traditional Seoul Wings served on a bed of fries.  This was the 8 piece order, but there is also a 16 piece if you were hungry or wanted to share.  These took forever to come out and we actually had these last.  I found them to be quite crispy with somewhat rendered skin.  The meat was tender and moist but lacking in a bit of flavour.  Underneath, there were some skinny fries and they were crispy but not dry. 

We had 2 bowls including the Bulgogi Bowl loaded with beef rib eye, roasted corn, kale, pickled jalapenos, pickled radish, sweet Asian salad, sweet mashed potatoes, caramelized onion and kimchi cucumber.  Yes, that was a lot of toppings and it actually outnumbered the amount of rice underneath.  Suffice to say there was plenty of texture and flavors including crunch, tang and spice.  I thought the meat was tender and nicely marinated.  Only issue is that there was so much in this bowl, things got a bit wet. 

We also got the Spicy Pork Bowl with all of the same toppings.  By virtue of being spicy, the pork had more impact while being tender and moist.  I didn't mention the rice yet, but thankfully it was on the drier side which worked well with both the sweet soy and yum yum sauce.  Not to mention, this lessened the impact from all of the wet components.  It was basically eating all the banchan, rice and meat in one bowl.  We often do that anyways at Korean restaurants.

Lastly, we got more fries for some odd reason in the Cheese Fries.  These were just like the ones found with the wings but tossed in cheese powder.  They were crispy, but not as crispy as I would've liked because they were sitting for a bit while waiting for the chicken to cook.  The timing was a little off so these got a bit cold and soft.  I think the food at Seoul Bowl is completely serviceable and satisfying to most.  Maybe not my personal favorite, but did the job considering we were out of lunch options.

The Good:
- They really load up the bowls
- Wings were quite good
- Fair pricing

The Bad:
- Maybe the bowls are too loaded?
- Timing for the fried items are off