Seoulmate

Back again with another one! This time I thought I might go to get some Korean food, so I was looking around for a place, and when I saw it, I had to go. I mean, who doesn’t love a good “Seoul/Soul” pun?

Walking into it, you might not expect much. This place is a pretty small shack-lookin’ thing right on the side of the street. It’s pink and gray. I know what you’re thinking, that it’s tacky and gross, but walking into it, it’s quite pretty. They’ve got a nice small seating area that can hold around 40 people. Cozy, and very homely.

The real meat begins. Foodstuffs. Seoulmate brings a great joy to the Mexican-Korean food sub-cuisine. This food style has been very popularly sweeping all over Orange County, with the beginning of the Kogi Truck. It’s a great fusion that works very well with the fact that many Korean restaurants serve a variety of meats, and many Mexican restaurants have multiple mediums of food. This particular place serves the fusion dishes, but also some standards like hot tofu soup or bibimbap. I ordered the taco combo, which comes with 3 tacos, fries, and a drink, all for less than 10 dollars! The tacos I got were 2 bulgogi (sweet marinated beef) and 1 spicy pork. They came topped with a cabbage slaw, sriracha, and sour cream. They were pleasantly surprising. I’ve been to many places with Korean tacos/burritos, but these were very nice. Usually Korean marinated meat is very tender and soft, so the crunch of the slaw was very refreshing. As for the meat, you really can’t mess up bulgogi and spicy pork, so no disappointment there. The fries were fried very well! I really couldn’t say anything bad about it. The really cool thing was that they were sprinkled with some sort of furikake (Japanese sesame/seaweed seasoning) spice. My friend got the “Old Boy” a bulgogi burrito with optional egg and avocado, and I can safely say, I think I chose the better option :P. It does happen to be the most popular item though. After biting into it, I thought it was very standard, but again, the sour cream/slaw made it very refreshing and not heavy. The combination of all these things was really hearty and satisfying. I would highly recommend this joint to lots.

I haven’t been to a load of these fusion restaurants, but I love them. I love how two cultures can combine into one natural flow under food. This particular location is, in my opinion, pretty exemplary of a fast food fusion joint. Again, I couldn’t tell you of many others, but this one for sure :). For that reason, Seoulmate gets an…

8/10

It was a great place to eat, big portions, and the way the atmosphere was held was fantastic. And it’s kinda outdoors, so you get that local vibe 😀 Come here, it’ll do you good!

Seoulmate

Price: ~$10

Address: 4712 E 7th St, Long Beach, CA 90804

Phone: (562) 433-1158