Sobahn Express

So sad they are closed. Replaced by an hmart run place that serves nasty, barely edible food. I loved their dol sot bi bim bap.

Here’s where you go for cheap but good food. Located inside the H Mart at the Jamboree/​Alton Pkwy plaza, Sobahn Express is a terrific place to get quick easy lunch. It’s great. Food’s great, service is amazing. You get your food in less than 5 minutes.
While other places charge $ 10 + for a bowl of bibimbap, and it’s only $ 6.99 here! Yea, you read that right! Plus, it comes with kimchi and a small bowl of hot soup. Everything on their menu is pretty much less than $ 10.
What’s more, they have stamp cards for frequent flyers. On the 5^th stone pot, you get some free dumplings. On the 10^th stone pot, you earn a free stone pot.
Only downside is the parking. During lunch rush hour, people are fighting for spaces at Ajisen, H Mart, etc. Good luck finding a close spot and dodging some crazy drivers who aren’t looking!

The service was decent, the portions were fair as were the prices, but the food was very bland and my friend got explosive diarrhea.
We are not sure if there was a correlation between the two, but the quality and overall taste do not warrant the risk for me.
Any of the restaurants around the area are probably better places to spend your money than here.

Solid lunch time spot if you’re looking for a quick, cheap and satisfying bibimbap meal. The rest of the Korean restaurants in the plaza take longer to get you situated when you can opt for a no frills meal here instead.
Order at the counter from their bibimbap options which also include kimchi fried rice as a base instead of the usual white rice. Stone pot (dolsot) is only served if you eat within the food court as expected, otherwise you can get bibimbap to go.
I thought my chicken bibimbap with kimchi fried rice was pretty good but nothing to write home about unlike the pork bibimbap I had recently at Ham Ji Park. Course that’s an unfair comparison since once is located in Ktown LA and Sobahn Express is located conveniently in Diamond Jamboree’s H-​Mart.
I’ll be coming back for lunch for sure in the future since work is around the corner.

It’s good and the price is right. The only thing I don’t like is the location. The H Mart can get real crowded and there are times when the smell of fish is a bit too much when you first enter the store.
The food is hot when served and has a lot of flavor. I enjoy the noodles and chicken. My husband likes everything there. This last time he decided on the beef stew. It’s a good quick place for lunch. It can get crowded at lunch so plan ahead if you want to try it.

Great value and a quick meal at this hot stone pot bibimbap specializing eatery inside a Korean market. It actually tastes pretty good and comes out super fast. The portion is just right and I love crispened rice at the bottom of the stone pot.
The dining area gets pretty crowded in a tiny section inside H-​Mart they share with Love Letter Pizza. They have other dishes but I’d say the bibimbaps are the safe picks. That said, I’d like to try their other stuff. If this place was closer and had better parking, I’d come here more.
PS — They have a stamp card that gives you 6 pieces of dumplings after the 5^th hot stone meal and a free meal after the 10^th.

4 stars due to the price & convenience.
Not the best Korean food but definitely a quick fix if you’re craving Korean food. It’s located inside Hmart and many dishes are $ 6.99. Most of the dishes are cooked in the stone pot so takeout is not allowed. They have a separate takeout menu.
I ordered the kimchi rice w/​bulgogi. Flavor was good. Also, they’re really fast! So definitely a plus if you’re on a time crunch.
They also give you stamp cards! So after 10 purchases, you get one free dish.

Located inside H-​mart, you’ll find Sobahn Express among the few options in the food court. Let me just say it: It’s nice to have a fast, decent korean food option.
But decent is about as far as I’ll go. It’s a solid 3 star venue cuz they do bother to go «all out» with the clay pots for your meal.
So you can’t really complain too much. And parking is, well, it’s asia-​ville in Irvine. So you just gotta deal with it. But, you know, it’s better to not shop on an empty stomach, right?

Craving for Korean food and you want it quick? Ta da. Sobahn Express.
I’ve tried their bulgogi and steak hot stone. Both are equally yummy, but def needs some hot sauce and/​or kimchi with it. Their kimchi & pork stew is my favorite (kimchi jjigae). Be warned though, there is a LOT of kimchi. I’m a kimchi lover, so I don’t mind, but those who just like kimchi… hope you don’t mind spoonfuls of kimchi: D Food is at a reasonable price. Their tofu stews are about $ 2 cheaper than BCD’s…that’ll be next on my list.

We came here on a Tuesday afternoon for lunch and I ordered the #7, kim chi fried rice with bulgogi for 7.45.
— In H-​Mart.
— Stamp card. Buy 10 get 1 free (6.99). Can combine cards. :)
— Always fresh! hot stone sizzlin’!
— CAUTION. you’ll smell like Korean food at work. haha. febreeze?
— Come b4 12 to beat the rush. After 12, wait a while.
— Quick and friendly service.
— Great taste for the price of a Chick Fil-​A meal!
— Favorite quick hot stone stop! Clean. But not drive more than 5mi to eat here favorite.
— 2^nd favorite is the hot stone bibimbap bulgogi or #1
— Great place to eat during a lunch break! LOVE this place.

Who would have thought that there’s a food court inside HMart. Bro-​in-​law brought us here and I was honestly hesitant to eat here. I wanted to eat in a big sit down restaurant esp. when I drove over an hour from home. I mean, this kind meal (fast food/​food court style) would be a great find for workday’s lunch but not for a weekend outing or so I thought…
But after sampling the Bulgogi stew, chicken japchae, kimchi rice and dumpling. I was actually impressed. My favorite was the Bulgogi stew. We actually ordered one more to bring back to our hotel (for my lil son who was asleep). Kimchi Dumpling was not to my liking — reminds me of frozen dumplings you can buy in any Asian market. The price here is inexpensive for both portions and taste. Totally, worth it. In addition, we also ordered from Pizza & Chicken Love Letter (read review) — which is right next to each other.
It’s a cafeteria style when ordering so there’s really not much service here, but the gentleman at the counter was actually friendly and eager to please.
I have to say, I have no regrets eating here. In fact, I’m glad K brought me here.
Would I eat here again? Yes, I would but only if I’m in the area.

We enjoyed our lunch
My girlfriend and I met up here for some quick lunch. We both got a bimbimbap. I got the bulgogi one and it came out with two pickled items, miso soup, and a packet of seaweed. My bimbimbap was satisfying. It consisted of shredded carrots, mushrooms, beansprouts, a cracked egg, green onions, sesame and bulgogi. Yum!
I think we paid around $ 8 each. My girlfriend complained hers was a little bland but I thought mine was okay. The food came out extremely fast and we were stuffed and on our way.

Surprisingly decent for a food joint located inside of a grocery store!
Although, I will admit that having a bunch of customers wandering around trying to balance hot stone pots puts me a lil on edge. eeeeeek

This place is possibly the fastest food I’ve ever had. I ordered, walked over to get some water, and they called my number before I was done filling up my cup.
I’m enamored with the hot stone serving style. How cool is that? The bulgogi bibimbap comes in the hot stone with a raw egg cracked on top; you get to cook it with the residual heat from the hot stone.
The whole meal (bibimbap, soup, and two small sides) cost me $ 6.99 + tax. Yes please!
Now the elephant in the room: taste. It left something to be desired. I didn’t know what to expect, but I imagine that bland mixed rice is not what I’m supposed to picture when I think of bibimbap. Yes, mixed rice, because that’s what it means, but not bland.
To be fair, it wasn’t bad, and I’ll be back to try a different dish.

4.5÷5 stars
Kimchi fried rice! And stone-​grilled noodles/​rice! Wow, so good. I don’t recommend the soup noodles or tofu stew here, as I’m not a fan of the broth or the pad thai noodles used for these dishes. But everything else, yummy! Don’t get me wrong, maybe their broth or pad thai noodles in your soup are your thing. It’s just not my cup of tea.
The kimchi fried rice is unlike any kimchi fried rice I’ve ever had. Sobahn Express is seriously my favorite place to have kimchi fried rice and hot stone bibimbap. For $ 6.99, you can’t go wrong. Staff is awesome, food is delicious, price is spot on! Plus, your 10^th $ 6.99 item is FREE! Love the stamp cards :)

Hidden from the madness of Diamond Jamboree, I like to come to this place when I’m hungry and want a quick and affordable meal. And also, the few times I have come here was on a weekend and it’s never as crowded as say, Guppies.
One of my favorite things to get is the bulgogi tofu hot stone soup ($ 6.99). It comes with a side of rice and a small side of kimchi. The soup has a mix of vegetables, meat, onions, and tofu and it’s a bit spicy. It’s the perfect dish when trying to get rid of a stuffy nose. And it’s pretty filling as I am never able to finish the soup by myself. The service of this place is not that great. The people serving me are always different when I come in; they seem to be college kids, some pleasant some indifferent. The last time I was here, I stood in front of the cashier for awhile and waited for him to stop texting before he looked up and monotonously asked me what he could get me.
Overall, a great place to stop by for some hot soup or bibimbap. Tip: Don’t forget to ask and use your stamp card!

My sister and I grabbed dinner here before a flight out of SNA. It was quite crowded in the food court area, so I ordered while she hovered over tables until someone left. The staff helped us carry our boxes to the table. We both ordered not-​spicy tofu stew, which has a tendency to be somewhat bland. Two little cups of pickles came with each box. Because hers was vegetarian, it was pretty flat tasting at first, though it developed a bit more flavor after sitting for a few minutes.
Nothing spectacular, but the food was cheap ($~15 total), hot, and arrived quickly, which is what we needed. Not somewhere to come with big groups though.

Sobahn Express is just okay, but some how they have a sticker that reads «People on Unilocal love us». Confused? So am I. I know this place is just a food court vender inside Hmart, but it could be better.
The few times that I have eaten here were for 2 reasons:
1) Close to work (worth it if the parking lot isn’t crazy that day)
2) Feeling lazy (Woori Market food court is a thousand times better! Oh wait a thousand times zero is zero. So Hmart plus one times a thousand equals Woori Market)
The best feature is the fact the food is cheap and it looks very good. The tofu is meh. I like the Bibimpbop better. The service is friendly and there usually isn’t a wait. For fast decent Korean food, go to Sobahn Express. If you have other options (Irvine does) go somewhere else.

Convenient food court format inside of H-​Mart. I wouldn’t go out of my way to come here for the food but if you want something quick without all the rigmarole of a regular restaurant, this is a good cheap alternative…
The Bulgogi Bibimbap was pretty good, love the egg, bean sprouts, veggies, thin cut beef, and that hot stone rice. Meal comes with a small side soup and some kimche. Also tried the dumplings, they were fine, but I think I’ll pass on the rice fries next time…
Can get pretty hectic looking for a place to sit inside when it’s busy, and the parking lot outside of the H-​Mart is almost always a zoo. Don’t expect everyone to have the common decency to bus their own dishes either…
Not really four stars, more like 3.5…

Kimchi & cheese. Who woulda thunk it? What a great combo!
Admittedly, this bibimbap («mixed rice») thing is new to me, but it’s a welcomed addition to my cold-​day-​craving repertoire. As good as the meaty bibimbap sounded, I simply had to try the kimchi/​cheese version of this traditional Korean dish. So delish!
Make sure to come to Sobahn Express with a huge appetite, as the hot stone pot you get is pretty massive, and full of rice, meat (or kimchi/​cheese!) and various delicious fixin’s. For only about 7 bucks a pop, this is a great deal! Bibimbap makes for awesome leftovers if you don’t finish. I’m a pretty big dude, and I couldn’t eat it all in one sitting.
Don’t forget to mix in plenty of chili pepper paste for extra spiciness! Mmm…