We came with hungry tummies and high expectations due to what we'd heard from friends and on the digital grape vine. We, being myself, and the Choongs being Ling and Noah. Barley Boy had another social engagement so the three of us agreed to try and find our Seoul souls.
This little alcove like dining hall is cute and well constructed. We were pretty early dining around 6pm but there were already people there and more showed up as our meal progressed. There's good use of space and it certainly lends itself to food spying and eyeing up what the party next to you orders.
This little alcove like dining hall is cute and well constructed. We were pretty early dining around 6pm but there were already people there and more showed up as our meal progressed. There's good use of space and it certainly lends itself to food spying and eyeing up what the party next to you orders.
The dinner menu is quite wide and it's hard deciding where to start so we took the easy opion and went for a set dinner. We were hungry and the $100 price tag seemed reasonable enough and probably around what we'd spend anyway so we went for the four person dinner to share between three.
The first dishes to come out were fishcakes, kim chee pancake and a fried tofu salad and we also had a small dish of kim chee and pickled turnip.
The fishcakes were sweet in flavour and had what's known as fish floss sprinkled over it which is dehydrated fish that is cooked, baked and flavoured so that it's very strong flavoured and has the texture of dry cotton. Fish floss and the more common pork floss are not really my thing and I found the fishcakes a bit too synthetic and artificial tasting for my liking.
The kim chee pancake was nice enough with a light soy dressing and the tofu salad was probably the winner although I didn't expect it to be. The cubes of tofu were well seasoned and crispy and the salad ingredients fresh and crunch and even the random pieces of strawberry and peach didn't offend me.
The first dishes to come out were fishcakes, kim chee pancake and a fried tofu salad and we also had a small dish of kim chee and pickled turnip.
The fishcakes were sweet in flavour and had what's known as fish floss sprinkled over it which is dehydrated fish that is cooked, baked and flavoured so that it's very strong flavoured and has the texture of dry cotton. Fish floss and the more common pork floss are not really my thing and I found the fishcakes a bit too synthetic and artificial tasting for my liking.
The kim chee pancake was nice enough with a light soy dressing and the tofu salad was probably the winner although I didn't expect it to be. The cubes of tofu were well seasoned and crispy and the salad ingredients fresh and crunch and even the random pieces of strawberry and peach didn't offend me.
Next were two rice dishes - bibimbap and spicy pork teriyaki. The bibimbap was really well flavoured and I enjoyed it when it was mushed up along with the egg. It resembled fried rice really with a bit of spice.
The pork teriyaki was pleasant enough but not particularly memorable.
The pork teriyaki was pleasant enough but not particularly memorable.
Next came some skewers of prawn, scallop, shiitake mushroom and rice cake. The scallops were very small and didn't have much flavour. The prawns were ok. The shiitake and the rice cakes were probably the better ones and likely to be the cheapest. We'd probably have preferred it if they were all shiitake and rice cake.
The grilled dishes came soon after - belly pork covered in a sweet slightly spicy sauce and grilled beef short ribs along with one bowl of rice. The pork belly was nice enough and the short ribs although well flavoured were quite tough. There was also a bowl of hot soup. Good thing we are all good friends who don't mind the dreaded double dip because we weren't really offered smaller individual dishes to pour it into. The soup was tasty at first but towards the end started to taste overly salted.
Service throughout was quietly effective - not overly warm and friendly but distantly polite and efficient.
So did Seoul Soul speak to our souls? We left not overly full in spite of getting a 4 person banquet when there were three of us. Some of it was tasty enough such as the teriyaki and the grilled dishes but others were a bit of miss. It's ok priced but I wouldn't be rushing back in a huge hurry. A big bowl of pho for $8 would probably warm my soul more.
The grilled dishes came soon after - belly pork covered in a sweet slightly spicy sauce and grilled beef short ribs along with one bowl of rice. The pork belly was nice enough and the short ribs although well flavoured were quite tough. There was also a bowl of hot soup. Good thing we are all good friends who don't mind the dreaded double dip because we weren't really offered smaller individual dishes to pour it into. The soup was tasty at first but towards the end started to taste overly salted.
Service throughout was quietly effective - not overly warm and friendly but distantly polite and efficient.
So did Seoul Soul speak to our souls? We left not overly full in spite of getting a 4 person banquet when there were three of us. Some of it was tasty enough such as the teriyaki and the grilled dishes but others were a bit of miss. It's ok priced but I wouldn't be rushing back in a huge hurry. A big bowl of pho for $8 would probably warm my soul more.
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