From the ashes of Casa Piquin and CM Chicken, a Korean fried chicken joint that was seemingly both open and not open Schrödinger’s cat style, comes this fledgeling Korean restaurant that shares its predecessor’s oddball subterranean space, but hopefully doesn’t share their lack of longevity and ability to overcome their shortcomings. Those being the aforementioned underground thing and general lack of being open or customers in general Low bar, truth be told.
As I’ve mentioned about 400 times on this site, Hipster Jr. loves everything Korean. I mean, not like Kim Jong Un or horrendous work culture or anything, but she loves her some K-Pop and has, for a few years now, been on us to try any new Korean place that crops up. This one just so happens to be within walking distance and has a menu that looks accommodating and classic. I will preface all of this by saying that as of our visit, it’s pretty clear Seoul Bistro is still figuring stuff out. Which, if the past is any indication, gives them about six months to get to 100% or the curtain will drop and some nail salon will take over their dried husk. But, as a new-ish business, their space — which, once again, is below street level — feels oddly unfinished. The interior is a pleasant West Elm meets modern Asian aesthetic, but the dining room itself is laid out weirdly and the tables are inconsistently spaced, with a serving station floating in space and what I think is an open door to the kitchen on awkward display behind it. When we were there the ‘O’ was already missing from the word “Seoul” in their name on some wall art. SE UL BISTRO. Not as catchy.
Furthering our feeling of newness was the service. It’s what you might call casual. Or lax. Or, if you’re really going to be a jerk about it, pretty not great. We were seated at our reservation time and then nothing. Sure, there were a few teenagers who would appear on occasion, but vanish just as quickly back into the kitchen. There was not a whole lot of food coming out to any of the tables as far as we could tell, so perhaps it was some sort of kitchen SNAFU. Or perhaps they just haven’t had time to train their staff fully. But we sat without even a second look from anyone for some time before finally getting a very pleasant server to take our order. I’m not alleging child labor by any account, but I will say that most everyone working there seemed very young. Summer help, I guess.
Once we were able to order, the food did come out fast (SNAFU cleared). We started with a couple orders of fried dumplings, which were actually really tasty. They then brought out what I think must be gyeran-jjim, which is a flan-like steamed egg dish that everyone was instantly out on, save me. It was an interesting little side, but didn’t really leave an impression other than being a unique little dalliance in weirdness. Hipster Jr. Jr. and I went with the bibimbap, which is the least surprising thing ever. Ms. Hipster got the bulgogi stone bowl rice — which is basically just the bibimbap with more meat and less of the accouterments in a hot stone bowl. But is weirdly seven dollars more. I guess meat is pricier than veggies. It all came with the requisite groupings of sides that you typically get with a Korean entrée. They were fine — nothing particular of note. The bibimbap was a little lackluster, truth be told. I opted to keep the fried egg on top of mine, which typically has a runny yolk that you mix in with the meat, veggies and rice, coating it in a richness that would otherwise not be there. This yolk was not silky like that, which diminished the experience. The amount of bulgogi in there was also not exactly… robust. I mean it’s only sixteen bucks, so I can’t expect the world. The whole thing lacked moisture, but some generous gochujang sprays certainly helped. It just wasn’t hitting the same way it sometimes can. It’s hard to describe, but overall it ate a bit dry and a little too bland. The seasoning on the meat, the cook on the veggies and the steam on the rice just sapped it of character. I shouldn’t need to shower it with gochujang to make it have flavor.
Now, I am all for giving a place a second chance. Especially one that we know is still trying to find itself. And one that is clearly trying to do something different and isn’t cravenly making a copycat smashburger, hot chicken or poke bowl. It’s okay to fine-tune your menu as you go along, and while our culinary experience wasn’t the best of the genre, it certainly wasn’t at all bad. I appreciate the attempt and will certainly go back for a second bite once they have their legs a little more under them in terms of their service and hopefully some tweaking of the menu. That all said, if you are new to Korean cuisine and don’t have anything to compare it against, I think it would be a great starter meal for the uninitiated. Granted, in ordering bibimbap, we stuck to what amounts to the chicken tikka masala for Indian food and the pad Thai for Thai food, so maybe some of their less-typical dishes are where they shine. We’ll have to test out that theory next time.
537 Bloomfield Ave. – Montclair
201/499-5300
seoulbistronj.com
