Seoul Soondae: A Korean diner offers something for the adventurous

By James Moon

Seoul Soondae, at 4231 Markham Street, nestled deep in Annandale’s Seoul Plaza, is the Korean equivalent of a diner, serving the underside of Korean cuisine: working-class soups, homey noodles, plenty of fried foods, and the sort of exotic snacks you might eat with friends at a street vendor’s cart in Seoul, such as chicken gizzards and pig’s feet. This hole in the wall takes you where other popular or traditional eating establishments wouldn’t dare.

The restaurant’s eponym and signature dish is a Korean sausage made from animal intestines filled with vermicelli noodles and flavored with—among other things—blood. Various platters of soondae are available to the undaunted diner, but blood sausage isn’t for everyone, and even among Koreans this dish is divisive.

The menu has its tamer side as well, with Korean standbys such as kimchi jjigae (kimchi soup), haemul pajeon (seafood pancake), gimbap (sliced rice rolls), and tteokbokki (spicy sauced rice cakes and noodles). The gamjatang, a spicy pork bone soup with vegetables and potato is tasty, but eating around the bones gracefully with chopsticks is an acquired skill. If your nose can take it, try the cheonggukjang, a pungently fermented soybean soup, similar to doenjang jjigae and distantly related to miso soup.

What make Seoul Sundae like a diner is the menu’s “American style” dishes—Korean versions of Western foods, such as Hamburg steak (aka Salisbury steak). Seoul Soondae also serves Korean-styled tonkatsu, a breaded and deep-fried pork cutlet, as well as other types of katsu with beef, chicken, and fish. Last but not least in the diner fare (and a personal favorite) is omurice, fried rice covered with an egg omelet and served with soup.

Entrees start at $7 at lunchtime and $9 during non-lunch hours. Beer and Korean liquor is also served.

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