Walking into a restaurant called Tokyo Seoul you may expect to find contemporary Asian fusion cuisine. In a way you find just that, depending on how you choose to enjoy your experience at the family run restaurant on the East side of Syracuse. Mr. and Mrs. Kim met in Seoul, South Korea and just knew that the food they found there was fantastic. So fantastic that, back in Syracuse the school teacher and her husband opened up their very own restaurant. The result is Tokyo Seoul, a cacophonous combination of Japanese hibachi and masterful sushi with Korean barbecue. Experience the restaurant in stages and you’ll come away pleased, anything more is a recipe for sensory overload.
New Years day is as good a time as any to try a new restaurant – plus it fits into one of those resolution thingies about trying new dining locations. As you walk in – greeted by Mr. Kim – you’ll see the hibachi room to your left, to the right is the Korean barbecue and traditional seating area, tucked in the back is the sushi bar. I’ll someday convince my wife to enjoy a sushi feast, but our first foray was in the hibachi room. Hibachi is pretty much a show, with the food playing second fiddle to the knife flipping skills of the showman chefs. At Tokyo Seoul they took the food just as serious as the knife work – at least the main course.
This is good, because we planned to eat a lot. Both of us decided to go with a full prix fix style dinner option – me with the chicken, steak and scallops; the wife opting for the filet and lobster tail. To start the evening our waiter brought out hot sake that was absolutely divine. The clear liquid belied the burst of tart and sweet flavor that washed through my mouth, and proceeded to course through my entire body. I’ve always felt that first shiver inducing sip of hot sake is the best part of the experience.
Dinner began with a disappointing iceberg lettuce salad with a ginger dressing. Ginger dressing with little to no bite is not worth my time, and paired with your typical simplistic house salad it had me worried. This was not the Asian cuisine I was looking forward to. Luckily a bowl of simple onion soup came along for the ride. A perfectly clear broth garnished with thinly sliced scallions was delicate and properly built its flavor profile until the last mouthful was the culmination of every spoonful that came before. This was the subtle balance of flavors I had been looking for.
Next up was a tempura dish that was done better than most. My issue with tempura is it normally gets served as an oily and soggy mess. While it was clear by the texture that the tempura items were drained on paper towels, the flavor of the components was not overpowered by an outlandish tempura batter. Still, it was disappointing that the fry oil often overpowered the diminutive flavor of the shrimp and vegetables.
Our hibachi chef came out smiling and ready to cook our food. As I said, hibachi chefs are showmen. Even as we indicated our desire for food over a show our man was more than willing to make the experience enjoyable. I also think that as the night was coming to a close he was happy to cook our meal with only the flourish that is necessary. As cliché as it may be I would walk out of a hibachi dinner that left out the onion volcano.
The main dishes we were served was better than what is normally expected from a hibachi dinner. In the ranking of Asian cuisine hibachi is one or two steps above takeout. At least that’s the norm. Tokyo Seoul offered perfectly cooked meats, rice that was deftly seasoned, and at no point was I overwhelmed by the typical saltiness that you’ll find in this type of restaurant. Mr. and Mrs. Kim have put together a restaurant in Tokyo Seoul that offers high quality ingredients with a gracious and welcoming atmosphere.
