Dok Suni

One rainy Tuesday night, I got tickets for DLS and I to watch Mock Your World – a hilarious music act of sorts making fun of everything, though focusing mostly on musical theater.  In any case, he wisely pointed out that we’d be hungry beforehand and asked if we could have Korean food.  I’m nothing if not accommodating (hahaahahahahhhah!), so I quickly checked the internet and found that within reasonable walking distance was Dok Suni.  (Though he’ll tell you that my idea of ‘reasonable walking distance’ is not quite what everyone else thinks, he’s WRONG!!  Chinatown to Hell’s Kitchen is a nice evening stroll, not torture!) 

This was placed in front of us almost as soon as we sat down.  Soft slices of what I presume to be rice cake, completely bland on its own but topped with slivers of cucumber and a hot chili paste.  I picked at this but found it just… weird. 

To start, we ordered beef kimbap, which arrived still warm.  The seaweed suffered a bit as a result – a little soggy and soft, and I wished for some more substance to the rolls.  Not particularly flavorful, and I wouldn’t order this again – I’ll stick to Woorijip for my kimbap needs! 

Our banchan, or the complimentary small dishes given with every Korean meal, arrived like so: tofu, black beans, spicy pickled cucumbers, broccoli and kimchi.  None of it stood out but was definitely a welcome vegetable component to our meal, since neither of us ordered very many vegetables…

DLS went with soondubu, or seafood soft tofu soup.  This is apparently what he usually gets when he goes to Korean restaurants; I know he enjoyed it, even as it came to the table screaming hot, still bubbling in the hot cast iron pot.  I didn’t try any. 

Unknown to me, my dish came with a small clear soup of sorts that was slightly sweet.  A nice break from all the flavors if you wanted one. 

My dish!  It doesn’t look like much, and honestly, it’s something I probably never would have ordered because I make it at home.  Stir fried kimchi and rice.  It’s a little hard to see (the lighting was really weird, we were sitting near the door and some neon lights were shining on us), but the rice was unlike fried rice the way I’m used to, which is dry, tossed with bits of egg, bits of protein, etc.  No, this rice was almost like each plump grain had been coated with a spicy red pepper paste (akin to gochujang), mixed happily with bits of beef.  There was so much flavor to this dish – slightly spicy, but not overwhelmingly so – I honestly was extremely pleasantly surprised because I ordered it thinking it’d be good, but not this good.  It exceeded all expectations.  I really enjoyed it, and would definitely order it again.  YUM.  

Then off to Mock Your World, bisous ciao for macarons, dessert (post to come) and the long walk to Hell’s Kitchen to work off some of what we ate 🙂

Yvo says: While I can’t attest to authenticity, I can say that I really enjoyed our dinner, and prices were pretty reasonable.  There’s a shortage of Korean restaurants in other parts of the city from Koreatown, so I think this is a great start – and I will definitely be back for more, given its location in the East Village near where I hang out constantly.  Yum! 
recommended