Soogil

"What It Is: An upscale-ish Korean small plates restaurant in the East Village Perfect For: Date Night, Small Plates Soogil is a dark room in the East Village where you can watch the chef (who used to work at Daniel) make Korean small plates behind the bar in view of the whole restaurant. The menu is broken into three categories - garden, land, and sea. We tried almost everything on the menu, and generally enjoyed the garden section stuff the most. The glass noodles with bulgogi was the best thing we ate here, and the soft tofu over shaved brussel sprouts was excellent as well, although it’s our duty to tell you that a few of us also needed to grab slices of pizza afterwards. Make a reservation (we walked in and had to wait for a while), and bring some soju or wine - they don’t have a liquor license yet. The Verdict: A good new East Village date night option. We’ve added it to the Hit List." - hannah albertine, bryan kim, katherine lewin, hillary reinsberg, chris stang, matt tervooren

"Allow us to take you on a journey to another part of the multiverse. A universe that’s pretty similar to ours, but a dinosaur ate a butterfly, events were set in motion, and now things aren’t quite the way they should be. Lebron James plays hockey. Father John Misty is in a boy band. Mark Zuckerberg runs a fashion company. The Ice King is clearly a great athlete, but he’s just a little clumsy on skates. Father John Misty has a good voice, but he can’t nail his choreography. Zuck built an addictive shopping website, but he’s having a hard time disrupting the hoodie and gray t-shirt market from his college dorm room. Soogil, a Korean restaurant in the East Village, also has a lot of potential, but seems to be stuck in that part of the multiverse where things aren’t exactly as they should be. The creative small plates, serious service, and casual, nondescript setting would all be OK on their own, but they don’t make sense together in the same restaurant. Soogil’s biggest selling point is the food itself. It’s a mix of Korean and French flavors and techniques, and it’s the kind of stuff you’d want to eat on a date when you need to prove to someone that you’re interesting. We especially like the pork belly with shrimp sauce and the foie gras with berry jelly, but our favorite dishes here come from the “garden” section of the menu - like the glass noodles with bulgogi. Topping noodles with a bunch of marinated beef and putting it under the vegetable section of a menu is a practice we wholeheartedly endorse. In the right universe, these impressive small plates would be served in a louder, darker space by servers who want you to have a great time. But Soogil’s quiet, serious setting is generally what you’d expect from a white-tablecloth restaurant that serves a prix-fixe lunch - not from a small restaurant serving innovative food in the East Village. The music is played way below Shazam-detecting levels, so first dates are probably out of the question unless you want a room full of strangers to hear about growing up in the suburbs. The limited wine options and brightly-lit space make it a strange choice for a fancy night out, but the higher prices and formal service also mean you’re not coming here for a casual dinner. Put all these elements together and you have a perfectly good restaurant - but one that’s not really perfect for any situation. You’ll probably like everything you eat at Soogil, but your meal will be in that universe of incompatibility where Father John Misty can’t stay in sync with his backup dancers, and Zuck wants to sell you sh*tty clothes. Food Rundown Sweet Potato Beignets The balls of fried sweet potato are pretty good, but the best part of this dish is the white kimchi soup. It may change your whole outlook on cold soup. But probably not, because most cold soup is just hot soup that wasn’t good enough to finish. Brussels Sprouts We like the big pile of shaved brussels sprouts and raisins, but the slabs of soft tofu are pretty bland. Mung Bean Pancake If the pan-fried pancake isn’t rich enough on its own for you, this also comes with a side of pork fat. Obviously this tastes good. Foie Gras This is some great foie gras. The berry jelly, which are like little cubes of Jell-O, gives it some sweetness, and the chestnuts are nice and crunchy. Put it all on the little slices of warm brioche. Seafood Soup Our server told us that this spicy seafood soup is one of their specialties, but we found it pretty bland each time we had it. There’s a decent amount of shrimp, squid, clams, and tofu for the price, but the broth is thin and it’s the only dish here that you can’t really share. Glass Noodles This is the best thing here. Smoky, rich, charred noodles with oyster mushrooms topped with a lot of bulgogi. We’re not totally sure why this is under the garden section of the menu, but we’re happy to start telling people marinated beef counts as a vegetable. Cod Focus on the land and garden sections of the menu, as dishes from the sea tend to be underwhelming and overpriced. This cod is no exception. Pork Belly The braised pork belly and the little rolls of kimchi on their own are pretty good, but the salty shrimp sauce is great. Put it on everything. Chicken This is an outlier amongst the good-looking small plates here. It’s a fairly large portion of chicken covered in some spices and shrimp sauce. They’re pretty messy and you’re going to need to eat them like wings at a sports bar, but the tender, slightly spicy chicken is quite good. Short Rib The soy-braised meat is tender and definitely enjoyable, but this is by far the most expensive thing on the menu, and considering the small portion, it’s not worth the price. Korean-Style Rice Sticks Definitely get dessert here. The Korean-style rice sticks are stacked like Jenga logs and taste like churros." - Matt Tervooren

"For a Korean-meets-French-inspired Thanksgiving meal, chef Soogil Lim has put together a menu of honeynut squash, boneless turkey roulade stuffed with turkey farce and foie gras, and beef Wellington. Dessert ranges from chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream or mango sorbet in a meringue shell filled with vanilla bean mascarpone. The menu is $145 per person." - Beth Landman, Eater Staff

"Chef and owner Soogil Lim will offer a six-course spring tasting menu for $130 per person, with dishes like caviar and tuna; morel and onion soup; gochujang-crusted black cod; and beef Wellington. For dessert, there’s a Jenga tower of stacked corn churros topped with black sesame gelato, or mango sorbet with strawberry sauce mascarpone." - Melissa McCart

"Soogil in the East Village mixes Korean and French flavors and techniques to serve the kind of tasting menu you’d want to impress a date with. Their current $85 menu includes things like a skewer with scallops and leeks, and foie gras with poached peach. For LNY, Soogil is giving complimentary Tteokguk to everyone who stops by for outdoor dining on Thursday February, 11th and Friday, February 12th. If the idea of downing a bowl of hot beef broth with chewy rice cakes, eggs, and beef doesn’t sound enticing, maybe we shouldn’t be friends after all." - hannah albertine