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| - This is a revision of my previous review, which really wasn't a review because we went for late night dining on a Saturday and the restaurant was closing for the night despite several social media websites including Yelp which said Sujeo served late.
After management read my review they contacted me, apologized and sent me a gift card. This is clearly a restaurant that wants it's potential customer base to be happy despite miscommunication across the Internet.
This evening, a Sunday we were able to score a 2-top without a reservation. The tables are a bit small and beware, the servers behind, buttocks may be sort of in your personal space when they are attending to your neighbors table.
The menu is pretty big and required explanation to the newbie. Despite the very friendly and helpful waitress, I think I would have preferred something else as a main dish.
We ordered the braised eggplant as an appetizer - this was very good with a nice sweet and salty flavor profile with a nice hint of heat. The timing was a bit off as our appetizer arrived with the main course.
We ordered something called Ssams as a main course to share. This is a large serving of a protein with a variety of Korean pickled condiments, Bib lettuce, and delightful fluffy little rice buns. The condiments were really the highlight of our meal.
We chose the Ssams special, which tauted as a braised pork shank, that had been portioned and fried. The pork itself was crispy, but bland and extremely fatty. I didn't notice amount of fat until I'd stuffed some of the delicate rice buns and piled on the condiments.
In fairness the fattiness of the pork may have been customary to the dish and the cuisine, and just not for me or my trusty dining companion. This said over half of the meat portion was simply deep fried and sliced white fat. A better explanation of what we were getting into would have been helpful.
When I inquired about the fattiness of the meat, explaining that perhaps it was me and maybe the dish just was not particularly my thing, the waitress very politely apologized and we had a nice conversation about the nature of the proteins on the menu. The Korean style is to leave all the fat on the cuts of meat. The hostess then followed up with us and graciously picked up our appetizer and my companions cocktail.
There also seems to be an issue with Sujeo's exhaust fan. It blows right into the parking garage. When we pulled into the parking garage it was visibly smoky. I'm not sure if it was a carry over, but the dining room seemed to smell a bit smoky as well.
Look the menu is pretty robust and I'm not going to fault a restaurant for serving me something I've never had that turned out not to be my thing. Management clearly cares about trying very hard to make a good impression. There are plenty of other choices on the menu and I'll be back to try out one of the many other interesting things on the menu.
Sujeo's chef proprietor has the chops to make this place work. I think Sujeo will get there. The menu alone adds some real depth to a generally predictable downtown Madison dining scene. I want to like this place given how hard they seem to be trying.
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