Sujeo

Favorite dish #1: You can’t beat the dumplings here. At least not in Madison. You get a plate of 5, so you’ll have to argue over who gets the last one. It’s a juicy mix of pork and shrimp wrapped in homemade (I’m assuming) dough, which is then pan fried to plump, crispy, dumpling-​y perfection. (Yes, I just said plump.)
Favorite dish #2: The bibimbap is a personal favorite. Though beware – the hot stone bowl turns the rice and veggies into a molten hot mixture. If you’re not careful it’s easy to burn yourself. But the heat doesn’t turn me away from the crispy rice, veggies, spicy kimchi and caramelized meat. Nom.
Favorite dish #3 (but is actually #1): The fried chicken!!! (KBC on the menu.) OHmygosh. It’s soo good! Perfectly crispy outside, super moist inside. Huge pieces of chicken! I have no other words.
Others: The man has been working his way around the noodle dishes, and has enjoyed what he’s experienced. Khao Soi (curry dish), phở, ramen are all good. We have our favorite places to go for phở and ramen, but Sujeo does the trick to satisfy immediate cravings. The chicken skin bao are also good. They’re savory and fluffy.
The menu items change. I wish I could try them all… If only there was time and money. If not the food, the bumping beats will keep me coming back!

I’m sorry to say I was not as impressed as I thought I should have been since I decided to try this place based on the write-​up in the June 2016 issue of Food & Wine magazine.
We arrived on Saturday around 2:30 PM, so, granted, they were close to closing time before they open later in the day for dinner. My husband order the Korean Broasted Chicken (KBC) and I ordered the grilled shrimp noodle salad. We also ordered the house special (alcohol) punch for me and a beer for my husband (at $ 6 for the specialty domestic beer, that seemed pretty steep). I liked the punch, which was also $ 6.
The KBC was good. My husband loved the soy sauce it was served with and the BBQ sauce as well. The chicken was tender and moist. A generous portion for lunch — a piece of both white and dark meat. But, the chicken was served on a bed of old-​looking lettuce — kind of a misstep for the kitchen to detract from an otherwise good dish. I would suggest something like finely sliced Napa cabbage — anything that might add a bit of crunch and would be worth eating. A good dish but, again, I would have expected more flair.
My grilled shrimp noodle salad was sadly lacking. The shrimp were small, cooked to the point of dryness. At least they were not rubbery. Seasoning was okay but more pan-​grilled than grilled. The noodles were not impressive and the broth lacked good flavor. The dish certainly was not cohesive — it was noodles in tangy broth topped with 3 shrimp. It did not live up to my expectations.
Service was good and helpful. I think this place could do a lot better. And, given the fact that our waitress said they had been written up several times in food magazines I think Sujeo should strive to deliver their customer’s a better experience — solid flavor and presentation and not just interesting Korean fusion.

We ordered Japche something (sweet potato noodle and marinated beef) and Sishuan spice Spare ribs. It was extremely salty and oily. The flavored were good but too salty. We couldn’t finish our dishes. I actually wanted to send it back in the kitchen but we’ve never done that before so we just went with it. It was horrible with the price we had to pay and the taste. We ate nothing after all. Absolutely disappointed!

Got dinner here with a group of friends, 5 people got the chicken or pork belly ramen. This restaurant needs to improve their ramen. Everyone needed to add salt to the weak and flavorless broth. The egg had no flavor, and the pork belly was very tough and also flavorless. The hot sauce on the table was very weak, and soy sauce is only available upon request. I believe there are some good menu items here, but definitely skip the ramen if you come here!

Because Unilocal is asking me what I DO like I’m going to post a couple positive reviews… starting with Sujeo. I’ve had some hilarious service at this place which makes me want to give it 3.5 but Unilocal won’t let me. I’m pretty sure that one time our server was tripping on some form of psychedelic or maybe was just really hungover… he couldn’t remember anything about the specials (which we forgave him for) but he also didn’t know a whole lot about menu standards as well… always courteous and attentive service though.
The good: Inventive and alluring food and drink. Plays on standards hit the right notes… Protein is always cooked to perfection and the drinks impress (although if you’re sitting in the noodle bar they usually take longer than you’d like).
I’ve been here for lunch and dinner and have never had a disappointing meal. (I did crash down pretty hard on a weird piece of tendon or something once that I thought ruined my front teeth but fortunately it didn’t…and the manager was very good about the situation. She gave me her card if there was any future dental problem.)
If you’re an experienced eater you’ll enjoy this place and if you have relatives who aren’t sure about «foreign food» this is a good place to break them in.
There have been times when the exhaust hood in the kitchen wasn’t functioning correctly (more likely the switches were mixed) and the noodle bar fills with creosote fumes. Not just aroma from the kitchen but really gnarly smoke and fumes. Hoping they have gotten that under control.

Well I really love Sujeo’s food. I love their ramen, especially the Shio Ramen, and Cheesy Ddeokbokki is also so so tasty.
But I’ve been there three times and the second two times, I got violently ill immediately afterward. I don’t think it was food poisoning — I shared the meals with my boo, and he was fine — but it’s not something I can overlook. I don’t know if it was caused by secret ingredients I’m allergic to (nuts), or what.
Still, sometimes I suggest to my bb that we go there and he has to gently pat my head and tell me, no, that’s not a good idea.

We’ve generally really liked our experiences at Sujeo and that brings them up to a 3-​star rating, but service today for lunch was awful. We sat down and ordered egg rolls and an order of chicken ramen to split. Got our egg rolls a good fifteen minutes later and then had to ask for our ramen to go because it took another twenty minutes. The place was practically empty so who knows what happened.
The food itself — egg rolls were decent. Nice and crispy, and the filling is filled with meat, veggies and all the good stuff but when biting into it, the middle was still cold.
The ramen — A+ on noodle texture and slurpiness. But the broth was a little too salty and the portion was less that I was expecting. When we asked for it to go, instead of separating the noodles from the broth as one might expect… They put two containers of half of the order in each… So as it sat in the car, things got soggy and less than ideal. I’d order this again because it was a good chicken and ginger broth, but really would love less sodium.
I’ll probably go back again as I do like their dandan noodles, but not very often.
Also apparently they no longer do dimsum brunch (bummer) and the congee is no longer on the menu (bigger bummer)

This was my second visit to Sujeo, this time with a group of friends.
Service was outstanding, very professional and informative of the specials. We ordered a lot of those to taste, including their special Korean-​style sushi roll and a Passionfruit Rum «slushy».
The plates were presented beautifully, and all tasted very unique. It was delicious. Definitely be sure to try the Hot Pot, which is plenty for 2 – 3 people! The Bibimbap is also a super fun dish, served in a hot stone bowl with an egg on top.
Overall, I had a great experience here. The atmosphere, service, and food was spot on. I’ll definitely come back for a date night sometime!

We tried Sujeo for lunch this past weekend. When we arrived all the window seats appeared to be taken. The hostess ushered us down the interior wall of tables and we were a little disappointed. It was dark and we wanted to enjoy the unusually warm and sunny winter day, but then she took us around the corner to the light, airy, and warm kitchen counter area. Big bright windows, and you can see the chefs in the kitchen making your meal. Fun!
We ordered bibimbap, pastrami phở, and thai iced tea. I was pretty disappointed with the thai iced tea. I usually have this when I eat at Vietnamese or Thai restaurants. At $ 5 each it seemed a little pricey but I was hopeful. The portion size was fine, but the tea seemed a little chalky and it reminded me more of a chai tea than what I’m used to. I did appreciate the bottle of water our waitress left at our table so we could help ourselves when we ran low on water.
While the tea was disappointing, the bibimbap was outstanding. As usual it was served in a hot stone bowl. But this time, there was a delicious crust on the rice where it cooked against the stone bowl. The egg on top seemed completely raw, but as it mixed with the ingredients in the piping hot bowl, it cooked and added wonderful texture and flavor to the dish. This is the first time we really understood why bibimbap is served in a hot stone bowl. A wonderful dish!
The phở, which is one of my favorite dishes in general, was a mixed bag. It came with the typical sides of bean sprouts, lime, jalapenos, basil and chili oil. Although there were plenty of jalapenos, I was hoping for more sprouts. The phở itself came in just a slightly smaller bowl and thus smaller potion than I hoped for. However, it was chock full of rice noodles, meatballs, tripe, tendon, and a few slices of pastrami. I’d never had pastrami in my phở before, it dealt an interesting flavor although I prefer the texture of the usual thin sliced sirloin. Turns out I was not disappointed that there wasn’t more of it. What I did love were the meatballs. Those were the best little bites of heaven I’ve had in any phở! The tripe and the tendon which I don’t usually love, were the perfect texture with incredible flavor. I savored each little bit as I found them. The broth which is usually the main component of phở was neither plentiful nor particularly to my liking. It reminded me of 5 spice powder but more metallic. I missed the beefy marrow flavor I usually associate with phở. I was really conflicted by this dish. Parts of it were outstanding and some of the best I’ve ever had and other parts just left me disappointed.
Conflicted sums up my experience at Sujeo. There was a truly memorable and outstanding dish, and complete miss, and the phở had elements of both.

Service? Amaze.
Food? Oh my heavens. Yes.
We ordered a hodgepodge of items and loved every single one of them.

Sujeo was at most mediocre. I’ll start with the good parts. The location is decent and the restaurant itself is stylish and trendy looking. The wait staff are extremely nice.
Originally, I had thought this was a Korean food only place, but turns out it has other Asian cuisine as well, about which I still don’t know how I feel.
We started off with the Honey Butter Chips because it sounded really unique. Sadly, we got a tiny bowl drenched in honey butter. The chips tasted like Lays. Because of the salt on the chips, it made the honey butter intolerably sweet. It was $ 4 for maybe 12 chips.
Next, we ordered the Kimchi Jigae. It came as a side, which was weird to me since it’s normally a full entrée at Korean restaurants. It was very watery.
For my entrée, I got the Pastrami Phở. I shouldn’t have expected something similar to authentic phở. The pastrami was a very odd touch. It was like pieces of pastrami, not very appetizing. The noodles to soup ratio was very off — too much noodles and way too little soup.

Sadly, this was not the experience my party had hoped for based on the recommendations of others for this restaurant. I went here last night with some friends. One of my friends has a peanut allergy, not severe previously, but still, she has it. While making the reservations, my friend repeatedly told the waitress she had this allergy. Upon arrival, she mentioned this again to our waiter TWICE. Eventually they brought out the food and after saying she had this allergy multiple times– we figured it was safe to eat. It wasn’t. The egg rolls ended up having peanut butter in them and had been fried in peanut oil. Bad night. Her reaction was the worst it has ever been and we ended up in Urgent Care shortly after leaving. Luckily, she was released and got to sleep in her own bed that night.
My advice for anyone wanting to eat here: the food is VERY GOOD but not at the price of a restaurant not being as cautious as possible towards an allergy.

Tory is a great chef and I’ve had a lot of wonderful meals at his restaurants. He needs to get someone else to handle the music selection. I stopped by the noodle bar at Sujeo on this bitterly cold winter day to get something wonderful and yummy to warm me up. After a while the music caught my attention. Misogynistic, vulgar and violent. I asked one of the staff members about it and they said it was required: Vince Staples on Pandora. Just so you know, here’s the lyrics from one of Vince Staples best known songs, Blue Suede:
Bitches ain’t shit but hoes, I been knowin’ this
Niggas gon’ snitch regardless, Mitch showed us
Never gon’ switch, my momma raised soldiers
Show me that profit, cough them Rang Rovers
Up, I’m up now, these hoes all in love now
Wanna fuck now, they beg to bend over
Half these hoes chauffeurs, half these hoes Eustace
Fucked the face toothless, easy, so ruthless
Ask where he from then leave his dome roofless
Sweet Chin Music kick back, gruesome
Watch out for Judas, Vice and G Unit
5 – 0 fucking with the yayo too
L-​B-​P-​D get sprayed on too
Always keep it GC, ask my homies for the proof
Blowing .40s as a youth, Thump Deuce in the Chevy
Hit the corner, run up on him, turn a nigga to Spaghettios
Bitches ain’t shit but tricks, I been knowin’ that
Blowing on dicks for spliffs and Coke Cognac
Out club hoppin’, hoppin’ in Kodak’s
Where the coke at? Love white like Bobby wife
Finna party like it’s prom tonight
Finna kill a nigga walkin’ to his mom’s tonight
Shit real in the field, get caught, don’t squeal
Best deal that the judge finna offer: life
Play this track in Calipac, get it poppin’ in the prison
And play this shit in Iwood where my little brother livin’
Live or die for the Woopin’ or the Crippin’, pick a side
Death row, till they put you in the Pickachu to fry
That’s life, three strikes, that’s life
Three hoes, half dyke, this can be a long night
Long road to the riches, bravos from the bitches
Coulda’ been a felon selling nickels off of Linden
Nigga, fuck that
Definitely not something I want take a friend, family member or, actually, anyone out to eat and have to lister to, regardless of the service or food. Tory, you can do better for your staff, patrons and the community. Let me know when you clean it up.

After much hype, Sujeo is just «meh». The atmosphere needs to work. If you walk in the front door (facing Washington) you have no idea where to go and are in the middle of the dining room. The wait staff seemed to be in a huge hurry, even though there was no wait, and I had to ask to order drinks because we were never offered.
The kohlrabi salad was delicious! As a vegetarian, it was nearly impossible to get a veggie entrée. Yes, they offer one, but when you are at a table of all vegetarians, that means you ALL get the same dish. Sigh.
Will I be back? Probably not. There are so many great places in town for Asian cuisine, so I will likely pass on spending $ 30 per person for a drink and noodle bowl.

I’ve been back to Sujeo twice since my first visit, and it just fails to wow me. They no longer offer dim sum, which is too bad, because it had the possibility to be great despite the somewhat lackluster start.
From their current menu, the chicken skin bao is my favorite, and the cheesy ddeokbokki is unusual and good. The staff is generally friendly and well trained, though there have been hiccups here and there. There’s good energy sitting at the noodle bar, but the shio ramen I tried was low-​on flavor (the soft boiled egg was by far the best part, and it was outstanding).

Make a reservation, this place gets packed! I was told that there would be a 40 min wait but luckily someone cancelled their reservation, and i got a table after 20 min. They will take your phone number and text you when your table is ready.
The décor is kinda cool, it was a little too dark for me to see my food properly. I tried the Japchae, which I found way too salty. The kohlrabi salad was very fresh, all the ingredients are locally sourced, however it is extremely sour. Luckily I like sour foods, but if you don’t, you will not enjoy this. The bibimbap is excellent, this was the only dish that was not overly salty or sour, it was made just right. You can choose to have it with bulgogi, pork or tofu and I chose bulgogi.
Service was excellent. If you are craving pan asian food, this is a good spot to go to.

Highlights/​lowlights
1) incredible food
2) poor service
3) nice ambiance
We wanted so badly to love Sujeo! The head chef here owns Graze on the square which is my all time favorite, so our expectations were high!
Sujeo is located on East Wash so walkable from the square but only if you are in the mood for some walking (about .6/.7 miles from the square).
Reservations are recommended, we made ours the day of and there were limited times available.
We waited at the bar when we got there, and the bartender was super nice! The drinks were really strong and very obscure.
When we were seated is when the service really started to go down hill. We waited a really long time for someone to bring us water and take our order. The server brought us the wrong drinks, and then didn’t bring us the correct ones until we asked a second time. Finally, he forgot one of our meals and didn’t realize until about 5 minutes later when we brought it up to him. Not at all what we expected from Sujeo!
Unlike the service, the food is amazing! The dishes were really interesting and presented beautifully! We tried the bibimbap, egg rolls, honey butter chips, and a spicy noodle dish.
Overall, cool Asian fusion place near the square just don’t have high service expectations!

After reading all the reviews I wasn’t expecting much, but I really liked Sujeo.
The KBC tastes similar to the Korean Fried Chicken at Sol’s. It’s DELICIOUS. The smaller portion is probably enough for one person or is definitely a great size for a shared appetizer. The skin is perfectly crispy and the sauce is wonderfully flavored.
I really liked my spicy Ramen as well, which was enough for 2 meals. I’m no ramen aficionado, but I liked it better than Umami’s.
The ambiance isn’t much, the place looks like a fast food restaurant. The prices are slightly expensive. But still, I would go back to see if the rest of the food tastes as good!

Fine dining cooking precision with superb quality ingredients drenched by overwhelming sauce. Good portion.
SOFT SHELL CRAB SPECIAL $ 25 — 2 crabs. Comes with a bowl of rice soaked in sauce. The best soft shell crab I’ve ever had. Cooked to perfection with excellent tempura batter. 2 exquisite inedible greens drowned by sauce. Price Comparison: 1 subpar crab sells for $ 9 as an appetizer.
GENERAL TSO CHICKEN LIVERS $ 15 — serves 2+. A treat to have a mixture of breaded sweetbread and naked livers. Price Comparison: sweetbread entrée usually goes for $ 8.
DESSERT $ 3 — only 1 option. Rotating soft serve ice cream. Today, I got the so-​called perfect combination of Vanilla Bourbon and Gritty Guava (interesting texture).
SERVICE — pleasant. Informative. Cordial. But, if you make a negative comment, the person looked blanked and unable to address the issue.
VENUE — clean. Only 1 restroom stall for male or female. No excessive boozing allowed… avoid the wait line. LOL. Impressive frequent sanitation.
NOTE TO SUJEO: please consider the effect of sauce into premium ingredient combination. Sauce on the side. A dot on each ingredient maybe. You are a fine dining group, there is no need to act like a greasy shack. I look forward to enjoying the rest of the menu.

We came here on a Monday night to give this place a shot. To be honest, my expectations were low having read the reviews. And it pretty much was exactly what I expected — the food was meh. It wasn’t bad, but it was boring. We ordered the ramen, the phở, two egg rolls and a tripe and tongue salad. The server actually forgot to put in the order for our tripe and tongue salad and I had to remind her at the end. They were nice enough to take it off the bill and give it to us for free.
The ramen was just okay. The broth lacked depth and the soft boiled egg tasted oddly sweet. The pork slices with the ramen were overcooked. I enjoyed the phở broth much more, but I wanted it to have a bit more sweetness. Perhaps a bit more cinnamon and anise in the broth would help, but there are just so many better places in town to get a bowl of phở. The egg roll was thick but boring. The tongue and tripe salad was overly oily. It really needed a citric acid to cut through the oil and add some brightness. The most enjoyable part of the meal was my drink which was a concord 75 with champagne and a grape shrub.
I wouldn’t come back to this place. I understand it’s asian fusion and all but if you’re going to fuse already amazing Asian dishes with something else, at least make it interesting. I find this instead a half-​hearted effort.