Sura : Downtown location

Sura has been a post I have been delaying for a while because I deleted the individual photos of every item, and forgot to take photos of the restaurant. However, since Sura's Aberdeen location will be open soon, I thought I should get this post over with. The restaurant's interior is pretty nice and a bit small, especially when the restaurant gets busy. However, the restaurant may be considered cozy if the restaurant is empty.

SAMGYE-TANG, "a whole young chicken stuffed with sweet rice slowly simmered in a bowl of Korean ginseng, jujube fruits, garlic and ginger" ($20.00)

Does that sound healthy or what! I eat garbage most of the time for dinner, but am a sucker for healthy soups. The only way I can explain samgyetang since it is my first time trying it, would be like this is congee. The chicken is technically not stuffed with sweet rice like stated in the menu description, and is more like rice in congee along with a whole chicken. As for the soup, there is a rice tasty broth and the chicken tastes tender.

If anything, this photo looks a lot better and someone who worked at Sura probably posted it on Urbanspoon. Unfortunately, my samgyetang did not look like that :(. In addition, the chicken actually looks stuffed in the photo!

BOSSAM, SLOWLY SIMMERED FINE CUT OF PORK BELLY WITH ORIENTAL HERBS, SERVED WITH BOSSAM KIMCHI ($24.00).

The slices of pork belly are not too thick and tastes tender (practically melts in the mouth). There is a slightly sweet flavour and if anything, we were only provided with three cabbage leaves? We tried waving someone down to grab more, but the staff was not very attentive.

GALBI-JJIM, BRAISED BEEF SHORT RIBS WITH CARROTS AND SWEET PUMPKINS IN SPECIAL SOY SAUCE ($26.00).

Noooooo we should have stuck with barbecue beef ribs! For those whose first preference is not Korean cuisine or is new to Korean food, the #1 rule is to ALWAYS order galbi! As for us, trying to be different for once, we went for the braised beef short ribs rather than the barbecue galbi.

The galbi jjim does not taste braised at all and tastes quite tough as well as dry. Furthermore, the ribs taste very chewy and not flavourful at all. If anything, there is a fair amount of slices of pumpkin which I enjoy. I wish we ordered the barbecue ribs because every table had one!

MACKEREL/CROAKER COMBO "an authentic Korean style set of menu that consists of grilled mackerel (Atlantic croacker), a small size of doenjang jijgae, a bowl of steamed rice and various side dishes" ($15.00).

Visually, the fish looks nicely grilled. But, unfortunately the meat tastes very dry as well as stiff.

DOENJANG JJIGAE, KOREAN STYLE SOYBEAN PASTE SOUP.

The soup is served boiling hot and although there is a mild level of spiciness, the broth is very weak as well as simple. There is not much flavour.

POSITIVES

- Lots of barbecue meat dishes

- Four different pancake options and two different rice cakes

NEGATIVES

- Braised beef ribs are the worst I ever had

- Average at best (although to be fair, we did not try the barbecue)

- Service could be more attentive and/or friendlier. The restaurant was not very busy when we needed the bill and no one was around, we were missing the banchan too

LITTLE THINGS

- Did I crop every photo from my photo collage? Unfortunately yes LOL

- Sura offers interesting set menus, but must be ordered three days in advance

- Something totally unrelated… but, seems like employees from the restaurant used to post on Urbanspoon as customers (that annoys me)

Food: 2/5

Service: 2/5