Sae Min Sok Restaurant

Try something called soolgook. It’s just the way I remembered from childhood in Korea ^_^

One of my favorite mom and pop small businesses in the area. Their soondae is literally the best in NYC — in my opinion. So many people have said the same thing to me, which is why I checked it out in the first place. Their donkatsu was also really good and hearty. If you’re looking for delicious Korean comfort food in the Bayside area, definitely check this place out.

My seafood fried rice was half empty and well, it was just fried rice, missing the seafood… At least my Jap Chae and Soon Do Bo tasted good…

This is very small place that can only fit about 15 people so it is recommended that you only come with 1 or 2 people.
The reason why I deducted 3 stars was because:
— A guy that was partically serving my table had earphones on, both ears. Though he didn’t take our orders or anything but just came to our table to serve us water… seriously… You put earphones on during work and serve your customers? And i cant believe the owner lets him do that. I thought that was kinda rude to the customers.
— The food there was below average. I was looking through the menu and saw soondubu so i automatically decided to eat that. They had a choice of seafood or bulgogi soondubu so i chose the bulgogi. Since im a huge fan of soondubu, i was very eager to taste Sae Min Sok’s version. However, i have very very very disappointed. The soondubu tasted horrible. Out of the many soondubus i have tried, this was the worst. The soup base was tasteless and bland. The tofu in the soup were crushed so much that almost all the tofu chunk sizes were the size of a m&m. Furthermore the bulgogi inside the soup was tasteless also and it felt like i was chewing on rubber. While eating this soondubu, i wished that i had a bucket of msg to dump inside my soup to make it taste better.
— The side-​dishes were below average also. For their cubed radish kimchi, they putted a lot of sugar that i literally tasted it. The other side-​dishes were kind of bland also.
Honestly, soondubu isnt probably their main dish… but if they are going to sell it, mighty as well make it properly. The $ 10 I spent for that meal was a waste.
2 stars was for the waitress lady that was nice and thankfully, didnt have earphones on. Smiled at every customer.

This is my favorite soondae restaurant in NYC. I would only order what they specialize in (soup, casserole, sautéed dishes with soondae or other organ meat). IMO many Korean restaurants make mistake of expanding menu like some food encyclopedia. I think they could’ve avoid the first review with 1 star if they got rid of item that they are known for. There are plenty of other restaurants you can go for typical Korean food like bibimbap, kalbi, pajeon, etc. I highly recommend here for dishes with soondae or less known type of meat.

Cozy, simple and new.
The food that I got was ok and the service was ok.
4 – 5 months from now we shall see how this place will turn out to be… Patience, and patience…

This is a very decent Korean restaurant, not the best in Bayside, but still pretty good. The restaurant still has to work out the little issues they have, since they have only been open for a bit more than a month. Location is prime, although parking may be a problem during business hours, since the numerous shops in the small plaza share the same small parking lot. Décor is simple, basic Korean restaurant feeling, with bland walls, basic tables, and a partially open kitchen in the back. This is the restaurant next to Chicken Lovers, with posters of the foods and Korean writing. The menu is quite nice, nothing too special, but they have stews, BBQ meats, «entrees» noodle soups, etc. The service is strange. Our waitress was pretty nice, being as friendly as she could in broken English. Many of the «employees» (since they kept coming and going and sitting on their phones) were sitting around at unoccupied tables. Prices are somewhat cheap, quite cheaper than a handful of Korean places in the area. There was nobody in the restaurant until 7:00, so we got the restaurant for ourselves, until 2 – 3 tables came in after us. Their assortment of banchan was quite large, giving us 5 – 6 different ones:
Kimchi made with thinner cabbage: Semi-​spicy
Tofu skin: Strange texture, but great flavor
Assorted beans (I think): Quite good
Spicy vegetables: A thin, asparagus-​like vegetable in a delicious red pepper flake sauce.
Bean sprouts: Yummy
Korean radish: Really good, great taste.
Our food came when it came; it didn’t take forever, but it wasn’t quick. I ordered a donkatsu, although it is primarily a Japanese dish. I tasted a bit of Korean flare. The pork was delicious, served in an abundant mustard-​like sauce, a bit too heavy. The pork was lightly breaded, extremely tasty, and came with 15 or so pieces. There was a lot of garnish, such as sweet corn, Asian cole slaw, lettuce, served with ketchup and mayo, and an inedible green that was only meant to make the dish look nice, not to eat. We ordered a bulgogi, which was $ 23, but was enough for two people who aren’t extremely hungry, or who order an appetizer. There was a ton of tender beef, onions (raw: on the side, and cooked), carrots and other vegetables, and a bunch of lettuce wraps. The beef was a bit bland, but it didn’t matter since most of the beef was put into the lettuce wraps with a really good bean paste. Make sure to try this, but I would probably suggest to sample their galbi as well. Overall a very good Korean restaurant that I maybe will go back to.

Horrible food and service. If you are at brink of dying from hunger and don’t mind wasting your money on below-​average food and waiting 50 minutes for a single dish (bibimbob) after reminding the waitress 3 times, then I highly recommend this place.