Table Sodam
1200 Bank St., 343-488-8036, table-sodam.business.site
Open: Tuesday to Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., 5 to 10 p.m., closed Monday
Prices: Most items $18 and under, Korean-style chicken $33
Access: Two steps to front door, washrooms downstairs
Table 85
610 Bronson Ave., 613-788-2112
Open: Tuesday to Friday noon to 9 p.m., Saturday noon to 4 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday
Prices: Most dishes under $16, Korean-style chicken $31
Access: Stairs to front door, restaurant is downstairs
When Sean Kunwoo Nam came from Korea to Ottawa in 2006 as a student, he had no intention of opening a restaurant.
But some things, it seems, are inevitable. Nam, who had cooked in Korea before arriving here, now has not one but two restaurants in Ottawa that specialize in Korean-style chicken and other dishes of his homeland.
I’ll review Table Sodam first, as it’s the more appealing of the two. Opened this spring, it’s a narrow, cheerful eatery of 24 seats that has replaced the Havana Cafe in Old Ottawa South. Covering one wall is a charming line drawing of a streetscape, while opposite it are a few Korean curios. Sodam has a staff of two, takes no reservations, and at my three dinner visits, it’s been steadily packed.
I’m guessing that none of the customers was a vegetarian or vegan, as meat abstainers would be frustrated at Sodam. Its lone accommodation, “vegetarian” bibimbap, includes a fried egg. However, if you’re open to chicken, mussels, pork or rice cakes bolstered by the savoury, sweet heat of gochujang, Korea’s wondrous red chili paste, or to the more mellow satisfactions of thinly sliced beef bulgogi, then you’ll likely be as happy here as I was.
Bulgogi ($18) and bulgogi bibimbap (thinly sliced marinated beef on rice, $16) at Sodam, as well as a spicier and fattier pork bulgogi mixed with tender squid rings ($18), come as part of a meal, surrounded on their trays by an array of solidly made banchan (side dishes) including potent kimchi, some salty-sweet potatoes, seasoned bean sprouts and more. Depending on the order, Sodam may also throw in rice, clear soup and some crudités. All in all, you won’t feel like the restaurant has held much back.
Bulgogi and banchan at Table Sodam
Bulgogi bibimbap at Table Sodam
Pork bulgogi at Table Sodam
The most robust of those meal-stars was the gamjatang ($15), with its long-braised pork bones in a spicy broth. The effort required to pick the meat from the neck bones made this a less genteel meal than, say, bulgogi, but it was also more hearty and complex.
Pork bone soup at Table Sodam
Other menu items at Sodam are main-sized dishes, some of which are more sharable than others. Kimchi fried rice ($18) pleasingly balanced mouth-filling flavours and came with large, assertively grilled shrimp. A spicy toss of squidgy rice cakes and fish cakes ($13) provided starchy comforts to offset other protein-heavy choices. Stir-fried “fire” chicken ($16) was “very spicy,” the menu warned — but while there was some meaningful heat to the dish of rustically chopped chicken and various vegetables, it was more tasty than fiery.
Kimchi fried rice with shrimp at Table Sodam
Spicy rice cakes at Table Sodam, pix by Peter Hum
Fire chicken at Table Sodam
Nurungji tang ($18) was billed as a mix of seafood in a stew with scorched rice. Our large, shallow bowl brimmed with mussels and greens, fake crab, the occasional shrimp and more in a rich broth — but what I wanted most was more of that scorched rice.
Seafood stew at Table Sodam
Which brings me to Sodam’s Korean-style chicken, which is to say, its rendition of the particular kind of fried chicken that is infrequently found in Ottawa, but which took Manhattan by storm almost a dozen years ago and has been a bar food of choice in Korea for decades.
Sodam serves boneless and bone-in pieces of expertly fried, crisply battered and un-oily fried chicken, flavoured with a sweet-spicy sauce (my preference) or a sweet-salty alternative (still pretty good), accompanied by cubes of lightly sweet pickled daikon. I’ve sampled meaty nuggets of boneless chicken ($17) served with linguini in a creamy sauce (my preference) and with the only-in-Korea side of corn and melted cheese (almost milkily runny here).
Boneless Korean-style chicken with linguini at Table Sodam
For ease of eating, boneless chicken won. But there was a more communal enjoyment that came with sharing a whole chicken ($33 to $35), chopped and fried, at a table, and that’s not to speak of the primal gratification of gnawing the meat off the bone, with only chopsticks separating your hands from the chicken’s saucy exterior.
Korean-style chicken at Table Sodam
The menu’s header above the chicken dishes, among others, reads “good with beer and soju,” which effectively lays Sodam’s cards out on the table. Indeed, Koreans have a word — anju — for food consumed with alcohol, and the front page of Sodam’s menu lists assorted soju (smooth, easy-drinking, occasionally fruit-flavoured Korean spirits). Sodam also sells bottles of Max, a malty Korean beer, and Sapporo on tap. “Beer and chicken,” Nam told me last week, “are very good friends.”
Korean alcoholic beverages at Table Sodam
The fondness here for food and drink does not seem to extend to desserts, as there aren’t any at Sodam. Fortunately, Stella Luna Gelato Café is just a few blocks away.
Sodam is the offshoot of Table 85, which Nam opened in a more low-key way in 2015. Located in the basement of a Bronson Avenue real estate office building, Table 85 was initially a more ordinary cafeteria operation with burgers and the like. However, Nam’s Korean daily specials drew such a following that two years ago he went all-in serving Korean food.
While Table 85 may have a larger kitchen and more space for customers, it’s a subterranean place with little in the way of decor beyond the big TV tuned to a food channel. Its menu of a dozen items is heavy on rice and noodle dishes and overlaps somewhat but not overly with Sodam’s offerings. Table 85 does serve Korean-style chicken, but doesn’t serve soju, as it’s unlicensed.
I’ve only had food to go from Table 85 — a thick and crusty savoury seafood pancake ($10.99) and a big, likeable helping of jajang noodles ($11.99), with its characteristic black bean sauce, cabbage, onions and bit of ground pork. While I waited for my food, I saw customers complain that their jajang noodles were lacking in intensity (or perhaps they meant fermented black-bean pungency). The kitchen’s response was to offer to fix the dish with more salt or sugar, but no MSG.
Seafood pancake from Table 85
Jajang noodles from Table 85
Nam, who is 42 and has three sons with his wife, said he can work long shifts of 16 or even 20 hours between both restaurants, beginning at Table 85 because its larger kitchen is better for prep.
And yet, he hinted he might not stop at two Tables. “If I open a third restaurant, maybe I’ll make a different menu, too.” Nam said.
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