THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Woo Lae Oak

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Woo Lae Oak Restaurant Review:

Authentic Korean outside of the 32nd Street Korean food mecca? This SoHo spot proves it so. The narrow dining room---a study in dark marble that makes anyone look hip---has huge square tables along one wall and a food bar overlooking the open kitchen on the other. Unlike the of-the-minute setting, the food is more or less traditional with a long menu of items for the tabletop barbecues and other staples like tender beef and kimchi dumplings; the classic scallion and seafood pancake, pa jun; and bibimbap. The black cod simmered in soy sauce is an earthy mélange of deep flavor. Other dishes include Dungeness crab and leek wrapped in spinach crêpes with a light mustard sauce, and flash fried calamari and assorted vegetables sautéed in a spicy honey chili glaze. Servers, dressed in black, tend to blend into the background making them hard to find. But, in all, dining here is a swank experience at a reasonable price.