Seoulite, Korean Restaurant, The Hub SS2

Seoulite – The Hub SS2

Words: Rebecca Cannon
Photos: Rich Callahan

Inside The Hub in SS2, you’ll find Seoulite, a new Korean café. It offers views of soothing mirror ponds and central gardens complete with lawns and trees just a few metres away. The owner, Max Lee Khai Meng, spent recent travels traversing Seoul with his wife (native to Korea) to find the best authentic recipes from cafes, which they replicate in the cheery corner outlet.

Seoulite – Korean Restaurant, The Hub, SS2

Drinks Menu

Yes, Seoulite does do standard coffee, teas, and soft drinks. But, why go for drinks you could get anywhere when you could get their Signature Coffees such as the Misu Honey Latte (RM13) and Chocolate Dalgona (RM13)? The Misu Honey Latte is a gradient of colour from cappuccino-brown fading to milky white. It tastes like the best breakfast in one. The misu makes the milk oaty flavoured, like a smooth porridge, and the coffee is your final taste. No artificial sweetener is required; the honey and frothy milk cover any potential bitterness from the caffeine. It’s perfect at any time from morning to your 3 pm pick-me-up.

Alternatively, be reminded of the fun of Squid Game with the Chocolate Dalgona. The traditional cup of cocoa is topped with the Korean candy made from melted sugar and baking soda. You might have seen the Insta/ Tik Tok craze of topping beverages with dalgona-flavoured coffee cream? Let me tell you; it works equally well with chocolate, and there is no risk of losing your life if you break the candy shape!

Mains

Owner Max’s culinary creations are just as welcoming as his personality. Whilst it may appear that there are few vegetarian options, he is quick to assure us that he’s happy to customize any dish we’d like. He didn’t want to narrow vegetarians into thinking they only had one choice.

The first dish we tried, the Aglio e Olio Tagliatelle (RM26), we modified to not have a poached egg on top. The dish is garlicky and lightly coated in oil with a chilli kick at the end. It’s packed with a botanist’s collection of mushroom varieties, and some zucchini pieces are thrown in for colour.

Another dish frequently modified for vegetarians is the Yum Salmon Open Sandwich (RM36). However, if you don’t have a problem with seafood, I recommend leaving the salmony goodness in there. With the smoked salmon cuts, all the flavours meld together to create a savoury sandwich that’s fruity sweet, citrusy, and salty. The house-made tarragon sauce provides the base to all the flavours, and the pineapple, rocket, dill, and radish make it taste fresh and crispy. The chips served to the side are well done, salty café-style chips, just what you need as you watch the world go by.

We continued with K-Rose Tteokbokki with Crispy Onion Rings (RM38). The tteokbokki or rice cakes are chewy with a sweetened, spiced flavour from the sauce that’s oh so creamy. This street snack has been turned into a meal of its own by adding calamari, onion rings, and prawns, whose meat is tender and bouncy. They’re well worth the extra effort of de-shelling to get to the goodness inside.

For those who prefer chicken, the Spicy Grilled Chicken Skewers with Sizzling Corn Cheese (RM28) are worth a try. The chicken is from the flavourful thigh, marinated with a sweet BBQ sauce. The combination of cheese, spice and sweet corn reminds me of summer barbecues.

The BBQ Chadol Panini (RM46) would make a superb lunchtime sandwich. Chadol is beef, thinly sliced and cooked in the Korean barbeque way. The sauce’s flavour doesn’t come from a processed commercial bottle but instead from fresh cilantro and pickled radish and carrot. It’s a satisfying sandwich completed by trusty fries on the side.

Seoulite’s welcoming menu not only caters to vegetarians and fussy eaters but to those who believe breakfast food should not be restricted to only early morning. The Seoulite Big Breakfast (RM36) is a meal that can be eaten any time of the day. This dish knows no nationality but is home in all. There’s a continental non-flaky croissant, a sophisticated hash brown (sorry, potato rosti), and a cheese-stuffed Korean tteokgabi (grilled short rib patty). You can watch the molten cheese pour out as you cut into it. It’s a filling meal for any time of the day – thank you, chef, for understanding my eating habits.

Dessert

Is it possible for a café to not serve a waffle? I don’t care to find out. The team at Seoulite, though, is up to the challenge of reinventing the humble café waffle with their version of croffle with walnut ice cream and dalgona honeycomb (RM24). This is a mashup of a croissant recipe cooked in a waffle iron. It makes for a puffier waffle with crispier edges that Korea has adopted it as its own.

Seoulite Review

I enjoyed my afternoon at Seoulite restaurant immensely. The food was nice, unpretentious Korean food that I didn’t have to cook at my table. The area has a bustle to it, but you don’t feel hustled, and you can easily carry out a conversation with friends at a normal noise level. When I didn’t want to join in I could watch the trees move, water trickle, and groups walk past. I came out feeling relaxed, socialized, and with a content stomach.

Reasons to visit Seoulite: relaxing location to meet friends and watch the activity go by at The Hub. If you need a quick breakfast, try the Misu Honey Latte, or if you want a sit-down meal, try the K-Rose Tteokbokki with Crispy Onion Rings or BBQ Chadol Panini.

Seoulite
Korean Restaurant
A-G-3A, The Hub SS2 19 Sentral
Jalan Harapan Seksyen 19
46300 Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
+6 012387 0826

Seoulite Opening Hours
Tuesday- Sunday 11 am-10 pm

Find more Korean restaurants in KL here and stay up to date with the latest happenings around Malaysia here and here.