The rice plates are where it's at, as with this Korean-style beef version.
There’s a phrase hidden within the menu at SoHo Gourmet Cuisines that encapsulates the concept of the new Fitchburg restaurant: Wisconsin spicy.
The term is used to describe SoHo’s “Hot Chick” chicken dumplings — a dish already well-known and beloved to fans of the popular SoHo food cart run by proprietor Rocky So for the past several years. But the idea of “Wisconsin spicy” also applies to the new restaurant’s brand of fusion, which adapts traditional Asian flavors and preparations for a hearty Midwestern palate.
To be clear, this is not culinary Americanization in the same vein as General Tso’s chicken or chop suey. It’s more of a meat-and-potatoes approach to traditional pan-Asian dishes and street foods. The protein is familiar, the portions are generous and the spice levels are toned down.
The brick-and-mortar offshoot of the SoHo food cart opened quietly in October at 2990 Cahill Main, where it’s tucked away in a strip mall between a nail salon and a pizza joint. There is room to seat about 25, and the interior is bright and casual, with much of the space dominated by an open kitchen behind the ordering counter.
The menu, displayed on two big-screen televisions, might seem limited to people who are used to Asian restaurants offering page after page of numbered and lettered specials. But with a few kinds of dumplings, an array of rice plates, some interesting salads and a few fried appetizers, it pretty much hits all the bases, plus there are rotating daily specials to keep things interesting.
As expected, the dumplings are great — steamed tender, fried crisp and filled with either beef, pork, chicken, or mac and cheese, available in orders of six or 10. Diners would be remiss not to add them to a dinner order, and there’s a combo available during lunch that adds three dumplings to a rice plate. The mac and cheese, which my date accurately described as an “Ian’s pizza roll,” is a fun twist on a classic, but the meat fillings, which are mixed with carrot and cilantro, have much more going on in the flavor department.
But the real focus at SoHo is on the rice plates. There are five options, each with a different protein — chargrilled beef, pork and chicken, braised pork belly and fried tofu. In addition to a generous mound of steamed white rice, each dish comes with fun accoutrements — a ginger scallion chutney with the grilled pork and chicken, vinegar mushroom sauce with the braised pork belly, and with the steak a hot pepper relish made locally in Oregon along with some of the best spicy kimchi I’ve had. It’s store-bought, but it’s the good stuff, imported from Korea.
The Korean beef comes sliced thin and charred to about medium-well, but even someone who prefers her steaks bloody would likely find this preparation appealing. It’s a flavorful cut, slightly tough with a bit of crunchiness, but in a good way. The dish is made better by adding the hot peppers and a bit of the tangy soy vinegar provided for dipping. It’s not quite the spicy-sweet bulgogi you’d find on the streets of Seoul, but it works.
The Wisco-fusion aspect really comes through in SoHo’s deceptively named Hong Kong curry, which features deep-fried potatoes (think American fries) and roasted carrots in a fragrant yellow curry sauce. The flavor is mild and lands somewhere between Thai and Indian. The tofu is done in the best way possible — slightly crisp on the outside and silky on the inside. The dish is a little heavy on the starch, especially when the rice gets involved, but then again, it’s comfort food.
On special recently was congee — a thick rice soup with chicken, mushrooms and ginger. A popular breakfast food in China, it’s also an interesting addition to dinner (probably because I didn’t know exactly what I was ordering). It was tasty enough, in a bland sort of way — kind of like a savory oatmeal. But it’s more of that comfort food.
A sleeper hit on the menu was an order of fried buns, another special last week. Basically a Chinese doughnut, the buns were fluffy inside with a crisp, sweet exterior and served with a condensed milk glaze on the side.
SoHo earns high marks for its good service, good value and carefully prepared food. It’s an endearing mashup — two seemingly incompatible culinary identities that end up having more in common than one might think.
SoHo Gourmet Cuisines
2990 Cahill Main, Fitchburg, 608-960-4011, uwsoho.com, 11 am-9 pm Mon.-Fri., 10:30 am-9 pm Sat., 10:30 am 8 pm Sun., $6-$11
