HOW TO GO
WHAT: Korealistic (serving Korean and Japanese cuisine, as well as sushi)
WHERE: 7735 Cox Lane, West Chester Twp., just east of Interstate 75’s Tylersville Road exit
HOURS: 11 to 10 p.m. Monday to Thursday; 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday; noon to 10:30 p.m. Saturday; noon to 9 p.m. Sunday
MORE INFO: 513-306-5360 or www.korealistic.us
A new eatery here aims to attract customers hungering for homemade, additive-free Asian cuisine.
Korealistic, which recently opened at 7735 Cox Lane, offers a wide and diverse array of Korean and Japanese entrees and side dishes, as well as sushi.
The business is the work of husband-and-wife team of Nick Patel and Sue Kim of West Chester Twp.
With three decades of experience in the restaurant industry, Kim knows that customers prefer their beef, pork, chicken, seafood, sushi and specialty rolls cooked as authentically as possible.
“Cincinnati has a lot of Korean restaurants but all of them have turned into Americanized Korean food,” she said. “They use brown sugar to sweeten the food. Our food is traditional Korean food.”
Those restaurants also make soup using water while Korealistic instead boils beef bones for three days to concoct its own soup base.
“It’s all in-house and it’s all made-fresh,” said Patel. “We don’t try to mimic the taste. It’s all natural.”
It helps, Patel said, that kitchen chef Charlie Ko has 27 years of experience in the culinary arts, especially Korean and Japanese cuisine.
“He’s probably one of the best chefs around,” Patel said. “When it comes to making authentic Korean tasting food, I don’t think you can beat that guy.”
It’s also completely fresh, with meats and noodles that have never been frozen and seafood that arrives several times a week.
Part of keeping things fresh means using natural flavorings from meat, fruits and spices instead of artificial chemical additives or flavor enhancers like monosodium glutamate, commonly known as MSG.
“When a customer comes in here, I don’t know what they have an allergy to or they have a reaction to,” Kim said. “I want to give them true, honest food.”
Korean food is “very healthy,” Patel said.
“There’s hardly anything fried in it,” he said. “It’s a lot of vegetables, all steamed. It’s all pan-cooked. Grease is very minimal.”
Korealistic likes to ease customers into Korean cuisine by suggesting they try bulgogi, a traditional dish that usually consists of grilled marinated beef, but also can be served in chicken and pork variations.
Banchan, traditional small dishes of food, are served along with most dishes.
The restaurant also suggests customers try dolsot bibimbap, a signature dish of beef, chicken, calamari or tofu served in a broth over white rice, egg and sautéed and seasoned vegetables, with a spicy sauce on the side. The entire dish is cooked, then transferred to and served in a heated stone bowl.
“That way your meal is always at a steady temperature,” Patel said. “When it comes to the table, the liquid is bubbling.”
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