Sodam Korea

The dumplings come six to an order, beef mandu fried to a crisp shell around a savoury centre, and they are the first thing a table at Sodam Korea should put down. They answer the question of what the kitchen can do before anyone commits to heat or to a hot pot, and they open onto a menu far broader than one plate would suggest. Sodam Korea runs the full range of Korean comfort food from a storefront on Sarnia's Exmouth Street corridor: dumplings and pancakes, katsu and fried chicken, stir-fries, soups, noodles, bibimbap, and bubbling hot pots, all on a single menu.

The hot pots are the centre of gravity for a shared table. Army Stew arrives ready to cook down — pork, sausage, ham, ramen noodles, rice cakes, tofu, kimchi, and vegetables in one simmering pot — beside kimchi, bulgogi, pork-bone, and tteokbokki versions that turn dinner into something slower and communal. Around them sits the comfort-food core: pork and chicken katsu plated with rice and a cabbage salad, sweet-spicy Korean fried chicken, bulgogi of sweet marinated beef and vegetables, kimchi and seafood pancakes meant for the middle of the table, and kimchi fried rice or beef bibimbap for anyone who wants a single plate. A row of soups runs alongside — dumpling, bulgogi, kimchi, and a spicy beef — for diners who want broth without the full hot-pot commitment. The noodle section holds its own, with glass-noodle japchae, black-bean jjajangmyeon, and the spicy seafood jjamppong, and the kitchen keeps a wildcard or two — the fried cheeseballs among them — for diners working through the menu a second or third time.