In the journalism business, writers often go by the dictum that “three is a trend.” With the opening of Seoul Prime at the end of last year, Falls Church’s Founders Row has cemented a trend of upscale restaurants featuring intelligent twists on Asian cuisines.
It started in 2023 with Ellie Bird, a modern American restaurant that’s best described by dishes like its Vietnamese French onion soup, which flavors its hearty broth with pho aromatics. NUE quickly followed with its impressionistic interiors and modern classic dishes such as Italian pappardelle dressed with beefy Vietnamese bo kho stew.
Now, the triptych is complete with the addition of Seoul Prime, a Korean steakhouse that gives that country’s fare a similarly cerebral update while also sticking to traditional flavors.
The menu is the brainchild of executive chef and managing partner Danny Kim, who was cooking at Clarity in Vienna when the team behind Centreville’s Honest Grill came calling. He calls the position at the new restaurant “a once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity. The goal, he says, was not to duplicate Honest Grill, but to go “a little more upscale and fusion-oriented.”
Fans of Honest Grill will find lots to love, including the familiar refrigerator filled with meat to greet guests. At Seoul Prime, those cuts come from certified Angus cattle from Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, as well as marbled delicacies from Western wagyu pioneer Snake River Farms.
The centerpiece of a meal at the steakhouse is the Seoul Prime Tour, a tasting of four meats cut to order by the restaurant’s butcher, Sang Lee. He and Kim have chosen the order of the steaks to go from the ruggedly beefy dry-aged rib-eye to the sweet and tender marinated galbi short ribs.
When I sampled the prix fixe meal, that rib-eye was aged for 45 days, resulting in a bodacious level of tenderness as well as just a bit of likable funk. Each of the cuts, which also include a hanging tender and flatiron, are cooked at the table in the style of Korean barbecue. But the thick, fire-seared steaks have a crisp juiciness that’s more reminiscent of what a diner will find at a traditional steakhouse than at our region’s many bulgogi houses.
The $47 price tag also covers a spicy scallion salad woven with crunchy cabbage, bubbling soybean-based brisket stew, silky egg custard reminiscent of Japanese chawanmushi, and a selection of four banchan — pickled salads that change regularly. While the fresh kimchi is packed with umami heat, the best of the bunch is a soy-centered bowl of cubed radish with a kiss of fire. Bowls of steamy sticky rice are gratis, should you desire them, and the beef is also enhanced with flaky salt and ssamjang.
If that isn’t enough, there’s a selection of side dishes that includes the most impressive corn cheese I’ve tasted. More fromage than grain, a blend of mozzarella, Parmesan, and cheddar stretches with might when grabbed with chopsticks. If it were noodles instead of corn within, I’d say it’s the best mac and cheese in the region. The fried Brussels sprouts are similarly notable for their sticky, but not-too-sweet, lightly spicy sauce and crisp jackets.
If you’re prepared for a three-course meal, appetizers are where many of Kim’s best ideas live. Though he says that they’re “not the most creative thing,” his skill at building flavors far outpaces his self-deprecation.
The best of these is the galbi-jjim risotto, a layer of toothsome wild mushroom risotto beneath two slices of soy-braised short rib. The meat, cooked until just fork tender, is brightened by a perilla leaf chimichurri and topped with crispy enoki mushrooms that are almost worthy of their own dish.
Other apps to sample include crispy bossam, skin-on pork belly that’s presented at the center of a well of soybean and butternut squash purée and further sweetened with Asian pear. Tteokbokki, usually made with chewy rice cakes, is upgraded here with fresh potato gnocchi.
The fish cakes that typically appear in the dish are fried and served in tendrils on top of the sweet-and-spicy pasta dish that’s finished with basil and cheese. This in particular may augur more good things to come. (Kim says that he’s working to conceive other pasta dishes.)
There are traditional dishes, too, including his favorite, a hot stone bowl of bibimbap, served with high-quality galbi atop the sizzling rice. Kim hopes to add more traditional dishes besides the noodles and stews currently on the menu. At brunch, which currently boasts kimchi-flavored shrimp and grits and bulgogi pasta, he says that the menu will soon include a meal that’s “almost too traditional to find nowadays.”
There are versions of croffles at both brunch and dinner. At the evening meal, the flaky waffles are made to resemble Korean dessert ho-tteok, pancakes with a brown-sugar filling. The ho-tteok croffle also has a dash of cinnamon, which makes it taste like a flaky cinnamon roll, finished with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
“I had tried to stay away from Korean food as much as I could,” admits NoVA native Kim. In fact, it’s his first time in a long career that he’s prepared it professionally. Now, he’s making some of the best in a region that’s rife with hot tofu soups and chilled buckwheat noodles.
When diners are searching for a steakhouse repast that’s as much a love letter to Northern Virginia as it is Korea, Seoul Prime is the obvious answer.
Seoul Prime
★★★★ out of 5 stars
See This: Skilled service pros grill up meats to order at every table of this darkly austere restaurant, surrounded in bottles of high-end global wines.
Eat This: Galbi-jjim risotto, Seoul Prime Tour, ho-tteok croffle
Appetizers: $14–$79
Entrées: $15–$89
Dessert: $9–$15
Open daily for dinner and for brunch on Saturday and Sunday.
106 Founders Ave., Falls Church
Feature image by Michael Butcher
This story originally ran in our March issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.