Dining

Sea (Stone) change

Boca Park’s newest Asian restaurant continues the high standards of previous tenants

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Stuffed ahi carpaccio with paddle fish caviar.
Photo: Beverly Poppe

Jin Myung is hoping three will be the charm for her difficult and expensively constructed location, now home to Sea Stone, an Asian fusion and sushi restaurant.

The space started life as Tre, run by the Maccioni family of Le Cirque fame, and later morphed into Hannah’s, Vietnamese/Asian fusion from Hannan An of Crustacean, before surfacing in its current incarnation.

Myung, who is of Korean extraction, has no local pedigree. She owns a successful restaurant called Yuki Hana in Fargo, North Dakota, and is throwing her hat into the ring here for the first time. Much of what I ate here demonstrates that her food is ready for the big leagues. Now, her challenge will be to succeed in a location that hasn’t performed too well, in spite of a conspicuous placement at the top of the Boca Park mall complex.

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Sea Stone
1050 S. Rampart Blvd., 478-9000. Sun.-Thur. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri. and Sat. until 11 p.m.
Suggested dishes: peanut crusted hibachi satays, $6; meat jun bento box, $15; baked misoyaki butterfish, $26; fruit flights, $8.

The space hasn’t changed much since it was Hannah’s. Myung’s décor is minimalist; Korean cloth paintings she bought in Seoul antique shops replace the gaudier wall art that preceded them, and the dining room feels roomier now. There is still a lush bar area and a sushi bar that An installed, and the new owner has retained Derek Kinoshita, who was the chef at Hannah’s, to run the kitchen.

But the food has a different spirit now, and a different aesthetic. Myung has brought her native cuisine to the menu, in dishes such as meat jun, kalbi and bulgogi, three Korean favorites not normally found outside completely Korean restaurants, and will even serve you kimchi, the dreaded stinky fermented cabbage, with them—should you insist.

She’s also added a few of her own sushi creations from her Fargo restaurant. (If you’ve never thought of Fargo as being a hotbed for sushi, you’re probably not alone.) One such dish is the Sea Stone Rainbow Roll, a riceless sushi made with ahi tuna, salmon, crab and yellowtail, rolled up in soybean paper. Let’s not quibble about the fact that sushi contains a clump of sushi rice, or technically isn’t sushi. This dish is delightful, eaten with mango and balsamic vinegar sauce.

There are also contrivances such as the Japanese bento lunch box, stocked with original creations such as mackatsu, macadamia nut-crusted pork cutlets, accompanied by pickles and salad, steamed rice, miso soup, a few pieces of California roll and appetizers such as chicken satay, marinated in Fresno chilies, coconut and lemongrass. Try one. It’s a real meal.

The chicken satay, also available as an appetizer, is really special. Crusted with peanut and cooked on a Japanese-style hibachi charcoal grill, it may be the best satay I’ve tasted in my life. Stuffed ahi carpaccio rolled around sustainable and PC paddle fish caviar also works like a charm. Oysters are baked with applewood-smoked bacon and diced potatoes smeared with a Parmesan cheese reduction. Thai-style stuffed chicken wings, here known as Angel wings, fly on a forcemeat made from water chestnuts and minced shrimp.

Salads and soups aren’t neglected, either. Korean barbecued beef salad makes a hearty lunch salad, thinly sliced rib-eye marinated in sesame oil, astride a mix of tomato, onion, grilled zucchini and bean sprouts. There is a traditional Korean beef soup stocked nicely with brisket and carrots, and the spicy Thai chicken and lemongrass soup tom yum gai.

Lunch entrees are all over the Asian map. There is jap chae, potato flour noodles eaten cold or hot in Korea, here served hot with shreds of beef, peppers and shiitake. Meat jun, which I mentioned above, is an egg-battered steak, cut into squares, finished on a flat-top griddle.

Bulgogi, sautéed Korean-style beef, is classic, served with sautéed vegetables and a mound of steamed white rice. Kalbi, Korean beef short ribs on the bone, are beefier and tastier, if you don’t mind fighting though a bit of gristle. (The kalbi comes in a bento box at lunch, but is available à la carte from the dinner menu.)

At dinner, Sea Stone really ramps up the diversity. Baked misoyaki butterfish is flaky and tender, permeated through and through with the flavor of white miso. Calamari with Thai basil sauce is tossed with ginger root and green peppercorns, to unusual effect. The lobster kung pao uses stir-fried fresh Maine lobster and curried peanuts. For purists, there is a grilled black Angus strip steak with roasted garlic herb butter.

A spate of noodle, rice and side dishes round out the proceedings. Bulgogi fried rice with kimchi and egg makes a nice lunch dish, too, and the meat and egg cut the flavor of the kimchi nicely. Singapore noodles, wispy rice noodles with a hint of curry, and braised tofu with a spicy tomato black bean sauce are also worth a shout.

Imbibe wine or sake from a boutique list of choices that includes Argentine Malbec from Nicholas Catena and a number of cold sakes. For dessert, don’t miss the refreshing flights of fresh fruit, accompanied by a variety of slushy granitas.

Is Sea Stone is going to sink or swim? Time will tell.

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