‘Our family’s style.’ Sisters share Korean flavors at new Bradenton restaurant
Inside one of Bradenton’s newest restaurants, guests have the option to remove their shoes and take a seat on a pillow at a low table for a traditional Korean dining experience.
Sunny Seoul Korean Kitchen, 9750 State Road 64, Bradenton, is the brainchild of sisters Katherine Kim and Mary Pierson. Mary’s husband Richard is also a partner.
“The flavors that we offer are very much like our family’s style,” Pierson said. “There’s a Korean saying called hand flavor, it’s like your mom or how that is passed along generation to generation. And this is very much the flavor we grew up with.”
What’s on the menu at Sunny Seoul?
The restaurant features authentic Korean decor and dishes.
Some signature menu items include the Bibimbap — served in a hot stone when dining in — as well as Korean Fried Chicken and Japchae, a translucent Korean sweet potato noodle.
The Bibimbap is a rice bowl with several vegetables and a choice of protein. The original is bulgogi beef.
Korean Fried Chicken comes with rice and chicken radish and a choice of sweet and spicy or honey soy garlic sauce.
The Japchae is mixed with several vegetables, and protein can be added.
Before opening their sit-down restaurant, Kim and Pierson operated a food truck in the same shopping plaza.
“It was kind of like a test,” Kim said. “If the food truck is popular and we make money, that means our restaurant will make money.”
‘Passionate about cooking’
The sisters grew up in Queens as the daughters of immigrants. Later, they both moved to the New Jersey suburbs with their families.
Kim had a career as a school teacher and Pierson’s career is in fashion design.
“Both of us love to cook,” Kim said. “(We are) passionate about cooking, we always entertain. We enjoyed having people over enjoying our food.”
Kim said she was looking for a career change and pitched the idea to her sister. The concept was going to get started in New Jersey, but Pierson moved to Florida.
“I told her she should come and do the concept here, because there’s such a boom right now,” Pierson said. “Especially in Bradenton, Lakewood Ranch. … There’s such a need for services and everything’s a corporate restaurant. There aren’t a lot of mom and pops. Also felt like the timing was right.”
A unique dumpling
The sisters make sauces, marinades and dumplings in-house.
Mandu, a Korean dumpling, is crafted through a machine they imported from Korea.
“We make the filling, we make the dough and it molds the dumpling out,” Kim said.
From there, they steam the dumplings and freeze them so each order can stay fresh, Pierson said.
“There probably isn’t another machine like that in Florida,” she said.
With thoughtful decor, Kim said they hope to provide an “elevated fast-casual experience” for customers for who dine in.
“Because you’re eating Korean food, so we have the Korean aesthetic,” she said.
Helping aid Kim’s vision for the decor, including the hanok, or traditional Korean house, is Tommy Nguyen.
“He understood the vision and then he custom-made this whole place,” Kim said.
Menu prices and restaurant hours
An eight-piece Korean Fried Chicken order is $12, the Bibimbap is $16 for the dine-in only hot stone or $15 for the takeout version, Mandu and Japchae are $12 each.
Korean drinks are also available.
The restaurant is open Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
For more information, visit SunnySeoulKitchen.com.
