Neo Seoul

Gaja Gaja will fill you up right

by Elisa Ludwig

Holding court on South Street — a byway that often seems like a parallel city — the Japanese/Korean restaurant Gaja Gaja has the sanitized look of a cell phone store: bright green walls, burnished wood beams, black leather chairs. Yet the glassed-in sushi bar, flower-shaped sconces and mural-size images of maki affirm that this is indeed a place to purchase dinner.

Rule No. 1: Order anything that comes with the surprisingly memorable miso soup. It's a minimalist affair, with just a few unfurling leaves of seaweed and no cubes of tofu to speak of, but the dark-hued, cloudy broth has a hauntingly rich and smoky flavor. The shumai, pinched purses of translucent dough stuffed with finely chopped, sweet shrimp, are equally simple and effective.

The sushi menu includes a long list of special rolls, though many feature similar combinations of salmon, tuna, eel and avocado, and none are particularly cutting-edge. While it tends to be somewhat sloppily constructed, the maki here is perfectly good for a quick-service restaurant. Be warned, though: The Hungry roll, a monstrous bundle of shrimp tempura, crabstick (there's no fresh crab on-site), cucumber, teriyaki eel, avocado and salmon, is a knife-and-fork job.

The spicy tuna appetizer eliminates the nori and rice and cuts to the chase with cool, bite-size slabs of fish, tossed with red-pepper mayo sauce and gleaming pearls of roe, crowned with a ring of sliced avocado and cucumber.

The jap chae bop is a sesame-oil-slick mass of black-edged slivers of shiitake mushrooms, carrot matchsticks, chunky, somewhat disproportional slices of green pepper, flakes of stir-fried beef and a rubbery nest of shimmering glass noodles. Bibim bop's fried egg, tofu, scallion, peppers and red chili sauce converge to create a slightly watery but hearty meal in a ceramic bowl.

In general, the Japanese entrées are a better bet. Puffy udon noodles offer chewy satisfaction, served hot-tossed with mushrooms, soy-based yaki sauce and smallish shrimp presented honestly, with none of the tails most restaurants leave on to make them seem bigger.

There is nothing so comforting as the chicken katsu-don, breaded strips of chicken with rags of cooked egg and fried onion over a sweet mirin and soy sauce-soaked rice. Eat this for lunch or dinner and South Street's catcalls and bodystocking shops will seem that much friendlier.

(e_ludwig@citypaper.net)

Gaja Gaja

627 South St., 215-923-0313

Hours: Mon.-Thu., noon-10 p.m.; Fri.- Sat., noon-11 p.m.; Sun., noon-9:30 p.m.

BYOB. Delivery available.