Restaurant reviewed 11/03/97 by Alison Arnett

MORE INFORMATION Apollo Grill & Sushi Type: Korean Prices: Appetizers: $1.75-$12.95; entrees: $9.95-$19.95; sushi-sashimi plates: $10-$39; desserts: $2.25. Hours: Lunch: Monday-Friday, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; dinner: 5 p.m.-4 a.m. Saturday-Sunday, 11:30 a.m.-4 a.m. Reservations accepted. Nonsmoking sections. Credit cards: MasterCard, American Express, Visa, Diners. Access: Entrance accessible; two steps up to grill section. Suishaya Prices: Appetizers: $4.95-$12.95; entrees: $9.95-$17.95; sushi cruise boats: $19.95-$79.95. Hours: Seven days, 11:30 a.m.-2 a.m. Reservations accepted. Smoking allowed. Credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, American Express. Access: Accessible.

APOLLO GRILL & SUSHI
84-86 Harrison Ave., Chinatown
Boston
(617) 423-3888
(Directions)

SUISHAYA
2 Tyler St., Chinatown
Telephone: (617) 423-3848
(Directions)

It's time for a vocabulary quiz. First: What are these dishes - kimchi pajun; bulgogi; al ji gae - and where are they from? Second part of quiz: Is it important that you know? Answer: The dishes are Korean, and it's definitely important. The rate that Korean restaurants twinned with sushi bars are opening and the way diners are responding to them demonstrate that Korean food is going to be the hot cuisine of '98. Indeed, sushi is already the rage in Boston. (By the way, kimchi pajun is a Korean-style pancake or omelette with spicy fermented cabbage; bulgogi is grilled barbecued beef with a spicy sauce; and al ji gae, marinated monkfish with sprouted mung beans in an incendiary sauce.)

Two of the newest restaurants in the genre are in, of all places, Chinatown. Suishaya and Apollo Grill & Sushi are a change for Chinatown, where the diversity in cuisines used to range from Cantonese to Szechuan. Now within two blocks of each other are two Korean-Japanese restaurants, both owned or partly owned by Chinese. Just shows you that it isn't only American chef-entrepreneurs who are adapting from other cuisines.

Although the two restaurants have food and even dishes in common, they're quite distinct. Suishaya, owned by Tony Wong, Roman Chen, and James Park, is a pleasant but rather sparsely decorated spot with 46 seats that had had a quick succession of Japanese failures. Now it's brighter, cleaner, and more orderly, with a young clientele and Korean staff.

The sushi is especially good here. There are two reasons for savoring sushi - one is to experience the freshness of the fish and the way a skillful knife can enhance the fish's flavor. The other is the intrigue of texture and contrast, the way soft works against crunchy, sharp-edged against smooth. One evening, a companion and I sat at the sushi bar where the young chef gave us a beginning treat of artfully twisted octopus and red clam, marinated in mirin and rice wine vinegar, over a bed of slivered crab stick and cucumber. Sweet hit against sharp in the mouth. The octopus and clam were clean-tasting and slightly chewy, the crab mild and smooth.

Then we tried simple sushi of tuna, salmon, and scallop. The scallop had been alive just two hours before, the chef said, and was exquisite, the sea still vivid in its taste.

Korean food is literally as well as figuratively hot, and one of the best examples was marinated monkfish in a stew of crunchy sprouted yellow mung beans and dark greens. The sauce was truly spicy, brick red with chilies, and the whole dish was delicious. As in other ethnic restaurants, the wait staff fretted that we wouldn't like the Scoville chili exuberance and had to be reassured that we would.

This cuisine tends not to be watered down for American tastes, in the way that Thai or Indian food sometimes is, perhaps because it's fairly unknown here. So the bold, hearty flavors, and even the exotic (to Americans) ingredients are left in. Balls of jellyfish added to the monkfish dish were too chewy for my taste, but I liked knowing that the dish hadn't been stripped of its authentic ingredients.

Stir-fried kimchi (fermented cabbage) with pork was a pretty dish, the plate decorated with a fan of kale and finely shredded red cabbage, with red and green slivered peppers twined through the kimchi. The flavor, though, leapt out, straight heat from the pickled cabbage with its heavy dose of chili pepper. The other vegetables and tender pork, plus fingers of soft tofu laid over the dish, softened the heat, making the impression sprightly rather than overbearing.

Not all the choices had the same bounce. Jap chae, the ubiquitous noodle dish of Korea with glassy cellophane noodles and vegetables, was supposed to be seasoned with hot peppers. But it tasted only of sesame oil, and a lot of it. A stew of vegetables and seafood plus a bit of fish roe had a soothing, spicy broth and plenty of ingredients plus lots of Napa cabbage, but was over such a fiery little sterno heater that the whole thing was dangerous to get near. Incendiary in another way.

Apollo Grill & Sushi, owned by Albert Leung and Francis Poon, is a larger restaurant, and compared to most in Chinatown, quite contemporary in design with a color scheme of soft aquas, and handsome light sconces and furnishings. The stylish flair carried over to the food as well. Like at Suishaya, the chefs at Apollo are Korean, and manager Masahito Sugawara said the owners ``seek for the real taste'' of the cuisine.

The traditional small Korean dishes presented at the beginning of the meal or with an entree include tiny salted anchovies, squares of fermented sweet potato, the ever-present kimchi, and two slivers of pancake omelette with a plump shrimp inside. Cultures mingled in a lunch box of kalbi (barbecued short ribs), a little cucumber salad that tasted rather German, Korean pickles, a roll of Japanese maki, and curls of bulgogi (barbecued shredded beef). Unlike that of American barbecue sauce, the flavor leaned toward a soy sauce underpinning rather than tomato, and it had a good kick.

Sushi and sashimi offerings at Apollo, where one of the proprietors also owns a live fish company, featured firm and truly fresh seafood. However, over several visits, the young sushi chef seemed to have trouble keeping the rice together. Each time I lifted the curl of yellowtail or tuna, the rice underneath crumbled before I could get it to my mouth.

Bi-bim-bap, a layered rice dish, is another staple of Korean food. Here, a sizzling stone pot kept warm a delicious melange of rice, marinated beef, lily buds, daikon radishes, and other vegetables, enlivened by a spicy sauce. A sort of inside-out version, yuk hui, was a very large mound of raw chopped beef, fresh and good, over finely slivered Asian pear. With it came a raw egg yolk in its shell and rice. The idea was to pour the egg over the meat, mix, and then eat a bite with rice and the fruit. The result was a straightforward taste, relying on the freshness of the meat, heightened by the same spicy sauce used in regular bi-bim-bap.

Apollo's jap chae boasted plenty of spicy flavor, with a hint of ginger underneath the noodles, and a shower of julienned red and green peppers and mushrooms. This was a lively version obviously composed to please the eye as well as the palate.

Both restaurants stay open late to catch the foreign students who stop by Chinatown after club hopping, and both have young wait staffs, pleasant and accommodating, if sometimes a little spacey. I liked the sushi better at Suishaya but thought Apollo a more comfortable restaurant. Some dishes were great at one place; some were wonderful at the other. Overall, the food at both is delightful and well-presented.

Although the management and the wait staffs of Suishaya and Apollo talk of keeping cuisine authentic for Asian customers, they also worry about attracting more American diners; the manager at Apollo says the owner is planning to broaden the menu to that end. One hopes this won't mean a watering down of flavor and authenticity. We've just begun to be able to order and appreciate sushi. Learning to eat Korean is the next step.