BY VANESSA CANOStaff Writer

How many times have you gotten out of a club, bar, whatever at two in the morning only to realize you are starving to death. How many times have you put off eating until you have realized, “Oh crap, it’s midnight and I don’t have anything to eat!” Well, if you’re anything like me this isn’t a phenomenon, it’s a weekly occurrence. Just about every Bostonian knows that the one place you can count on in the city for some late night grub is Chinatown. The question is, with the vast number of restaurants in Chinatown, where do you go? Well, look no further, Suishaya on Tyler Street offers awesome food until 3:45 in the morning on weekend nights.

Probably, the most popular Korean restaurant for its late night menu would be Korea House, which is right next door to Suishaya. However, if you’ve ever been there, one look around its murky environment with bad lighting and even worse graffiti on the walls makes you wonder if it’s a good idea to eat there. The only bonus to Korea House is its “cold tea”, I’m sure many of you know what I’m talking about. If you want good Korean/ Japanese food, skip Korea House and opt instead for Suishaya, it’s cleaner. Suishaya has a fairly traditional Korean/Japanese interior, complete with silk screens, colorful calendars, and bamboo. A sushi bar lines the wall, showcasing Suishaya’s specialty, sushi. Asian pop music reverberates quietly in the background. The wait staff at Suishaya are extremely helpful, sometimes a little too helpful when you realize everyone who works in the restaurant has come to your table to see if you need anything. Despite the late hour, the staff still wants to make your meal a pleasant dining experience, which is always good.

For my meal, I forwent the sushi and chose to eat their Korean fare instead. I’m not a big sushi fan. I can’t bring myself to chew it, it freaks me out and I end up swallowing it whole. If anybody else out there has that problem, Suishaya also offers really yummy versions of sushi that are cooked. For you guys who like the raw stuff, I have heard some say Suishaya is their favorite sushi spot in the city, with many stating the salmon roll is out of this world. All the sushi at Suishaya is made to order, no mass-produced rolls on the premises. Perusing the menu, I found the sushi bar to be extensive, offering some really exotic choices for the more adventurous. For those of you who eat by volume, Suishaya offers a bottomless sushi selection for $27.50, Sunday through Thursday till 2 a.m.

For starters I had the agedashi (aged tofu). It was an overwhelmingly generous serving of tofu fried in a delicate egg batter. Served in a large bowl with a soy/ sesame sauce the agedashi was light and very delicious. I also sampled Suishaya’s vegetable dumplings, fried of course. The dumplings were golden brown and tasted fresh, unlike so many other places that freeze them. They came with a tasty dipping sauce of Korean-style kimchee (chili pepper sauce) with soy, sesame, and scallion. If I might just say that sauce is damn good, I was dipping all my food in it and not just the dumplings.

For my main course, I had the traditional Korean dish of Bulgoki. Bulgoki is thinly sliced meat (in this case, beef) sautéed in a sweetened soy sauce with scallions and mushrooms. It is served on a hot stone plate with a side of rice. It’s very hearty and very good. Suishaya’s version is fairly standard, but they do it right and in this case you can’t go wrong with a classic.

My experience at Suishaya was perfect. The wait staff was good the food was good, and the atmosphere was good. What can I say? They got it going on. It’s not very expensive, which is another plus. I couldn’t summon up the courage to ask them if they had any “cold tea” but maybe some of you guys will have more guts than me, sushi included.