Mr. Cookbop Brings Hearty Korean Soups & Comfort Food to New Haven

It may not be soup season at the moment, with summer temperatures soaring into the 90s, but this new New Haven Korean restaurant is ready for the winter with its comforting, savory soup specialties.

Owner Kenny Kim, who ran Ramen Kuro Shiro at 128 Crown Street, recently revamped the restaurant’s menu and concept to reflect his Korean heritage. In a July Instagram post introducing Mr. Cookbop, Kim and his team said they took time to “refresh, reflect and reimagine what we wanted to bring to the table.”

Kim said he’s been in the restaurant industry for more than a decade, with experience in his native Korea as well as in New York and Connecticut. 
“I saw a real opportunity in New Haven, with its vibrant food scene and diverse community,” he said in a statement. “(It) felt like the perfect place to introduce the Mr. Cookbop concept – something both comforting and culturally rich.”

Mr. Cookbop’s fast-casual menu specializes in soups and stews, including gukbop, known as “soup rice.” The rice is added to the broth, making for an “incredibly comforting, nourishing and flavorful” dish, Kim said. Varieties include a pork gukbop with pork bone broth, and the best-selling Sundae gukbop, served with sliced blood sausage.

Another specialty, tang, features robust Korean stews simmered with substantial ingredients like potatoes, carrots and onions. Spicy gamja tang is made with pork bones and potatoes, while dakdori tang spotlights spicy stewed chicken. Kim’s favorite is the samgye tang, a traditional soup made with ginseng that features a whole small stuffed chicken in the herb-flecked broth. 

Though its ingredients seem ideal for battling winter colds and flu, samgytang is actually a popular summer dish, according to Serious Eats. Koreans eat the stew on the hottest days of the summer to “fight heat with heat” and feel cooler after sweating, a practice called “iyeolchiyeol,” writers Seoyoung Jung and Sonia Swanson noted.

In addition to the soups and stews, Mr. Cookbop also offers classic beef bulgogi and spicy stir-fries with pork and squid. The menu also features pajeon, or Korean scallion pancakes, in seafood and kimchi varieties. Haemul pajeon, the seafood version, is made with mussels, shrimp and squid, and Mr. Cookbop encourages guests to pair it with Korean makgeolli, a milky sparkling rice wine available in flavors like peach and banana. The restaurant also offers soju and assorted Korean and Japanese beers.

Kim said he wants guests to know more about Korean cuisine beyond barbecue and bulgogi, and that’s why he chose to focus on the soups, which he says he hasn’t regularly seen at other area Korean restaurants.

“Korean food is…a rich culinary world full of tradition, regional variety, and soulful dishes like gukbap that aren't always in the spotlight,” he said. “At Mr. Cookbop, we aim to be a gateway for those who are new to Korean food, and a nostalgic favorite for those already familiar.”

Mr. Cookbop is at 128 Crown St. in New Haven. It’s open daily from noon to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. 475-234-5568, instagram.com/mrcookbop.