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Tuesday 5pm - 9pm Wednesday 5pm - 9pm Thursday 5pm - 9pm Friday 5pm - 10pm Saturday 5pm - 10pm

Soju

Soju (소주): clear Korean rice liquor. Family-owned restaurant/bar featuring Korean-American Cuis

08/01/2026

Tonight’s feature is near and dear to my heart. Mandu dak guk is traditionally consumed on birthdays and special occasions. When I take a bit of this soup I’m instantly transported into my grandmother’s kitchen when my entire extended would celebrate. This celebratory dish starts with saving up all of our beef trimmings from the bulgogi and simmering them with mirepoix, kombu, and other aromatics to make a rich flavorful broth that is to die for. Then we add our handmade beef and pork Mandu 🥟 and coin shaped rice cakes to symbolize wealth and prosperity. Then we finish with a pinch of our home made kimchi and scallions. So even if you are not celebrating stop by tonight and dine like Korean royalty with this amazing special that is rooted in family my traditions!-

07/21/2026

Some like it hot, some like it cold…come eat these soups before they get sold!

This dreary ass day calls for some banging ass soup specials!

The first is our signature kimchijiggae. Pork shoulder braised with our two house kimchis (mul radish and Napa cabbage), deglazed with soju, kimchi juice and a spicy fish stock. Garnished with cilantro and sesame seeds. This is a Korean equivalent of cabbage and kraut. Rich, spicy, sour, aromatic, and oh so delicious!

The second is a cold Naengmyeon. Flavorful buckwheat noodles in an icy broth (beef broth, arrowroot, and radish water) with kimchi braised beef, pickled chanterelles (that I just picked myself yesterday out of our pbeautiful PA woods!), kimchi braised beef, pear, cuke, and hard boiled egg. Finished with some hot mustard oil to give it a kick!

I worked my ass off on both of these amazing special so please come and enjoy them!

07/04/2026

We are closed today so our staff can celebrate the 4th with our families! Happy Independence Day!

06/17/2026

The long awaited 2nd pressing of shirts just arrived hot off the presses of !!! Nothing fancy just our logo on black. They suit our style and vibe. I designed the logo myself and I’m damn proud of it! Come through, grab some grub and a shirt!

05/17/2026

Soju is currently looking for 2 people to join our kitchen team! One of the things I love about kitchen work is that it is one of the last jobs left that is truly inclusive. I really believe there is a place for everyone working in a kitchen somewhere, you just have to find where you belong. It’s rare that spots open up in the kitchen at Soju because those that find that they belong here usually hang for quite awhile. I truly want the best for my team and my goal is for Soju to be the best for you until I see you on to something better. Soju is a skeleton crew which means you will be trained to work all stations and prepare everything in the restaurant. We all work with one common goal, to provide great food and more importantly to support one another. We don’t call each other chef in the kitchen but we do treat each other with all the respect and dignity that chefs deserve. We say please and thank you. As a team member at Soju you will never be spoken down to. Compensation is negotiated based on experience but Soju also has an equitable bonus structure based on hours worked. Also Soju is closed on Sunday and Monday and we often host pop ups to which team members have priority. So if you are someone who is looking to open up your own spot one day, this is a great launching pad. Ideally I am looking for full time but if you have other responsibilities I am willing to work with you. How I like to handle new hires is have you in to work a paid stage. This will allow both of us to see if it is a good fit. If you are interested please dm me and send your resume to [email protected]. I look forward to working with you!

05/03/2026

This dessert I came up with is 🔥! From start to finish it came from my brain. I began with buying a few cases of Ataulfo mangos because they looked ripe AF and are in season. Then I’m thinking back on my trip to cdmx so I thought I would make my own chamoy to dress them with. So I made a signature chamoy with dried persimmon, Hawthorne fruit, and tamarind, then marinated the mangos in it. After that I’m thinking there has got to be a better way to put this on the plate so I pressed it into a terrine and froze it. Came out very beautiful! Topped it with some yogurt and mint because I thought that’s what it needed to make it a composed dish. We will still have some going into next week and I am certainly going to rock it a few more times until mangos go out of season again. Hope yinz enjoy!

04/28/2026

Meet my grandmother Ursula Chough! This picture was taken a few months ago on her 90th birthday while she was licking off her candles proving that we all remain children at heart. She is the true matriarch of the Chough family. The wisdom and knowledge she holds behind those kind eyes is truly immense. When someone tells me they have seen some s**t in their life, I think to myself, not like grandma. This lady has truly been through it all! She was born in North Korea, survived the Korean War, Japanese occupation, and immigration to the United States. She once described to me hanging onto the outside of a train as a child fleeing war, watching people loose their grip and fall to their deaths. After the war she had no home to go back to so she wound up in Seoul where she met my grandfather a member of the Korean upper class. I remember her telling me how his family looked down on her to the point where they would tell others that her children belonged to other members of the family in order to hide her. One of those children being my father Simon Chough for whom I share my name. He was their first boy and that’s a big deal in a Korean culture on some real sexist s**t (but that’s a story for another post lol). They immigrated to the United States with my father, in his early teens in tow. They left his older sisters in Korea for a few years to stay with family (see Korean sexism). She proudly raised six children here in Pittsburgh. They grew up to be doctors, priests, musicians, family court advocates, and long time employees of CMU. All having children of this own, creating more grandchildren and great grandchildren than I can count. After settling down here she even helped her parents immigrate here. I actually lived with them (my great grandparents) in the same apartment, above the Seoul mart in Oakland for years when I was a child. Her life could and should be made into a movie with Soju as a small footnote towards the end. The scene would be her walking through my dining room asking every Asian person if they were Korean and bringing me out to tables and scolding me in front of guests. Her cooking is my inspiration. Soju is really just my love letter to her!

02/18/2026

I had a doctors appointment yesterday so I want able to make this traditional Korean Lunar New Year soup called Mandu Ttokguk. But better late than never. So today I present to you one bad mamma jamma of a soup! This starts days ahead of time when we make house beef stock with all the trimming from your bulgogi. Then I take that mega flavorful stock fortify it with some dry anchovies and kombu, and braise some beef in it. For service I cook coin shaped rice cakes in there to symbolize the money you will make in the year of the horse. Finally it get hit with six handmade Mandu which are Korean dumplings house made with beef, pork, kimchi, tofu, and aromatic filling. All said and done this is one of my favorite things to eat, especially on a great rainy day such as this one. So please come celebrate a belated lunar new year with me.

02/14/2026

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Didn’t make reservations tonight…good cause we don’t take em! But please do come in with those you love and celebrate with us.

In celebration of all things pink and sexy we are rocking two delicious features today.

Langoustine toasts- this dish begins with a smooth langoustine mouse (Langoustine, sesame oil, soy, green onion, cilantro, garlic, ginger, patis, egg whites, potato starch) slathered on thick cuts of Hawaiian sweet bread, then rolled in sesame seeds. We drop those beautiful babies in the fryer garnish with some gotchugaru and lemon. Think lobster roll but better!

Chips n’ dip- spicy mayo ahi poke with a fat dollop of trout roe served with garlic shrimp chips. They quietly snap crackle and pop sweet nothings into your ear as you enjoy them!

And last but not least I made some of my signature Mandu with beef, pork, tofu, and kimchi filling. Served steamed only tonight because we think they are sexier that way! 🥰

Address

4923 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA
15224

Opening Hours

Tuesday	5pm - 9pm
Wednesday	5pm - 9pm
Thursday	5pm - 9pm
Friday	5pm - 10pm
Saturday	5pm - 10pm

Website

https://simonchough.wixsite.com/sojupgh

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