The Southern Gourmasian

Tried their food truck. Had the brisket sandwich. Basically it was chunks of tough beef with a bland sauce. Couldn’t cut the meat with the plastic utensils. Chips were good. Wouldn’t recommend

I had the spicy chicken &dumplings. I really enjoyed my meal and will be back sooner then later!

Wonderful food. I would’ve given them all five stars if they wouldn’t have decided to close during the week days :/

Really unique food. I loved it! The chicken and dumplings are amazing and service was great.

This is a unique spot, and I’m glad and thankful that it exists in Littlerock. Coming from Chicago, I was very pleasantly surprised. The buns were great — we got the chicken and pulled pork buns and we subbed sides in for potato chips. They’ll take $ 1 off the side if you choose to sub. The buns come in four, with pickled cucumbers on the side and are $ 7 each, which is a pretty good deal.
We also got the chicken salad and the miso shrimp and grits. I’ll have to say the miso shrimp and grits are by far my favourite dish that we ordered. It had 4 large shrimps on top of a delicious miso grit, which had a great texture. The chicken salad was decent, but very small and I don’t think it’s worth the price, compared to the other great options they have.
It took a while for us to get our food. It wasn’t packed on a Saturday, but they only had two people working there.

Stopped by the brick and mortar for lunch today. The place was packed, and I mean PACKED.
Even though the kitchen and servers were slammed, the service was excellent and the quality of the food was wonderful as always.
Can’t recommend this place enough, the new table service system is much better than the previous «order at the bar» system.
This is a downtown Little Rock «can’t miss» restaurant!

Very well priced (honestly they can charge more for what they serve), and very good tasting food. Love the southern and asian mixture concept. Their steamed buns selections are awesome.

Wow, I give this place a thumbs up. Delicious mussels. The sauce made me want to ladle it up. The chicken salad was light and very tasty. I’m glad I asked for the dressing on the side, as I think it would have been too much with all the sauce from the chicken. Generous chicken portion. My companion enjoyed the pork buns. Then to finish the meal we enjoyed a most delicious Dark Choc Bread Pudding. Yum

Gourmasian can be polarizing because of the strong flavors present in its dishes and the small portion sizes. I like it, because I’m fine paying $ 10 for a relatively small portion of really good quality food (like the three steamed pork buns, the ramen, or the kimchi grilled cheese) but they can sometimes miss the mark on their specials by not making them balanced enough in flavors (sometimes too sweet, sometimes not spicy enough, imo).
That said, their food tastes great to me, and the southern-​Asian fusion is something lacking downtown (and in little rock as a whole) so I love to stop in here. You order at the counter so you usually get your food in ten minutes or less. It’s also cheaper due to no tip.

I’ve eaten at both the brick and mortar and the food truck. I got the chicken and dumplings at the B&M and was pleasantly surprised. When they first came out it didn’t look like much food for what it costs, but it filled me up so it turned out fine. The last time I went to the food truck I got the brisket bbq sandwich. The flavor was really good but it could have used more of the plumb bbq sause and it just wasn’t enough food. My roommate agreed that his sandwich was good but just not big enough. If your not super hungry I would definitely say go here.

I tried to sample their food when they were a food truck place and there was always a line. I did not discover their «brick-​and-​mortar» restaurant until now and I now know why the had long wait lines for their truck. Simple appetizer, bun and entrée dinner menu. The appetizers were flavorful and not too much to prevent you from enjoying the steamed buns and an entrée. The ramen was good. But I wished that I had to tried their more hardy options. The dark chocolate bread pudding is a great dessert. Now all I need is to check this spot out for lunch and brunch! I will definitely be back soon!

I really wanted to love it, it’s close to home & I dig the vibe they are trying to to create.
My first experience was stalking the truck, found it at the Dr’s bldg on University where I went for shrimp & grits. Grittiest grits ever, consistency of steel cut oatmeal. Shrimp was good though.
I was super stoked for their Capital location but let the awe of a new restaurant wear off before heading in for a meal.
Service is S.L.O.W.
20 minutes to bring our cocktails but we were all chatting and let this go. We ordered apps, I had the crab hush puppies which were way over cooked & dry. No crab discernible in said puppies. We then ordered our meal, I went with the chicken & dumplings and in truth felt it was kinda one note. Good amount of heat, not near enough chicken and the siracha (sp?) was over powering.
I was never offered a 2^nd glass of wine, had to all but beg for a water refill and evidently they don’t offer desert because checks arrived without mention of a desert menu.
I beg of you, up your game, this was a Friday at 7 30, the A team should of been in but we got JV food & service.
I really want to love this place.

So good! The staff was super friendly and the food was delicious. Tasted straight out of the big city. Definitely recommend if you’re looking for some legit ramen… Or really anything from their menu.

This restaurant is awesome. It still has the food truck vibe and price point in the restaurant. I like bold flavors and this is my go to in downtown Little Rock. I only wish the menu was «restaurant sized»

It was good but the portion sizes aren’t huge. A customer in line mentioned the sandwiches are best if you want to get full. Great flavor and spice. The homemade chips were great and I liked the slaw. We got chicken buns and the dish with the rice cakes which probably would have gone better with noodles. The menu is definitely still a food truck menu. I’d say it’s a place to go to lunch if you work downtown.
Try it. It’s a cool concept.

I’ve never tried the truck, just the brick-​and-​mortar store. I had the chicken buns, which were excellent. I could have eaten 400 more of them.
I also had the ramen bowl. It was just OK. It had A LOT of nori, so if that’s not your thing, beware. The cut of pork was unusual to find in a ramen bowl. It would probably have been better with pork belly rather than shoulder.
My friend and I tried both the bread pudding and the beignets. The bread pudding was dry. It wasn’t served with a sauce, which it desperately needed. (Might I suggest salted caramel??)
The beignets had strawberries and crème, but no powdered sugar, which is the customary topping. They definitely needed it.
I’d for sure come back here and try more.

I had lunch and was rather underwhelmed, considering all the buzz and hype about this place. I had the brisket sandwhich which was such a mess, you may as well consider it more like an open face sandwhich because eating it with your hands was not possible.
The brisket was good and tender and the plum sauce was very original and tasted great, but the sandwhich was just too much because they buttered and grilled the bun. That just made it seem way too greasy, I mean, adding butter or grease to something like brisket is just a bad idea in my opinion.
The ambiance of the place seemed confusing. It was done up in a chic, modern décor which was very tasteful and classy, yet the place had the layout of a cafeteria where you wait in line to order; that seemed somewhat contradictory, but whatever.
That was my first time there, but I plan to give them another chance, dinner next time. I’m pretty sure next time will be better. The food was a very original fusion and I’m sure they probably have some real winners despite the fact that the Brisket sammy wasn’t all that.

Visited the new restaurant, and loved it! Our hostess was super sweet, our waiter was kind (albeit a tad scattered), and the food was still tasty as ever. The new location is simple and modern. And prices are still very fair. Nothing to complain about!

I think it is time to revise my rating for Southern Gourmasian. First thing first, Southern Gourmasian derives most of its recipe from the Momofuku Cookbook and I wish they give more credit to Chef David Chang who authors that book. The majority of the food on their lunch menu is delicious, such as the Chicken & Dumplings and Roasted Pork Buns; however, there are one or two dishes that I would avoid. The one dish to avoid that I really remember is the ramen. The pork in the ramen was way overcooked and dry and the broth was overwhelmingly smoky. Other than that, the egg was poached perfectly and the noodles were decent. I still highly recommend anything on their brunch menu, such as the eggs benedict.

Went at the tail end of the lunch rush, waited a little long but they did seem busy so not unreasonable.
Huge ramen fan, so I was eagerly awaiting trying it here. Did not disappoint, excellent broth with good smokey pork flavor, very good seasoning, and excellent amount of fat and protein. Included very tasty and tender shredded pork shoulder, well-​soft boiled egg and good firm noodles which stood up well in the soup. (Though I’d liked to have had more noodles)
Can’t wait to come back and try the other dishes.