I wasn’t even very hungry when I first got to the new Korean-inspired Café uu around eleven o’clock on a Monday. 

I sat down by the window and watched hip kids park and dash through the rain to Narrative Coffee next door. The menu had a few desirable options that appealed to my palate and it was hard for me to decide. 

Pickled daikon, kimchi, and pork belly can never be the wrong decision. But which to try first?

I ordered a coconut curry sandwich with a Perrier. As I waited, I could hear the grill sizzling and I smelled sauteing onions and garlic as well as spices. 

The restaurant has a very minimal, modern look to it, with bare concrete floors and exposed wooden ceiling beams. A skylight let in blue-grey hues of a January day.

The server brought my coconut curry sandwich. A stack of saucy tofu spilled from ciabatta bread laden with julienned carrots, cilantro sprigs, pickled garlic, and caramelized onions. The sandwich dripped garlic mayo. It wafted a savory, sweet, and spicy scent. 

Suddenly I was ravenously, insatiably hungry. I ate the sandwich in a few minutes, washing down the spice with a few glasses of sparkling water.

What was this sandwich experience I encountered? It was something like a banh mi, but with all the curry. The flavor hijacked the hunger receptors in my brain. My body knew I needed that delicious culinary dish and it made me hungry even as I was eating it. Incredible.

Cafe UU (pronounced “you-you”) is in an ideal place to serve up some spicy, plant-based cuisine

I would like to return to try the other things on their menu: noodle bowls, chimichurri beef, or sweet potato noodle salad. They serve Georgetown Brewing beers on tap and have a small bar with a large selection of wine. 

Location, they say, is everything when it comes to business. If that’s true, then Café uu (pronounced “you-you”) is in an ideal place to serve up some spicy, plant-based cuisine. Visitors from out of town already flock to Narrative Coffee located right next door, as well as Funko, located a block away. I can imagine representatives from the Wall Street Building, across the street, taking Everett visitors to Café uu to showcase our cosmopolitan cuisine. 

Café uu is a worthy destination for Everett tourists and a welcome addition for locals. Korean cuisine has been conspicuously absent from downtown Everett until last year when K Fresh opened on Hewitt Avenue.

I wish Café uu well in their new biz. Get a bite there and see for yourself.

One hot tip before you go: be sure to check Café uu’s hours before making the trek to their doorstep. They are only open for select times.

Café uu
2925 Wetmore Avenue
Everett, WA 98201

Richard Porter is a writer for Live in Everett.