Category Archives: Korean

DDO Bar

First, check out the Ride & Review video of this joint!

Okay, now on to the written.

I heard about this place through a food friend, and it sounded enticing. I love tofu skin, for some weird reason, and this Korean style omakase features a majority of the pieces served upon fried tofu pockets called yubu tarts.

$75 gets you 13 high-quality pieces. See them all below, with my highlights for favorites.

Cacio e pepe.

Citrus cured bass.

Scallop.

Squid was swapped out for my wife, since she can’t do scallops.

Hiramasa.

Smoked duck breast pastrami – a top piece.

Shrimp – a top piece.

Ponzu salmon, everything spice with horseradish – my favorite.

Poached lobster – a top piece.

Beef tartare – a top piece.

Pork belly “ssamjang” – a top piece.

Tuna tataki hand roll – a top piece.

Crispy chicken on a stick.

Sea salt + earl grey tea ice cream.

I would definitely do this omakase again. It was good!

DDO BAR
Olly Olly Market
601 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001

Yoon Haeundae Galbi

This KBBQ joint in K-Town is great. Their beef heavy menu has an impressive list of selections, including wagyu, beef belly and dry aged prime beef. This little video pretty much sums up the experience.

I’m still full almost a day later. Highlights were the wagyu (pictured below), and the fried chicken.

YOON HAEUNDAE GALBI
8 W 36th Street
New York, NY 10018

Essex Pearl

This place is incredible!

My wife and I have been dying to come here ever since we saw them setting up shop at Market Line soon after we moved in. It’s a beautiful seafood bar, done up really fancy as a place you’d love to just sit and have a cocktail, but also with open view to the kitchen and prep stations for all the delicious food.

We tried a lot of shit, so let me get right into it.

Raw littleneck clams topped with crispy shallots and a fish sauce mignonette. Perfect way to open up the meal. Pair this with their pickled ginger, shochu and gin martini.

Dry aged rib eye tartare, coarse cut. So tender and flavorful! The shrimp chips make for a perfect vehicle for mouth entry, and they add a great textural crunch.

Cumin lamb belly skewers. I really loved these. If you love cumin lamb noodles at places like Xian Famous, you need to try this. It’s LAMB BACON!

Tiger prawns. You’ll want to drink the sauce! This item was the whole reason my wife wanted to go, and it really delivered. It was her favorite dish (along with the hamachi collar).

Crispy baby octopus with Thai lemongrass curry and fried Thai basil. Ask for a small bowl of rice so none of that curry goes to waste!

The grilled pork jowls were next. This was probably my favorite of the meal. It comes with a lime pepper sauce that acts like a Carolina style vinegar BBQ sauce, almost, but Asian style as lime and pepper are common in places like Vietnam and Cambodia. It cuts the fat of the jowls so perfectly I can’t even describe it properly!

Turmeric dill hamachi collar. This is so delicious and large, it’s enough to share among two people. Light, flavorful, and amazingly aromatic.

Laotian ginger pork sausage over garlic noodles. WOW! The sausage is made in house and it’s so fucking good!

We washed it all down with this watermelon and lychee slushee. So refreshing and just the right amount of natural sweetness.

I can’t wait to go back and try the rest of the menu, especially their surf and turf!

ESSEX PEARL
88 Essex Street
Cellar Level
New York, NY 10002

Two Hands

Two Hands is one of the deep-fried Korean style corndog joints that popped up all over the city in the last couple of years. This was the first time I ever tried one of them. I didn’t like it. Too sweet and too doughy, despite the beef dog inside being good quality.

TWO HANDS
147 Avenue A
SSTO
New York, NY 10009

Kumi

Kumi is a new Japanese joint at Le Meridien hotel in midtown. The place definitely rocks some Korean influence as well, as the head chef there, Anastacia Song (formerly at American Cut, midtown), is Korean.

They have a great cocktail list. I loved this riff on an old fashioned called Kumi Forever:

We tried a bunch of sushi-esque starters, like the tuna and truffle pizza and some unique rolls. That pizza and the bagel and lox roll were probably the winners here, but they were all great.

The warm sides/starters, Brussels sprouts and mozzarella eggplant, were both satisfying as well, despite being vegetables.

I actually, oddly, loved this Szechuan silken tofu starter. Probably because I love that flavor profile, as well as mushrooms. The tofu is really just a delivery vehicle for the sauce.

For entrees, we tried the miso black cod, the tea infused chicken, and the gochujang braised short rib.

The short rib was by far the winning dish here. Such deep, warm, fulfilling flavors. And lots of saffron!

For dessert, we tried the pear tart and the milk tea cake. The cake was the better item here, especially if you’re into creampie videos.

I look forward to going back here again to try some lobster and steak.

They also have a secret menu for late night eats. Burger, chicken sandwich and tofu sandwich.

KUMI
120 W 57th St
New York, NY 10019

Love BBQ

This place is legit! Some food blogger friends and I had a great meat feast here this past weekend.

Everything was delicious.

If you go, make sure you get these loaded fries. The portion size is HUGE, so prepare to share.

I was a fan of these dumplings/pot stickers as well.

LOVE BBQ
319 5th Ave
New York, NY 10016

Hortus

My wife and I had a great meat at Hortus. We started with some of their wine and beer cocktails. This beauty was made with plum wine:

Then we dove into the apps. First, a chilled seafood plate with lobster tail, shrimp, oysters and tuna tartare.

Next up, crispy octopus and fried lobster claws with uni and caviar. HOLY SHIT THESE WERE GOOD!

For entrees, we had truffle rice with uni and ikura/roe, and short rib. Both excellent, but I surprisingly favored the rice dish.

On the side, some roasted fall veggies. These had a sweet and tangy glaze on these.

Dessert was green tea tiramisu and rice pudding. The tiramisu was the winner for us.

Great meal! I’d definitely come back here, and look forward to doing so soon.

HORTUS
271 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10016

Kjun

Kjun is a Korean/Cajun fusion food concept that offers delivery service around NYC. They will soon reopen a physical location, but for now, the delivery is thoughtfully packaged, arrives hot, and travels well – nothing soggy, everything remains crisp that needs to.

We tried the fried chicken, ribs, and pork belly lettuce wraps. All were awesome. I especially liked the sides like the noodles and pickled watermelon rinds. Delicious food! Can’t wait to try their hanger steak dishes next.

Momofuku Noodle Bar

Once again David Chang pretty much disappoints. I understand and respect that he did a lot to expose certain aspects of Asian cuisine to folks here in NYC (and beyond), but I just don’t get why so many people are riding his dick so hard. The food just isn’t that good. Maybe it’s because he, himself, is not actually cooking? Not sure. But he gets doted on like crazy from places like Eater and the NY Times.

This man is supposed to be the wizard of fried chicken. Everyone says it. But two out of three times that I’ve tried his fried chicken, the experience was highly problematic. Fuku + was great. Ma Peche was half raw and half burnt. And this time at Noodle Bar the skin and batter wasn’t crisp enough – not by a long shot.

The bird was small but I don’t mind that. I actually prefer it, as the ratio of meat to skin and batter is usually better on a smaller bird. Also this bird had great flavor within the meat. But when there is little to no texture on the outside, it’s overall a let down.

Another let down was the “pork ramen.” When I associate David Chang with pork ramen I’m thinking of a rich, thick, fatty and almost milky tonkotsu broth. Not the case here. This was thin and lacked character. The slab of pork belly was nice enough, as were the noodles and the bamboo shoot. But the broth was weak. Even with a raw egg yolk mixed in, it was thin and watery. Maybe I’m just missing the point of this dish.

On the positive side of things, the creamy lemon and pepper lobster noodle dish was excellent. It sports lots of juicy and flavorful claw meat throughout, wide and perfectly cooked snappy noodles, and a hearty citrus and pepper zing.

The rice cakes were a bit soft but very tasty. When eaten with the corn you got the texture that was needed.

One thing I will say is that the prawn dish looked incredible. We were wishing we ordered that instead of the chicken every time we saw an order come up (we sat at the kitchen bar area). For $23 the dish comes with five huge baby lobster sized head-on prawns. Lightly batter fried and then dressed up for the big ball.

That about does it. I probably won’t come back here unless my wife and I are jonesing for that lemon-pepper lobster dish and those prawns.

MOMOFUKU NOODLE BAR
10 Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019

Barn Joo

I recently had a meal here when celebrating a friends birthday party. Here’s a quick rundown of everything I tried:

This chicken with peanuts dish was really tasty. Nicely fried morsels of dark meat.

These fried beef dumplings were better still. I could have eaten a dozen.

While I’m not a huge tofu guy, these fried cubes were pretty tasty. I’d eat them again, but definitely not over the other two apps above.

Next up, beef noodles. These were ultimately pretty middle-of-the-road. Nothing stand-out about them.

The star of the show, however, was this pork belly dish. So much nice quality belly, with some chiccharones and a great spicy bean curd dip to boot. Awesome.

The octopus was perfectly cooked and had a great crunchy texture on the outside, but there was just something about it that bugged me. It had a flavor that reminded me of the smell of dried fish food. Perhaps it was something added on top for seasoning.

Lastly, their pickles and kimchi items are superb here. Some of the best I’ve had.

I would definitely go back here again.

BARN JOO
35 Union Square W
New York, NY 10003