Raon is a new Korean tasting restaurant from Chef Soogil Lim and his wife, Sasook Youn. Their other restaurant, Soogil, is located in the East Village, and they’ve wanted to open a more intimate fine dining type of restaurant. One of the key features that attracted me to this was that they would a tasting menu centered around kimchi. When we went to Meju, we simply adored it. So we wanted to see how this would compare because both restaurants emphasize that kimchi is a key part of the experience. I was able to book a 5:00 PM reservation for a Saturday without much issue. I’m assuming it’s because the restaurant is still fairly new. The restaurant is very close to the N/W train off of Lexington and Bloomingdales.

Danji is Chef Hooni Kim’s first restaurant that opened 15 years ago. It earned a Michelin Star back in 2012 and closed in April 2023 due to a fire. We’ve been to the Chef’s other Michelin Star restaurant, Meju, which was phenomenal for what it was. We decided to check out this to see how it was, so I made a reservation pretty easily a week prior for 5:30 PM for a Friday.

Octo is a Korean-Chinese restaurant that brings Chinese dishes developed in Korea. I visited South Korea back in the 2014s, and they definitely had their own spin on Chinese food, which is what attracted me to this restaurant. South Korea has its fair share of Chinese foods that are pretty similar, considered they have shared cultures. Located near Koreatown, we made a reservation for 5:30 PM on a Friday night very easily. When we arrived, we were seated in a booth that was definitely spacious and comfortable.

Odre recently opened a little over a month ago, and it was on my list to checkout. Similar to other Korean small-tasting restaurants, this offered an inexpensive tasting of Korean rustic-style cooking. The restaurant is part of the Hand Hospitality network, which includes Nonono, Cho Dang Gol, Jua, Okdongsik, and many more. I was able to make a reservation fairly easy a few days prior to our visit for a 5:30 PM Friday evening dinner.

Mari is yet another seaweed hand-roll type restaurant in a very crowded space in New York City. The difference from many others though is that this is Korean-centric, and it has earned 1 Michelin Star in both 2022 and 2023. This restaurant is the same team as Kochi, which is also near the area in the Theater District. Since my partner was attending another event, I was looking at this restaurant because perhaps it’d be very solo friendly, and it was quite easy to make a 1-seat reservation the night prior.

Rice Thief is one of the few Korean raw marinated crab restaurants in New York City. The focus of this restaurant is to provide deeply marinated raw crabs with lots of seasoning in it. To the surprise of many, the raw crab meat is actually a little gooey but quite flavorful. My partner saw this restaurant on Instagram and expressed interest in trying this out, despite me wanting to avoid bringing them here. I’m unsure how they would do with raw crabs and the mess that is to ensue. Nonetheless, this was the catalyst for us to try out this restaurant.

Long Island City is basically turning into an upscale, modern day Flushing-type environment. There has been a recent surge in the last few years of Asian restaurants popping up all over the place. Close to the popular Vernon Blvd area is a fermentation studio called “Little Banchan Shop”. They sell little Korean side dishes. The owner decided to open a restaurant in the back, Meju. We were able to get reservations a month in advance on Tock for 7 PM on a Saturday evening.

If you visit sample sales frequently, there are 2 nearby the Nomad and Koreatown area. Because the sample sales close at 7 PM sharp, it compels you to look for food during core dinner hours. Fortunately if you go shop right after work and finish around 6 PM on weekdays, foot traffic to restaurants won’t be too bad. Olle is a Korean restaurant about a block away from the sample sale store on 5th Ave. We were able to walk in with no reservations at around 5:30 PM, which the restaurant started coincidentally getting busy around 6 PM.

This restaurant is from a renowned Korean chef (Ok Dongsik) and is a 6 time Michelin Seoul Bib Gourmand restaurant. We were nearby at a popular sample sale, and this was on my list for a while to checkout. The menu is very small and is straight forward. We were able to walk in at around 6:30 PM on a Wednesday evening without reservation. They turn over seats fairly quickly even though there can easily be a line of people waiting.

Bom is a restaurant located in the back room of its sibling restaurant, Oiji Mi. We had been to that before, and I thought it was pretty decent. Bom was always on my list of things to try, but at $295 per person, I was pretty hesitant and skeptical. This restaurant doesn’t even have a Michelin Star yet. Since reservations are fairly easy and Oiji Mi was pretty good, I thought I’d give this a try since we were celebrating two major milestones in our lives.