As we enter the end of the year and NYC indoor dining is forced to be shutdown due to a COVID uptick, we wanted to get some last fixin with Korean BBQ. Even though we have tried many of the major Korean BBQ restaurants near Koreatown already, this is one of the few remaining ones to try. When we visited, they check your temperature and had glass dividers between tables. We were fortunate to be seated in a little cubby hole meant for a party of 6-8.
Indoor dining finally opened again in NYC on September 30, 2020. There are those that feel it’s reckless in this COVID temperament, but we still decided to celebrate by booking an indoor reservation at Cote, a 1 Michelin Star Korean BBQ restaurant. Normally, this is difficult to get a reasonable time, so we were happy it was not too bad. Like all upscale restaurants, they take your temperature via the forehead, and each table is partitioned by a plastic partition. Aside from air conditioning, there’s no way for your aerosols to hit another table unless you tried to spit a few feet up. There’s more than enough space between booths, so it was very enjoyable.
Korean BBQ in NYC is often straight forward. If you want to eat it, you go to Koreatown for a safe bet. If you go away from Koreatown, you risk eating somewhere that may not satisfy that lust. Perhaps the meat would not be as good, or the side dishes would be awful.
Fortunately this place in Chelsea was actually pretty decent.
I definitely want to preface that the ventilation in this restaurant is not good despite the ducts over the grills, so your clothes will smell.
This is a surprising decent Korean restaurant in the South Village. Unlike Koreatown BBQ restaurants, this place actually has you cooking the meats just like in Los Angeles.
The banchan was on the blander side of things. The daikon was a little watery. The kimchi radish was decent but wasn’t as pickled as other Korean places. The broccoli was fine. Lastly, the kimchi was decent but again not as fermented as other places.
We were visiting the Morgan Library on a late Sunday afternoon, and this restaurant was close by and on my list. I’ve always been into old school Korean places where the food was centered around non BBQ items such as bossam and kimchi jigae.
The egg soup was served as part of the meal. It’s simply tasted of steamed egg with some scallions on top. Pretty straight forward and pretty good.
This is easily walkable from the 5th Ave flagship Apple store for some decent casual Korean food.
The banchan comes with the bulgogi bento box below. It’s basically that white pickled daikon, kimchi radish, and kimchi. Just a note that their kimchi here is super sour compared to other places I’ve been to.
The bulgogi bento box was ok. It came with japchae (Korean sweet potato noodles), bulgogi, fish cake, kimchi daikon, and what tasted similar to tempura potato of some sort. The bulgogi was a little on the greasy side and very sweet. The japchae was pretty decent. The fish cake was pretty good, and so was the daikon. I didn’t care much for the tempura. I think the bulgogi bento box was just OK, and I’d recommend to get something else instead unless you’re hungry and don’t care.
We stopped by for lunch for David Chang’s newest Momofuku restaurant and is located in the mall across the street from The Vessel. It’s on the 5th floor near the Bouchon Bakery. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too filled, but then again it’s terribly hot and humid outside.
The trading card cocktail consists of plantation pineapple, cruzan blackstrap, smith & cross rums, trader vic’s macadamia liqueur, curry, and yogurt. I did not like this at all as it was very sweet.
The food here was surprisingly decent. I usually don’t expect many places in Midtown East to be good, let alone Asian ethnic foods.
We ordered a pineapple Mocktail and a glass of Hite, which is nothing to write home about.
The banchan here was pretty good, although portion size is on the smaller side. You can ask for additional banchan as needed. Here you got kimchi, mixed salad, jalapenos, pickled cauliflower, pickled daikon cubes, and pickled daikon slices. For sauces, you got some soy sauce centric thing that I never remember the name of, salt and pepper, and bean paste. On the top you have fresh large lettuce leaves for wrapping.
The vibe here is pretty cool if you’re into old school jazz environments. The walls have a load of records and lots of old music devices. It does get a little noisy, and sometimes people eat really slow to create a wait. It’s not too different than other typical Korean bar/chicken joints where they have lots of alcohol and Korean bar foods.
The drinks were ok. Started off with a passionfruit lemonade. There are some bubbles, so it doesn’t taste oversweetened compared to normal lemonade. The pineapple soju reminded me of small cans of Dole pineapple juice with some liquor and pineapple chunks in it. They serve the pineapple soju in a carafe.
This place is interesting. It’s like a modern version of typical Korean tapas.
They have these idea cocktails that have flashing lights underneath it. You can click on the switch underneath to alter the different lighting patterns. It’s gimmicky, but I’m sure they are targeting that photo crowd. The drinks themselves were OK. I think I prefer Brazilian style fruit cocktails now.
The hamachi cevichee was decent. It’s just tartare with a different flavor profile, but otherwise, it tasted like what you’d expect.