Jungsik

For our yearly celebration, we decided to come to Jungsik, especially since it was the first NYC Korean restaurant to earn 3 Michelin Stars. I visited this restaurant on a special occasion around June 17, 2017, but I barely remember much about it and did not take pictures. Today is redemption day. I was able to make reservations for 2 fairly easily a few weeks out for a Sunday at 5 PM.

Jungsik’s original location is in Seoul, Korea, and they opened this NYC location over 10 years ago.

Ambiance & Service

The interior is very posh with a lot of modern accents. When you come in in the late afternoon, the natural light helps light up the place. As the night progresses, the ceiling lights don’t give it as nice of a light as it dims to become more romantic. However, the ambiance is very relaxing and comfortable. We were seated in a corner pod.

The service was impeccable as expected. They were very attentive and on point with service, and they had excellent timing on the dishes.

Food

The standard wine pairing was $200, and the non-alcoholic pairing was $115. The signature tasting was $325 per person. When you order on Tock, they charge an automatic 20% gratuity, taxes, and a $5 order fee. They also have optional supplements you can add. We opted for both, which you can see below our thoughts.

The French Bloom “Le Blanc” has some nice minerality with a lot of white fruits and bubbles. It tasted really good.

The Schramsberg “Blanc de Blanc” came from North Coast, California 2022. This was very good with notable sweetness and bubbles to cut through seafood.

The starter course was the Banchan, which came with (starting bottom-right, going clockwise):

• Kong Guk, which was soy bean soup with truffle pearls. This was very delightful, and the truffle flavors were very tame.
• Yukhwe, which was wagyu beef tartare, truffle, and brioche. The bite of this was buttery good, and again, the truffle flavor was very light. I am calling this out because my partner dislikes truffles, and it didn’t bother them.
• Yun-dubu, which was gamtae myeongran, soy bean, and perilla oil. This housemade tofu reminded me of the Japanese steamed tofu. This was served room temperature and was really good.
• Hwemuchim, which was Jeju fluke, soy cream, and gochujang. The crust of this was crispy, and the fluke was savory. The gochujang added that kick.
• Joomukbap, which was squid ink rice, squid, and shrimp. This was bursting with squid flavors, similar to those flavors you’d find of a seafood paella.
• Foie Gras Baesook, which was Asian pear and pine nut. The Asian pear was very sweet, and the foie gras gave it that cream texture.

Most, if not all, of these bites were very harmonious in flavors. It was difficult to discern sometimes exactly the specific flavors as they danced around in your palette.

The Oi Naengguk was basically a cold cucumber non-alcoholic cocktail made at the bar with 1 drop of sesame oil. The cucumber notes provided a bright freshness.

The Barbara Ohlzelt Gruner Veltliner “Zobinger” came from Kamptal, Austria 2024. This Gruner was very tasty and blended well with the striped jack. It was salty, refreshing, and energetic.

The first real course was the Striped Jack, which came with Oscietre caviar and white kimchi. They poured a sauce of smoked fish bones. The first comment that came out was how we really enjoyed this dish much more so than anything of memory from Le Bernardin. The fish was not only very delicious, but all the ingredients were very complementary to each other.

The Copenhagen Sparkling Tea Company “Bla” came from Denmark. This had flavors of Jasmine tea, chamomile, darjeeling, and some citrus. It was very refreshing and an interesting fresh complement to the richness of the octopus.

The Augalevada Albarino “Eiravedra” came from Rias Baixas, Spain 2022. This Albarino was bright, fresh, with very nice minerality. This had a salty, slightly nutty flavor. Unsurprisingly, it was delicious with the octopus.

The second course was the Octopus from Spain, which came with gochujang aioli. The octopus was seemingly pressure cooked and then had a crispy exterior as if there were some sort of light batter around it. This was one of the most memorable octopus dishes I have ever had in my life. The meat was so buttery tender, and the batter added a nice perfect crunch to it. With the gochujang sauce, it was a good combination of richness, heat, and savory. This was a masterful display of in my opinion a perfect octopus dish.

The United Ferments Rhododendron had some light tartness, fir, and Asian pear notes into it. The fermentation offered a pronounced profile of the Labrador Tea, which is a plant species used in herbal tea.

The Kumeu River Chardonnay came from Auckland, New Zealand 2023. I found this chardonnay to be pretty decent, with clean and fresh minerality to it. There are some salty notes to it and was good with the scallops.

The third course was the Scallop, which came with Massachusetts squid ink nurungji and citrus emulsion. The nurungji is a hard, crispy layer of rice that as pressed into this little cast iron pot. It gave it a nice crispiness, and it was full of flavors from the squid ink. The scallop was delicately cooked and sweet. Everything was very delicious.

The Daechu came from the bar. It was made with Chinese date as the base to give it a fall, sweet bright flavor, tea for herbacious notes, angelica root, and orange peel. It’s finished off with tonka bean, which gives it a slight licorice and earthy savory note. At first glance, I was expecting something super bright, but I was quite impressed by the complexity of the flavors, especially paired with the arctic char.

The Chateau Carbonnieux Blanc came from Bordeaux, France 2022. It is a blend of 65% Sauvignon Blanc and 35% Semillon. This by far was my favorite white wine for tonight. There are some interesting flavors to this, giving me imagery of a damp field right after rain. This was crispy with a nice group of citrus and apple fruits. It was very delicious, and I would love to get a bottle of this. It was a great complement to the arctic char.

The fourth course was the Arctic Char, which came cured and dry-aged with a perilla emulsion. The arctic char skin was super crispy, and the flavors were very excellent. The sauce had some smoke in it, and it was really divine.

The fifth optional course (+$75) was the Sea Urchin Bibimbap, which came with seaweed rice, kimchi, and crispy quinoa. This sea urchin from Hokkaido was very clean, buttery, and sweet. It was meticulously assembled in the bowl such that it was easy to take a spoon and scoop the entire uni with the rice and its nearby components. This allows you to get a glorious all-in-one taste of everything together. It comes down to about 10 decadent bites. It’s expensive for what it is, but the flavor profile was sublime and heavenly. If you really can stomach the addon price, this was incredibly good.

The Muri Yamile Sparkling Rose came from Denmark. This was a red sparkling drink, with a bit of creaminess, red fruitiness, and was aromatic.

The Renato Fenocchio Nebbiolo “Starderi” came from Piedmont, Italy 2020. This Nebbiolo had cherry, tobacco, and leather notes to it. It was definitely dry, medium-heavy body and was an interesting pairing with the kimbap.

The sixth course was the Yellowtail Kimbap, which came with truffle rice and seaweed bugak. On the side, they gave us tweezers to place the yellowtail fish on top of the kimbap. This amounts to 4 bites of the kimbap. The crust of the kimbap was solid and crispy. Of all the courses, this was the one that I had some criticism on. The rice was seasoned, but it was definitely on the saltier side. Luckily the yellowtail counters the saltiness, but I wished it wasn’t as heavily seasoned. Regardless in its entirety, it was good.

The Pineapple Si-Pache was a fermentation from pineapple and mixed with some flavors of rice, sugar, and barley. The drink was pretty good.

The Odette Cabernet Sauvignon “Adaptation” came from Napa Valley, California 2019. In my mind, this was the definitive cabernet sauvignon from Napa. This one was 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot, and 2% Petit Sirah. It was full body, layered, and full of currant and blackberry flavors.

The seventh course was the Galbi, which came with Gondre barley rice. This came with mushroom, some stock jus, and a salad and kimchi on the side. The galbi steak was very soft and decadent. The salad was bright, crispy and refreshing. And the kimchi was fermented thoroughly, so it was acidic and full of flavor. I gave the mushrooms to my partner, but I can say that the mushrooms were decent. The sauce was very well made and wasn’t salty.

The palette cleanser was the Strawberry, which came with strawberry sorbet and oat yuja bingsu. This came with frozen raspberries. The bingsu (or shaved ice) was very good and had a good amount of fruity flavors mixed in.

The Jeju Cloud came from the bar and made with rice milk, coconut cream, truffle oil, and soybean powder. The rice milk with the coconut cream was very good. It gave it that island-like sensation. The truffle oil was interesting, but unneeded.

The Royal Tokaji 5 Puttonyos “Red Label” came from aszu berries, Hungary 2018. I’m usually not a fan of dessert wines, but this one was very lively, with plenty of richness and structure. It was definitely sweet, but not excessively.

The dessert course was the Dolhareubang, which came with black bean, rice, and sesame. The formation of this dessert is emulating the volcanic stones and statues found on the island, where they symbolize protection. The status is made from black bean mousse with a hazelnut center. The roasted rice ice cream was served over puff rice.

The optional dessert course (+$25) was the Carrot, which came with cream cheese mousse and black tea ice cream. The presentation was fun. They brought the literal carrot in a box decorated with dirt. They asked one of us to pull the body of the carrot and place it on the plate. The carrot itself was sculpted with white chocolate and filled with cake and cream cheese mousse. It definitely reminded me of carrot cake, but in a very atypical way due to the appearance of it. Everything tasted pretty good.

The final course was a petit four. On the left on the black plate was the Maesil, which came with maesil cream and choux. That had some fermented plum syrup inside.

On the smaller plate, going clockwise from the right:

• Passion fruit marshmallow. This tasted exactly what you would think it tastes.
• Artemisia macaron. The filling was not super flavorful. If I spelled it right, it’s supposed to have some anise and herbal flavors to it.
• Yakgwa. This is the traditional Korean cookie dipped with honey and maple syrup.

Overall Impression

I was pleasantly surprised by how delicious Jungsik was. We have been to several of the premium Korean fine dining restaurants, and Jungsik is worthy of its upgrade to Michelin 3 stars. Compared to Atomix, it’s obvious that Jungsik has much better flavors and the cook is very consistent. There really is no other Korean restaurant in the city that can match what you get in Jungsik. If you’re looking for the must-eat high end Korean restaurant, this is the one to try.

Yelp & Google Jabs

And the Galbi was the biggest disappointment. It tasted like short rib you’d grab from Whole Foods, just tossed with some random Korean flavor BBQ sauce. I didn’t even get why they put kimchi and salad with it

This Yelper probably smoked too many cigarettes and couldn’t distinguish flavors at all. It’s fun to read reviews sometimes because you get that one sarcastic and overblown review that shows how their expectations mismatched their own taste buds. In Korean food, it’s common to eat greens and kimchi with a meat course. It doesn’t really get more straightforward than that.

Finally, despite me telling them in advance this was our anniversary, they made zero effort to do anything special. When I complained afterwards, I was told this was because we didn’t order any dessert, so they could not write a special message on the dessert as they usually do. Seriously? Way to make it our fault…

This Elitist is the epitome of the posh and bougie diner. When you watch in movies and shows of NY/LA characters that demonstrate narcissistic behaviors, then you know there must be some truth to it. This New Yorker must not eat out enough in New York to know that not all places are the same. They sat at the bar and they were expecting service that was atypical of a bar experience. Even then, all we received was a special message and nothing more. Generally, the less you expect of a celebration, the more memorable it will be if it does occur.

Revisions

1. Sep 14, 2025 - Initial revision.