The Best Korean Food in New York

A 14-seat counter in a Murray Hill brownstone basement, where each course of a modern Korean tasting menu arrives in bespoke ceramics with a card explaining its origins. The exterior is so understated that first-timers cluster on the sidewalk wondering if they have the right address. Two Michelin stars, a James Beard Award, and a spot at number twelve on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list suggest they do.

1. AAA Five Diamonds
2. The 50 #12 · The World’s 50 Best Restaurants
3. Michelin Guide 2 Stars

The Dolhareubang dessert, a miniature Jeju Island stone figure set in a traditional garden of toasted rice ice cream and black bean mousse, tells you exactly where you are: a tasting menu restaurant where Korean culinary tradition gets remade from the ground up. The Tribeca dining room is muted and minimal, which lets the nine courses do the talking. Three Michelin stars, a James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef, and a spot on North America's 50 Best.

1. AAA Five Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide 3 Stars
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Winner · Outstanding Chef · Jungsik Yim

The chef's counter hides behind a banchan shop in Long Island City, which tells you everything about its priorities. Hooni Kim, a James Beard Award winner with a Michelin star, has spent years wild-fermenting and aging the Korean pantry staples, doenjang, ganjang, gochujang, that anchor his tasting menu. Dishes arrive looking almost spare, then insist on your full attention. The meal closes with a bowl of rice and kimchi that sounds like nothing and lands like a lot.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Winner · Best Chef: New York State · Hooni Kim
3. The New York Times 2026 · 3 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

Cuts of USDA Prime, American Wagyu, and Japanese A5 hang in a visible aging room before they ever reach the grill built into your table. This is a Korean barbecue steakhouse in the Flatiron, dark and moody in the way that only feels intentional when the service is this precise. Staff do the grilling, which sounds like a gimmick until it isn't. Holds a Michelin star and ranks among the World's 101 Best Steak Restaurants. The wine list is quietly serious about value.

1. World's 101 Best #21 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
2. Michelin Guide 1 Star
3. The New York Times 2017 · 2 stars · Restaurant Review

The hand-washing station at the entrance stocks Loewe soap, which tells you most of what you need to know about this Korean fried chicken restaurant. Club music bounces off vaulted ceilings while you work through a bucket of gluten-free fried chicken with consommé, banchan, and frozen yogurt soft serve to finish. Champagne is the obvious pairing, and caviar-topped nuggets are available for anyone who finds the baseline insufficiently absurd. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

1. Condé Nast Traveler The best new restaurants in the world
2. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants
3. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

At this Korean wine bar on Division Street, banchan is the main event, not the preamble. The chef builds a daily set of small plates that sit somewhere between Seoul, Lyon, and Palermo, leeks vinaigrette with Chinese hot mustard, eggplant crushed into something caponata-adjacent. The kitchen is tiny, the room tinier, and the menu stubbornly its own thing. The New York Times placed it among the city's 100 best restaurants.

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2. The New York Times 2025 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
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A freight elevator hauls you 16 floors above 32nd Street to a dining room that feels like a traditional Korean home transplanted into the Manhattan skyline. The chef's tasting menu holds two Michelin stars and moves through courses that pull from classical Korean cooking while doing things with perilla oil and geoduck that a grandmother would find baffling but probably delicious. The warm sunchoke tea that closes the meal is a genuinely disarming touch.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Stars
2. The New York Times 2024 · Jang Mool Hoe · Hungry for the Best? Here Are Our Top New York Dishes of 2024.
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

The name means skewer in Korean, which tells you more about the format than "tasting menu" ever could. Chef Sungchul Shim runs an open kitchen where a young team sends out grilled bites meant to be eaten with your hands, one after another, playful and fast. The menu pulls from Korean roots and fine-dining instincts in equal measure. A Michelin star hangs over the whole thing, but the vibe stays loose.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. Time Out The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now

The corn cake is not corn: it's sponge coated in piped kernels of corn mousse, and it stops people in their tracks. Lysée is a dessert gallery in the Flatiron where Eunji Lee, a Food & Wine Best New Chef, applies French technique to Korean flavors like yuja and brown rice, then displays the results on lit tables as though daring you to eat them. North America's Best Pastry Chef at the 50 Best, 2026. Go prepared to feel slightly intimidated by a cake.

1. Food & Wine Best New Chefs · Eunji Lee
2. The 50 North America's Best Pastry Chef Award 2026, sponsored by Valrhona · North America's 50 Best Restaurants · Eunji Lee
3. The New York Times 22 of the Best Bakeries Across the U.S. Right Now

A code-locked door in the middle of Koreatown opens onto a black marble counter, every chef armed with tweezers and clearly not messing around. Nōksu is a tasting-menu counter focused on contemporary Korean cooking, with seafood at the center and a rocking playlist overhead keeping things from getting too reverent. One Michelin star, and the squab landed on the New York Times top dishes list.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The New York Times 2024 · 2 stars · Restaurant Review
3. The New York Times 2024 · Squab · Hungry for the Best? Here Are Our Top New York Dishes of 2024.

A five-course prix fixe of modern Korean cooking in a sleek Flatiron room where the staff outnumbers the guests by a comfortable margin. The chef takes a restrained approach to bold flavors, which sounds like a contradiction until you're eating it. The cocktail program is sharp enough to earn its own following. Michelin awarded it a star, and the James Beard Foundation named the chef a 2025 semifinalist for Best Chef: New York State.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. Esquire Martini Royale · The Best Martinis in America
3. Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America

A modern Korean tasting menu tucked near the Flatiron, where the room, all soaring ceilings and low light, hums at the kind of pitch that makes a Tuesday feel like an event. The chef pulls from Korean tradition without treating it as a costume, running dry-aged fish and wood-fired lamb alongside dishes rooted in the peninsula. It holds a Michelin star, and the room on any given night suggests the regulars already knew that.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The New York Times 2022 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

A marble counter with built-in grills running quietly all evening sets the mood at this intimate tasting counter tucked behind Oiji Mi. The kitchen leans hard into luxury, stacking wagyu, uni, caviar, and truffle onto contemporary Korean courses without much apology. A dry-aging chamber sits in full view, so you watch dinner aging while you eat it. One Michelin star.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

A counter seat at this intimate Korean noodle bar puts you close enough to watch the pork bone broth hit the bowl, which is half the point. The menu is short and the prices are low for a Michelin-starred kitchen in the West Village. Gochu ramyun is the draw, but the kitchen moves between broth, salad, and rice with enough range that nothing feels like an afterthought.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The New York Times 2017 · 2 stars · Restaurant Review

The conceit here is a Korean tasting menu built around rolls, which sounds like a fusion experiment but plays out more like a revelation. Chef Sungchul Shim, who built his reputation just down the street at Kochi, runs a counter where chefs work in full view on every side, wrapping pristine fish and rice in seaweed at a deliberate pace. A Michelin star hangs over the whole thing, and the banchan tray that closes the meal earns its place.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

Soft tofu is the anchor of the menu at this homestyle Korean restaurant in Koreatown, which makes a quiet case for everything that isn't barbecue. Bubbling casseroles, spicy stews, pajeon, bibimbap, and cod roe omelet fill out a menu that reads like someone's grandmother wrote it. The dining room is wood tables and close quarters, warm enough that you forget you're on 35th Street. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and on the New York Times list of the city's 100 best.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The Infatuation #8 · The 25 Best Restaurants In NYC
3. Roadbook The Best Restaurants in New York City

The one decision you make at this Korean diner on Allen Street is which protein you want. Everything else arrives whether you're ready or not: rotating banchan, crispy jeon, soy-cured shrimp, the works, with refills waved over without asking. The whole thing costs $36, lunch is $19, and a coffee from the machine by the door is on the house on the way out. It's modeled on Korea's taxi driver restaurants, which is exactly the energy.

1. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America
2. Eater Best New Restaurant
3. Time Out The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now

Three cauldrons of rice and soup stay warm at the bar up front, which tells you a lot about how Odre thinks about hospitality. This East Village prix-fixe leans into Korean comfort at a pace that feels considered rather than rushed, with a set menu that moves through banchan, a main like grilled duck with black garlic, and snow crab mandoo that the New York Times singled out. Michelin gave it a Bib Gourmand, and the room is narrow, minimalist, and usually full.

1. The New York Times 2026 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
3. The New York Times 2024 · Snow Crab Mandoo · Hungry for the Best? Here Are Our Top New York Dishes of 2024.

The room is minimal to the point of industrial, which keeps the focus where it belongs: Korean cooking that doesn't explain itself to anyone. This Gramercy fine dining spot runs a prix-fixe-style menu where the combinations are adventurous but never alienating, the sort of place where kimchi beurre blanc makes complete sense by the second bite. Regulars book well ahead, and the team's warmth closes the gap between the spare room and a very full table.

1. The New York Times 2017 · 2 stars · Restaurant Review
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Time Out The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now

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The aged steaks arrive finished with nothing but Maldon salt, which tells you something about the confidence level here. Gui is a Korean steakhouse in Times Square that leans into Japanese wagyu and USDA Prime cuts alongside raw bar and Asian-inflected sides like wagyu fried rice. The sleek room draws theater crowds but doesn't need them; the menu earns a visit on its own terms.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Eater The Best Steakhouses in New York City
3. Eater The Best Restaurants Around Times Square

A Korean restaurant in Park Slope where tteokbokki arrives topped with Oaxacan cheese and chorizo, which tells you everything about the kitchen's mood. The menu moves between savory vegetable pancakes, cod braised in sweet soy with daikon, and chilled soba noodles, then lands on beignets. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, and the room fills with the kind of regulars who already know what they're ordering before they sit down.

1. The New York Times 2019 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Burrata with rice cakes and gochujang-marinated chicken is either a terrible idea or a very good one, and this Lower East Side gastropub has decided it's the latter. The menu is rooted in Korean flavors and then takes a hard left into stranger, more interesting territory, with everything designed to be shared. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks for a place this loose-limbed and fun.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

A ten-dish menu split between Southern comfort and Korean flavors sounds like a dare, but the chef at this snug Bleecker Street tapas spot pulls it off without breaking a sweat. Galbi jus over gruyere grits, harissa-glazed ribs, banana pudding with misugaru, it's a small room and the tables are close enough that your neighbors will probably want to order the same things. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Korean fried chicken shop on a busy Upper West Side corner, narrow and deep with an open kitchen you can watch from pretty much every table. The chicken comes out amber and lacquered in sticky black pepper soy, the kind that makes you rethink every other version you've had. The fried rice, loaded with Chinese sausage, kimchi, and a runny egg on top, is its own argument for staying for seconds.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Eater The Best Upper West Side Restaurants

You leave your shoes at the door, sink onto a cushion at a low table, and settle into what feels less like dinner and more like a scheduled exhale. HanGawi is an upscale, vegetarian-only Korean restaurant where the meditative music and temple artifacts are not ironic. The menu is entirely plant-based, the tea list gets as much attention as the wine list, and the Michelin Guide has given it a Bib Gourmand.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

A 22-seat counter tucked inside Gui Steakhouse, up an elevator and easy to walk past without knowing. Sungchul Shim runs a multicourse tasting menu where Korean flavors meet French technique, and the two Michelin stars suggest the kitchen takes that fusion seriously. Chefs work at the center of the room in full view, which keeps everyone facing the same direction for once. The white soy custard with Osetra caviar has developed a following of its own.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Eater The Best Restaurants in Midtown

A Korean barbecue spot in Flushing's Murray Hill where the tabletop grills run hot and the room stays packed. The décor skips every trend in favor of the food, which is the right call. Banchan arrives before you've settled in, including house kimchi that's been aged long enough to mean it. The beef short ribs marinated in soy-based sauce are the move, wrapped in romaine at the table. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. The New York Times 2016 · 2 stars · Restaurant Review
2. Grub Street The 40 Best Restaurants for Kids (and Parents!)

Wood paneling, banquette seating, and framed maritime art set the tone at this Korean shared-plates spot on First Avenue, where the menu orbits Busan's seaport identity. Seafood threads through nearly every dish, and the DIY gimbap with raw scallops, squid jeotgal, and apple kimchi is the kind of thing that makes a table go quiet. The cocktails are easy to linger over.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A top-notch venting system might sound like a strange selling point, but in Korean BBQ it's a legitimate flex: no smoke-soaked clothes at the end of the night. Dons Bogam is a proper Korean BBQ restaurant on 32nd Street, with tableside grills, a festive bar up front, and every seat reliably full, so book ahead. The crowd skews Midtown lunch crowd and dinner regulars who know a good pork belly when they see one.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The dining room sits above a showroom of luxury cars, which tells you something about the clientele before you've even looked at the menu. This sleek modern Korean restaurant on the Hudson has sweeping skyline views through floor-to-ceiling glass and serves food that moves between bold and delicate, a long-simmered bone broth here, a bright kimchi brine there. Premium Korean teas round out a serious wine list.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Hyun butchers its Japanese A5 Wagyu in-house, and the tableside grilling is the whole show. It's a Korean barbecue restaurant, though the word "barbecue" barely covers the sleek dark wood, cool slate, and private dining rooms. The signature omakase runs through a dozen cuts, each one cooked to order, with house kimchi and a scallion salad doing the balancing work. Rice with uni and truffles keeps things humble. Dress accordingly and bring someone who won't flinch at the bill.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A stained-glass dining room stretching two stories tall isn't the most obvious fit for the edge of Koreatown, but this Korean restaurant from the Jua team pulls it off. Start at the bar with Korean spirits folded into serious cocktails, then move into the warm, honeyed room for cooking that's elegant without telegraphing its effort. Dry-aged branzino with chip-crisp skin and uni-crowned rice are the kinds of details that make the room feel earned.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The pork and Thai chili soup dumplings finished with a dot of caviar tell you where this Korean-Chinese fusion restaurant is pitching itself. OCTO runs an à la carte menu built around noodles, rice, and a dedicated dumpling workshop that tends to upstage everything around it. The Peking black duck and the beef tangsuyuk pull regulars back, but the room moves at a lively clip regardless of what anyone orders.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A wood-clad lounge downstairs, where guests gather before heading up for the tasting menu, sets the tone at this intimate fine dining spot in Murray Hill. The kitchen leans on a Hudson Valley farm for much of its produce, weaving Korean influences through contemporary technique, fermentation included. Green porridge shows up as a signature, and the desserts tend toward the unexpected. Seasonality is the whole point here, and the menu moves accordingly.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Warehouse floors, gunmetal grey walls, and neon accents give this Koreatown restaurant the feel of an arcade that grew up and got a liquor license. It comes from the group behind Atomix, though the vibe here runs considerably looser: Korean rice cakes meet stracciatella, mala pork belly arrives looking puzzling and tasting great, and the bar pairs peanut butter cachaça with passionfruit like it's obvious.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. The New York Times 2026 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

1. NJ.com #35 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. The Infatuation The 21 Best New Restaurants In NYC

1. NJ.com #84 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. The New York Times 2021 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. The New York Times #46 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City

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1. The New York Times The Restaurant List
2. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Sol Han

A Korean pub from the team behind Golden Diner, where the viral pancakes made the place famous. Here the drinks come first, running from martinis and milk punch to Korean spirits and low-ABV options, and the food is built to keep up with them. Fried wings in gochujang glaze, dumplings a few ways, raw bar picks, and savory pancakes that borrow from both sides of that tradition fill out a menu that has no interest in being subtle.

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The name comes from South Korea's first carrier rocket, which tells you something about the ambitions in the room. Naro is a fine dining Korean restaurant in Rockefeller Center from the team behind Atomix, and where that room chases reinvention, this one returns to classics. The New York Times gave it three stars. Order the Dongji Martini, which made Esquire's list of the best martinis in the country, and let the evening unfold slowly.

1. Esquire Dongji Martini · The Best Martinis in America
2. The New York Times 2023 · 3 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The New York Times 2023 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

1. The New York Times 2020 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

1. The New York Times 2019 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

1. The New York Times 2018 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review