DDOBAR by Joomak NYC

A Great Omakase Where You’d Least Expect It | Eater NY

"Seated at a 14-seat, horseshoe-shaped counter, I found Ddobar—an offshoot of Joomak Banjum from chefs Jiho Kim and Sechul Yang—specializes in yubu tart (raw fish atop a deep-fried tofu pouch filled with rice) and offers an 11-course lunch and dinner omakase for $75 (Resy lists it as 13 courses), which felt like a spectacular deal. The meal opened with a cacio e pepe riff where a jiggly egg yolk hid in a frothy Parmesan slurry, then unfolded in bold flavors and visual delights: fluke sashimi in a bowl with miniature cucumber slices, green herb oil and edible petals into which cold watermelon juice was poured; a caramelized scallop beneath brown-butter dashi foam with toasted corn and a sauce like liquid sea-salt caramel; amberjack over yuzu-flavored rice crowned with generous osetra caviar; and a ponzu-cured salmon rubbed with everything-bagel spices and grated horseradish with cream-cheese–mixed rice that recreated a bagel profile. Duck breast pastrami tasted exactly like a slice of Katz’s, fat rim and all (and yes, I took the chile oil), while a lobster course glazed under nori foam left behind a lobster butter that tasted like an oceanic elixir. By the time a seared beef short rib arrived—marbled, seared for smoky steakhouse flavor, interleaved with pickled daikon and topped with crunchy fried leeks—it felt like an entrée; ebi shrimp and bluefin tuna tataki (wrapped in a vertical laver cylinder) were good but less dynamic. I sipped an Alsatian Sylvaner ($18) that stood up to the strong flavors and finished with a slightly bitter Earl Grey soft-serve." - Robert Sietsema