Restaurant Ki

Restaurant Ki Review: Ki Kim’s Little Tokyo Tasting Counter is a Genre-Defining Korean Fine Dining Restaurant | Eater LA

"Tucked in the Little Tokyo basement that also houses Sushi Kaneyoshi and Bar Sawa, this is chef Ki Kim’s most personal project yet: a $300, 12-course tasting that blends nostalgic flavors with genre-defining contemporary Korean cooking while hip-hop plays in the background. An alumnus of Atomix and Jungsik, Kim served a late-summer lineup that included an herbaceous quenelle of perilla ice cream over heirloom tomatoes and stracciatella reminiscent of a Korean caprese; tender lobster dusted with piquant dried raspberry powder; smooth duck pâté dotted with bread crumbs in an oblong glass chicken dish; and a delicate, almost savory, mushroom-shaped ice cream sandwich that looks like it was plucked right out of the woods. Service is attentive but never overbearing, and with the chefs cooking and plating right across the counter, the sparse room turns dinner into a show. A $190 wine and sake pairing skews toward French cellar picks and is worth the splurge for special occasions, though the meal stands on its own; corkage is $100 per bottle, and alternatives like green tea brewed three times during the meal or mocktails centered around housemade shrubs are available. It’s fine dining without white-tablecloth fuss—most guests dress to impress (dark denim, casual button-downs, laid-back suits, everyday dresses). Reservations go live on the first of every month at 12 p.m. on Tock for parties of one to three; the restaurant reaches out on the day of your reservation, as it can be hard to find, and there’s a garage just around the corner. Thanks to Kim’s ingenuity, this has quickly become one of Los Angeles’s best tasting menus and a standard bearer for modern Korean cooking." - Rebecca Roland