Mokyo

"If you’re looking to recreate the experience of snacking on small plates and drinking cocktails at home, try ordering a few Korean dishes from this casual East Village spot from the people behind Thursday Kitchen. None of them cost more than $15, and they all involve ingredients you’ve probably never had before like corn dumplings with truffle salsa verde or pork jowl with kabayaki butter. Mokyo also has alcoholic light-up Capri Suns (which you might recognize from the menu at Thursday Kitchen) available for takeout and delivery." - nikko duren

"St. Marks Place became one of the city’s great boulevards for outdoor dining last year, especially on weekend evenings, when tables were set up on the sidewalk and skateboarders ground up and down the street. This antic scene will only heat up this summer, and there are few better places to take it in than this deceptively sophisticated little Korean tapas spot run by the talented chef Kay Hyun. Hyun offers two selections of Wagyu, which is not an ingredient commonly seen in this part of town; sticks of plantain fried like pork katsu in clouds of panko; and fat little dumplings folded with deposits of sweet-corn purée. And there are plenty of fine sakes and Korean spirits with names like Seoul Night and Golden Barley. —Adam Platt" - Eater Staff, NYMag Staff

"None of the Korean small plates at Mokyo, a casual East Village spot from the people behind Thursday Kitchen, cost more than $15. Each of them involve ingredients you wouldn't typically find mingling together, like truffle salsa verde or pork jowl with kabayaki butter. Mokyo also has alcoholic light-up Capri Suns (which you might recognize from the menu at Thursday Kitchen) available for limited indoor dining, outdoor dining, takeout, and delivery. photo credit: Alex Staniloff" - Nikko Duren

"To understand what chef Kyungmin Kay Hyun’s new restaurant Mokyo is trying to bring to the East Village dining scene, it’s worth considering her first project, a quirky tapas spot turned minor internet celebrity named Thursday Kitchen. There, she channeled Korean flavors into eccentric drinking food — but the restaurant, which became a popular hangout for locals in their twenties, is better known for its Instagrammable cocktails than its food. Thursday Kitchen’s colorful, light-up soju concoctions come in a handheld plastic pouch vaguely resembling a Capri Sun. At Mokyo, though, Kay Hyun hopes that the food will come first, not the drinks. The chef, who’s worked at ABC Kitchen and Jean-Georges, is aiming to bring her finer dining training to the foreground, with artfully plated dishes that maintain the same playful and nostalgic edge that made Thursday Kitchen so popular. The restaurant, opening Wednesday at 109 Saint Marks Place, between Avenue A and 1st Ave, is once again rooted in Korean cuisine but this time with more Peruvian and Spanish influences. She pairs corn dumplings with salsa verde and scallop ceviche with dashi. Chicken comes glazed with sauce made from soy and panca chile, as well as a dollop of sesame yogurt. Dishes that don’t frequent Korean menus like lobster roll and gumbo also make appearances at Mokyo, accented by dashi and Korean chile pepper. And the dessert headliner, called Pop Rocks, riffs on the childhood candy by layering mascarpone and berries over carbonated sugar, which, true to form, “actually pops in your mouth,” Kay Hyun says. It’s all an attempt to showcase a more elegant side to Kay Hyun’s cooking. At Mokyo, dishes are delicately plated using tweezers, whereas the food at Thursday Kitchen skews larger and is less concerned with plating, like with sweet potato fries topped with Sriracha goat cheese or soft shell crab served in a metal basket befitting of a neighborhood fish and chips shop. In line with the hope for a less raucous restaurant, Kay Hyun does not plan to bring the hit Capri Sun cocktails to Mokyo. The focus instead on infused sojus, which come into play in cocktails such as the Autumn Sunset (chai-infused soju and sour cherry jam) or the Hongcho Highball (basil-infused soju). There’s also a short list of beer, wine, and sake. Though Mokyo is intended to be a tad fancier than Thursday Kitchen, the space is still quite casual, with a long bar, industrial accents, and dishes under $15. The idea, she says, is for it to be a romantic night out. Mokyo opens Wednesday, February 5 at 109 Saint Marks Place, between Avenue A and 1st Ave. The 55-seat restaurant is open Tuesday, Wednesdays, and Sundays from 6:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. and Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 6:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Closed on Mondays for now." - Luke Fortney

"The team behind East Village Korean restaurant Thursday Kitchen has applied for a liquor license for a new restaurant named Mokyo at 109 St. Mark’s Place, a space behind the existing restaurant." - Carla Vianna