Nōksu
Korean restaurant · Midtown West
49 W 32nd St, New York, NY 10001
Highlights
Korean fine dining in a subway station, a true culinary adventure.
Korean fine dining in a subway station, a true culinary adventure.
"Owner Bobby Kwak, who runs a 15-seat counter, wakes up checking his phone to see how much money was lost overnight as prepaid reservations made with stolen cards are repeatedly charged back; recent daily hits ranged from about $600 to $2,500 and the cumulative losses over the past year total tens of thousands. Four seats on one service were linked to a stolen card—roughly 25 percent of a day’s sales—forcing the operator to absorb refunded receipts, tips, sales tax, and processor fees while spending hours assembling evidence to dispute claims, only to have banks typically side with the cardholder. With razor-thin fine-dining margins, these repeated losses and the time-consuming disputes have been devastating." - Andrea Strong
"Yes, this is the subway station tasting menu. To figure out if you’ll like this Korean restaurant, ask yourself this question: How much do I like tweezers? If the answer is a lot, there’s some interesting cooking going on here. Consider the pigeon—a squab head, breast, and leg in a pool of gochujang agrodolce, served with a truffle bao that’s filled with squab gizzard char siu, and puffed duck feet with squab liver parfait." - bryan kim, willa moore, neha talreja, molly fitzpatrick
"Nōksu is a unique restaurant created by Chef Dae Kim, located in a secret space underneath Koreatown within Manhattan's subway system. The restaurant offers a fusion of Korean, French, Chinese, and Japanese cuisines, with dishes that activate all senses and are complemented by wine pairings and mocktails." - Michael He
"The on-star restaurant tucked in a subway station comes from co-owners Bobby Kwak and Joseph Ko, behind nearby Koreatown hit, Baekjeong, down the street, and more recent follow-up gelato shop, Sundaes Best. Per Se alum Dae Kim runs the kitchen. The 12-course tasting menu starts at $195 before tax and tip." - Eater Staff
"A contemporary restaurant in Koreatown offering seafood-focused dishes like crab and mackerel, with a unique setting in the subway system." - MICHELIN Guide
