Hannah K.
Yelp
Amazing service and the establishment itself has a nice ambience that can match for a date night (which I did) or for a friend group for casual dining. I will say the tables are all quite small for their platters. For example, they served us 6 banchans and we also got the lamb as one of our entrees, which comes with a plate of lettuce, two sauces and a rice bowl. That, the banchans and another main plus our cocktails and waters barely fit the table and I was unable to enjoy my meal because I was so nervous about anything falling. We started off with the NYK Martini and the Seoul with a View. The seoul with a view was quite sweet but very tasty. The martini, however, was a miss for me. Made with house vodka and kimchi juice, it's not extraordinary and not doing what it's supposed to be doing. I understand this could be a take on a pickleback substituting for kimchi juice, but it was not hitting the mark. Now onto the dishes. For starters we ordered the tangsu tuna tartare and the oysters. I would skip out on the oysters, there was nothing special about them and they were quite tiny. The tartare, however, was amazing! I loved the creativity of turning traditional tangsuyuk sauce into a tartare. However, the jjajjang dusted rice crackers had a bitter and almost briny taste to them that I just ditched them entirely. Jjajjang, if not cooked, tends to be incredibly bitter. We also ordered the jaeyook chopped salad, which was my FAVORITE dish of the night. The gochujang marinated pork belly paired with the perilla ranch dressing was on point. The fattiness of the pork belly was cut by the light and refreshing dressing. For mains, I ordered the LA Lamb Chops and Hanger steak. The lamb chops were amazing! Cooked perfectly, and the lettuce/perilla, rice and sauces make for the most esquisite bite. The hanger steak was also cooked to a perfect medium rare but it was quite salty. The doengjang butter was too overpowering. The banchans were in my opinion, quite subpar. They were not as flavorful as traditional banchans and strayed away from what they're normally supposed to taste like. I could see how this may suit those new to Korean cuisine, but was not for me, personally. Last dish we ordered was the bibim naengmyun. I was initially skeptical about ordering any of the rice/noodle dishes, since I always find Korean restaurants to overprice these typically cheap and homely dishes. I decided to give the bibim naengmyun a try and I wish I hadn't. The noodles are too thick and way too rubbery and lacked flavor. Lastly, we finished off with dessert and decided on the swirl, which is a combination of the cheesecake softserve and yuzu sorbet. For your benefit, get them separately. Together they tasted like a really spoiled cheesecake. Overall I would recommend this place to go with your friends and for a good time, but do not expect anything extravagant or new.