Restaurant Ki
Korean restaurant · Historic Core ·
Contemporary Korean tasting menu with global influences
Contemporary Korean tasting menu with global influences
"A contemporary Korean tasting counter tucked in the Kaneyoshi-plex beneath a Little Tokyo office building, this intimate, three-cook setup channels Ki Kim’s upbringing in Colorado and South Korea and his fine-dining experiences into a Korean kaiseki-like procession of more than a dozen courses. Between pours of bubbly or sake to a laid-back hip-hop soundtrack, thrilling bites arrive — kimchi-seasoned cod milt piped like frosting over crisp cylinders of dried Korean seaweed; grilled lobster slices swimming in doenjang butter and dusted with raspberry powder; a summer crown of ripe tomato around a green quenelle of perilla sorbet; and, in fall, fragrant songyi mushrooms tinting a Dungeness crab noodle soup. Korean flavors hum as an undercurrent while the dishes harmonize, and the room — lit like an Arts District photo studio — embodies Kim’s framework: sustainable for the team, expressive and personal, aspirational but not shouty, a nightly telling of his story for those lucky enough to sit at the stone counter." - Rebecca Roland
"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
"Getting to Ki feels like an escape room challenge—you’ll walk through three doors, including one labeled “Employees Only.” But once seated at this stone-walled chef’s counter inside Bar Sawa, you’re in for an intimate, high-energy dinner, with cooks shuffling to and fro to a turned-up playlist of Flo Rida and Beyoncé. At $285 per person, the 12-course tasting menu is more laidback than the price suggests, even if the hypnotizing, genre-pushing Korean dishes make you perk up in your chair. The crudo-like take on mulhwe with shark fin flounder delivers a salty, acidic punch, but the best courses are more restrained, like crispy octopus with key lime, truffle-topped perilla noodles that arrive right as you crave carbs, and an otherworldly lettuce ice cream dabbed with caviar." - sylvio martins, brant cox, garrett snyder, cathy park
"Korean tasting-menu spot Restaurant Ki received its first Michelin star, and its chef Ki Kim was honored with the Young Chef Award. Kim captured the mixture of nerves and gratitude around the recognition: "Super, super nervous. I didn’t think I’d be this nervous, but my heart’s clutching right now. I don’t know what I’m getting. I’m very thankful and grateful. I’m here with my entire team. I’m fortunate to have a team that’s very easy to work with, and fortunate to have a space that is ideal and designed for us to be in. I would like to take more credit and say that I intentionally did all this, and coincidentally and gratefully, things are working out. In life, we always have plans, but life never goes as planned. When it actually goes as planned, it’s crazy — it’s amazing." - Matthew Kang
"One star. This Little Tokyo tasting menu from chef Ki Kim became Los Angeles’s first Korean-inflected Michelin-starred restaurant. Kim owned a Koreatown tasting menu restaurant before closing it in 2024, only to return with a namesake upscale counter weaving in flavors from his upbringing. Kim also received the 2025 Michelin Young Chef Award, another commendation for he and his team’s stellar cooking." - Eater Staff
