Taking flight
Joo Ok (Koreatown)
RESTAURANTS • First Word
The Backstory: Chef Shin Chang-ho brought nearly his entire team to New York when relocating his hit restaurant Joo Ok from Seoul, where it was celebrated for its contemporary interpretation of traditional Korean flavors. Seating just 40 guests per night, the discreet Koreatown restaurant has been nearly impossible to book, but the team plans to open up roughly 20 more nightly seats this month.
The Experience: Enter a gritty, worn lobby on 32nd Street. (If you feel like you’re in the wrong place, then you’re likely in the right place.) After nervously scanning the space, your eyes will fixate on a host behind a polished wooden podium bearing the Joo Ok logo.
They’ll lead you into a vintage freight elevator, which climbs 16 slow stories to the big reveal: a cream-toned room with an unfinished cement ceiling in the style of a traditional Korean home’s interior garden. A pine wood platform rises a couple feet off the ground. This is where guests sit for their first course, a house-made vinegar (apple or red grape) blended into an aperitif, served alongside a bowl of deep-fried shrimp sticks.
The meal continues in one of two minimalist, undecorated dining rooms. At 11 courses for $180 per, it’s an incredible value. A succession of one-bite starters blend luxury ingredients like foie gras and American wagyu with familiar Korean flavors such as perilla leaf and gochujang. Later, there’s the rich and refreshing jat jeup chae, a mountain of poached lobster mixed with dill, lotus root and raw Korean pear that’s decorated with coins of squash and cucumber and finished with an indulgent sauce made from toasted pine nuts. Chang-ho’s take on hand-torn noodle soup features a single flat noodle with colorful stripes of orange, green, and yellow over pheasant meatballs in a 48-hour pheasant and beef brisket both as velvety as it is rich.
Why It’s FOUND: While New York City has experienced a boom in high-end Korean dining in recent years, Joo Ok feels more authentic — more real, and more rustic — while still elegant, in ways that extend beyond the food. At the meal’s approximate midpoint, the team raises window shades to reveal curved rectangular windows. From the 16th floor, these airplane-like portals create a sense of flight. Gazing out, it’s impossible not to feel the vastness of Manhattan’s cityscape below — and to reflect on how fortunate you are to experience it from this incredible vantage of real estate and taste. –Kat Odell
→ Joo Ok (Koreatown) • 22 W 32nd St, 16th fl • 530p & 830p seatings • Reserve (NB: Christmas Eve availability at $300 per).