Despite the fact that many of good b-school girlfriends have left NYC, for those of us who are still in the city, we try to get together for a group dinner at least once a month to catch up. We used to do it at each other's house, but now, we decided to have a "global" theme and pick a new restaurant to check out - which is done easily enough since we live in NYC. This month the theme was Korean BBQ and while the most logical area to go would be K-town, this new place opened up in Tribeca and we decided to check it out since most of us actually work or live in the area.
Upon first glance, I really liked the vibe here. It was modern and clean and had all the fixins of the grill at your table like they do in K-town. There is also a bunch of private karoke rooms downstairs if the mood strikes you afterwards. We took a pass on it and stuck with the food. The restaurant was still fairly new, so the service was very attentive and kind. The menu is fairly similar to what you would find in K-town but with a bit less variety. They had the usual line of grilled meat options like short rib, brisket and pork belly but while most other places in K-town would have variations on those meat options, here they only stuck to the standard ones. Sadly, I was the only one who wanted pork belly or jowl, so we didn't get either of them but we did get the wagyu kalbi ($46.95) and the yang nyum kalbi ($35.95) since the waiter said that the other short rib option wasn't marinated and not as sweet. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't have any grilled vegetable options because I do like grilling some enoki mushrooms or other non-meats to cleanse the palate a little bit. We also got an order of the kimchi pancake ($11.95), seafood pancake ($13.95), fried dumplings ($10.95) and Amy got a vegetarian bibimbop ($18.95) for herself. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't have any meat combinations to choose from as they individual meat prices were a bit high - I guess this is Tribeca after all.
We started out with the typical helping of Korean small plates but I was bummed to see that they didn't have my favorite one which were the bean sprouts but all the other typical plates of kimchi, cold spinach, seaweed and vegetable shoots were all there. The kimchi pancake had kimchi, scallion and onion and it was ok - I preferred the seafood one instead because it had more texture and flavor to it. The dumplings were also ok - kind of your run of the mill dumplings that you get at an Asian restaurant. However, I really did enjoy the cuts of beef they had. The waiter was super nice and cut them up and grilled them for us (he did both medium rare and medium well) table side. Even though wagyu beef was supposed to be the best, we all actually preferred the yang nyum cut better - maybe it was the marinate or the beef itself but it tasted juicier and fatter as well - it really melted in your tongue and I loved it with the combination of the salt and sesame oil dipping sauces. The meat did come with some grilled veggies like portobello mushrooms, onions and squash/zucchini but the portions were pretty small, so it would have been nice to have had more.
Overall it was a very pleasant Korean BBQ experience without having the trek all the way up town. I definitely have to go back with people who would want the pork belly and jowl. The place is definitely headed in the right direction in terms of offerings but I would like to see them add more options (especially in the more "exotic" cuts of meat options like pork collar) and combinations. This would actually be a fun and easy place to have a work dinner if you are downtown and want to do something different and unique in the area - especially since the prices are a bit on the higher side. I noticed they also have lunch specials here, so I could totally see myself going during a lazy work day for an extended outing. Total bill with tip and booze: $72/pp
Photo Credit: Yelp
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