The Best Korean Food in New York City

Irene Yoo

Irene Yoo is a food writer, recipe developer, chef and co-owner of Orion Bar in Brooklyn, and the author of Soju Party: How to Drink (and Eat!) Like a Korean. Her recipes and essays have appeared on the Food Network, Food52, and Food & Wine, and she has been featured in the New York Times, The Korea Times, and Bon Appétit.

The best Korean restaurants throughout New York City are a mix of old and new: Korean-American mainstays that have been barbecuing meats or slinging bowls of soups for decades, as well as imports of hot spots straight from Korea, plus modern restaurants serving innovative riffs on classic Korean fare. As a Korean American who grew up eating my mom’s home cooking and visiting Seoul every summer, I can’t go more than a week without getting my Korean food fix in New York City, where I now live. Thankfully, with the rising popularity of Korean food, culture, and drinking, there’s an ever-growing list of spots to check out. Confused on where to start? Let me be your guide—I literally wrote the book on how to eat and drink like a Korean with my new cookbook, Soju Party, and run Orion Bar, a Korean American spot in Bushwick that’s equal parts K-town boozer and American dive bar.

Whether you’re gathering in Manhattan’s Koreatown (a section of 32nd Street, known as Korea Way, and its surrounding neighborhood), making a pilgrimage to Flushing to hit up some old school spots, or looking for comfort food in Brooklyn, these are my favorite Korean restaurants in New York City.

Read our complete New York City guide here, which includes:

Tal Bistro

32 W 32nd Street Floor 3, Manhattan

At this new addition to Korea Way, the chef and owner of Tal Bistro spent nearly a decade honing his chops at the nearby Jongro BBQ. Tal Bistro is more of a Korean drinking pub, focusing on classic pairings like makgeolli (a milky rice wine) with kimchi pancakes, beopju (a clear rice liquor) with acorn jelly salads, and soju with spicy stir-fried pork and kimchi. The must-order here is their sweet potato makgeolli, an in-house specialty, in which the creamy earthiness of the Korean sweet potato (known as goguma) shines through the sweet and tangy libation.

Gopchang Story

312 5th Avenue 2nd Floor, Manhattan