After a nearly yearlong stint at Jordan Kahn’s Vespertine and Meteora, chef Ki Kim is once again pushing the boundaries of modern Korean fine dining. Located in the same Little Tokyo complex as Sushi Kaneyoshi and Bar Sawa, the chef's new tasting experience ($285) is one of the most interesting, essential fine dining experiences in the city right now. For the jet-setting gourmands among us, Restaurant Ki is a place that conceptually stands on its own two feet even as it pays homage to Atomix, Jungsik and Benu (all three being multiple Michelin-starred Korean restaurants where Kim has worked). As someone who first became acquainted with Kim’s cooking through Naemo, a short-lived dosirak pop-up during quarantine, Restaurant Ki translates into a glorious culmination of the chef’s growth, both personal and professional. Beyond that, it’s also, for the average L.A. diner who doesn’t concern themselves with Michelin stars, an undeniably delicious, utterly delightful way to spend nearly $300 on a fancy dinner.
Over a dozen rotating seafood-centric courses, Kim uses a mix of traditional Korean and classic French, fine-dining techniques to craft a uniquely L.A. Korean tasting menu experience rooted in farmer’s market seasonality. Salmon roe and smoked tomatoes offset a delicate, verdant quenelle of perilla leaf sorbet in a bowl framed by an enormous dried leaf—a plate technique with a direct throughline to Kim’s former employer, Jordan Kahn, who offers similar presentations at Vespertine and Meteora. The chef has also reconfigured his signature octopus dish as a tender two-bite dish paired with octopus head aioli and a sliver of local citrus. A $190 beverage pairing spanning wine, sake and tea, along with ultra-polished service, befits the high price point, but you can also opt for non-alcoholic options like clarified rhubarb juice with thyme syrup.
While Restaurant Ki employs the usual culinary trappings of luxury, their deployment feels anything but perfunctory. Doenjang, morel mushrooms and a single strand of fermented ramp accompany dried raspberry-dusted lobster tails, carefully grilled over binchotan charcoal. Raspberry might seem like an unlikely pairing for seafood, but it works beautifully and nods to the slightly sweet flavor profile in evidence across many traditional Korean dishes (think of the sweet notes in bulgogi, galbi jjim or even ganjang gejang a.k.a. soy-marinated raw crab). Caviar comes atop a small mountain of purple potato purée, with spearhead squid concealed underneath in a manner not dissimilar to dishes I’ve had at Atomix and Vespertine in the last year.
When I first visited Restaurant Ki, I left convinced that the experience was a little too niche for the average L.A. diner, describing it as a “worthy special-occasion eatery for those who enjoy Korean cuisine, rare seafood, fine dining or all of the above.” My second visit, however, blew all my expectations out of the water, and that was after being forced to reschedule a month later due to Downtown’s ICE-related curfew. Even with the reopening of Baroo and the (temporarily?) now-closed Yangban, L.A.’s upscale Korean dining scene still lacks the general recognition and popularity of Japanese, Italian and French counterparts. Restaurant Ki just might be the tipping point the city needs to change that—chef’s tweezers and all.