A Guide to Manhattan's Koreatown Restaurants

A collection of places old and new on the stretch

While the Koreatown in Los Angeles dates to the early 20th century, the one in New York is of more recent vintage. It began in 1978 on a single block of West 32nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway, when Koryo Books opened, a place still well worth a visit, especially now that the books share space with K-Pop materials. After that, restaurants began to appear with regularity, including New York Gomtang House, which may have been the first — and surprised everyone by being open 24 hours. At 4 a.m., the place would be hopping with parents on the way to work and their children returning from the clubs, becoming a quintessential New York early-hours scene.

Today, the borders of the neighborhood have stretched to 36th Street on the North, 31st Street on the South, and Madison Avenue on the East, while Broadway remains the neighborhood’s western verge and backbone. Not only are there bookstores and restaurants, but food courts, taverns, fried-chicken joints, bubble-tea windows, Parisian-style bakeries, and eateries that reconfigure Japanese, Chinese, and Thai food for Korean tastes.

Today, Manhattan’s Koreatown — right around the corner from the Empire State Building and Macy’s — has become one of Midtown’s greatest tourists attractions, thronged day and night. Go if you can in the early afternoon on weekdays, when restaurants advertise lunch specials that often contain several dishes at a fraction of the evening cost. Look for signs mounted on poles in front of the restaurants that offer them.

Tonchin

Tonchin is one of the city’s most elegant and respected ramen parlors, formulating what it calls Tokyo style tonkotsu broths, often with novel jags of flavor mixing pork and seafood. The smoked dashi broth, for example, is flavored with fish oil and clams, while a vegan bowl features miso and a powerful dose of fresh ginger. A full list of sake is available, and so are many non-noodle items like rice balls and stuffed buns. 13 W. 36th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues

Smoked dashi broth

Cho Dang Gol

This wonderful restaurant was founded in 1997 on what was (and still is) the far northern verge of Koreatown, specializing in homemade tofu in various guises. You can’t go wrong with the fresh tofu jigae served in black ceramic pots, which are often spicy as hell and delivered with a raw egg poaching on top. Rapidly mix it in! 55 W. 35th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues

Fresh tofu

Han Bat

Dating to 1990 and slightly off the beaten track, Han Bat is a Koreatown staple, offering all the classic dishes including banchan, barbecue, jigaes, pajeon, and several types of bibimbap. There’s a luncheon special well worth checking out. 53 W. 35th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues

Bibimbap

Udon Lab

Billing itself as a Japanese izakaya aimed at Korean tastes, Udon Lab offers a mixed menu of gyoza, sushi rolls, donburi, curries, soba, and, yes, udon. It’s a particularly nice place to hang in the afternoon — breezy, big, and laid back — with foot traffic streaming by the big front windows. 43 W. 32nd Street, at Broadway

Udon with curried pork cutlet

Speedy Korea Grill

Perched at the corner of 32nd and Broadway, across the street from the statue of Horace Greeley, newcomer Speedy could fulfill any Korean fast-food needs. Downstairs is a steamtable featuring what could be construed as lunch food, one kiosk for coin cakes and another for kimbap, plus a reach-in case for salads and banchan. Upstairs is a secret green dining room with magnificent views of Koreatown and prepare-it-yourself ramen stations. 1271 Broadway, at 32nd Street

DIY ramen upstairs at Speedy Korea Grill

Tous Les Jours

One of a handful of Korean French bakeries that have come to identify the neighborhood as a Midtown breakfast destination, Tous Les Jours produces Danish pastries, loaves of milk bread, pigs in blankets, croquettes, doughnuts, and simple sandwiches, with plenty of comfortable seating and a bustling urban ambiance that evokes Seoul as well as Paris. 31 W. 32nd Street, between Broadway and Fifth Avenue

The wares at Tous Les Jours.

New Wonjo

This long-standing establishment founded in 1993 — changing its name to New Wonjo after a 2010 renovation — used to do its barbecuing “soot bull” (over charcoal) and was the last in Koreatown to do so, as far as we know. Now it’s a good durable choice for combinations of beef barbecue with names like “meat mania.” Black Angus beef is used in many cases, and the layout of the restaurant is maze-like; a line often forms in the early evenings. It now has an offshoot Korean Chinese restaurant every bit as good — Octo. 23 W. 32nd Street, between Broadway and Fifth Avenue

Gammeeok

This old timer was once an anchor of the dining scene along 32nd Street, but now relegated to a second-story location near Fifth Avenue. No matter, it offers one of the best lunchtime deals on the dining strip, with soups in good-size servings as little as $11, sided with rice and cabbage kimchi. Choose among many other dining options on a menu that’s a pleasant throwback to the 1980s. 9 W. 32nd Street, between Broadway and Fifth Avenue

The lunch deal at Gammeeok.

Shanghai Mong

You’ll find many restaurants in Koreatown representing the cuisines of other Asian countries, but all are to one extent or another altered for Korean tastes, which makes for fascinating culinary mash-ups. Shanghai Mong brings Chinese food of this type to Koreatown for the first time, with plenty of Sichuan and Cantonese dishes thrown in, but also serves classic Korean dishes and a few unusual ones like “lemon creme shrimp.” 30 W. 32nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway

Shanghai Mong mainly serves Chinese food.

The Gochujang

This stall inside the three-story food court Food Gallery 32 presents mostly lunchtime food of the kind eaten by school children, centering on things like kimbap (sushi rolls), fish cake soup, ddukbboki (spicy rice cake), tempura, and soondae (blood sausages). Other stalls offer taiyakis (filled buns), churros, Korean rice bowls, Chinese bing, Korean fried chicken from the Pelicana chain, Japanese sushi, etc. It’s a good place to begin your tour of Koreatown. 11 W. 32nd Street, between Broadway and Fifth Avenue

Rice cakes and Spam at the Gochujang.

Bonchon New York

This is the place to go for sweet and crusty Korean fried chicken, with flavor options of spicy and soy-garlic. The bright red, modernistic space provides a good deal of seating inside and out, and the bird is double fried and hand brushed, and combinations can include cubed daikon slaw, parmesan-dusted fries, and a mochi doughnut. 325 Fifth Avenue, between 32nd and 33rd Streets

Chicken, fries, and pickled daikon at Bonchon.