Bansang

Bansang opened April 28, 2022, at 1560 Fillmore Street at Geary, in the former Izakaya Kou space, as a Daeho Dining Group project with chefs Ethan Min and Jin Lim. The Korean word bansang refers to a full table setting for Joseon-era nobility; here it means contemporary Korean small plates meant for sharing. Min and Lim met in culinary school in Korea and cooked through San Francisco fine dining, including Atelier Crenn, Saison, Michael Mina, and Kinjo, before building an à la carte menu that keeps Korean flavors in the lead while borrowing French and Japanese technique.

Michelin lists a Bib Gourmand, the guide’s badge for good cooking at a friendly price, with consecutive California-guide recognition since 2023. OpenTable’s price band sits roughly in the mid-spend range for the city; Chronicle opening coverage put many plates in the teens to low thirties. Signatures that keep coming up include uni scallop toast, steamed egg with caviar, and lime soy fried chicken, beside a rotating list of seafood and anju-style snacks. The room faces the Fillmore Auditorium and books on OpenTable. It is the shareable Fillmore counterweight to Daeho’s Japantown kalbijjim pots and San Ho Won’s Mission charcoal reservation: inventive Korean plates without a prepaid tasting.

Public reviews lean positive on creativity and value relative to tasting counters: uni toast, fried chicken, and other small plates get named often, and the wine and sake list fits a shareable night. Regulars treat it as a Fillmore Korean booking when they want modern plates rather than barbecue smoke or a stew pot for four.

The same reviews warn that ordering widely pushes the check up, that pacing can wobble when the room is busy, and that the cooking is contemporary enough that diners hunting classic galbi or sundubu sometimes leave unmet. Diners who like it usually want inventive Korean snacks on Fillmore, not Daeho’s shared pot or Jang Su Jang’s El Camino barbecue.