Joo Ok

Chef Shin Chang-ho opened Joo Ok in Seoul in 2016, earned two Michelin stars there, then closed the original at the end of 2023 and moved the restaurant and much of its core team to New York. The Manhattan Joo Ok debuted in September 2024 on the sixteenth floor of a West 32nd Street building, reached by a manually operated freight elevator. The Korean name is often glossed as precious gem or jade. Guests begin with tea and snacks in a room modeled on a Korean home before moving into a spare dining room with Midtown skyline views. Michelin awarded one New York star within months and promoted Joo Ok to two stars in the 2025 Guide.

The current twelve-course menu runs about $280 before drinks and service; check the house booking page for live pricing and deposit terms. Shin builds the progression around foundational Korean seasonings such as gochujang, ganjang, and doenjang, plus perilla oil cold-pressed in the kitchen from seeds grown at a partner farm in Bloomingburg, New York. Seafood, vegetables, and luxury ingredients rotate through dishes such as spotted prawn and geoduck in perilla oil, pheasant mandu, and a closing tray of Korean sweets. Reservations currently run through SevenRooms, and dietary limits are strict: the kitchen warns that it cannot accommodate vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, shellfish-free, seaweed-free, allium-free, or no-spice menus. Joo Ok brings a full tasting room directly above Koreatown rather than sending diners downtown for the city’s most ambitious Korean cooking.

Public reviews praise the serene dining room, skyline views, warm service, and the concentrated flavor of Shin’s perilla oil and fermented sauces. The arrival through a freight elevator and the opening tea ritual make the evening feel removed from the bustle of West 32nd Street, while the team’s explanations keep an intricate menu understandable.

The same reviews flag a three-hour pace, a $280 menu that climbs quickly with drinks, strict dietary exclusions, and an entrance that can be difficult to find. Some critics find the luxury seafood and Wagyu less distinctive than the sauces and farm produce around them. Book Joo Ok for a long Koreatown tasting, not a pre-karaoke barbecue stop.