It’s been 10 years since chefJunghyun “JP” Park and Ellia Jeongeun Park opened Atoboy, their first groundbreaking restaurant in Nomad, showing NYC what their fine-modern dining take on Korean food can be, to much success.
While the Parks went on to open
other acclaimed spots, including Atomix two years later and two blocks away in the same neighborhood, part of their Na:eun Hospitality company, it’s at the co-founders’ first restaurant where you can feel and taste those beginnings. The industrial-looking space is barely marked on the outside; the inside is framed by cement walls, tables with extremely basic chairs, and fluorescent light bulb tubes. Meanwhile, the kitchen is churning out dishes that play with flavors, textures, and temperatures. Every diner is required to order the prix fixe menu — a three-course for $60 and four courses for $70 — with optional a la carte add-ons.
What to order
- Each prix fixe comes with the egg jjim, a cold-served steamed egg dish made with chewy bits of shrimp, topped with pickled hearts of palm, toasted gim, puffed quinoa, and more, for a fun textural bite.
- Of the first course options, the cured fluke is a refreshing choice that plays around with that balance of sweet-spicy-crunchy-chewy thanks to Korean pear, pickled cucumbers, and a sinus-clearing Korean mustard paste dressing. It’s topped with this granita made of a tea berry that melts into this summer soup.
- The plump mussels are scattered on a plate surrounded by dollops of a spicy green sauce, halved snappy sugar snap peas, and a really spicy oil, with spattering of greens on top.
- The add-on wagyu ribs ($7) are a meaty dish with chunks of beef and potatoes cooked in this black bean paste with grilled gem lettuce.
- The daily-changing banchan and sides are great; mine included red beet kimchi, garlic scrapes jjangajji, and mustard green jjangajji. I particularly enjoyed the rice.
- I was so taken by the chicken — crispy boneless poultry with a slight welcomed sweetness. Of the sauces, I preferred the spicy, creamy peanut one.
The desserts
The desserts are likewise creative, delightful, and refreshing. A great way to end the meal is the sujeonggwa granita: a mixture of tangy lychee yogurt (yes, with the fruit in it), crunchy walnuts, and creamy burrata cheese.
The drinks
Trust the options from sommeliers Joshua Lorbes and Daeyoung Kim, along with wine director Nick Elia. The Naegroni ($18) is a soju-based Negroni spiced up with habanero. The restaurant teamed up with German winery Eva Fricke for a minerally 2024 riesling, the Sonnenberg. And for a Korean drink, I got the chungju (a type of rice wine) from Yangchon Brewery.
Insider tip
For those who don’t want to commit to a full order of the $28 seven-piece chicken on top of the required prix fixe menu, you can get half-orders with three pieces for $16.
