Danji, New York’s Groundbreaking Korean Restaurant, Finally Reopens

Resy: Let’s start with the story … how has the reopening process gone?

Hooni Kim: After the fire shut down the building, the initial response [that we got from the landlord] was that in a couple of weeks we could probably open again. That was 20 months ago.

They didn’t want to fix anything up because they wanted all the tenants to not resign their lease, because it was a rent-controlled building. They purposely did not fix anything, and they basically tried to kick us out too.

We got fed up, and we started contacting our local politicians and the media. Then they started, reluctantly, fixing things.

They turned on the gas last Thursday [Dec. 12], and we’re going to soft open this Friday [Dec. 20].

How does that feel, after all this time?

I don’t know! The health inspection ended just about an hour-and-a-half ago. I’m here at the plate store right now; that’s where I’m talking to you from. It’s going to be a busy next couple of days.

I feel like a lot of people might have thrown up their hands and said, “This isn’t worth it.” Why did you decide to stick it out so long?

Danji is my first restaurant. It was the first-ever Korean restaurant to receive a Michelin star in the world. This was before Korea even had the Michelin guide, before Korean food was really taken seriously, using good ingredients.

Historically, I do feel a responsibility to Danji. Although we don’t have a Michelin star anymore, it was still the first, so I just felt like it still had a place in the city.

I don’t know how to phrase this, but it’s still meaningful, not just to me, but to a lot of people. At the time, in 2010 when we opened, Korean restaurants in K-Town didn’t have pictures, didn’t have menus in English, and the servers didn’t really speak English. It was really just for Koreans. Danji made it a lot more accessible, and the food wasn’t so “exotic” anymore. The flavors maybe still were, but the actual experience wasn’t. People started from here and are now venturing into K-Town.

A lot of my diners still have a soft spot for Danji. The menu hasn’t changed since we opened. Danji is one of those places where you already know what to order before you go in. It’s like Peter Luger, where if you ask for the menu, the servers already know you’re an amateur. Most of our regulars don’t ask for the menu, and it’s a kind of restaurant that really doesn’t exist these days. I didn’t want to lose all of that.

The menu is still staying the same, yes?

Yeah. There are a couple of dishes we’re going to add because I feel like I want to show off some tricks I’ve learned in Korea that just belong on the Danji menu more than in my other places.

One of the new dishes is called KP spicy chicken wings. KP stands for kkanpoong, which is a sort of Korean Chinese food. It’s one of my favorite sauces, it’s just very spicy, tangy, and sweet. Because it’s fiery it comes with a dipping sauce made from sweet onion, which is a little creamy, and the flavor mutes the spices at least for a little bit. This is one that I’ve been cooking for family meals at my other restaurants, at the Little Banchan Shop, and it’s one of the staff’s favorites.

For those who didn’t have regular status before the closure, what should people order to seem “in the know” or make their way toward achieving regular status?

One of the first things they would be told is to order our best, lightest dish, the crispy tofu. All of the servers say, “If you order it and you don’t like it, you don’t pay for it.” We’ve never had a single person not pay for it. For all Danji regulars, that’s a must order. Of course, our bulgogi sliders; we’re also adding a gochujang marinated pork belly slider, so that will be a bit of a spicier version.

Then, probably the dish that won us the Michelin star, that a lot of chefs have commented on, is the soy-poached black cod. It’s an interpretation of a Korean traditional dish.

What about the drinks? Are those staying the same?

The drinks are actually going to be a little bit different, a little bit more progressive. We had never served natural wines at Danji before. It’s not going to be the entirety of our list, but we do want to introduce natural wines for our Danji diners. I became a lot more interested in natural wines, and I do feel that at this moment natural wine pairs well with the funkiness in Korean food because of their own funkiness.

The past several years, a lot of Korean soju and makgeolli has made it to the U.S., and we definitely want to take advantage of that. The drink lists will be different, but the one thing that I told my manager to never get rid of is the soju sangrias. They’re infused with seasonal fruit — that’s always going to be there.

Has anything changed about the interior?

No, it was more about restoration. There was no damage to our restaurant, it was just the building. It was just fixing things, sanding things down. People are going to come back and everything that they remember will be there, including the staff.

Obviously, things have changed a lot in the last 14 years since Danji opened. I’m curious about how you’ve seen the Korean dining landscape specifically change, in your view.

I do feel like a lot of the Korean restaurants opening outside of Koreatown are very interpretive and very personal. Just 20 years ago, Korean restaurants all pretty much had the same menu. Now I think, being Korean American, you can open up a Korean restaurant that’s influenced by your American upbringing. That is not considered special or new anymore. That’s the norm.

What’s happening even more so these days, and very recently, is Korean chefs and American chefs opening restaurants that are Korean-inspired, right? I don’t know if it’s just New York or if it’s happening elsewhere, but it makes New York special. It gives the chefs the confidence to be really expressive about who they are with their restaurant, and to have the trust in diners that if you build it well, if you use good ingredients, they will come.

It’s less marketing, less gimmicky PR [public relations] storytelling. People are opening small places that nobody knows about yet, but with a little time, New York is able to recognize it and make it successful. I feel like that’s how Danji opened 14 years ago. We want to do it again. It’s been almost two years, so many people either don’t know about us or forgot about us. I want people who are new to the city or who have never experienced Danji to be introduced to a menu that lit the flame of that Korean interpretive restaurant scene in New York.

[Editor’s Note: Last week, the Michelin guide awarded three Michelin stars to Korean fine-dining restaurant Jungsik, which opened in New York in 2011.]

How do you see Danji fitting into this more competitive, more saturated Korean dining landscape?

The menu isn’t progressive. It’s not very current. It’s not edgy. It’s comfortable. There’s a reason why people keep going back to diners and steakhouses. Danji was Korean comfort food, not just for Koreans but especially for non-Koreans who are learning the more exotic flavors of Korea. We still have those exotic flavors, but we deliver them in a very comfortable way.

I think our bulgogi is the most authentic tasting bulgogi in all of New York. I’m a traditional Korean chef, you know. I’m a fermenter. I progressed in a very Korean way. Everything inside our slider is very authentic, but it comes between two delicious buttered brioche buns. That pairing is what made us famous in the beginning. It’s what Ruth Reichl wrote a poem about. Nobody has been able to successfully replicate our slider because it’s a lot of work. There are nine steps, and it’s not worth doing especially if it’s not their own.

Flavor, ingredients — those matter more than trends.

Danji is open Tuesday through Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m.

Ellie Plass is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn. Follow her on Instagram and X.

Ben Hon is a New York-based photographer. Follow him on Instagram. Follow Resy, too.