"When Ki Kim was outlining the dishes for Restaurant Ki, his 10-seat modern Korean tasting-menu counter secreted in the basement of Little Tokyo's Kajima Building, he knew his meal needed a center of gravity - a midpoint course to balance the opening parade of seafood snacks with several heftier, saucier, pre-dessert dazzlers. Just before the pandemic Kim had been sous chef at Blanca, a now-closed restaurant in Brooklyn run by the people behind pizza icon Roberta's."
"Keizo Shimamoto, who ran the too-short-lived Ramen Shack in San Juan Capistrano and still hosts occasional pop-ups (including for his ramen burgers) in Orange County, supplies customized noodles for Kim. They have the crucial spring to them, but they're also slightly weightier to hold their texture in concentrated Dungeness crab stock. The scent of the stock brings to mind seafood-studded chawanmushi, mineral and electric."
Ki Kim opened Restaurant Ki, a 10-seat modern Korean tasting-menu counter in Little Tokyo, in January 2025. He designed the meal around a midpoint course to balance seafood snacks and heavier pre-dessert dishes. Kim and his team developed an adaptable bowl of noodles as the center of gravity, aiming for carb-rich, compact qualities. Customized noodles from Keizo Shimamoto provide spring and weight to hold texture in concentrated Dungeness crab stock. The stock smells mineral and electric with flecks of sweet meat; garnishes include grilled eel, pine mushrooms and a teaspoon of caviar. The menu pairs surprising contrasts—gochujang with tarragon, doenjang beneath beurre blanc—while retaining clarity and heart.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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