This Korean Pub Is the After-Work Hang Rockefeller Center Needed
For all the real estate-backed plans to lure cool people to Rockefeller Center, the restaurant that is actually making it finally happen is not within the confines of the complex, or affiliated with it, but right across the street.
This Korean Pub Is the After-Work Hang Rockefeller Center Needed
Golden HOF is raucous in all the right ways.
Golden Diner owner Sam Yoo opened dual Korean restaurants across from Rockefeller Center in February: Downstairs is a higher-end restaurant called NY Kimchi, and upstairs is Golden HOF, a lively gastropub.
Golden HOF in particular marks a new moment for Korean cuisine in New York. It is not fine dining, a la Atomix or Jungsik, or a shrine to fried chicken like Coqodaq. It is not a DIY barbecue joint or a traditional restaurant slinging stew and bibimbap, nor is it a steakhouse (though you’ll find that at NY Kimchi).
Instead, it is a raucous combination of everything that’s come before, plus a heavy dose of Yoo’s own creativity and culinary background. It builds on the past quite literally: in the bones of his parents’ old restaurant in Midtown. Golden HOF (16 W. 48th Street, at Fifth Avenue) offers Korean American and American Korean drinking food influenced by a litany of other influences. It’s not only already gearing up to be an after-work essential, but a destination itself.
The scene: On a rainy Monday night, the doors to Golden HOF opened to a party. To the right is the bar where people were downing drinks in their office casual best — the bar is reserved for walk-ins, and seems ideal for after-work plans. Forward, a cavernous, sexily-lit space where mostly large parties were splitting plates of wings and oysters. It’s clear this is a restaurant meant for gathering a group. Our two-top sat in the back in a slightly more intimate corner, where quiet conversation was a little more possible. But if you’re on a date, be sure it’s with someone ready to get a little loose and loud.
The drinks: Cocktails that could be meals unto themselves have been a thing for a while now. Golden HOF gladly embraces the trend, offering drinks mimicking the flavor profiles of popular Korean snacks. The NYK martini, for example, is made with kimchi brine, while the naengmyun martini, made with cucumber and sesame oil, tastes like sipping on a bracing broth. And the nurunji uses scorched rice-infused gin and madeira to evoke the crispy snack. A server informed us they pair best with the raw bar offerings, or as appetizers themselves.
The cocktail menu fills out with classics infused with Korean ingredients, like a lychee-based cosmopolitan and a margarita made with Jeju mandarin syrup. There’s also a lengthy non-alcoholic list, and a wine and beer list interspersed with soju and makgeolli.
The food: It may seem like every restaurant these days is putting out a seafood tower and hoping for the best, but Golden HOF keeps it from being just an exercise in flaunting your wealth. Classics like shrimp cocktail and little neck clams are served with chojang, taking the place of cocktail sauce. But there are more exciting options. The chilled lobster “a la kkanpunggi” comes on a classic iced tray, served cubed in its shell and coated in a sweet garlic-soy aioli and sliced jalapeños, which a server likened to “General Tso’s” flavors. The result is what you wish were in every Maine lobster roll. The tuna tartare is also flavored with pineapple and bell pepper, and served with black bean dusted rice crackers — a dish so popular downstairs at NY Kimchi that they imported it upstairs.
Amazingly, the seafood felt affordable compared to many raw food offerings these days —when we dined, it was $44 for a half lobster. Steep, but not $34 for four shrimp steep. Of course, it wouldn’t be a raw bar if there wasn’t a caviar upsell, but the lobster doesn’t need it.
The takeaway: As the Chosun Daily reports, Korean food is only getting spicier. And as Korean food has become more popular in America, much of the conversation has centered around the punching heat of gochujang and gochugaru. In many ways, it has become popular because of that spice, as Americans have never been able to resist a Hot Ones -esque challenge to their tastebuds. But often, that has come at the detriment of any other flavor profile.
There’s no shortage of heat on the menu at Golden HOF; There are gochujang-glazed wings, a trio of kimchis, and chile-heavy buldak dumplings. But what you’ll find more of is balance and variety, as Yoo explores the intersection of Korean, American, Chinese, and other flavors in ways that don’t just emphasize a Scoville rating.
The wings explode with the numbing crunch of cumin seeds and Sichuan peppercorn, which pair well with the green flavors of the cucumber and cilantro salad with rich burnt sesame. The Calabrian chile in the ddukbokki carbonara is muted behind cream and gamy guancale, and the pork and black bean gravy and mozzarella ease the bite from the pickled jalapenos on the jjajang disco fries. There’s also a rose rigatoni, a take on the trendy Seoul rose tteokbokki, and, of course, a burger. This is the house that built Golden Diner, after all.
