New York City’s Korean Restaurant Week, premiering for the first time for fans of Korean food, is scheduled to take place Oct. 20 to Nov. 4. For this special event, participating Korean restaurants in Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and New Jersey are offering three-course fixed price meals at a discount ($25 for lunch, $35 for dinner) and other specials to customers. These additional offers mostly take the form of restaurant specialties or popular meals that have been made more affordable for both loyal Korean-barbecue fans and curious foodies.
Korean cuisine relies heavily on rice, vegetables and meats, such as beef and chicken, flavored with soy sauce and spices like ginger.
Do Hwa, a Korean restaurant located in the West Village, offers an authentic Korean menu. Some of their Korean Restaurant Week specials include shul-lun-tang, an ox-bone beef broth with brisket ($16), and a dish called sam-gae-yang, wh-ich features Cornish hen soup with rice and red dates ($21). Normally, these dishes would cost upward of $25, and the servings are generous.
The Korean Food Foundation, a government-registered civil institution star-ted in 2010 with the sole purpose of promoting and spreading Korean food, decided to organize the new event. The foundation initiated Korean Restaurant Week to bring Korean cuisine to a more widespread and diverse audience.
CAS junior Audrey Yung had mixed feelings about her $25 fixed price lunch at Bann, a restaurant featured at the event.
“I was pleased with the amount of food,” Yung said, “[but] assuming the entree is the focus of the meal, I wasn’t blown away. Bibimbop was a little bland.”
Locations throughout the city are offering deals for their acclaimed cuisine. Mapo BBQ and Won Bo Ssam represent Queens; Moim is a restaurant in Brooklyn; Kang Suh and Do Hwa are among the many from Manhattan.
Check out all the participating restaurants at koreanrestaurantweeknyc.com and follow the event on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
A version of this article appeared in the Tuesday, Oct. 29 print edition. Nikolas Reda-Castelao is a contributing writer. Email him at [email protected].