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Eater
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Eater
San Francisco's ‘Koreaworld' Looks a Lot Like Sōhn
Janet Lee grew up in the Bay Area not seeing Korean Americans have their own place in San Francisco. She'd drive with her family to San Jose, maybe, or all the way to Los Angeles. But it wasn't until Queens in San Francisco, the Korean superette, that she says she felt the city had a piece of Korean Americana amongst its furniture. She and chef Deuki Hong will take that energy to the next level with their upcoming Sōhn. The tremendous former Daily Driver space at 2535 3rd Street is a place for Hong's immaculate food and thoughtful drinks, yes. But Lee, a managing partner, and Hong say this will be a failure if guests see themselves as mere diners. The intent is to create a community launch pad, a place for events and art. The two are partnered with Maum, a shop for soaps and home goods. The name is a derivative of the Korean word for hand, and the two stress their new space is a product of many, many hands. Sōhn, they hope, plants a flag for myriad featured Korean makers in California and throughout the world. 'This is the culmination of a 20-year career,' Hong says. 'We may never do a dinner service. When you come in, it makes sense.' Tina Yang That doesn't mean the food and drink options aren't ritzy affairs. Hong — who just released the cookbook Koreaworld last year following 2016's Koreatown — cut his teeth under chefs Corey Lee and David Chang, amongst many more, on his way to stardom. Nearby, he owns the titanic Neighbor Bakehouse. Here, he shows Korean barbecue done up as a patty melt, warming bowls of jook, and a fermentation lab for kimchi and other goods. A few of the dishes from his late Sunday Bird restaurant in San Francisco made the menu, such as the popcorn chicken. Matcha comes from big-hitter Kettl and coffee from Los Angeles's Be Bright, run by U.S. Barista Champion Frank La. A Melona soda, an homage to the Melona ice cream bars of Hong and Lee's youth, is a daily drink for both of them. The art and items at Sōhn bring home the communal intentions, though. Interior designer Cathie Hong took the 8,000-square-foot space over as her first commercial project, adding a 12-seat bar to the hushed, lo-fi-looking space. There are 30 different Korean makers and artists available selling blankets, candle makers, and ceramic critters. Artist workshops, collab dinners, pop-ups, and cooking classes are quick to show up, too. The first partner in the art lane is the Korean American Art Collective; featured art in the space sells with 100 percent of proceeds going to the artists. Sōhn joins an area of San Francisco quickly becoming an exciting destination for diners. Breadbelly's second outpost — much larger than the original and with a proper interior component — opened inside Pier 70 at the end of a street well under construction. Sōhn looks to join the growing area. This marks Hong and Lee's first time working together, too, as they were early friends from when Hong moved to the area about eight years ago. And while Lee remembers Han Il Kwan on 19th Avenue and Balboa Street and Shin Toe Bul Yi in the Sunset fondly, she and Hong are excited to be a part of the new wave of Korean American food in the region, and the country. The space opens on Korean Liberation Day, after all. 'I was born and raised in San Francisco,' Lee says. 'So just the response we've gotten over the past few weeks of hearing from other Korean Americans, not just my age but younger and older, we've been waiting our entire lives for a gathering space like this.' Sōhn (2535 3rd Street, San Francisco) celebrates its grand opening on Saturday, August 16 at 10 a.m. with full hours to come. Tina Yang Eater SF All your essential food and restaurant intel delivered to you Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
San Francisco Chronicle
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Chef couple from Michelin-starred hit return with heartfelt new Bay Area restaurant
A chilled noodle dish at Yeobo, Darling, opening June 13 in Menlo Park, contains cultural multitudes. The chewy, fresh somyun, Korean wheat noodles, will be dressed with perilla oil and topped with aerated pine nut milk, a reference to a comforting childhood pine nut porridge for co-owner and first-generation Korean American Michael Kim. Yet the sweet, rich milk is also reminiscent of Taiwanese soy milk, a staple for the restaurant's other culinary half, Meichih Kim. The couple are known best for Maum, an acclaimed Korean tasting menu restaurant in Palo Alto that won a Michelin star before shutting down due to the pandemic. They also ran a now-closed Korean-Taiwanese stand at a Peninsula food hall, and previously worked in some of the country's top restaurants. Yeobo, Darling, they said, is their most personal venture yet. The a la carte menu is an ode to the many kitchens they've trained in, from childhood through fine dining restaurants, like Tom Collichio's Craft in Los Angeles, where they met. Take a scallop and cauliflower dish ($39), a callback to a trend in the early 2000s. These were their formative cooking years; before Craft, Meichih was at the three-Michelin-starred Per Se in New York City and Benu as well as Michael Mina's RN74 in San Francisco; Michael at the Michelin-starred SPQR and Namu Gaji in San Francisco. At Yeobo, Darling, they'll pair a cauliflower puree with roasted scallops and a brown butter and black bean sauce, a play on a classic Korean-Chinese sauce often served with seafood. 'It's a nod to our mentors and our experiences but doing it in our way, which is the ethos of this whole restaurant,' Meichih said. Dishes inspired by classic Korean preparations are on the menu, such as kalbi: American wagyu, marinated for 48 hours, grilled and accompanied by seasonal banchan and a petite salad ($72). Another staple, beef tartare ($12), will be seasoned with smoked soy sauce and served in a tartlette. Taiwanese influence is also woven throughout. Chopped chicken liver mousse served in a rice shell, garnished with roasted pineapple, puffed rice and cilantro, references Taiwanese pineapple cake. They've transformed lu rou fan, a classic, homey Taiwanese dish of braised pork over rice, into a cheesy lasagna, made with crispy edged chrysanthemum pasta sheets, minced pork and béchamel sauce. There will also be humble chicken wings ($20), a recipe they've been tinkering with for years. While many Korean restaurants gravitate toward a thick, crunchy batter dripping in sauce, Michael prefers a thin crust, crackly from a dry fry with a light soy-garlic glaze. Both Kims were raised between worlds, they have said. Michael grew up in Los Angeles' Koreatown and spent summers in Korea; Meichih was born in Tokyo to Taiwanese parents and was raised in Orange County. 'There are a lot of people that can relate, growing up as Asian Americans, having that bicultural identity,' Meichih said. 'You're always straddling two things,' Meichih said. Yeobo, Darling is part of a wave of new restaurants in Menlo Park, and several nearby purveyors are creating special products for the business. Instead of typical table bread, Redwood City's the Baker Next Door is baking a laminated scallion loaf inspired by a scallion pancake, paired with seasonal accompaniments like butter flavored with rou song (meat floss). The Kims worked with Iseya Craft Noodle, a small South Bay operation run by a Japanese software engineer turned noodle obsessive, to conceive their ideal somyun. They tested different perilla seeds, starches and hydrations to create a custom noodle from perilla seeds and arrowroot starch. Eventually, Redwood City's Korean Onki Bakery will make milk bread for a hambak steak burger. Dessert will star slices of carrot cake with layers of cream cheese mousse, a side project that Meichih Kim became known for during the pandemic, and soft serve with rotating toppings ($14). When the couple travels to Asia, they eat as much soft serve as possible. 'We're trying to mimic that: highest quality milk possible, playing around with textures,' Michael said. 'I'm very particular about mouthfeel, how it melts.' Korean master sommelier Kyungmoon Kim developed a list of wines and sool, a category of Korean alcoholic beverages including soju and makgeolli. Low-ABV drinks will come from Nick Wu of Bar Mood in Taipei, named one of Asia's 50 Best Bars. Many of them draw on Taiwan's famed tea culture. Wu comes from a family of tea farmers, and his connections helped the Kims source teas directly for the restaurant. An oolong tea infusion is mixed with lemongrass and lemon balm for the Natural Oasis, while another drink marries tonic water with green tea and lime. Serving the tea cold coaxes out nuanced flavors and aromas that you wouldn't get when it's hot, Michael said. 'It brings a whole new level to the cocktails,' he said. Yeobo, Darling seats 50 people in its dining room with cream-colored walls, suede banquettes, lantern lights and gauzy curtains separating tables. A tiny, four-seat bar is made from veined rose, charcoal stone and birds eye maple. The name of the Kims' first restaurant was a spiritual interpretation of 'heart' in Korean. Their second, Bǎo Bèi, honored the term of endearment they use for their young son. Yeobo, Darling, meanwhile, refers to a sentimental Korean nickname, similar to honey or sweetheart, between spouses. 'It's absolutely the most personal' restaurant, Michael said. 'The name says it.' Yeobo, Darling. Opening June 13. 5-9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, Friday-Saturday 5-9:30 p.m. 827 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park.
Eater
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
Yeobo, Darling Is a Love Letter to Korean and Taiwanese Dishes
For chefs Michael and Meichih Kim, their upcoming restaurant Yeobo, Darling is personal. It's not their first restaurant together as a couple — they previously led Michelin-starred Maum, a Korean fine dining restaurant, and the more casual Bao Bei at State Street Market in Los Altos, which closed in 2020 and 2023. But Yeobo, Darling is their first restaurant as owners, and they're pouring their personalities into the Menlo Park space, which debuts Friday, June 13. 'Food is always about emotions for us,' Michael Kim says. 'It's our first foray as chef-owners, and we want to be a really personal restaurant and gather those cultural experiences into a restaurant together.' Yeobo, Darling weaves together Michael Kim's Korean heritage with Meichih Kim's Taiwanese background, but also interprets those dishes through the lens of their experiences growing up in America. Their fine-dining cooking background gives the menu another thoughtful dimension, built on their time running Maum and also working through the kitchens of Per Se and Benu. But it's also a look into Michael and Meichih Kim's closeness in working together — the couple finish each other's sentences, for instance, and their menu shows how their minds work together and riff off each other. One example of this is the lu rou lasagna, a dish that combines the Taiwanese braised pork dish lu rou fan with lasagna; here, pasta sheets are made of chrysanthemum and spinach, and bechamel is layered in as well. Meichih Kim calls it comfort-driven American food incorporated with Taiwanese cuisine, resulting in a dish that reads as approachable and not overly fussy. 'I think a lot of it is just our upbringing in America,' Meichih Kim says. 'We live with the duality of being Asian American and being bicultural. So a lot of aspects where you integrate that together, to be cohesive in that way, makes sense to a lot of people like us…' 'Second-generation, Asian Americans,' Michael Kim adds. 'Lu rou fan is a comfort food of hers when she grew up, but at the end of the day, we were all latchkey kids and we ate Stouffers [lasagnas] once, too.' Other dishes that the Kims are excited for include the shrimp uhmook, their take on Korean fish cakes. Evoking the street food culture of Korea during the winter, when fish cakes and broth with daikon are typically available, they're making their uhmook with shrimp and tofu skin rolled in a Korean radish, then braised. It'll be served in an 'egg drop soup-style broth,' Michael Kim explains, thickened with gamtae, a Korean seaweed, and egg. The chilled perilla somyun is another expression of their culinary perspectives on the menu. The inspiration was jatjuk, a Korean porridge made with roasted pine nuts and sweet rice, and kongguksu, a soy milk noodle soup. At Yeobo, the Kims will make perilla noodles tossed in perilla oil with an ice-cold, pureed jatjuk served on top. 'In summer months, it can be something different that people can enjoy that's really refreshing,' Michael Kim says. Another standout is the scallion croissant, a partnership between the couple and Baker Next Door in Redwood City. It was a chance for the Kims to work with a local business, and they brainstormed ways to bring a novel interpretation of a scallion pancake to the menu. The croissant is served with rou song butter. The couple had molds custom-made in Korea, turning the croissant into a loaf shape with flaky layers that expand like an accordion. 'It's the interaction, to pull [the bread] apart with your dining companion,' Meichih Kim says. That point of interaction, the pulling apart of the bread, is just one example of the moments the couple wants to create at the restaurant. The duo describes the restaurant as transportive, a warm, welcoming space that's 'intimate, in the sense where the tables are closer together, because I want people to vibe off each other's energy,' Meichih Kim says. 'That's important about dining out and why we do what we do — to connect and have that human interaction. That's what's important to me.' For drinks, the couple worked with Taipei's Bar Mood to create low-ABV drinks. The soju cocktails are meant to pair with the food, but also contribute a tea element to the meal, something that Meichih Kim is well-versed in. Already, the Natural Oasis cocktail is a standout for the couple, pairing lemongrass with oolong tea and lemon balm, which Meichih Kim says has great depth and complexity to it, while remaining 'very light.' There are three beers available by the can as well as wines by the glass, spanning Italy, France, and California. There are also two non-alcoholic cocktail options in the form of a guava spritz and a sparkling yuzu drink, as well as coffee and tea. 'I feel like it was a natural progression and evolution,' Meichih Kim says of their new restaurant. 'It all goes back to how we eat at home and what we like to introduce to people. It's just how we want to progress and evolve and move forward.' Yeobo, Darling (827 Santa Cruz Avenue, Menlo Park) debuts on Friday, June 13, and is open from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Reservations are available on OpenTable. See More: San Francisco Restaurant Openings
