2 days ago
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
