Five Senses (Koreatown) — Restaurant in New York

So I own a restaurant (diner) in Vermont and I am the cook. The only cook. And October is the busiest month of the year in Vermont (people love to look at trees and leaves…). October 2022 was our busiest month ever in 10 yrs of business. I was sick (AND working) for 3 weeks in October. I thought I might just die in my sleep. So on November 1st I got on the bus to NYC at 6am to take a 4 day BREAK. And I was still freaking sick. Getting better though. Finally headed in the right direction. But I knew I wanted some legit Korean food and some spicy Sundubu Chigae to help me along. My favorite hotel in NYC is just a few blocks from Koreatown. Which, you know, is CONVENIENT. (Highly recommend The Moxy Times Square!)

My bus arrived at Grand Central at 11:30 am. I grabbed a Lyft, checked in at The Moxy, dropped my bags, headed out to The Five Senses. I arrived at around 12:30pm. I was the only non Korean person there when I arrived. That’s how you KNOW food is going to be FIRE.

Five Senses is not a fancy place. They are going to impress you with the food, not the “trappings.” That being said, the vibe is lively and upbeat. Upbeat, fun, almost club music playing loud. You’re not coming to Five Senses for a quiet, peaceful meal. In addition to the music, the staff is going to roll up with a full, rattling cart to clear off tables. There is noise in this restaurant. Service may not be “fancy” but it is EXCELLENT. There is no shortage of staff here and they are all paying attention. As in I didn’t have to ask for the extra napkins I needed, they just appeared. I didn’t have to ask for my check at the end, it too just appeared at precisely the moment I wanted it.

The menu includes every Korean soup you might want and I am here to tell you that Korean soups are AMAZING. Particularly if you are congested at all or it’s cold out.

I ordered Kimchi Pajun and my Spicy, Seafood Sundubu Chigae. I LOVE Pajun and you need to come to a legit Korean restaurant to get it. I also ordered hot tea. You know you are in an actual, for real Korean restaurant when they serve you the Korean corn tea in a red plastic up. IYKYK

They started me out with 6 different Banchan. Banchan are the little, AMAZING, side dishes that are served with every proper Korean meal.

The Banchan at Five Sense are next level. Amazing, fresh, delicious, perfect. Mine included broccoli, bean sprouts, tofu, potatoes with syrup, spicy cucumber and kimchi. Everything was chock full of flavor and cooked perfectly: i.e., the broccoli had been steamed just enough so the color was vibrant and it still retained crunch. They are also bottomless. After I basically INHALED all 6 Banchan my waiter wanted to bring me more. I had to tell him “No” because I knew I was going to need to focus to eat my Pajun AND Sundubu Chigae. I was not wrong!

My Sundubu Chigae arrived before my pajun. But it was also BOILING in its bowl. So you must let it “rest” a bit if you don’t want to injure yourself. But it worked out perfectly because my Sundubu Chigae cooled to the perfect temperature while I was eating my kimchi pajun.

The Kimchi Pajun was, in a word, huge. It is served on what is basically a pizza peel. This pancake is BIG. I ate the entire thing. I probably should not stopped. But I couldn’t. So, so, so good. Dipping sauce so delicious I asked for a second little dish of it because it really elevates the pajun. Perfectly cooked, crispy on the outside, rich, satisfying, both in texture and in flavor.

The problems with something as incredibly delicious as this Kimchi Pajun is it’s hard to resist ordering AND it takes up a lot of space (inside you).

My Sundubu Chigae was FULL of seafood (clams, shrimp, prawn, squid, scallop) and silken tofu. So good. So filling and delicious and satisfying. I ate ALL of it.

I for real over ate. I was FULL FULL.

I only had to walk 5 blocks back to my hotel and I honestly doubted whether I could make it.

I did. And crawled directly into my bed and took The Most Glorious Nap!

Great Korean Food will heal what ails you.

Get yourself to...

The seafood pancake was definitely worth it. However, the combo C8 chicken was kinda bleh, there was a vegetable that didn’t agree well with my taste buds because it was naturally so sweet and imo ruin the dish. I had to eat it simultaneously with a mint candy in order to finish the meal. I knew full well that runny eggs would make me sick but I didn’t know how to let the staff know of that. So I ate it as it is because it wasn’t as runny so I thought I was safe. After mixing all the ingredients together, it was pretty decent. The soup I choose wasn’t listed as spicy and they all essentially looked the same. I thought it was more spice than a tomato base. It’s kinda a shame that I wasn’t able to finish the soup because it wasn’t what I thought it would’ve been. The side dishes was pretty enjoyable as well. Kinda taste like the smell of tiger balm so its pretty refreshing to the tongue. If you have a sensitive tongue towards spice, this place isn’t for you. If you have a high spice tolerance, you would definitely enjoy the food here. From what I read from other reviews that the waitstaff was rude, well I wouldn’t say they were rude? They are pretty attentive to details. From my experience, if I get too anxious and can’t talk, I would point at the menu and they picked up the cues right away. They were fast and efficient. Definitely get the beef because it’s more savory and sweet in taste compare to the chicken which didn’t have a lot of flavor.

Idk if anyone cares but the bathroom is pretty nice, it’s one stall with a sliding door. So definitely use it before heading out since it’s super clean and you wouldn’t find another clean bathroom anywhere else in ktown except for maybe Grace Street next door.

Just a side note, they really need to check their website domain because it’s unusable when I clicked on it multiple times and they should also open a google chat...

I had high expectations going in, sadly i was beyond disappointed. Me and my friend walked in and we were sat in the furthest nasty corner with 4 people seat in the restaurant when there were 2 people seats available and we were okay with it until we saw they were making people sit in the middle of the restaurant with everyone else and not anywhere near us. Mind you me and my friend we are both poc. We thought we were overthinking but no!!!! the waitress came to our table and started SLAMMING down the plates and the water glasses and we were caught off guard. Not even exaggerating but it just gets worse from there. she comes to us to take our order and we asked for a min and she had a nasty attitude about it. When we were ready to order she kept cutting us off. After we got our food we noticed that ever since the moment we sat down, the waitress was legit staring at us up and down. Every time we caught her staring she didn’t even look away and it made us extremely uncomfortable. She continued to look at only towards us the whole time so we rushed and packed the food then hurried to leave.

Don’t get me wrong maybe they’re nice because we had another waitress who was extremely welcoming but the one we had was rude and nasty to us. You shouldn’t be treating anyone like that regardless their race or if it is something else that made her treat us like that.

I have seen other reviews about waitresses being racist and I just wished I saw them before walking in. The food is good but i would rather have good food from somewhere else where i’m treated properly and not get...