Genesis House — Restaurant in New York

I have been a follower of Hyundai ever since they first introduced Excels in the eighties. Recently, I have been delighted by the latest charge of the company pushing itself onto the upper deck. When I heard about the opening of the Genesis House in New York City, I put it on my list of “place to go.”

Finally, I had a chance to visit the Genesis House and experience the dining there. The whole existence of the Genesis House is to showcase the quality and splendor of the high class the company wants Genesis nameplate to belong. It was supposed to be embodiment of the Genesis class, say, a five-star class dining. My experience was well shy off it.

It was the weekends of Chinese New Year. They offered the chef’s special taste course menu in addition to the regular menu. I ordered the special. The food and the service I got there, I cannot really say, was five-star class.

The food served on the course was exquisitely put together, showing that there are top class chefs in the kitchen. Some of the offerings were surprisingly excellent. However, the great food did not really prove that the house belonged to a five-star class. The portions were too small. I was still hungry after the entire course was done. Even our server was asking if the food was enough. Obviously, the serving staff already got the complaints in the same line. The chefs were doing their best to serve the most exquisite meals they could produce. But they missed one of key elements for five-star qualify. It is the customers totally satisfied, beyond their expectation. They remained in the five-star food they prepared. Totally missing the upmost satisfaction of the customers. The five-star class taste course always serves small portions for each course, but those small portions should be filling enough that customers should say that they did not seem to eat much but they are full. The chefs failed to bring satisfaction beyond ordinary good dining.

The service was not on par with five-star class either. At a three star fine restaurant, the servers try to be friends to the diners. At five start class, the servers take the customers to the higher deck and becoming friends seems slightly improper. The service was pleasantly friendly. And that was not enough to be cut for five-star class. At the end of the dining, the server brought me a wireless terminal for credit card processing. I was asked to sign on the screen, given a small piece of thermal print out, and the server bid me goodbye. That was a polished IHOP class, not five star class.

I went to the men’s room. The restroom was like a showroom of interior designers. However, the expensive black stone finish one piece vanity top has a basin where the water from the faucet created a darker stain. It looked like a soiled bowl. It failed to create a setting that deserves to belong to five-star class where customers would not catch anything that sores their eyes.

For me, the Genesis House tried hard to become a five-star joint but it turned out to be a three-star joint draped with...

Hyundai’s luxury car line meets fine dining~ space is spectacular. First floor is dedicated to showcase the Genesis car line, lower level event space, third floor dining space. The dining space showcases indoor dining, a library feel center for private Korean tea ceremony, outdoor space for tea and other snacks (spring/summer). Enough about the space and onto the food! Hyundai partnered up with Onjium (Michelin rated in Korea). I would describe the cuisine as modern Korean- traditional Korean flavors with a twist. Ordered the tasting course ($150 pp) which featured: 0) mini house cocktail - this was pretty amazing. You drink from bottom up (via straw) and it’s a layered cocktail, so the taste keeps subtly evolving as you drink it. Contains 5 flavor omija berry- which is a traditional Korean berry.

1. BUGAK & PO’S: beef and shrimp jerky with seaweed and fish roe chip (kinda like chinese/Indonesian shrimp chips)
2. SURANCHAE: sliced abalone, octopus, snow crab, Asian pear in a vinegary pine nut sauce
3. CHAMCHI MUCHIM: essentially a tuna poke with some south East Asian flavors from the cilantro.
4. SEOLYAMYEOKJEOK: grilled wagyu with shaved chestnut
5. NAMUL DUBU BAP: rice steamed with dried veggies, house made tofu, assorted Korean side dishes
6. before dessert, we had a palate cleanser of a refreshing lightly flavored curry gel with a yogurt gelato and cilantro flower garnish- the whole thing was so refreshing and surprisingly went well with each other. I think the mini cocktail, this palate cleanser, and dessert was my favorite of the night bc it was unexpected and very delicious
7. SSANGHWA PYEON: pine nut custard (kinda like the creme in a creme brûlée without the brûlée topping), topped with a Ssanghwa tea sauce (I guess this is like a flan but the custard texture was so soft and silky that I would compare it more to a creme brûlée of panna cotta. The whole thing was not very sweet- which I like and the tea sauce was a little bitter, which I also like. So the whole thing is mildly sweet and creamy with a slightly bitter tea sauce. It’s an elegant dessert.

Hospitality: while the whole team is very nice and cordial, Winston’s hospitality is out of this world. At the end of the meal, they gave us a tour of the space and was guided by their curator, Winston. He was super warm and friendly, but in a genuine kind of way; I didn’t feel like I was talking to a New Yorker, but someone from the Midwest or the South. He didn’t t try to sell me a car, but showed and explained the space, his favorite products, the cars and what made them special, a little about himself and how he loves working there, a little about Korean culture… just very very nice, I was taken aback at the amount of genuine cordialness. While I would rate the food as 3.75 stars, the hospitality brings it up to over 5… and from that experience, I would come back and maybe even buy a...

Families with kids? Don't bother coming here.

We were here to celebrate our friends' engagement dinner. When we googled we saw Korean restaurant and seems nice so was really looking forward to it. Food was overall ok, the price is in the presentation and the nice atmosphere. But then it took a total turn when the manager came telling us other customers have been complaining about our kids being loud and running around. Ok. The kids' age ranges between 1 and 4. When the manager seems nicely complained for the first time (yes she complained twice), she said that the other customers are paying a lot to have a fine dining experience and asked if we can stop the kids from running around. We have two kids and were already trying our best, but we told her we understand it so we will try do further contain them. At that time we thought maybe they have no kids policy and we didn't know (our friends made the reservation). Then maybe 20 min later kid was playing with an adult and left the seat two steps from the table with a loud/high pitch laughter. Manager came again and now she said she's getting more complaints, and asked if she can offer an outdoor space for the kids to play, and maybe they are more tired they will be less noisy in the restaurant. It was 8:30pm, low 50s with gusty winds. I asked if she had kids and of course not. How do you expect kids between 1-4yo to behave better just because they ran around outside in the gusty wind after a while?! I didn't complain right away -again thinking maybe the restaurant has no kid policy and we didn't know- and said I will need to think about what to do. We went to the restroom, and there was a changing table. So you DO serve family with kids. And our friend who booked the restaurant told us they did informed the restaurant that there will be little kids. So now I am going to ask this question, rightfully so. This is how you treat your customers?? You took our party's payment, but our experience is not as important as other customers'? If families with kids are not welcomed here, don't tell us to bring kids outside while accepting our...