Jua — Restaurant in New York

Surprisingly underwhelming. I thought it was gonna be cheap and good ($140) but with the added uni kim ($32) and an avg glass of white wine ($22), it totalled up to almost $250 nett per person. The food was not bad, some i’d say were lovely bites. i enjoyed some of the dishes but it was nowhere near $250 dollar good. There wasn’t a consistent element of flavor bombs or crazy yumminess in the dishes.

(1) the caviar kim was a instagram-motivated induced mess. It was beautifully shaped as the caviar glistens in the low lighting of the restaurant, but the bite felt rather unfocused, with no clear objective. The big dollop of caviar on top didn’t blend well with the sour-ish mixture of the pickles, veggies, and rice — probably due to how the dish is constructed. They used ossetra caviar which is less salty and more nutty but the flavor mixture with the pickling just made it taste cheap and as if it went bad. It spent alot of time crunching through the veggies…. like way too long for a small bit like that. Too much effort.

(1.5) uni kim. The hokkaido uni melted into the rice and the sesame oil in the rice. There wasn’t any pungent flavors but this was extremely rich and creamy on the texture side, yet light and just melts in your mouth!! Unfortunately i had a bit of the uni before i had the full bite and it wasn’t bitter or anything. But for $32 i expected the freshest quality of hokkaido uni that had notes of sweetness. Unfortunately this didn’t have that.

(2) The striped jack was this beautiful firm yet plump fish imported from the japan. The bare quality of the fish is impeccable and i could eat it just by itself. Yet the sauce was waaay too sour and the pickled veggies took away the fresh, almost sweetly natural flavor from the fish. The companions of the fish just made the experience feel astringent and mouth-drying. Towards the end i found myself wiping the sauce to enjoy the fish by itself 🤣

(3) The jook was creamy, and hearty. There were fun elements of textures in it. Every bite was different. But in my opinion, some bites lacked of depth in flavor. I expected something more full-bodied.

(4) The branzino was dry aged beautifully. The texture was perfect. Crisp yet soft on the inside. It was a little too salty for the though. The sauce was waaay to acidic tho. The asparagus was a nice botanical touch but it couldn’t save the sauce from making the mix of the two extremes of salty fish and acidic sauce blend together.

(5) Lamb & chan. Probably the most decent dish. the lamb was cooked perfectly. no notes. It was fun to try each bite of lamb with each and every choice of banchan. The crisp potato chip with the sweet spicy glaze + lamb was a bite i will not forget. A harmony of caramelized crunch and soft, meaty goodness in my mouth.

(6) The mandarin dessert was nothing special with the caramelised chip on top. It was good but nothing new.

(7) the goguma juak was a potato doughnut caramelised with ice cream. It was puffy, yet crunchy on the outside and the warmth of the donut compliments perfectly with the cold ice cream. A great dessert but it is served and tastes exactly like how they do it traditionally. No innovation, and they just made it 30x more expensive.

Overall. There were some good bites. But most of the dishes that tried to be innovative lacked harmony and cohesion, while there were also traditional dishes that lacked innovation and just felt flat for an experience like this. I personally will not come back nor recommend this place to anyone who cares if they spent $250 on a meal i feel like...

The hype was real. The most impressive Korean fine dining experience I’ve had to date.

Recently stopped by for dinner and left completely floored. Jua’s reputation precedes it, and now I get why. Reservations were fairly easy to snag, but the space still fills up nightly—our Sunday 8:30pm seating was a full house. The vibe is exactly what you’d want from modern Korean fine dining: elevated casual, never stuffy.

The tasting menu here was refreshingly minimal—just 7 courses, no fillers, no theatrics. Yet within that simplicity, Chef Hoyoung Kim (formerly Chef de Cuisine at Jungsik) delivers staggering technique and surprise after surprise.

Caviar Kim was an immaculate opener. The Ossetra caviar they used was incredibly creamy and smooth with just the right amount of brine (less briny than typical Kaluga caviar) which let the richness linger without overpowering. Wrapped in subtly sweet seaweed and paired with pickled apple and tuna tartare, it was playful and balanced.

I also added on the Uni Kim, which was built on a base of scallop crudo and pickled apple. Delicate and well-composed, but it didn’t hit quite as hard as the Caviar Kim. The uni felt softer, sweeter, but lacked the punchy contrast that the caviar brought to the table. At $32, it’s not a must unless you’re extra hungry or curious.

The Jook was one of the most unexpected highlights. A spicy foie gras-based porridge that completely defied expectations. Foie gras doesn’t scream comfort food, but here it became the perfect base—rich, mellow, and gently spiced. The depth lingered, even though the foie gras never tried to dominate. The abalone was optional, but the interplay of white kimchi and spinach added enough texture and nuance to carry the dish on their own. Most memorable porridge I ever had.

Then another shocking moment with the Branzino. Dry-aged Spanish branzino grilled over wood with Chef Kim’s signature technique. Honestly hard to believe it was grilled at all—the meat was unbelievably tender, almost poached in texture, while the skin remained crisp and delicate without any harsh char. Smokiness came in two layers: first from the skin, then from the smoked fish bone broth beneath it. The broth reminded me of smoked fish pâté, but with a slight acidity that gave it lift. My favorite dish of the meal.

The Duck & Chan, on the other hand, was more straightforward but no less enjoyable. The Duck & Banchan entrée was more straightforward but no less enjoyable. Beautifully cooked dry-aged duck, accompanied by a set of playful banchan. The duck was predictably excellent, but the real fun came from decoding each chan. My favorite from the chan was the perilla leaf salad.

And then, dessert. Sweet Potato Joo Ak—so simple it caught me off guard. Up until now, I thought a fine dining dessert needed the holy trinity: presentation, creative ingredients, and a surprise element. This one didn’t chase that. No flash, no gimmick—just a warm sweet potato donut paired with nutty brown butter ice cream. “Comfort Dessert”, yet so thoughtfully executed it felt right at home in the tasting menu. I get why this one is evergreen in the menu.

Jua reminded me that a tasting menu doesn’t need to be 18 courses long or overly cerebral to be unforgettable. It’s all about balance: creativity, restraint, and techniques. Highly recommend...

Spritzes: calamansi lemon was delicious, very tart and after walking around was very much needed to cool off. The hibiscus was also tart but slightly too sweet for my taste and didn’t have a ton of flavor.

⭐️ Caviar Kim: crispy nori shell filled with tuna tartare, white radish, and caviar. LOVE. The nori outside was crispy without being oily at all (we think they baked it?) and the tuna on the inside was tender and very fresh. The white radish added a slight crunch without taking away from the tuna, but it all came together with the caviar on top. Caviar can be very overpowering but it was a lovely addition that enhanced the overall bite.

Mulhoe: introduced as “Korean ceviche” and it was delicious. The sea bream was marinated in a chilled citrus broth, topped with a thinly sliced tomato, corn (which was a surprising but welcomed addition), and savory granita. Overall, the elements were very well balanced, and the sea bream was thin and very clean tasting.

Jook: piping hot and very comforting. The green onion, spinach, and mushrooms were little surprises waiting to be found in the jook which I thoroughly enjoyed. Definitely a sizable portion as well which I was not expecting, but I would say that it was well coursed within the meal. The dish was introduced to have eel in it, but I honestly couldn’t tell you if I would have known that had she not told us.

Dover Sole: cooked over coals, overall fairly good. I would say this wasn’t my favorite as the skin was slightly hard to cut through but the overall flavor of the fish was very good. The sauce underneath I couldn’t exactly pick up any distinct individual flavors, but it did pair well with the flaky fish.

Duck and Chan: the duck was served with an assortment of sides (we were instructed to start with the green sauce and work clockwise and end in the middle). The green sauce was somewhat of a chimichurri, then marinated tomato, charred cucumber, white radish with some sort of crust (SO GOOD), a vegetable of some sort, acorn jelly the worst thing of the entire experience, another marinated white radish, and then a bao skin with radish on top. Overall this dish was very fun to eat because there were so many elements, but I think it did not have enough duck for the instructions that we were given. We were supposed to alternate between the sides and the duck, and then still have some at the end to put inside the bao skin, but that required taking minuscule bites. Flavor wise, everything was excellent, my favorite addition was the green chimichurri sauce.

⭐️ Strawberry: strawberry cream, strawberry sorbet, olive oil, fresh cut strawberry, and crispy sugar strawberry disk. Incredible dessert, the olive oil was not overpowering but was able to work in harmony with the cream and the sorbet. Honestly one of the best desserts I have ever had.

Goguma Juak: Sweet potato donut and browned butter ice cream with sea salt. The ice cream was insane, honestly I would go back just for that and I would be satisfied. The sweet potato donut was executed well, however, I am not the biggest fan of sweet potato so it wasn’t my favorite.

I...