NARO — Restaurant in New York

This is one of my all-time favorite restaurants. My dining companion and I had the 7-course tasting menu with caviar pairing. We were able to reserve just a couple hours beforehand on a weekend, which was a pleasant surprise. The cuisine is Korean with a twist. The ingredients are all authentic, but the presentation is often creative. NARO offers a very high-end service, perfect for date night, special occasions, and exec business meals.

I enjoyed how personable the staff were, and something about the neatness of gently pushing my dining companion's chair in when he left for the restroom, as well as stepping out of the way when a customer is passing in the narrow front hallway, gave an elegant, refined touch. Even our napkins were folded or replaced whenever we got up.

This atmosphere was supported by the decor, which is sleek, classic, clean, and simple. The decor is entirely maple wood or white. There were no paintings or kitsch whatsoever, and lighting is simple. The instrumental music is barely audible.

One thing that was universally agreed upon, not just by my dining party but also the adjacent tables, is that the service is phenomenal. The servers are very enthusiastic to explain the food, the restaurant philosophy, and discuss Korean culture and history. They tell a story with each dish and happily expand on the history of Korean food when asked. They understand if you just want to dig in, though. They're great at taking cues from guests. You can feel how much the staff care about being here and sharing a genuine love for food.

Each dish is served with nice metal chopsticks or a spoon as required, although they're happy to provide forks if asked. After each course, our cutlery was changed, and I loved the mother of pearl spoons for the caviar (I've gotten plastic caviar spoons at other places, which I don't like).

Our water was always refilled quickly when half-empty. Something interesting I noticed is that the servers always bow when removing our finished bowls and plates, and they consistently serve and remove food or fill up water from the same side for each guest (e.g. always serving food from each guest's right). They go around the table to do so rather than reaching across the table, which eliminates the awkwardness of the diner having to lean back as staff reach across the table.

All of the food was creatively presented and very tasty. I did take a photo of the menu, so I won't repeat the dish names here. The important things to know are that there are 5 savory dishes and 2 desserts, and petit fours at the end.

By far the most impressive dish was the autumn leaf meringue dessert - three wafer-thin meringues in the shape of autumn leaves were placed atop a scoop of ice cream, and as pointed out by our waitress, if you rub the "leaves" together, it sounds just like dry leaves crunching underfoot. I greatly enjoyed the mushroom dumpling dish too (they were shaped like four-pointed stars!).

The tasting menu is $145 per person, with the caviar add-on being an extra $28 per person. If you choose a beverage pairing, that's an extra $125. My table instead opted to choose our own drinks, and we loved both. I personally love sour and fermented food, or anything with a tang, so I thoroughly enjoyed both drinks. Sadly, I forgot to write down the names.

There's a coat closet and single-occupant restrooms, and the restaurant is wheelchair accessible with an accessible restroom. I found it very skillful that when my dining companion and I were on our way out, our coats were returned to us without us having to ask or provide a name.

I asked for a copy of the tasting menu to take home, and the staff were so kind as to print out their tasting menu on nice cardstock (I'd been expecting a regular printout or scan).

The restaurant itself is a tad difficult to find, which is why NARO's website has a guide on how to get there.

Overall, we couldn't have had a better experience, and I'm really excited to...

Excellent start to their restaurant launch (open for a month), but there are still kinks to fix.

Service: waited 15 minutes to be seated; no apologies on the delay until the very end. If they're going for their star(s), they will seriously need to step this up. There is no seating area for the wait at the bar either, which normally makes the wait absolutely acceptable, but instead, you need to wait outside standing in the crowded rink area coat check at the beginning; they forgot which coats were ours at the end though, so we had to help remind them (no big deal here) superior refilling of water, cleaning the table, and kindness of the staff; our waitress did an excellent job and let us know they had a rough start, which is acceptable given labor shortage and running a fancy restaurant. Surprising though that none of the Atomix/Attaboy team members came over to help train and run the venue operationally

Value: $195 for 7 courses - fair pricing overall; you will leave pretty full choice of sparkling/still water (complimentary) cocktails were strong, so they don't skimp out

Plates (NOT vegetarian pre-fixe): [Pyeonyuk] initial trio of appetizers were unique looking and decently well tasting; caviar was a nice touch on the meat and the seafood wrapped one had an excellent crunch. [Moo] the ice was a bit crunchy and didn't add much flavor [Octopus Naengchae] favorite dish; great texture, good octopus volume, and melts in your mouth [Twigim] a bit difficult to taste the mushroom overall; the soup provided the majority of the taste and was delicious [Abalone Mandu] very filling and good taste; the soup was light, warm, and added a lot of flavor. Would be nice if the soup were hotter, as it's warm [King Crab Bibimbap] before this course, they bring you a whole display of the ingredients that they use for the next dish. Problem is, the display is massive. Then when the actual dish comes, it's so small that it is completely trumped by the initial display. It's great for pictures, yelp, and IG, but misrepresents the expectation for the dish [Wagyu Striploin] good Wagyu, but a bit dry. Just enough with 5 slices. The kim chi added a lot of taste to the overall Wagyu. What's missing with this plate is a small salt portion, which would really add a punch to the Wagyu dish [Pear Pavlova] really good sorbet and the omjia punch was crucial to make the course feel full [Strawberry] extremely cute dessert dish, where 2 strawberries are fake and 1 is real. Not much taste or sweetness to the fake strawberries, but the cake under the real strawberry was excellent [Petit Fours] I felt that this final dessert dish was extremely underwhelming. The jelly candy tasted like it did not fit with the overall meal, and was something you could buy from a candy store. The ferrero rocher crunchy dessert was definitely the best of the 3, and should be more heavily highlighted or just served alone. The 3rd piece was the cake, but felt dry and tasteless. If only the ferro rocher crunchy dessert was served, that would be an excellent finish.

Overall, great start to Naro. Staff are kind, courteous, and attentive. There are operational flows to be improved.

Will be returning again with a larger party of 6+ (above 6 gets you the...

I treated myself to the 3-course prix fixe at Naro. I went to their sister location, Atoboy, which I was very impressed by, so I wanted to try here. My honest review is that the elements of Korean cuisine are there and fairly well executed at Naro, but some small details and creativity at incorporating Korean flavors are not at the level that I would like. I was trying them out to see if I'd like to come back for the 7-course prix fixe, but I would probably just do the lunch a la carte if I were to come back in the future.

The first course was a unique take on soondubu, where it was served chilled. At first, I was really impressed by the flavor profile and even the textures of the chives (I think) with the well chosen seafood that I believe included amaebi shrimp, but I realized there were tiny squares of tofu skin incorporated in the dish (to contrast the silken tofu?) that left this gritty residue in my mouth for a while after they took the dish away. Maybe they could have added a third of the tofu skin so that the texture wouldn't be compromised. The second course was roasted duck, which came with a simple bibimbap on the side that was well seasoned. The sauces offered with the duck were good overall, but I wanted to see more creativity in the incorporation of Korean flavors. There was a gochujang sauce that was poured onto the dish that was nice, but I would have liked the main dish to evoke a richer Korean flavor profile that is somewhere in my memories, while also elevating it so I have a newer, better memory of that flavor. A tall order, yes, but this is the type of experience that I'm looking for at Korean fine dining. The last course was a persimmon pavlova, which was good, but again, lacked some richer flavor profile that would have packed a punch by drawing on deep memories of my tastebuds. I think I would have preferred for a sujeonggwa type richness or riper persimmon flavor. To be fair, these were just the courses that I chose, so maybe I would've been more satisfied if I chose other ones.

Also, the vibe was nice but not my style, which I realize is just personal taste. It's a quiet, sophisticated atmosphere that's ideal for couple dates or work dinners, mirrors the Rockefeller rink environment. I prefer a more lively atmosphere that feels like I would bring friends to hang and have good conversation. I know that they have an outdoor option, so maybe I'd prefer that. I do prefer the vibe at Atoboy though, is basically what I'm saying.

Also, I had their non-alcoholic hwachae drink, which I liked because it ended on a savory note. But I realize that most people would expect a more refreshing, fruit/bright flavor profile for a hwachae, so that might not fit some expectations.

Overall, it was a good experience, but fell short of my expectations. I think I hold high ones for Korean cuisine since I'm Korean-American, and I'm always searching for a dining experience that can evoke memories I have of eating traditional Korean foods with my family. So for my expectations to be met, there needs to be an excellent combination of creativity in incorporating Korean flavors/ ingredients and bringing out a deep flavor profile that is distinctly Korean. Will continue to be searching for this...