Take 31 — Restaurant in New York

This review has been overdo as Take 31 is one of my favorite spots near Korea town and is very quaint, cozy, casual and intimate all in one. Therefore, you csn bring people to celebrate special occasions are just go there to eat and have a good time.

Service there for the most part is good. The employees are very polite and are good about checking on your table. It is important to make a reservation ahead of time via Resy to ensure you have a table when you arrive. Even on weekdays, the place can be busy so walk ins cannot be guaranteed a table.

On a very recent visit, I brought a friend who actually never dined there but had definitely heard of the place. I was excited to show her the place and how good the food is.

On previous visits, one of my go-to order is the Short Rib Chapaguri ( a dish made famous by the movie Parasite). It consists of Korean ramyeon noodles with special Jjajang sauce, Greater Omaha short rib and topped with scallion and a fried egg. That dish disappears very quickly when I order it...even quicker when there is a guest with me.

The bulgogi black garlic fried rice caught my attention because I wanted some rice with my other dishes and they do not serve plain white rice. This rice dish is insanely good.

The wasabi cream chicken I was hesitant on ordering but my guest was keen to try so why not. It consisted of crispy chicken with honey butter and whole grain mustard sauce. The wasabi cream is on the side (for some reason I thought the chicken pieces were going to be drenched in wasabi but I am glad I was mistaken).

A new dish there that I tried recently was the spicy short rib lasagna. Being a Korean gastropub, I knew that they had some nice fusion dishes and this one was certainly a winner. The chunks of short rib inside each large piece of lasagna was more than we expected. It was basically a large tender short rib. I was expecting maybe some shredded pieces when I cut into it but again, so glad I was wrong! This one is definitely a dish I would order again or recommend for others.

Another main dish that I really like there is the Pork Belly Rice Crepe wraps. That is a mouthful to say but your taste buds will forgive you one you take a bite. You get grilled pork belly covered with toasty injeolmi and soy bean powder. It is best to eat this right when it gets to the table as the injeolmi wrap is still a bit gooey along with the warm bites of pork belly.

There are two main desserts they offer. The first is a dalgona tiramisu which is a unique dessert for them. The other is a misugaru (multigrain power) dalgona ice cream. The handcrafted dalgona candies are of course super well known in Korea but I feel it was made more popular when Squid Game was released. I could be wrong but I had noticed it pop up more on menus after that series released. My friend was not too impressed with the ice cream as it was just plain vanilla. But it certainly was enhanced by the dalgona pieces and power I felt.

I look forward to going back to dine...

📍:  | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🌟 📸: cod roe omelette, seafood scallion pancake, pork belly rice crepe wraps, short rib chapaguri, spicy tteokboki

This place was a lovely little Korean fusion restaurant that i walked by and immediately added to my list. The food was fantastic here. We ordered the rolled up cod roe omelette, seafood scallion pancake, pork belly rice crepe wraps, short rib chapaguri, and the signature white peach makgulli which was just enough food for three people.

They start you off with a serving of spicy tteokboki that really packed some heat and whetted our appetites. My favourites would have to be the cod roe omelette and the pork belly. The cod roe omelette was delicious, soft egg rolled up and drizzled with a creamy sauce and egg roe. I loved the pork belly. I'm always a fan of pork belly but here, they wrapped it in injeolmi which gave it a delectable chew that paired nicely with the soybean powder. The pork belly itself was tender and flavourful; definitely something to share. I love the homemade pickles that they served with it.

The seafood scallion pancake was alright, a bit too much batter but nice and crisp. The sauce that they serve it with really elevates the pancake. Good to try but I don't think I'd order it again.

The chapaguri was also yummy, the noodles were al dente and there was enough meat to share out amongst 3 people. Our egg was a little overcooked so we didn't quite get the oozey yolk that we wanted.

The makgulli was delicious. Has that slight characteristic tang but the white peach flavour really shone through and it was served super cold, with a bit of slush which made it the perfect accompaniment for dinner. We also wanted to try the yogurt and banana, i love that they have these unique flavours.

All in all, a fantastic dinner with truly delicious food. Ambiance was great, music was playing but we could still chat amongst ourselves and the service was great. Would definitely recommend if you are in the area!

check out @cherriechomps on ig for more...

Lately, I've been bookmarking quite a number of 4-star Ktown places on Yelp and I get really hyped to try them. Unfortunately, a lot of them end up being only 3 stars in my book. Take 31 was no different.

Everything on the menu sounds good and all the pictures on there looked really good too. For my party of three, we decided to split three things:

Cod roe seafood udon (udon noodles sauteed in cod roe cream sauce with shrimp, squid, and mussels) - this was just okay. All I really tasted was cream. I added some of the gochujang (?) sauce from the complimentary rice cakes (which was the highlight) and it instantly made it 10 times better. If you like creamy udon, I would definitely recommend heading over to Mew Izakaya and ordering their kimchi cream udon.

Fried garlic chicken wings - the slices of garlic were a nice touch but that's about all it had going for it. The chicken wasn't very good.

Fried spicy hot pepper chicken wings - it looks really spicy from the picture but it's actually not that spicy, which was a good thing for me. But again, the chicken itself wasn't very good. It was buried in breading.

Salmon sushi cake (salmon with seasoned vegetables, avocado, sushi rice, and lemon vinaigrette) - I'm not sure if we missed the description that it was cooked salmon, and just assumed it was raw from the picture, but we all thought it was going to be raw salmon. I don't like cooked salmon so I'm a bit biased, but I think this dish would have been better if they used raw salmon.

Banana makgulli (rice wine) - do yourself a favor and skip this, unless you feel like drinking a banana milkshake. There's very little alcohol in it and it's very thick, which was a first in my few rice wine experiences.

I was pretty disappointed because I was expecting better food. Sadly, everything looked better than it...