Oiji
“Our next dish was probably my favorite: jangjorim, except with honey butter-crisped rice.”
“Specially Jang-jo-rim Rice, Smoked Mackerel, Seven Flavors are just a few of my go-to dishes.”
“For dinner we had the cold buckwheat noodles with house preserved ramps from last spring, the fried chicken, smoked mackerel, and seafood truffle broth with crispy rice.”
Oiji
Takes Reservations: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$$ Price range $31-60
8 reviews
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Was so excited to score a reservation at this cute, small Korean restaurant in the East Village. We got a great corner seat for two right by the window. The ambience was hip with 80s pop music, dim lighting and a general "buzz". The waiter was incredible – enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and generally on point. We ordered the kimchi, the pork belly, beef tartare, and the ssam for two. It was a ton of food but absolutely delicious! The pork belly was a standout and is prepared a new way from the original menu. The ssam was spicy and equally delicious. We also received a rice bowl compliments of the chef which had a perfectly cooked egg, beef, mushrooms and butter rice. I pretty much loved everything here and highly recommend it!
This. place. is. AMAZING. Hands down one of the best meals I've ever had in NYC.
Stopped by around 7pm on a Sunday and immediately noticed the trendy yet chill ambience of the place. Our server was so helpful with figuring out the best drinks and plates, and even made a custom cocktail for us! We opted for the Seoul Paloma and a drink similar to an old-fashioned. Both were a delicious complement to the plates we ordered:
Fried Chicken: I was a little hesitant to eat fried chicken for the 2nd time in 5 hours, but noted the rave reviews and had to order it. It was absolutely phenomenal. The sauce it was served in was incredible as well.
Chil-Jeol-Pan Seven Flavors: After seeing all the Insta photos of this dish, I knew we had to order it. To be honest it was merely "okay" – I didn't think it was particularly mindblowing, especially after eating the fantastic fried chicken. The fixings tasted like what you would normally get at any other Korean restaurant. This dish felt like it was more about the presentation than the actual taste of the food.
Jang Jo Rim: So many of my favorite things in one delicious dish. The hot buttered rice, soft boiled egg and jicama were a spectacular combo. I'm normally not a beef person, but the richness of the meat rounded out the dish incredibly well.
Buckwheat Noodles with Ramps: I wanted so badly to LOVE this dish, but I think the fact that it was cold may have dialed down my enthusiasm once we tasted it. The ramps are apparently preserved from last year, which is really cool. And the poached egg is of course delicious. Overall, the dish was good but not amazing.
Honey Butter Chips: OMFG. How do I put into words the feelings that we experienced when we tried this dish?! We pretty much died and went to Korean dessert heaven. When I read about this dish online, I thought it was insane that people were so obsessed with these chips that they went for $100 a bag. After tasting it, I understand – the hype is so real. These are no ordinary potato chips – they are chips that have been doused in hot honey and butter (two of my favorite ingredients on this planet) and accented with interesting spices (cayenne possibly?) that create a level of flavor depth that is incomparable. They go amazingly with the vanilla bean ice cream. Absolutely mindblowing. I would visit OIJI again JUST for the honey butter chips.
TL;DR: The honey butter chips are bae.
Damn, Oiji has some great food.
We went with one other couple and ate our way through a pretty large chunk of the menu.
Homemade tofu- Delicious and clean tasting, a great way to start the meal, though not a must have
Fried chicken- Crispy perfection; the chefs at Oiji have managed to make fried chicken taste light and it's amazing
Cold buckwheat noodles- The noodles are chewy without being slimy, but the real star here is the broth that the noodles come in. We were so enamored, we requested to keep the bowl with the remaining broth so we could dunk other things in it.
Truffle seafood broth- I'm unfortunately allergic to shellfish and was unable to try this, but the others at the table loved it
Pork belly- A restaurant staple these days, the pork belly was tender and delicious
Oxtail- Since I couldn't partake in the seafood broth, I decided to take an extra large portion of the oxtail, and wow I'm glad I did. It was incredibly tender and very savory
Ssam platter- I personally didn't enjoy the Ssam platter because the pork was way too spicy for me. But, my spice tolerance is on the low side, so I can see it being great if you like spicy food.
Honey butter chips- These almost feel like cheating- how could something with a name like this not be good? They're sugar coated deep fried carbs with ice cream. They are the childhood breakfast cereal of your dreams, taken to the extreme. So. Good. My boyfriend and I discussed trying to come back just to order this at the bar.
Dear staff,
Sorry for barging in during your meal time. I thought there was a waiting area inside ;~;
Sincerely,
Someone who always arrives early to dinner plans.
The service was great. When suggested to order at least three dish per person, do listen. It may seem like they want to rob you of your wallet, they're not (jk they are, dishes are pretty expensive with the portions given). I guess this is what I get for skim reading the yelp reviews before ordering. Sigh. The food portions are SMALL when I say small, it's SMALL. Ordering one or two dishes will not be satisfying to your tummy.
I understand that by the end of the night there will be a hole in your wallet but hey, the chips were sort of worth trying out but definitely not worth the whole "$100 a bag" hype ( I blame INSIDER food/Thrillist for making me want to try out this place). Definitely get the chips with ice cream ( there's an additional charge with the ice cream), it tastes so much better and actually cuts back on the sweetness. Apologies to the person that accompanied me to this place, as your stalker, I totally failed you. I didn't know you were lactose intolerant… guess that explains why you didn't try the Jang jo rim with buttered rice…? oops
My friend and I walked into Oiji at 9:00 on a Friday night without a reservation, a bold move, but luckily we were seated right away at a cozy 2-person table.
Oiji serves modern, upscale Korean food served tapas style. Because our waitress recommended us to order 2-3 dishes per person, we decided to go with the mushroom salad special, fried chicken, slow cooked pork belly with kimchi, jang jo rim, truffle seafood sizzling soup, and honey butter chips with ice cream.
The mushroom salad special, despite the hype, was honestly just some dried shiitake and two other types of mushroom with lettuce, radish, and mayo. Nothing difficult to make yourself and not worth the hype.
The fried chicken reminded me of a lighter katsu, neither as deeply fried or crunchy. Each piece of meat however was very tender. Though the flavoring was also on the light side, relative to the other dishes to follow, the fried chicken became one of the favorites of the night.
The slow cooked pork belly with kimchi was quite disappointing. I like the crispy skin at the top, but the meat itself was neither very tender nor well-flavored. Only when I ate it with chunks of kimchi did I taste any flavoring.
The jang jo rim, a buttery rice dish served with salted beef, soft boiled egg, mushroom, and pickled radish, was my other favorite dish of the night. The rice was incredibly buttery, which I loved when mixed with the soft boiled egg. The salted beef however was not particularly memorable.
The truffle seafood sizzling soup was probably the biggest letdown of the night. I love truffle, seafood, soup, and rice, so I could not be more excited to try this dish. The sizzling crunchy rice was fun to watch but less impressive to eat. The broth, which should be the highlight, was far too salty. My friend and I took a few sips but just couldn't bring ourselves to finish it. We instead just nibbled on the mussels, calamari, and bok choy.
We ended the night with the honey butter chips with ice cream. After much hype, we were again disappointed. The ice cream was just your standard vanilla ice cream, and the chips were just slightly saltier chips. The combination of my two favorite junk foods was fun to eat but definitely not worth the hefty price.
Overall, Oiji is a solid 3-star. I liked the presentation, service, and upscale decor, but the food just doesn't render itself worthy of the price ($115 in total before tip). You will get a much more satisfying and fulfilling meal just eating in Ktown.
Oiji would be a great place to take a date. It's cozy and intimate. The food is flavorful and inspired but not so fancy that it's intimidating.
It's very trendy and the food is really good.
What I'd order again: honey butter chips with a side of ice cream, octopus, seafood stew with the crispy rice, pork belly
Scored a 6:00 p.m. reservation the day of the visit… and on Friday the 13th?! Looks like it was my lucky day! I had previously booked a 10:15 pm reservation with every intention of showing up at 6 and "waiting it out." I suppose I just wanted the points for OpenTable… either way, I had made the late night reservation a week and a half before; the 10:15 reservation wasn't because I'm a night owl or anything like that, but rather because that was the only available time slot available for that day… certainly a shocking prospect considering that I was making online reservations well in advanced (as far as my metrics are concerned). In the end though, things did turn in my favor.
I met the "stranger" at the spot, who served as my accompaniment for the evening's on-goings. We had both had this place on our respective radars for sometime, and were duly determined to figure out what all the fuss was about.
Prior to coming here, I was dead set on trying the pork belly and kimchi. Alas, I had forgotten that it was Friday the 13th, and the server promptly informed the two of us as he was taking our orders that "we (OIJI) will not be serving the pork belly tonight." My heart sank, and it was subsequently shattered into a million pieces of oblivion; I did not have a back up plan. I simply looked at the menu in a catatonic daze, barely able to make mouth speak talk as I rattled off a number of menu items in quick succession (no doubt in an effort to hide my disappointment upon realizing that the winds of change had brought about a reversal of my fortunes).
As a self proclaimed dumpling fiend, I ordered the housemade dumplings… the "stranger" ordered the Jang-Jo-Rim… I ordered the braised chicken (dunno why)… and we ended things with the honey butter chips w/ ice cream. The dumplings were serviceable. I've had many a better dumpling here in the city and at a fraction of the price… though I will say that the broth was tasty. The Jang-Jo-Rim was an enigma as I loved the umami of the mushrooms and the succulence of the beef; however, I'm not a fan of the amount of "buttery-ness" of the rice. The braised chicken was well presented and had beautiful reddish hue; however, I messed up in breaking one of my cardinal rules to not order chicken at restaurants (as they typically overcharge… and more importantly, cannot cook chicken better than yours truly). I broke the rule, and I paid the price; it was tasty stuff and looked great, but nothing to rave about.
The chips were interesting. Not a potato chip in the classic sense, by any stretch of the imagination. Rather, the chip basically provided a crunchy vehicle to the candied coating of honey and butter; and the ice cream actually did cut the sweetness. I won't say it's the best thing I've ever eaten, but it was one of the more unique food combinations I've ever tried.
All in all, I don't really understand the hype (1.5 weeks to barely score a reservation?! That' a bit of craziness right there). But the pricing is relatively painless and the food is well made. Maybe I'll go back to try the pork belly, however, a return visit is not exactly a top priority in the here and now.
Oiji's Korean cuisine isn't traditional but delicious nevertheless. The menu is small and to the point. We ordered a combination of what the waiter recommended, what we thought we wanted, and what our neighboring table ordered. None disappointed.
The seven flavor crepe was delicate in both texture and flavor, and a perfect way to open your appetite. The butter rice was decent, but was a little inferior to a traditional, well-done bi bim bap. Fried chicken was good but I am sure you've plenty of good fried chicken at many other places.
The dishes that really impressed me were the buckwheat noodles, whose essence lays in the tasty tangy sauce. We almost ordered another bowl, if we were not trying to save some room for dessert elsewhere.
Also loved the crispy rice cakes in the seafood broth. The broth itself wasn't very exciting, but complemented greatly to the toasty and light rice cakes.
Extremely glad that of the thousands and thousands of wonderful choices to dine in Manhattan, we chose Oiji during our short stay.