MICHELIN STAR Korean BBQ in New York City Review

Hey guys, just got back to New York. Just got home, sort of situated. It's Friday and I gotta go in the city because I gotta go meet with my parents about the hot oil. Also, I'm gonna meet with a couple of my friends for a secret project and of course, this weekend, a lot of food involved. Also, I just wanna give a shout out to Cruise Critic who is sponsoring this video. I'll talk more about them later because I'm going on a cruise. But before that, let's go to Flushing. I'm here in basically the real Koreatown, the Murray Hill section of Queens where this is like a massive area of Korean restaurants and coffee shops and barbecue places and I'm meeting a couple of friends. We're supposed to go for seafood. I wonder if it's this place. That's how you cook up a great Friday night. I'm proud of that. I've never seen anybody line up pork belly meat like this before. Every single piece is like falling in line right now. Fried dumplings. That's a good dumpling. I can't have Korean food without some japchae. Yo, this is colorful japchae. I like this. It's usually not this colorful. Right, right. Exactly, right? It's my friend Mo, by the way. Oh my gosh. I love how this meat is served in a pyramid. It's like meat construction, meat engineering. This is all the fat. This is great. Oh, wow. Look at that. Oh, jeez. You're both sexy. I mean, I don't know which is sexier. Short rib. One of the must get essential Korean barbecue items. One of my favorite things ever. Not for me. Oh, that's a hot dog. AJ, you're too good. This is too pretty. This is my friend AJ, by the way. What's up, guys? AJ got this. What do you mean? You love me, AJ? A little late. You're a few days late. But yeah, I'm going to get the heck out of this stuff. Look how thick this is. Their alcohol is frozen. You know, at the Korean restaurant, they use scissors to cut an inch thick steak. That is juicy. Ridiculous. They use a straw to suck up all that juice inside that piece. When it's juicy, that's the best part. They're taking that porky residue and making it into a fried rice. So some kimchi is going in, mushrooms, onions. And there's the rice. And that's going to cook together with the kimchi, onions, and all that fatty pork residue. Oh, come here, crispy rice. That's a great way to cook rice. You make it crispy. It's all the animal fat. Oh, I love the animal fat. Thank you, animals, for all your fat. I think I mentioned this before in one of my videos. But there's a mystery that's been sitting in front of my parents' house for the last decade. There's this car here. And this car, I know, belongs to a flight attendant that used to live on the first floor. All right? I know that's her car. I have not seen her around for about five years. And her car is still sitting here. It's a functional car. It's a mystery. Where did she go? One of those things that may never be solved. Hello. Oh, my God. That smells good. Hello. Breakfast. Green beans with chicken, Chinese celery. This is dried tofu. Oh, chicken. Oh, no. This is duck. Duck. This is Chinese crepe. So you can wrap the stuff in here. Pig's feet and potato. Oh, that's my favorite right there. Chinese parents love cooking. Much as I love eating around the world. She just... My mom just told me... I'm not. Anyway, I'll say, it's still... This is the best here. Wow, more food. Bamboo shoots, pork, and what year? Oh, so much food. It's just breakfast. All right, my mom wants to show her pancake here. It's more like a crepe. You wrap the food inside it. It's really, really good. Final dish. Cumin, chili peppers, and beef. Childhood favorite. Pretty good spread. Best way to eat this. Crepe. Put whatever you like in here. I like a little green beans, little chives, and egg. What is this? This is my mom's way of telling me I should eat some more vegetables. That is good stuff. Oh, the potatoes. Here we go. And then add a little bit of meat. There it goes. You make this into like a little Chinese burrito. Chinese breakfast burrito. Oh, it's so good. Love the potatoes. Stuff is great. I gotta fulfill my vegetable quota. Thank you. Happy New Year. You're welcome. So today, joining me, James. Hi. And I get you. Hi. So you can put your coats in a bag if you don't want to smell. I personally love the smell of food all over me, so I don't really care. Fish and bullfrog pots are the most famous. Can we try the bullfrog? I don't know. James, are you scared of bullfrogs? No, I'm not scared of anything. Just bring me something and I'll eat it. Do you like bullfrogs? I like them. Okay, all right. It's hard to find. Our frogs come in. That's going to be all Yuchen here. That's a lot of frogs. You got a whole swamp full of frogs for us. Is the swamp empty now? It is. Wow. So this frog is just soaked in tons of chilies. Oh my gosh. This is such a huge pot for three of us. And this is just half our pot. We need some reinforcements. Do you think if we eat this, we're going to be able to jump higher? You think so? I wish. That's like Asian mom logic. Is this going to be an experience? That is pretty. Oh my God. That looks like a mapo tofu and a fish had a wedding. That is so pretty. You grill the fish first? Yeah. And then simmer the fish in the soup base. So you grill the fish first. It's an archaeological dish. You got to dig a little bit. Oh, look at this tofu. Oh, that's tender. This thing needs a fragile sticker on it. Look at this. Oh, man. Oh, wow. Look at that. Wow, there are a lot of bones. There's a lot of bones. This is a very dangerous fish. You got to be careful. Do you possess the Asian skill of putting a bit of fish in your mouth and the bones come out? Let's see whether I have that Asian power. You can do this, right? Yeah, I trust my skills. The fish is great. That is a really succulent fish. Oh, that's spicy too. We didn't even get the spiciest one because this one here. What is this? Oh, we got rice cakes. Let's try the tofu here. Tofu is good? Yeah. Oh, tofu is really good. I like the tofu. So good. I like that almost better than the fish. Inoki mushroom. Oh, man. That sauce is everything. My Inoki mushroom. I wish we got more mushroom. Can we get less fish and more mushroom? How are you doing there, buddy? You good? It's a really tender fish. It's like melting. Alright, I'm going to try the bullfrog. Oh, God. I'm not a big frog fan because I don't love to eat my amphibians. People say frogs taste like chicken. I sort of don't agree with that. You don't agree with that either? What does frogs taste like? Frogs. Is that a frog? Yeah, it's an animal. I don't know what a good frog tastes like. Is that a good frog? Flavor-wise, I like the fish better. I like the fish better. I think I'm done with the frog. I'm done with the fish. Get a little tapioca grass chili dessert, of course. I'm like popping bubbles. I feel like I need something more substantial after this. I know exactly where to go. Dumpling time. My favorite dumpling place. Gotta have something outside of the fish. And this is just my craving, relieving food solution. Is that your method? Always dip. You never pour on top of the dumpling. Who knew? I did not know that. Let me know if you can taste the flavor. It's really good. That hits the spot. So much. The basement area. Look at this. That is just my type of museum. It's like the little steak shop of horrors here. One Michelin star or two? One. One? Okay. So we're gonna see if this Michelin star Korean barbecue is actually any good. I'm gonna let you know. We're like the only Asian table here. This feels like a really fancy KFC I'm sitting at. Let's see how the food is. So this is the barbecue system they have here. The smoke goes in. So this whole restaurant does not smell like a Korean barbecue place. There's no smoke whatsoever. I'm going for the steak omakase. And omakase basically means you trust the chef. So we'll see what they bring. Oysters with caviar. First course. I typically don't eat oysters. Oysters got a nice clean flavor. Not bad. Here we go. The omakase. 150 day dry age? Jesus. This thing's been dry aging for like a third of a year. And then we have the A5. Look how pretty that is. Look at this. Instead of oil or butter, they're using a piece of cow fat to cook this in. Pickles, banchan. I try to never say anything nice about broccoli or any of its cousins, but my cauliflower is good. That's good pickle. So far, the banchan is really, really good. When we use butter. Oh, wow. Nice. No, no, no. That was a fun surprise. Can you do that again? You see the smoke is sucking in from the vacuum on the side of the table. You really don't smell anything here. And I like how we're working our way up to the grand prize right there. The least tasty piece of meat on this board. A very tender, tender one. Oh, my God. That was great. Now we got the ribeye, one of my favorite cuts. This is a thousand day aged salt. I didn't know you could age salt like this. Rice cake. Ribeye. That is very juicy. It's like a beefy starburst. The mushroom cap, you're supposed to drink the juice from it. First. It's very mushroomy. Only thing I can say about it. Medium, medium rare steak. Oh, my God. Best cut so far. That's the ribeye with the fat. Oh, yeah, that's awesome. This man ran steakhouses. He knows what he's talking about. Fat. Yeah. Wow. Oh, my gosh. Oh, this is the best steamed egg I had in Korean barbecue. That's the best one, right? The egg? Best thing we had in Korean barbecue. Muesli. It's so good. This is the finger cut. There's only four pounds per cow. And we got one of them. Age 45 days. Finger cut. I'm so glad she's not salting this like sulfate. Really smoky flavor as well. And this is cut into a diamond cut so that there's more char on the surface of the meat. Oh, mama. This thing has so much flavor. It's just juicy and charred on the outside. It's the eye of the ribeye and it's aged 150 days. 150-day dry-aged ribeye. It's not the most tender cut, but it is definitely the most flavorful cut I had tonight. It's just so much depth. Good taste of wisdom in that age. American Wagyu. Japanese A5. Any steakhouse. Look how soft and tender this is. Wagyu cheese. I don't know whether I just ate beef or beefy flavor of butter. Oh, Wagyu. When you take a bite, your life basically flashes before your eyes. Because you are reborn again in a life where you know this beef exists. I got some cold noodles coming. Oh, sweet. Here we go. Korean barbecue would not be complete without some cold noodles. There you go. Some ice cream. Four oranges. This is called the perfect tangerine. Why? Because at UC Santa Barbara, the farmers that developed this fruit, they were seeking to develop the perfect tangerine. That's Amy, by the way. She's awesome. See how perfect these things are. It's pretty good. And you're supposed to eat this with the ice cream. It's really good. It just tastes like a warm, perfect tangerine. Thank you, UC Santa Barbara. Go, yellow slugs. I think it's yellow slugs. Go, yellow slugs. Thanks for the perfect tangerine. Hi. Just got back to the hotel after a pretty fun, food-filled weekend. You know, this is literally what I do to have fun. I love going to a city, any city, and just pigging out for days. And I gotta say, Colts, I really didn't think I was gonna like it. I figured it was just a really overpriced Korean barbecue place that wasn't all that good, especially since we were like the only Asian table in there. Is it pricey? Yes, it is. But was it absolutely delicious? Yes, it was. I mean, from the meat quality to the service to the smokeless barbecue grills, they definitely deserve their Michelin star. Again, really pricey, but it's a pretty darn good place. Also, like I mentioned in the beginning, this video is sponsored by Cruise Critic. And when they sent me a message about wanting to partner up, it was pretty good timing because a lot of you guys have been messaging me, asking me to go on some cruise and kind of talk about the food experiences there. So this partnership is actually really useful because Cruise Critic is the world's largest resource to help you find and plan the best cruise possible. They got reviews, expert tips, cruise line comparisons, last-minute deals, everything in one spot. I've never been on a cruise before, mainly because maybe I've washed open water one too many times, but I'm really afraid that I was going to fall off and just be eaten by whatever is down there. They also have a what type of cruise are you quiz, which I took. By the way, this question, that is so me. Okay, this is pretty spot on. World travel for food. That's me. So supposedly the two best cruises are Oceana and Celebrity for best food. And when you take the quiz, you can opt in if you want to receive email from Cruise Critic and you have a chance to win $2,000 to use on your next cruise. So if you ever wanted to take a cruise where you're like me, you kind of want to get over the fear of something or maybe you just want to eat and sleep all day, go find out your cruise personality. The link's available for you right here and in the description box below. Actually, I've been thinking about this for a while and I really want to take a cruise to Alaska. I heard Alaskan cruises are amazing. I really want to see the Northern Lights. Never seen it before. So I'm going to look around and find one that has great food and goes to Alaska. I guess those are my only two requirements. Plus, if I do accidentally fall overboard and the water's so cold, I'd probably Titanic myself before the sharks get me.