Danbi, set in Koreatown’s bustling Chapman Plaza, is a sleek dinner destination from the team behind Liu’s Cafe that seems to be the neighborhood’s hottest date spot. Dim lights and a projector showing anime and movie clips on one wall set the mood for tables seeking romance while slurping down cold perilla noodles alongside influencers with full vlogging setups, clip-on LED light and all. Danbi’s food will remind people why reservations remain hard to come by: soups with wagyu or pork get imbued with flavors only achievable through hours of precision cooking, while buttery uni and marinated raw shrimp rest atop rice for bibimbap that would feel at home on a fine-dining menu. At Danbi, the vibe gets you in the door, but it’s the contemporary cooking combined with friendly service that keeps people coming back.
Danbi’s cocktail program revolves around soju, offering drinks like a tangy kimchi mule with white kimchi–infused soju and ginger, a savory martini with pickle vermouth and perilla oil that will please dirty martini drinkers, and a sweet Hwachae Milk with milk-clarified soju and lychee.
The restaurant has an expansive artisanal sool (Korean spirits) program; ask your server for a pairing to go with each dish, or just make your way through the menu, which includes options like Sang makgeolli, Yangchon chungju, and Jinro Is Back.
The former Tokki space in Chapman Market has flipped into Danbi, a new modern Korean restaurant from partners Alex Park, Patrick Liu, John Kim, and Yohan Park. With executive chef Lareine Ko in the kitchen, the menu features updated dates on Korean classics like uni bibimbap and homemade honey butter chips. For desserts, pastry chef Isabelle Manibusan reinterprets flavors of her childhood into dishes like a banana milk cloud and the Mont Halla, a Korean rice cake-inspired take on the French Mont Blanc. — Rebecca Roland, associate editor