After closing modern Korean restaurant Kinn in 2023 — citing mental health struggles and financial constraints — chef Ki Kim is back with Restaurant Ki. Tucked in the Little Tokyo basement that also houses Sushi Kaneyoshi and Bar Sawa, Restaurant Ki is Kim’s most personal yet. Kim, an alumnus of Atomix and Jungsik, serves a 12-course menu that blends nostalgic flavors with genre-defining contemporary Korean cooking while hip-hop plays in the background. The attentive but never overbearing service, and Kim’s ingenuity have quickly propelled Ki to be among Los Angeles’s best tasting menus, and a standard bearer for modern Korean cooking.
Restaurant Ki is a fine dining restaurant, but more laid-back than a white tablecloth affair. There’s no official dress code, but most customers dress to impress — think dark denim, casual button-downs, laid-back suits, and everyday dresses. The room is sparse, but dinner is a show in itself with the chefs cooking and plating right on the other side of the counter.
Reservations go live on the first of every month at 12 p.m. on Tock, for groups of one to three. Parking is available in a garage just around the corner. The restaurant will reach out on the day of the reservation, as it can be hard to find.