It’s been 10 years since chef Junghyun “JP” Park and Ellia Jeongeun Park opened Atoboy, their first groundbreaking restaurant in Nomad, showing NYC what their fine-modern dining take on Korean food can be, to much success.
While the Parks went on to open other acclaimed spots, including Atomix two years later and two blocks away in the same neighborhood, part of their Na:Eun Hospitality company, it’s at the co-founders’ first restaurant where you can feel and taste those beginnings. The industrial-looking space is barely marked on the outside; the inside is framed by cement walls, tables with extremely basic chairs, and fluorescent light bulb tubes. Meanwhile, the kitchen is churning out dishes that play with flavors, textures, and temperatures. Every diner is required to order the prix fixe menu — three courses for $60 or four courses for $70 — with optional a la carte add-ons.
The desserts are likewise creative, delightful, and refreshing. A great way to end the meal is the sujeonggwa granita: a mixture of tangy lychee yogurt (yes, with the fruit in it), crunchy walnuts, and creamy burrata cheese.
Trust the options from sommeliers Joshua Lorbes and Daeyoung Kim, along with wine director Nick Elia. The Naegroni ($18) is a soju-based Negroni spiced up with habanero. The restaurant teamed up with German winery Eva Fricke for a minerally 2024 riesling, the Sonnenberg. And for a Korean drink, I got the chungju (a type of rice wine) from Yangchon Brewery.
For those who don’t want to commit to a full order of the $28 seven-piece chicken on top of the required prix fixe menu, you can get half-orders with three pieces for $16.