The Korean Wave or “Hallyu” has popularized barbecue, fried chicken, K-pop and K-dramas in the U.S., but Bonyeon in Chicago set out to elevate the trend.
Kate Park, co-founder of the restaurant and the guest on this week’s Menu Talk, discusses how she and Chef Sangtae Park are introducing guests to a higher-end experience. In traditional Korean barbecue restaurants, diners cook meat, seafood and other ingredients on grills set into the tabletops.
Instead, Bonyeon serves a steak omakase, offering a 14-course tasting menu of premium beef, each cut prepared with care and precision in the kitchen. A couple of seafood and vegetable preparations are also included, and house-made kimchi powders and miso bone marrow are just a few of the chef-driven ingredients that add to the experience.
Bonyeon seats only 12 guests a night at the chef’s counter, making for a very intimate dinner in which guests interact with the team and learn about Korean culture. But on Monday nights, the restaurant’s Modu Monday service is more casual, with a less expensive, more approachable six-course menu of signature dishes and comforting sides.
Kate Park | Photo courtesy of Bonyeon
Listen as Kate Park talks about the unique omakase experience at Bonyeon, her favorite parts of the tasting menu, the origin of the restaurant’s name and how she and the chef are educating Chicago diners about a different aspect of Korean culture through food and drink.
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Menu Talk is a collaboration between Restaurant Business Senior Menu Editor Pat Cobe and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality. You can subscribe to it wherever you listen to podcasts.
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