Roll Over Kimbap debuted in Manhattan on June 30. | Photo courtesy of Roll Over Kimbap.
Jun Hee Park spent more than a decade in the kitchen at the fine-dining Michelin-starred restaurant Jungsik and its sister brand SEA before deciding last year to step out on his own.
He and his wife and partner Jeongmin Yoo last month launched the new Roll Over Kimbap, a fast-casual concept with a specific focus on Korean kimbap. The debut unit opened in New York City’s Union Square on June 30, and it taps the flavors and portable format of a dish they both missed from Korea.
Resembling sushi rolls, kimbap (sometimes spelled gimbap) is a dish that involves cooked rice, meat, vegetables or seafood rolled in dried seaweed and cut into 10 bite-sized pieces. In Korean, “kim” means seaweed, and “bap” means rice.
Each bite is designed to be perfectly balanced in its mix of ingredients, and variations are endless. Park sees kimbap as more a “method” than a specific dish, he said.
At Roll Over Kimbap, for example, there are seven varieties, ranging from the more traditional mushroom kimbap with house-pickled carrots ($16), to a signature offering that has become the best seller: Pork Cutlet Kimbap ($18), in which the rice, pickled vegetables and seaweed are wrapped inside a thin pork cutlet and fried.
(Most kimbap has the seaweed on the outside, but Park said he wanted to keep the cutlet crisp. So he tried it on the outside, and the roll has been a hit.)
The Braised Beef and Pork Cutlet kimbaps at Roll Over Kimbap. | Photos courtesy of Roll Over Kimbap
Other signatures include a Braised Beef Kimbap with braised shank that has been marinated for 48 hours. It has a sweet soy glaze, enriched with butter, which Park said gives it something special. The Carrot Rapee Kimbap features julienne carrots pickled in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, rolled with fluffy egg and wrapped in seaweed.
Because of his fine-dining background, Park said he takes particular care with each element. The concept’s motto: “With kimbap, inside matters.”
In fact, Park and Yoo spent months hosting popups to test and perfect kimbap options before they settled on the debut menu, choosing the top seven based on customer feedback.
Once the concept gets established, Park plans to take a seasonal approach, rotating in new kimbap throughout the year, or perhaps doing a Kimbap of the Month series.
In Korea, kimbap isn’t really served with sauces. But Park said Roll Over offers three, because Americans love sauces, they make for interesting flavor pairings and, he said, “sauces are more fun.”
There’s a Chili Mayo Sauce, described as creamy and tangy, with a chili kick. The Ssamjang Mayo Sauce is sweet. And the Green Trio sauce is made with olive oil, cilantro, and other herbs for a fresher, “more herby” option.
The menu also includes two dishes that Yoo described as “comfort foods” that they both missed from Korea, including Gochu Twigim ($13), a pepper stuffed with pork and fried; and Tteokbokki ($12), which are chewy rice cakes and fishcakes in a sweet and spicy glaze.
Korean flavors are growing in popularity across the U.S., according to data from Technomic Ignite. About 74% of consumers said they ordered lunch with Asian flavors (including Korean and Japanese) in the past year, according to Technomic’s 2025 State of the Menu report. And Korean was the fastest-growing global flavor at full-service restaurants last year, up 6.6%.
In addition, dishes like Korean fried chicken, bibimbap and tteokbokki are mainstreaming, according to Technomic.
Roll Over is a tiny outlet, under 500-square-feet, and designed to serve a busy consumer looking for something delicious to-go or for delivery, though the restaurant has some limited indoor and outdoor seating.
The kimbap rolls are cut and served in long boxes. There are party pack boxes for groups or office catering that allow guests to choose multiple rolls for sharing.
Coming soon to Roll Over are Korean-style slushies — a trend that Yoo said is huge in South Korea, particularly at lunch. Park hopes to offer an omija flavor, a fruit drink that is described as a “five-flavor berry.” Park said it’s like a slightly more acidic cranberry.
Though only open for about a week, Park said Roll Over was already churning out roughly 200 kimbap at lunch and again at dinner. Their landlord had already asked if they’d be interested in a second location in one of his properties.
Co-founders Jeongmin Yoo (left) and Jun Hee Park of Roll Over Kimbap. | Photo courtesy of Roll Over Kimbap.
Yoo, who is serving as CEO while Park heads culinary, said she’d love to find a second and third location before the end of the year. But, she added, expanding Asian concepts can be tricky because they work with specialty food vendors.
“I want to expand the best way. I don’t want to expand really quickly,” she said. “But already [people] say this could be another Chipotle.”
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