Sae Ron

Delicious food and cocktails!! After realizing that Sae Ron is the restaurant and Sae Ron Night is the bar upstairs, my partner and I decided to check out both of them! Sae Ron prides themselves of reimaging Korean food and I appreciated the fusion vibes! We didn't order too much because we wanted to save some space for the snacks and drinks upstairs, but they typically recommend 1 small dish and 1 big dish per person. The Uni Al-Bap packed so many flavors together - the umami and seafood flavors from the uni, ikura, and tobiko, savory and tangy flavors from the kimchi with a slight spice kick, and some sweetness from the daikon radish pieces. The crispy rice combined with all the flavors was very tasty!! Be sure to give it a good mix to get a bit of everything! The creme rose sujebi was also yummy and exceeded my expectations! It reminded me of a carbonara but with Korean spices. The potato noodles were chewy and resembled a flattened tteokbokki vs the Chinese hand-pulled noodles. The bacon bits were chunky and well-rendered. The creme nicely neutralized the spice, but also provided just enough creaminess that wasn't too rich or overpowering. For drinks, the White Korean and the Earl Grey Peach Highball were both solid! The White Korean was like an creamy espresso martini but not too sweet and the cream/milk were very smooth. The Highball had strong peach and tea flavors which made it really refreshing and easy to drink. Note that these drink menus are completely different from Sae Ron Night! The location itself is quite spacious with high ceilings and a mezzanine level. The white and dark green color scheme was fitting, along with some Seoul-related decor and floral attributes. Staff were friendly, smiley, and helpful with questions. Definitely want to come back to try other things on their menu!

Another "higher end" Korean fusion tapas restaurant enters the scene. I visited in a group of 3 and we left still hungry for a more satisfying bite elsewhere.The Barley Seoul cocktail ($18) was alright, pretty sweet and light. Can't say I registered the yuzu or thyme. Crème rosé sujebi ($24) was our favorite dish (the others didn't put up a huge fight fwiw). It's just rosé tteokbokki but with potato noodle chunks instead. I've had better for much cheaper elsewhere but still enjoyed this. The lobster corn cheese was forgettable, and there wasn't much lobster to boot (this was $26 too like...?!). Doenjang butter chicken ($26) didn't cut it. Would have been tastier as a regular butter chicken. Where was the Korean spin on it? The "naan" was dry pieces of pita or something. I regretted ordering this. The uni al-bap ($26) was not bad - uni looked fresh, and the rice was nicely crisped from the stone pot. We shared a bottle of White Lotus Makgeolli ($32), which was smaller than we expected.Overall, we weren't impressed by the food here, especially after seeing our bill. Our servers were great and the ambience was... ok? Sitting in a somewhat cavernous, dim room with high-ceilings and new kpop blasting didn't feel particularly cozy. We couldn't justify ordering more here, so we bounced. I probably won't return but am glad I tried this place out.

Good Korean spot in the lower east side! Gave casual pocha vibes, although from the pictures of the food and the prices, I expected it to be a little fancier than it was. Food was all pretty good, but nothing really stood out to me. Would definitely come here for vibes with a big group of people! The drinks at the restaurant were pretty standard but the ones at their upstairs speakeasy were really great, and I definitely would go back to the bar to try more drinks! I loved the matcha and soba cold noodles drinks in particular. My favorite bites from the restaurant were the rose sujebi, kalbi skewers, and chrysanthemum salad. 4/5 Food4/5 Ambiance4/5 Service

Watch out, LES! The Korean uprising has broken out of Midtown and is heading south toward you. Get out if you don't like fermented cabbage!Hahaha, but no really. It's nice to see something of Hand Hospitality caliber south of Madison Square Park. Definitely come with a group because it's aaaall about the small plates here:- Cauliflower Bites: Sweet and salty for the veg lovers- Sae Ron Fried Chicken (not on online menu): One of the better ones in a city saturated with them. And not too sweet!- Creme Rose Sujebi: Their most unique item, and with good reason. Think al dente chunks of carb heaven bathed in rich tomato dairy. What's not to love?- Jajjang Beef Pot Pie: More straightforward beef pot pie than anything Korean, but the perfectly flaky pastry kind of makes up for the lack of fusion- Doenjang Buttered Chicken: Because the only thing better than Korean-flavored chicken is Korean-flavored chicken having a party with garam masala- Mushroom Sotbap: Lovely for the fungi-loversLibation-wise, we enjoyed the earthy Barley Seoul, the fizzy Yuja Sparkling Highball, and the yuzu flavor of the Sae Ron Infused Soju. Their drinks aren't really their strong suit, so if you feel like sticking with NYC tap water, that's more than fine.If situated in the 30s Sts, Sae Ron probably would have faded into forgetfulness among a sea of taste-alike K-spots. But in the LES--which, let's face it, is basically south of the Mason-Dixie line for most Manhattan-ites--it shines.

Relatively new restaurant that open but it's pretty good! Usually not a fan of mushroom but the mushroom sotbap was very flavorful. The rice cakes were a different texture then normal tteokbokki but i really liked it The galbi skewers were very flavorful and juicy Love the drinks here and would definitely come here for drinks with friends The servers here is really friendly and will recommend you food they think you will like. Love the vibe inside

This is my first review of the year so Happy New Year and I hope this restaurant and others are prosperous. Anyway, I went here recently with a group. The food here is technically Korean but as the name means New, it takes some heavy inspirations outside of a couple dishes. The portion sizes are quite big and very shareable and you can treat this spot a bit like the nearby 8282 though more fusion. It was a tad loud inside due to the music but it's this style of food so the volume is unfortunately presumed. To drink, I got the nonalcoholic Yuja Sparkling Highball for $15 with yuzu honey syrup, chamomile tea, lemon, and soda. I might have gotten a drink from the other cocktail menu listed in another photo on here but I don't remember that being provided but this was tasty with some good citrusy flavors and a touch of sweetness.They gave us some banchan consisting of Kongnamul Muchim/Seasoned Soybean Sprouts, Mu Saengchae/Sweet and Sour Radish Salad and Buchu-kimchi/Chives with Gochujang and my preference was in that order. Nice amount of sesame oil for the soybean. The chives were fresh and lightly spiced while the radish salad had a light sweetness. Perfectly fine banchan (not the best but not the worst.)Most traditional of the night was one of the better ones. They had changed the Spicy Beef Short Rib with braised beef short rib, yuzu & fennel slaw, and pomme puree to the Spicy Beef Jeongol for $29 with beef bulgogi, assorted mushrooms, spicy bulgogi sauce, daikon broth, and knife cut noodles. The soup was excellent and nicely spiced with a lot of tender beef while the noodles had good texture and it was a good mix of mushrooms. I could likely have the whole thing myself on a cold winter day.Best of the fusion dishes was the Yuja Garlic Baby Back Ribs for $28 with confit ribs, sweet & tangy yuzu glaze, jalapeño pesto, fried kimchi, and onion salad. The ribs had a perfect texture to them with a good mix of sour and sweetness from the glaze. The jalapeño pesto was a very fun new idea and added a good needed kick as otherwise it's a tad rich and the fried kimchi had a little bit of sweetness.Most interesting was the Doenjang Buttered Chicken for $26 listed as Indian butter chicken inspired, soybean paste, yogurt, almond, and naan bread. It looks like butter chicken and you see the naan but there is a strong earthiness from the soybean paste/said doenjang.The Jjang Beef Pot Pie for $31 listed as a French-style beef stew with black bean paste, pomme puree, and puff pastry was good with some faults. The beef as per the other dishes was very tender but it lacked the black bean flavor I was craving. The puff pastry was flaky but very rich. There was also a bit of pickled daikon on top to help cut the richness but it'd likely need more. I'd get this to split.As we were down a person, we decided between dropping the the Creme Rose Sujebi for $24 with potato chewy noodle, Korean chili paste, smoked bacon, and cheese foam or the Mushroom Sotbap for $19 with seasonal mushroom rice, seaweed, truffle yolk spread, chives, and soy sauce. We decided on the former and this was probably a bad idea as the Sotbap was our least favorite dish. It had a nice runny egg but the dish was too strong on the umami being heavily overpowered by truffle; presumably truffle oil. I in general am not the biggest fan of truffle oil and this was overkill.Outside of the sotbap and to an extent the pot pie, the food here is tasty. It might be a bit pricey but the portion sizes are pretty generous for most dishes and the dishes are rich enough that you likely won't need more than one dish per person outside of some rare exceptions. Low 4/upper 3

New-ish Korean spot far away from 33rd st. Vibes are rly good and they have unique fusion dishes. Food could taste better, we just thought everything was very westernized and lacked depth Portions are small too for the price. They have potential tho! Lots of menu changes since our Aug visit so keep that in mind! beef tartar $21 creme rosé sujebi $24* spicy beef short rib $32 signature cocktail $18드디어 케타를 벗어나나 싶었는데 아직은 아닌가봐 분위기도 좋고 메뉴 아이템도 좋은데 이프로 부족한 곳이다. 맛이 너무 미국스러움. 미국인이 상상하는 한국요리 스타일? 깊이도 부족하고 양도 부족하고 그냥 아쉽다 8월달에 방문했는데 그사이에 메뉴가 많이 변해서 이젠 더 나아졌을수도! 예약이 쉬우니까 근처에있으면 한번 들려보기.

I was excited to try this new Korean fusion place, but unfortunately the food fell short of its expectations. With the competition of new Korean restaurants around Manhattan, this one may not be a competition.I got the: MYO Yubu & beef tartar (5/5): this was by far the best thing we had. The egg yolk's creaminess mixed with the seasoned beef tartare paired with the yubu and other ingredients to make a little handroll was spectacular. The flavors were executed well and we cleared that dish so fast.Lobster corn cheese (2/5): They gave a decent serving of lobster but the corn did not have enough cheese or mayo. It was a bit dry and there was no stringy-ness to this dish. I think I would have enjoyed it better with more cheese.Creme Rose Sujebi (4/5): This was pretty good and tastes exactly like rose tteokbokki! It was very chewy, not too spicy, but flavorful. However, nothing unique. Was good not mindblowingJjajang Beef Pot Pie (2/5) (not pictured): This was a cool concept but I was not tasting much of jjajang. It leaned more towards the classic beef stew and I wish I tasted more jjajang. This was alright. Overall, food is not my favorite but the service and ambiance were great. The prices were a bit high for the portion but expected of NYC.

Not bad but not amazing spotAttentive servers. We were late to our reservation bc I had an appointment that ran late and they were understanding.Hangjeong-sal salad - The salad was actually really good- really recommend. The grapefruit was such a nice, bright addition to the pork.Jajang beef pot pie- not bad per se but I think could use a lot more jajang flavor. Really just felt like a beef pot pie and couldn't really taste any jajang.Also didn't know that a lot of the craft cocktails are only available on specific days of the week in their craft cocktail bar... was very disappointed bc I specifically came to try the naengmyun cocktail but I suppose I should've looked more carefully before coming

My partner and I had a wonderful date night at Sae Ron! Our reservation was for a Friday night, and while it wasn't super packed when we arrived, it started to get a bit busier later on in the evening. The space itself is large and can accommodate large parties.We ended up ordering a couple small plates and a couple large plates and sharing everything (definitely the move here!). My favorite dish was the creme Rose sujebi, which had an amazing texture in a delicious sauce with smoky bacon. The MYO tartare was delightful as well, with the Truffle yolk really elevating the texture/flavor of the meat.All in all, an enjoyable date night!