Mari
Mari is yet another seaweed hand-roll type restaurant in a very crowded space in New York City. The difference from many others though is that this is Korean-centric, and it has earned 1 Michelin Star in both 2022 and 2023. This restaurant is the same team as Kochi, which is also near the area in the Theater District. Since my partner was attending another event, I was looking at this restaurant because perhaps it’d be very solo friendly, and it was quite easy to make a 1-seat reservation the night prior.
Ambiance & Service
The restaurant has a u-shaped counter in the front with some tables in the back for larger parties. I was seated in the counter towards the back, and it was pretty comfortable. There were a lot of hooks under the counter to hang your accessories. I was slightly annoyed though that the seat was close to the wall, and any foot traffic would always narrowly be too close to my seat, even when I tuck it in all the way. Fortunately the foot traffic was limited because I had an early dinner.
Food
The tasting menu was priced at $145 per person with optional SOOL pairing at $110. There were 2 chef add-ons if desired: a BBQ eel and foie gras mari ($17) and an A5 wagyu from Hokkaido Prefecture (60g - $59). I ended up ordering the eel because I wanted to see what they could do with it.
The Chardonnay ($18) came from Lemelson Vineyards, Williamette Valley, United States 2021. This was a tasty typical chardonnay with good minerality, floral notes, and a balanced apple flavor to it. I ordered this because I predicted correctly that this would be a decent complement to all the fish courses for me.
The Egg and Caviar came with myeong ran beurre blanc and fennel rice cake. This was pretty good. The beurre blanc tasted great as expected, and everything had some nice flavors.
The Mulhoe came with Hokkaido sea scallops, fermented pineapple leche de tigre, and seaweed salad. The real star of this dish was the leche de tigre. It was citrus-y, acidic, and it tasted great with the sea scallops. I felt the sea scallops were slightly overcooked, but maybe that’s intentional.
The Crispy Monkfish came with monkfish, gochujang remoulade, and halabong “cole slaw”. This fun play on “fish and chips” was nicely executed. The monkfish fillet was cooked perfectly. It was meaty, dense, and was complemented perfectly by the gochujang remoulade. The remoulade had a good kick to it, but it wasn’t super spicy for me. The heat on it faded pretty quickly too. The halabong “cole slaw” reminded me a little of KFC’s coleslaw with some horseradish in it. I thought everything was pretty harmonious together.
Now comes all the mari.
The Salmon was pretty good. For me, it was not that memorable because it tasted like salmon dipped in a soy sauce jam with some caviar. The caviar is not going to add too much to the flavor of this except give it a slightly briny finish on top. The seaweed U-shape shell was crispy and held its form fairly firm.
The Fluke was actually pretty good. This was a crispy seaweed cigar that they pipe in fluke into. The form of the cigar held even after biting into it. It was similar to a crispy seaweed shell that Jua serves in one of their courses. It reminded me of a play on spicy tuna. The flavor on this was pretty good.
The Bibimbap was OK for me. They were trying to capture the spirit of bibimbap into a seaweed roll, but I think it didn’t quite hit all its marks because it was just a flurry of flavors that you would find in bibimbap as a whole.
The Hiramasa (yellowtail) was pretty good. It had some sort of light salty foam on top and was dressed with some wood ear mushrooms. The yellowtail was pretty good and seasoned nicely with the rest that this was wrapping around.
The Spicy Tuna was an interesting take on a very classic roll. The spicy flakes on top were crispy, almost like very thin potato chips. They definitely had a kick to it, and they reminded me a little of eating smashed Ruffles. Overall, it was not my personal favorite because it was playful but didn’t really elevate the classic spicy tuna roll, though the server said that this was the restaurant patrons’ favorite.
The BBQ Eel and Fois Gras Mari (+$17) came with a thick piece of eel and a foie gras torchon on top. The foie gras melted in my mouth with the eel, and it surprisingly worked great. The eel was moderately lean and with the foie gras, it gave that nice buttery umami to round the entire roll. I think for the price, it was not the best value of course.
The Galbi was actually quite delightful. The galbi was cooked perfectly and seasoned with plenty of that typical galbi seasoning on it.
The Plumcot was the palette cleanser and final mari for the night. This was similar to eating pickled vegetables on top of rice.
The Truffle Jjajangmyun came with five spice porchetta, fried quail egg, and assorted banchan. If you opted for the wagyu, it’d replace the porchetta.
The banchan from left to right were:
- lotus root - this reminded me of eating a crispy hash brown. There were some sliced peppers on the side.
- kimchi - the fermentation of this wasn’t quite enough, so it was not super flavorful.
- pickled turnip - this was sliced a bit too thin to really enjoy it. They should consider slicing it a bit thicker, so you can really absorb the pickling flavors.
- I don’t remember what this was, but I vaguely remember it being another vegetable dish with a lot of mashed black garlic. I remember this being very flavorful.
The jjajangmyun’s noodles were pretty good and reminded me of what I had in South Korea. It’s obviously a step up from the packaged noodles. The crispy quail egg was pretty good, and the center was runny. I was hoping the yolk would offer some good intense flavors with the sauce, but unfortunately the sauce was much more bold. The porchetta was fried and pretty good. It reminded me a bit of a thick, pan-fried bacon cut. The only caveat to this was that the porchetta came as one piece, so it was slightly difficult to eat it.
In all, I thought this was a delicious meat course for the tasting.
The Pear Yogurt Sorbet came with marble sorbet and grains of paradise granita. They used Asian pears in this, so it was quite sweet and delectable.
The Coffee and Donuts came with coffee ice cream, caramelized milk foam, and beignets. The beignets were warm, chewy, and delicious. Along with the coffee ice cream and caramelized milk foam, it was a perfect complement to each other.
In the back right, there was a whoopie pie with chocolate and lychee tea and a guava gummy. The whoopie pie looked like a macaron, but it was definitely more cake-like. The middle initially hits you with a subtle chocolate flavor, then the lychee flavor comes out of nowhere. It was a very delightful surprise, and I really liked these flavors together. The guava gummy is similar to most that look like this, so there wasn’t anything surprising about this.
Final Verdict
Mari is a fantastic, solo friendly Korean style hand-roll in the Hell’s Kitchen area, relatively close to the theaters. It’s also a great place to bring a date if desired. The food is quite tasty, but if you’re already familiar with Korean flavors, I don’t think you will find some of the flavors that unique. Otherwise, I think everything here was quite good, and it’s worth a visit if you’re looking for something that is not too expensive for a Michelin starred caliber restaurant.
Yelp Jabs
It is a stretch to call this Korean it’s definitely more fusion than Korean.
This meal has mostly Korean flavors and ingredients. Otherwise most Asian restaurants in the city if they take this Elitist seriously would need to append a suffix to their restaurant cuisine, i.e. “Chinese-fusion”, “Japanese-fusion”, etc. This Elitist was being very pedantic.
In contention for the best restaurant in NYC
I definitely think this is not in the running for the best restaurant. It may be in the running for “hand roll” type restaurants, but the price ranges are so distant from each other. You have to wonder if the Elitists in their posts always start with unrealistic raves because they have limited taste buds.
Revisions
- Sep 13, 2024 - Initial revision.