The Best Korean Food in New York, Dish by Dish
West 32nd Street gets the attention. The cooking Korean New Yorkers actually go out for runs east along Northern Boulevard, from the Murray Hill LIRR station to Little Neck — here is what to order, and where.
31 dishes · 28 kitchens
Koreatown on West 32nd Street is real, and a few of its kitchens are among the best in the city. But most Korean New Yorkers live in Queens, and the restaurants that cook for them line Northern Boulevard and the side streets off it. The stretch around the Murray Hill LIRR station, around 149th to 162nd Streets, is known to some as Mukja Golmok — roughly, "let's eat alley." From there the corridor runs east through Auburndale and Bayside to Douglaston and Little Neck, almost to the Nassau line.
What you find out here is specialization. A shop that makes only soondae and sells out by noon. A lunch counter that serves one beef-bone soup. A room that grills duck with whole garlic, another that builds forty soups on knife-cut noodles, a Bayside spot that serves, almost exclusively, a single clear pork broth. Barbecue is part of it — some of it still over charcoal — but so are porridge, rice cakes, Korean-Chinese noodles and the late-night drinking food of the pocha.
The picks below are grouped the way a Korean meal tends to be: grill, soups, noodles and dumplings, pork, drinking food, Korean-Chinese, a couple of special tables, and sweets. Take the Port Washington Branch of the LIRR or a local bus along Northern Boulevard, go hungry, and bring at least one friend — a lot of this food is meant to be shared.
The grill
Tabletop barbecue, from charcoal galbi to whole pork belly and thinly sliced duck.
- 01
Charcoal-grilled galbi (marinated beef short rib)
Mapo BBQ · MURRAY HILL, QUEENS
Mapo still cooks over charcoal at the table, and the marinated galbi picks up a char and a smokiness that gas grills can't give it. The marinated pork ribs are the second order.
- 02
Samgyeopsal (pork belly)
Tong Sam Gyup Goo Yi · MURRAY HILL, QUEENS
A small, Michelin-listed room across from the Broadway LIRR station that is built around thick-cut pork belly, plain or marinated in the house sauce. Wrap it in lettuce with the aged house kimchi and finish with fried rice on the grill.
- 03
Grilled duck with kimchi and whole garlic
Kum Sung BBQ · MURRAY HILL, QUEENS
Thin slices of duck go on the grill with kimchi and whole garlic cloves that roast in the fat. Leave it longer than you think — it only gets crisper.
- 04
Galbi over wood charcoal, in Koreatown
New Wonjo · MIDTOWN, MANHATTAN
On West 32nd Street since 1993 and one of the few Koreatown rooms still grilling over charcoal. Ask for a grill table and order galbi and chadol.
Soups, stews & porridge
Long-simmered broths — milky, clear, red — and the gentle bowls Korea eats when it needs looking after.
- 05
Gamjatang (pork-bone stew)
Geo Si Gi · MURRAY HILL, QUEENS
A wide pot of pork neck bones, potatoes, rice cakes and kimchi that keeps simmering over a burner at the table while the server tops up the broth. Bring a friend.
- 06
Sundubu jjigae (soft tofu stew)
Cho Dang Gol · MIDTOWN, MANHATTAN
Cho Dang Gol makes its own tofu every morning, and the spicy kimchi version of the stew shows it off — soft curds in a concentrated, sweet-sour broth. Get there before the waitlist fills.
- 07
Seolleongtang (milky ox-bone soup)
Tang · AUBURNDALE, QUEENS
The big pots of ox-bone broth are visible behind the kitchen glass. Season it yourself, add the noodles and rice, and order galbitang if someone wants it richer.
- 08
Naju gomtang (clear beef soup)
Naju Gomtang · MURRAY HILL, QUEENS
The clear, beefy gomtang of Naju, lighter than seolleongtang — which is also on the menu, along with an oxtail version, so you can compare.
- 09
Dweji gomtang (clear pork soup)
Okdongsik Bayside · BAYSIDE, QUEENS
The Bayside branch of a Seoul Bib Gourmand serves little else: a clean pork broth with thin slices of roasted pork, rice, radish kimchi and pickled chili.
- 10
Gukbap (beef-bone soup with rice)
Parksanbal · MURRAY HILL, QUEENS
A one-dish lunch room. The beef-bone soup simmers for hours and comes spicy or not — get the spicy — with cellophane noodles, banchan and rice.
- 11
Juk (rice porridge)
Bonjuk · MURRAY HILL, QUEENS
Sweet pumpkin porridge if you want comfort, abalone if you want restoring. A good bowl for the morning after a long night on the boulevard.
Noodles & dumplings
Knife-cut, hand-torn, ice-cold and hand-pleated.
- 12
Kalguksu (knife-cut noodle soup)
Daesung Korean Noodle · MURRAY HILL, QUEENS
Nearly forty soups built on soft homemade noodles. Start with the clean signature kalguksu, then try the version with bulgogi and soft tofu.
- 13
Sujebi (hand-torn dough soup)
JeunJu · MURRAY HILL, QUEENS
Jeonju-style home cooking off Northern Boulevard; the hand-torn sujebi is the dish regulars return for, and the steamed dumplings are made in-house.
- 14
Chik naengmyeon and hwe naengmyeon (arrowroot cold noodles)
Han Joo Chik Naeng Myun & BBQ · MURRAY HILL, QUEENS
Dark, chewy arrowroot noodles served mul, bibim, or topped with raw skate in a sweet-hot dressing — the house specialty, as the name says.
- 15
Mul naengmyeon (cold noodles in broth)
Sung Book Dong · DOUGLASTON–LITTLE NECK, QUEENS
At the eastern end of the corridor in Little Neck, the owners serve naengmyeon from a family recipe. Order it first, then decide about the grill.
- 16
Wang mandu (giant steamed dumpling buns)
Northern King Dumpling · MURRAY HILL, QUEENS
Big, soft buns filled with pork and shredded kimchi, plus plates of pan-fried or steamed dumplings. Finish with a kkwabaegi, the twisted doughnut, and buy a frozen bag on the way out.
Pork: sundae, jokbal & bossam
- 17
Soondae and soondae-guk (Korean sausage and sausage soup)
Tamra Soondae · MURRAY HILL, QUEENS
A seven-table shop that opened in 2026 and sells out by midday: soondae three ways, and soups simmered for hours. Arrive at opening and ask about liver.
- 18
Spicy jokbal (braised pig's trotters)
Geo Si Gi · MURRAY HILL, QUEENS
Order it alongside the gamjatang, or as part of a combo; Yelp regulars single out the spicy jokbal as the best thing on the table after the stew.
- 19
Bossam (boiled pork belly with wraps)
JeunJu · MURRAY HILL, QUEENS
Reviewers say the bossam and the sujebi steal the show here. Order both and split them.
Fried chicken & drinking food
Food for soju, beer and staying out late.
- 20
Korean fried chicken
Mr. Dak · AUBURNDALE, QUEENS
Fried to order in Auburndale, so expect a wait. Get soy garlic and spicy red, and the creamy onion if you are curious.
- 21
Soy-garlic wings
Rokstar Chicken · DOUGLASTON–LITTLE NECK, QUEENS
A counter inside a Douglaston supermarket where the Rokstar brand began in 2021. Wings in soy garlic or sweet chili, and pickled radish on the side.
- 22
Dakgalbi (spicy stir-fried chicken)
Doraon 1.5 Dak Galbi · MURRAY HILL, QUEENS
Chuncheon-style chicken, cabbage and rice cakes on a tabletop pan, with or without cheese. Don't skip the fried rice made from what is left.
- 23
Ganjang suyuk, steamed clams and somaek
Goo Gong Tan · MURRAY HILL, QUEENS
A late-night Murray Hill pocha. Soy-dressed boiled pork belly, a pot of clams, grilled gopchang, and beer mixed with soju.
- 24
Haemul pajeon and seafood hot pot
Sik Gaek · SUNNYSIDE, QUEENS
Under the 7 train in western Queens: a crisp seafood pancake and a red hot pot of lobster, clams and octopus for a group with soju.
Korean-Chinese
Black-bean noodles, spicy seafood soup and sweet-and-sour pork — Korea's favorite delivery food.
- 25
Jjamppong (spicy seafood noodle soup)
Guh Sung · BAYSIDE, QUEENS
Offered here a half-dozen ways, including clam, oyster and a white, non-spicy version. Or get the half-jjamppong, half-jjajangmyeon bowl.
- 26
Jjajangmyeon and tangsuyuk
Naju Gomtang · MURRAY HILL, QUEENS
Alongside its gomtang, Naju Gomtang serves old-style jjajang and tangsuyuk — order a gomtang and a jjajang and you have covered two of Korea's great comfort foods in one sitting.
Special tables
Two very different ways to eat Korean slowly.
- 27
A jang tasting menu
Meju · LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS
Hooni Kim's eight-seat, Michelin-starred counter in Long Island City pairs each course with a fermented jang — doenjang, gochujang, soy, ssamjang, jeotgal.
- 28
Plant-based Korean cooking
Hangawi · MIDTOWN, MANHATTAN
A calm, long-running Koreatown room for mushrooms, tofu and wild greens; ask about fresh matsutake in autumn.
Rice cakes, bingsu & bakeries
- 29
Tteok (rice cakes) and songpyeon
Hansol Food · MURRAY HILL, QUEENS
Handmade rice cakes, songpyeon and layered cakes sold by the piece, plus house kimchi and sikhye.
- 30
Patbingsu with injeolmi
Yedang · BAYSIDE, QUEENS
A Bayside rice-cake house with a café; the red-bean bingsu with soybean-dusted rice cake is the order.
- 31
Korean bakery breads
Canaan Bread · MURRAY HILL, QUEENS
Soft morning breads, mochi doughnuts and fruit cakes from a Korean bakery that has been baking since 1990.
Every kitchen here was confirmed open as of 2026-10-13. Menus change — confirm a dish is on before you make the trip.