Bansang, a contemporary Korean restaurant from two fine-dining cooks and the restaurant group behind Daeho, opens Thursday, April 28, in San Francisco with dishes reminiscent of sashimi soup and uni scallop toast.
The restaurant is positioned at 1560 Fillmore St., at Geary Boulevard, the previous location of Japanese restaurant Izakaya Kou.
Though cooks Ethan Min, who beforehand labored at Atelier Crenn, Saison and Kinjo, and Jin Lim, previously of Michael Mina, Kinjo and Kabuto, deliver high-end restaurant expertise, their imaginative and prescient for Bansang is extra informal. They initially deliberate to serve a set menu at Bansang however switched to a la carte for the gentle opening of the restaurant.
“Bansang” refers to how tables had been set for kings and different royalty throughout imperial Korea, with banchan, rice, soup, entrees and condiments laid out on the identical time. On the restaurant, Min and Lim are bringing Japanese and French culinary methods to indicate the vary of Korean delicacies. The menu is within the vein of Korean-style tapas, the place diners can mix small plates right into a full meal.
Banchan embody tomato-basil kimchi, mussel-seaweed soup, kimchi oysters, quail eggs and cucumber salad. Dishes begin at round $10, with pricier choices reminiscent of double-cut brief rib galbi with pickled pearl onions and uni scallop toast priced round $30.
Seafood additionally performs an enormous function on the menu, with dishes reminiscent of sea bass with thyme-miso French dressing and maitake mushrooms and mulhwe, a seafood soup that includes kelp-cured fluke.
Serving dishes a la carte and in smaller parts feels extra approachable, Min stated.
The choice to make the restaurant extra accessible stemmed from Min’s expertise with household and associates who needed to go to the high-end eating places he labored at however couldn’t afford the price of the meals.
“I needed to open a restaurant everybody can take pleasure in, together with our households and associates,” Min stated.
Different dishes within the works could appear just like these provided in different Korean eating places within the U.S., reminiscent of contemporary rice muffins in gochujang tomato sauce or radish kimchi fried rice. Set menus will probably be provided after Bansang totally opens.
Bansang can even serve a variety of sool, or Korean liquors, reminiscent of a plum-flavored soju and rice wine from Yangchon Brewery in South Korea.
The restaurant seats 70, plus there’s a personal eating room. The homeowners stored wood accents from the earlier restaurant however added Korean design components, importing lamps and designing window frames impressed by the geometric designs of rice paper-covered doorways in Korean structure.
If Bansang does effectively, extra areas might open all through the area, in keeping with Daeho Chief Working Officer Tony Chong.
The Bay Space’s Korean food scene is increasing rapidly to fulfill hovering demand for specialty eating places like Daeho, which operates 4 areas targeted on short-rib stew or kalbijjim, San Bruno gilgeori toast specialist Just My Toast and Oakland’s Joodooboo, the place tofu is the star. Hybrid delicacies is obtainable at Hotline, a brand new Korean-Chinese language restaurant within the Outer Sundown, whereas the menu at famous chef Corey Lee’s hotly anticipated San Ho Won options charcoal-grilled meats alongside kimchi pozole.
Bansang. 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. 1560 Fillmore St., San Francisco. bansangsf.com
Gwendolyn Wu (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle workers author. E-mail: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com
