The idea that tasting menus are hours-long and showy is far from true here, where an open kitchen is the obvious centerpiece. From here, a young team blitzes out an array of impressive grilled bites meant to be eaten with your hands—Kochi is Korean for skewer, after all.
Chef Sungchul Shim taps into his Korean roots and fine-dining pedigree to create a solid but playful menu. A bowl of finely diced raw steelhead trout is topped with pickled cherry tomatoes and cucumber with a tomato and basil foam, then Iberico pork is done three ways, from char siu and ssamjang to skewered with pickled apple. Blackberry lime sorbet with a Calpico and smoked vanilla oil foam and mezcal-soaked blackberries is the last hurrah.