Moim, the Park Slope Korean restaurant on Garfield Place just off of Seventh Avenue, was very well reviewed by Frank Bruni in the New York Times this week.
Kudos to Moim
Bruni loved Chef Park’s Korean Korean appetizers, main dishes, especially Dol Sot Bi Bim Bop, vegetables, meat and rice served in a steaming hot stone rice bowl and her signature use of the Korean national condiment, Kimchi.
He wasn’t as crazy about Park’s take on American restaurant staples like duck breast. AND Bruni most emphatially did not like the service.
The service is a serious issue. On several visits the time that elapsed between our waiter’s visits to the table was so great — and those visits took on such a rare, eventful air — that my companions and I came to think of him as a comet. More than once one of us asked another: “Any idea where Halley is?”
It was the kind of review that that dropped hints about the way the restaurant, with some improvement, could one day get even more stars.
With a little more maturation, a rethinking of a bit of its menu and better service, Moim could join the increasingly populous club of Brooklyn restaurants, like Franny’s and Al di Là, that Manhattanites rightly and badly covet
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OTBKB reviewed the restaurant in late July.
Well, something very special has come to Park Slope and it has an interesting Park Slope twist to it.
Moim is owned by a Korean couple who live in Park Slope. He is a CFO of a Queens hospital and she is the restaurant’s chef. They bought the brownstone that Moim is in and did a MAJOR renovation to the space where the Chinese laundry used to be.
But that’s not all. The owners dug a new foundation in the former backyard and added an elegant back room for the restaurant and a patio for dining alfresco. The addition also houses the wife’s high tech kitchen.
Not only did this couple put an enormous amount of money into the restaurant but also real architectural elegance and Asian style. For the extensive renovation, they hired a noted Tribeca architect, who did an incredible job.
Stone, black brick, Asian screens: beautiful architectural touches abound. Moim, which means “gathering” Korean is an exceedingly nice place to be.
Enough about the decor. The food and service were very good. The moderately priced menu is a a mysterious collection of Korean classics and what I think must be new Korean cuisine.
Still Bruni says that the restaurant wasn’t blogged about much. I know my review is on Yelp.
IN an age of countless food bloggers and tireless restaurant scouts, I’m not sure how a worthy restaurant winds up flying under the radar anymore. But that’s where the new Korean restaurant Moim finds itself, no doubt against its wishes, certainly against its interest
After the Times review I don’t think Moim is going to have any trouble attracting customers. The only problem is that people are unfamiliar with Korean food. It’s a largely unexplored cuisine in the US.
Bruni seemed to have nothing but respect for Chef Park’s cooking. Slightly less for her abilities as a restauranteur. But that will come for this gutsy Park Slope chef.
She’s new to this. A Korean immigrant who worked for 13 years as a graphic designer, she decided six years ago to become a professional cook, enrolling in the French Culinary Institute. Jobs as a line cook at Spice Market and Café Gray followed.
And in June, at the age of 48, she dared to open her own place. Its shortcomings suggest she has a way to go as a restaurateur. Its strengths demonstrate that as a chef she has traveled an impressive distance already.