The first time I visited Kjun it was in a hidden little take-out spot in the East Village. I called the chef (who I later discovered was a competitor on Top Chef) who took my order and ran my food up to me out of an unmarked door. This was during the heart of the pandemic you may remember.
My, how times have changed! Kjun now has its own small classy restaurant in an unlikely area of Midtown East not so far from Grand Central Terminal.
The chef is still in the kitchen (I recognized her from both my previous experience and the television show), but there is a bigger staff and a more trendy dining room.
Again, I stopped by for lunch and this time splurged a bit on a heftier more serious entree. The combinations were all very tempting, which made it difficult to decide. The concept at Kjun is one we may not have ever seen before in NYC (or the world for that matter). Chef Jae Jung uses her influences from growing up in Korea, but also training and working in New Orleans. So yes, you guessed it, Kjun (pronounced Ca-jun) is Korean-Cajun fusion.
Some of the things to choose from include Jambalaya with Kimchi and Bibimbap with Crawfish. While they may sound obvious when you mention the fusion concept, they really feel thought-out and conceptualized.
The seafood jajangmyun that I chose was mostly rooted in Korean flavors, but instead of pork, this was overloaded with fresh and fried seafood like you’d find all over NOLA.
Jajangmyeon is a dish of noodles blackened with a black bean sauce that gives the hot, thick noodles a rich, nutty earthy flavor. For this version, lots of flavors and textures were imposed and balanced thanks to the addition of bright pungent radishes and the very refined tufts of celery leaves that helped cut the richness.
The noodles shared billing with a mess of seafood, including meaty shrimp, luxurious lobster, plump squid rings, and the very New Orleans addition of cornmeal fried oysters. Amazingly, all of the bites of seafood managed to both keep their own flavor but also pick up the unique tastes of the sauce.
If you ever wanted to taste the kind of dish a competitor might serve (and get high notes for) on Top Chef, this is it. Just imagine a challenge where one must pick two seemingly unrelated cuisines and marry them together into one dish. And lucky you, you got to try the winning dish. Price: $30
| KJUN |
| 154 East 39th Street (between Third Avenue and Lexington Avenue), Midtown East (347) 675-8026 |
| kjun.nyc |
