Bryan Kim

New York

Editorial Lead, NYC at The Infatuation

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Articles

Dante West Village

1 week ago | theinfatuation.com | Bryan Kim

It’s a Tuesday night, you’re in a candleit room where the odd Prada briefcase rests against a velvet banquette, and everyone around you is about to dive into a second martini. You’re not at a club. Technically, it's not even a bar. The place you’ve found yourself is Dante West Village. Like the original on MacDougal, Dante West Village is a restaurant/cocktail bar hybrid with an otherworldly knack for making people want gin.
Respectfully, the best dinner at Dante is a Negroni - Review - New York - The Infatuation

1 week ago | theinfatuation.com | Bryan Kim

If you drink at a bar because you like the food, that sounds reasonable. But how often do you go to a restaurant just for the drinks? Elegant as it is, with its candlelit brick and bouncy banquettes, Dante is an oddball. Functionally, it’s a restaurant—mostly table seating, Italian-ish brunch and dinner menus—but the undisputed draw is the cocktail list.
The Most Popular Foods Are More Popular Than Ever

2 weeks ago | theinfatuation.com | Bryan Kim

TikTok is the new Yelp, spawning lines and drumming up business, and the app’s hottest dining genre is something we call emoji food. Emoji food is handheld, immediately recognizable, and comforting in an escapist sort of way that might not be great for our emotional development, but does taste good. We’re talking bagels, sandwiches, pizza, burgers, and sushi. Those foods have always been hits, but, in the era of the infinite scroll, familiarity lends itself to exponential growth.
Paola's - Review - Upper East Side - New York - The Infatuation

3 weeks ago | theinfatuation.com | Bryan Kim

RESERVE A TABLEItalian restaurants on the Upper East Side never close. Every few decades, they just move a few blocks. After over 30 years, Paola’s has settled into its fourth location, a compact room at 92nd and Madison where soft yellow lighting bounces off glossy wood-paneled walls. The menu covers your usual suspects (meatballs, salmon, cacio e pepe), which outperform most neighborhood Italian counterparts, but the real draw is the restaurant’s air of confidentiality.
Sistina - Review - Upper East Side - New York - The Infatuation

3 weeks ago | theinfatuation.com | Bryan Kim

RESERVE A TABLEAt Sistina, an eggplant parmigiana appetizer will run you about $45. Is it made with black truffle or mozzarella from a threatened species of water buffalo? No. You’re just on the Upper East Side. On the park-adjacent portion of East 81st Street, the dollar is less of a currency and more of a tedious formality. If you can adopt that mindset, and need somewhere to celebrate an anniversary or the christening of a yacht, this fussy Italian restaurant is a uniquely charming choice.
13 Quiet NYC Restaurants Where You Can Actually Have A Conversation

3 weeks ago | theinfatuation.com | Molly Fitzpatrick |Bryan Kim |Willa Moore |Will Hartman

At this Midtown East restaurant, expect your server to explain each dish and the nutritional value of various mushrooms in an ASMR-inducing near-whisper. Bodai seats no more than 12 guests at a time for a $99 vegetarian tasting menu inspired by imperial Chinese cuisine. The loudest noise in the dining room is the gentle burbling of the water feature in the corner zen garden.
Freddie & Pepper's

4 weeks ago | theinfatuation.com | Bryan Kim

The first thing you have to do at Freddie & Pepper’s is get in a squabble with the person behind the counter. Just take a little too long ordering. It shouldn’t be hard. Next, find a table that isn’t being used for the folding of takeout boxes, crack open a Diet Coke, and get ready for a plain cheese slice that fills every crevice of your mouth with oozing mozzarella. If it's true excess you’re after, go for the bacon chicken ranch slice with rivers of dressing under melted orange cheddar.
The Best Things Infatuation NYC Writers Ate In March

4 weeks ago | theinfatuation.com | Bryan Kim |Molly Fitzpatrick |Willa Moore |Will Hartman

There are a lot of great things to eat at this Woodside Filipino institution—like the shatteringly crisp lumpia—but no dish is quite as spectacular as the grilled tuna jaw, which looks like a fossil unearthed from the deepest layer of the ocean floor. It's smoky, wonderfully fatty and fishy, and an absolute pleasure to attack with a crowd. During a recent meal at classic Midwood establishment Taci’s Beyti, a young diner stood up (at the prompting of her mother) and played the violin for everyone.
The 15 Best Places to Grab Food Near Rockefeller Center

4 weeks ago | theinfatuation.com | Bryan Kim |Will Hartman |Hannah Albertine |Kenny Yang

You might head to Rockefeller Center only once a year to glance at a very tall tree that was sacrificed to wear an outfit of colored lights. This brasserie from the Frenchette team is another reason to go there. You’ll see plenty of raw bar items on the menu, in addition to classics like buttery and garlicky escargots. But the meat dishes are priority number one. The bison au poivre is ridiculously tender.
Kansha - Review - Upper East Side - New York - The Infatuation

1 month ago | theinfatuation.com | Bryan Kim

The city has birthed another omakase spot, but this one’s different. Kansha is Japanese and Peruvian, from a chef who studied in Tokyo and grew up in Peru. In addition to a $145 omakase—served at a counter made from a 100-year-old hinoki tree—the bi-level Upper East Side restaurant has an a la carte menu with ceviche, nigiri, and lomo saltado. We haven’t been here yet, but want you to know this spot exists.