Restaurant Forte Baden Baden
28 West 32nd Street, 2nd floor, between Broadway and 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10001
(212) 744-2266
Subway: B/D/F/N/Q/R/V to 34th Street
Bus: M2/3/4/5/6/7 to 34th Street


I’ve walked down the busiest block of Koreatown many many times, and I’ve never noticed Restaurant Forte Baden Baden, even when I was looking for it! I’d read an article about “Korean fried chicken” in the New York Times a while back, and although I’m not the biggest fan of chicken, I love Korean and I love fried. A friend and I had made plans to check it out, and before we found a free day for both of us, New York magazine recognized it as 2007’s best fried chicken.

We climbed up a slightly dingy set of stairs to a bustling bar filled with tables as close together as possible borderline being a fire hazard. A host catered to all of the different patrons walking in, including us, surveying the room to see where he could squeeze each new party. Waitstaff buzzed quickly around the room serving drinks and food. It was exactly how you’d find it in Seoul.

We were told there would be a 20-minute wait for a group of 6, but we were ushered to a cozy corner table with a great view of the flat screen TVs within minutes. Although the crowd was majority Korean, I’m sure the recent publicity has brought in its fair-share of foreigners, and on that night, there were a few scattered throughout, including our table. We ordered drinks and anju (Korean word for dishes consumed with alcohol) and got settled and excited.

Everything was served incredibly quickly. The touted fried chicken really was quite delicious. Exactly as described, deep-fried rotisserie chicken is imbued with garlic and is incredibly moist yet crisp on the outside and plated with a huge portion of super crispy French fries.

If you’re looking for a more Southern-style fried chicken, go with the hot wings. Super spicy, but dry, these wings are battered to a golden crisp and are spiced HOT and paired with a blue cheese sauce, celery and a yummy salad. These will be my go-to wings from this point forward.

We also included a very typical anju to round out our meal: dubu kimchi (tofu with kimchi and pork). The tofu was very fresh and tasted delicious with the stewed kimchi and pork. This is not for the faint-of-heart; the kimchi stew is very strong, and I advise eating it with the tofu to balance out the flavors.

We didn’t drink as much as we should’ve (since I’d been drinking for 4 hours prior), but these 3 dishes were plenty for the 5 of us. With drinks, tip and tax, the total per person was only $30 – much cheaper than flying to Seoul for this very Korean experience.

Momofuku Ssäm Bar
(Korean?)
207 Second Avenue at 13th Street (East Village)
New York, NY 10003
(212) 254-3500
Subway: 4/5/6/N/Q/R/W to 14th Street (Union Square); L to 3rd Avenue or 1st Avenue
Bus: M15/101/102/103 to 14th Street; M14A/14D to 2nd Avenue


I’ve been wanting to try David Chang’s Momofuku Noodle Bar for what feels like ages, but since my husband is has an aversion to Asian food, I’ve limited my consumption since we’ve been married (coincidentally, his aversion began AFTER we were married; prior to saying “I do”, my husband would eagerly accompany me on my Asian food forays). Now that he and I are bicoastal, my goal is to eat everything that he wouldn’t eat whenever I possibly can.

That said, a girlfriend and I made plans to meet at Momofuku Noodle Bar one blustery Saturday evening; on my arrival, a crowd had already formed around the narrow front, and I was told the wait would be anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour. She and I were both famished, so when the hostess suggested the newly opened Momofuku Ssäm Bar around the corner (and also told us there would be no wait), we started walking.

Momofuku Ssäm Bar sits on a great corner, with a much more contemporary Asian feel than the rest of the block. The restaurant opens up to the street with no doors or windows, and was refreshing, perhaps slightly chilly. A long bar runs the length of the room, but it seemed no one was serving at the bar that night. It looked deserted besides a few lone diners. I looked around, hoping to be seated, but then I realized the place was entirely cafeteria-style. We walked to the steam bar kitchen, and I perused the limited menu of ssäm, which is Korean for “wrap”. The options include a flour wrap (which I’ve never seen before on a Korean menu), lettuce wrap, nori (seaweed) wrap or just a plain old rice bowl or chap chae (Korean glass noodles) bowl. A list of addable items are both written out and shown to you; as you walk down the line, you choose which items you’d like to include in your ssäm (options include a form of protein (pork, chicken, beef brisket and/or braised tofu) and a number of veggies (bacon black beans, red azuki beans, edamame, roasted onions, pickled shiitakes, marinated cucumbers, slaw, bean sprouts, red kimchee puree, white kimchee puree and whipped tofu)). Basically, it felt like a choose-your-own-adventure bibimbap (Korean rice mixed with vegetables and beef). There is one pre-planned “original” Momofuku Ssäm that is rice wrapped in a flour pancake with the pork, onions, edamame, shiitake and red kimchi puree. Also, an item from the Noodle Bar menu, the steamed buns, were also included on this menu.

I went simple with the Bibb lettuce Ssäm with beef, red kimchee puree, shiitakes, cucumbers, bean sprouts and whipped tofu. The other additions just didn’t seem to sound as though they’d mix well together. We also chose an order of the steamed pork buns, since they were carryover from Momofuku Noodle Bar.

I find it curious when a chef leaves the diners’ fate in their own hands. A wrong combination and a meal can go completely awry. In my case, it was fine, but I felt that the beef could’ve been shredded or cut smaller to be easier to wrap in the lettuce. I loved the whipped tofu, but it required a healthy dose squirt of Sriracha. The pork buns were delicious and perfectly balanced, and I know now why people rave about them. But everything else was just fine, and unfortunately, nothing was memorable.

I’ll definitely try to get into Momofuku Noodle Bar again sometime, and perhaps even stop at the Ssäm Bar again, as they have grand plans to extend their hours, and I hope change or add to their menu. But for now, I’ll stick with good ol’ Koreatown for my ssäm cravings.

Seoul Garden
34 W. 32nd Street, 2nd Floor, between 5th Ave/Broadway (Garment District/Koreatown)
New York, NY 10001
(212) 564-8200
Subway: B/D/F/N/Q/R/V/W to 34th Street
Bus: M2/3/4/5/6/7 to 34th Street; Q32 to 6th Avenue/Broadway


Although I have a favorite restaurant in Koreatown (Kunjip), I am open-minded when it comes to food, so when a good friend recommended that we try Seoul Garden, I was game. Also known as Natural Tofu, this second floor establishment has a great location amongst the Korean restaurant biggies (Kum Gang San and Kang Suh). To be honest, I’m not quite sure how she found Seoul Garden; walking down 32nd Street between Broadway and Fifth Avenue, you’d be surprised to see how many Korean restaurants can be crammed into one small block. To try each of them (and to be disappointed, mostly) is an endeavor.

As I climbed the stairs with a rickety railing to enter the restaurant, there were a number of people climbing up or down, crowding the staircase. The stairway had a damp moldy smell and was dimly lit, but this did not deter me.

A table for two was hard to come by, and similar to Chinese restaurants in Chinatown, we were asked if we would mind sharing a table. The restaurant décor was definitely lacking; tables almost looked as though they had been set up cafeteria-style, which would benefit large groups or families. We were seated at a table for six, directly across from a waiter station, and a bit too close to the bathrooms (guarded and blocked by a screen).

We were asked twice within minutes of sitting down if we knew what we’d like to order. I wasn’t expecting stellar service, but this was ridiculous… we hadn’t even received menus yet! Since this restaurant’s other identity was Natural Tofu, I thought it wise to at least try one tofu dish on the menu. My friend ordered a combination plate of soon dubu (spicy soft tofu soup) and kalbi (beef short ribs). I had a very homestyle dish of kong biji chigae (ground bean stew with pork). The menu was relatively expansive, covering a fair number of Korean dishes. After we ordered, another twosome was seated at the other end of our table.

The kalbi was unfortunate: overcooked and sliced too thin, this was obviously budget kalbi (perhaps because it came with the well-priced combination dish?). The meat also had not been trimmed well, so bites consisted of chewy fat and gristle. It also tasted as if it had been cooked earlier, reheated and then served… perhaps, their method of getting people in and out quickly.

The soon dubu soup was unnoteworthy. My friend commented that the soup tasted like instant soup with MSG. And that was exactly how my kong biji chigae tasted, very MSG-laden. It also had a very murky color, which isn’t the way it’s supposed to look. When I had kong biji in Seoul (the best I’ve ever had… in Seoul they have places dedicated to one specific dish, like kong biji), the color was bright, and the finely ground beans still maintained an even color.

The best perk of Korean food is the banchan, the small plates that are served with your meal. Almost like a meal in and of itself, banchan accompanies all Korean meals, and they’re always free (unless you go to some of these new trendy Korean spots that will charge you for them). Unfortunately, this banchan was no perk. One of ours was a leftover cold chicken cutlet sliced. It tasted old. Nothing was exciting, nothing tasted good.

Overall, this was probably the worst Korean restaurant I’ve been to in America. Although our food was brought out quickly, we didn’t receive menus upon sitting, yet were asked to order. None of our banchan was replenished. And after we finished, we immediately received our check. We let it sit, in order to continue our conversation, but the waiters hovered over us, ready to clear us out and let the next twosome in.

The only compliment I can give Seoul Garden is that their busboys are well-trained. Our dishes were cleared immediately after we finished, and they continually refilled our water throughout our meal, a less common trait amongst Asian restaurants in general. And if that was the best part of the meal, I cannot imagine why anyone would want to try Seoul Garden.