Corridor 109

chef brian baik has an impressive resume working at bouley, emp, the chef’s table at brookyln fare, and sushi noz. he’s now doing dinner pop-ups at his parent’s kobawoo house for only 16 diners every monday. reminds me a lot of kato 1.0.

come for the excellent seafood, leave for your next bang.

shout out to @rlw and @chrishei.

spot prawn & caviar tartlet, ebi miso, vidalia onions, wasabi, citrus
:peacock: :peacock: :peacock: :peacock:

jeju island fluke with ensui uni, citrus soy gelee, myoga ginger, shiso oil
:peacock: :peacock: :peacock:

hyogo iwashi toast, homemade milk bread, pickled red peppers, aioli
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dish of the night, i could eat 12 of these, the pickled red peppers for some sweetness was a nice surprise. the bread’s thickness and density is perfectly dialed in.

toyama hotaru ika, weiser farm potato, squid ink onion sauce
:peacock: :peacock: :peacock: :peacock:

yamaguchi red tile fish, tile fish broth, parae seaweed, tokyo turnips
:peacock: :peacock:
unfortunately some of the scales weren’t completely fried and detracted from the dish.

katsuo with pesto, spaghetti, shallots, grated ginger
:peacock: :peacock: :peacock: :peacock: :peacock:
loved this dish too, perfectly cooked pasta and the shallots and ginger were greats complements for the katsuo.

nagasaki nodoguro, blue crab bouillabaisse
:peacock: :peacock: :peacock: :peacock: :peacock:
one of the best cooked nodoguro outside of hayato in a delicious and intense crab bouillabaisse.

megai abalone risotto, koshihikari rice, preserved black truffle, gamtae seaweed
:peacock: :peacock: :peacock: :peacock:
really impressed how tender the abalone was and the rice had a nice chew, didn’t taste much of the truffle.

yuzu sorbet, macerated strawberries
:peacock: :peacock: :peacock:

Corridor 109
698 S Vermont Ave #109
Los Angeles, CA 90005

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Don’t see @moonboy403 :man_shrugging:

Agree with Porky’s notes. This is a :star2: in waiting. I’d go the other way on the tachiuo dish though (skin was fine on mine and had a very nice Korean flavor profile: :peacock: :peacock: :peacock: :peacock:), and katsuo (only real miss IMO, felt like 2 different dishes in one and the pesto was too sweet: :peacock: :peacock:). No expenses spared in sourcing, which is reflected in the price, but yes definitely plan for a bang^2.

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you didn’t bang^2 together? @PorkyBelly

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We already had another to bang :wink:

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Because a quality dinner is much like a 3-legged stool, if you try to move one leg while leaving the other two in place, it just doesn’t work. :smiling_imp:

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Glad to see a post on the food! Brian is killing it. Super humble guy that works hard as hell and really obsesses over every detail. The amount of prep that goes into the iwashi toast is crazy - that dish is a labor of love.

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are you talking about the tilefish?

:disguised_face:

^me doing my best bladdison across from @PorkyBelly

Spot Prawn & Caviar Tartlet

:roll_eyes: :roll_eyes: :roll_eyes: :roll_eyes:

A real banger of an opener. A couple small bites I’ve had recently like this were overpowered with wasabi to my taste, but this was very well balanced. I really liked the slight sweetness in the onions as well.

Jeju Island Fluke with Ensui Uni, Citrus Soy Gelee, Myoga Ginger, Shiso Oil

:roll_eyes: :roll_eyes: :roll_eyes:

A solid follow up of three bites.

Hyogo Iwashi Toast, Homemade Milk Bread, Pickled Red Peppers, Aioli

As @PorkyBelly said, “dish of the night”! We told them to just keep them coming and we’ll tell them when to stop. I wonder how many times they tried to get that bread to the optimum thickness.

Toyama Hotaru Ika, Weiser Farm Potato, Squid Ink Onion Sauce

:roll_eyes: :roll_eyes: :roll_eyes:

A very well cooked potato with some cute squidies.

Yamaguchi Red Tile Fish, Tile Fish Broth, Parae Seaweed, Tokyo Turnips

:roll_eyes: :roll_eyes: :roll_eyes:

The fish itself was well cooked and the broth was quite flavorful, but it was overall brought down by some uncooked scales.

Katsuo with Pesto, Spaghetti, Shallots, Grated Ginger

:roll_eyes: :roll_eyes: :roll_eyes: :roll_eyes: :roll_eyes:

The clear second best dish of the night–perfectly sauced noodles with a surprisingly great pairing of ginger.

Nagasaki Nodoguro, Blue Crab Bouillabaisse

:roll_eyes: :roll_eyes: :roll_eyes: :roll_eyes:

Another expertly cooked piece of fish, but I personally found the bouillabaise to be a bit too strong to my palate.

Megai Abalone Risotto, Koshihikari Rice, Preserved Black Truffle, Gamtae Seaweed

:roll_eyes: :roll_eyes: :roll_eyes: :roll_eyes:

The abalone slices were thin, but the risotto was toothsome and worked well in big bites. The seaweed was a bit too soft that it was a bit difficult to eat with the rest of the dish, but when I managed to get it all at the same time it was pretty great.

Yuzu Sorbet, Macerated Strawberries

:roll_eyes: :roll_eyes: :roll_eyes:

Sorbet may be underrated.

I’m quite excited to see where Chef Brian goes from here. It did feel a bit like very early Kato and I can see him and the team getting there—they already have a signature bite in the Iwashi Toast.

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I guess it’s actually amedai :wink:

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Actually the fish is eMedia. :crazy_face:

Food looks great. Bouillabaisse strong as in too flavorful or too salty?

It wasn’t over salted, just super flavorful. So a win for some, but a bit too intense for me personally.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc4P11nL_ak/

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Thanks for posting about this… I coordinated to hop on a voice call with a friend so both of us could try to grab tickets and he managed to snag an 8:30 pm slot (by the time I managed to switch seatings, maybe a second after him, it was already sold out). Hoping to see some of you there :slight_smile:

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Menu

Iwashi Tartlet
gamtae seaweed, anchovy sauce, sunchoke puree, ginger, chive
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Good, but not as good as the impression I got from everyone’s review of the iwashi toast. Nice sardine, but apart from the interesting crisp it was sitting on, not a whole lot else was distinguishable.

Scallop Foie Gras Tartlet
squid ink saffron aioli, fig marmalade, trout roe, champagne gelee
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Incredible, possibly the bite of the year. Overtones of caramalized honey, probably from the fig marmalade. Scallop was texturally robust and stood up to everything else piled on top of it. The foie was almost redundant (though I don’t think it was unnecessary or distracting).

Katsuo
nori sauce, spring onions, shiso flowers
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By itself, the katsuo was absolutely flawless. The nori sauce was deeply unlike anything I’ve ever had before - it was almost like a puree. Unlike what you might expect it wasn’t particularly salty or ocean-flavored; definitely packed quite a bit of umami but more in the “unidentifiable mixture of delicious vegetables” direction. Very good counterpoint to the fish. There was a bit of shiso oil, and I wish there’d actually been more, since it also paired very well with the katsuo.

Tang Pyeong Chae with Truffle
mung bean jelly salad, house-made perilla oil, American wagyu sirloin
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We were instructed to mix it up thoroughly before eating. Once again, very far afield from anything I’ve had before. Possible the first(?) dish I’ve ever eaten when I actually noticed any flavors imparted directly by shaved truffles (not counting things cooked with truffles), and it was quite good, in a fairly funky way. Great mix of textures with the thin strips of beef, various shaved vegetables, jelly noodles, etc.

Kawahagi with Caviar
new potato, creme fraiche, liver sauce, chives, astrea caviar
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I must really not be a caviar person because that was the only part of this dish that I didn’t get. The potato, fish, chives, and liver sauce were all perfect together. The caviar was perfect too, but :person_shrugging:

Awabi
mushroom, liver sauce, Damsoul pine glaze, kombu
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Abalone was very well cooked - super tender - but possibly outshone by the mushrooms. Liver sauce was fantastic, could just use a bucket of that stuff. (Liver seems to be something of a recurring theme, here. Can’t say I disagree with it.) The kombu was cute - very dry, interesting flavor, needed just a little bit with each bite.

Soongchae Mandu
beef cheek, napa cabbage, Chinese chive, garlic scape, beef jus
:robot: :robot: :robot: :robot: :robot:
Totally unexpected hit. Super tender beef cheek inside the cabbage wrapping, incredible depth of flavor in the beef jus; this could easily be a centerpiece dish at a 3-star restaurant.

Tachiuo with Dungeness Crab
koshihikari rice, licorice, pickled ramps
:robot: :robot: :robot: :robot:
The beltfish was good - perfectly cooked, crispy skin, the works. At the end of the day, though, it was “just” fish. The rice was carrying this dish - excellent bite, taken over the top by the crab mixed in. Just give me a bowl of that for lunch… every day.

(Pickled ramps were also :ok_hand:)

Lamb Kalguksu
wheat flour noodles, perilla, deodeok, fiddlehead
:robot: :robot: :robot:
The noodles were excellent, as was the broth, but the lamb was a bit too gamey. If it’d been less gamey this would have been an easy 4-:robot: dish.

Rice Cake, ???
:robot:
I didn’t manage to catch what the other thing on the plate was. Sorry to say but these were both total whiffs. Possibly I just didn’t understand the intention here, but the rice cake was texturally a bit paste-like and the other thing was almost entirely flavorless, with not a whole lot going on in the texture department either.

Omija Lemon Sorbet
:robot: :robot: :robot: :robot:
On the other hand, this was delicious and I want to buy pints of it now. My first time having omija, and wow, they sure aren’t kidding about the “five flavors”. (I think I only teased apart 3, but that’s more than most things have!)

Despite the weird whiff with the first dessert item, this was easily one of the best meals of my life. Many of the 4-:robot: ratings were borderline 5s; someone with different tastes could’ve swung the other way on them - i.e. literally everything between the scallop tartlet and the mandu. Huge density of novel (to me) flavors, flawless cooking, even the settings were perfect - and I don’t usually pay those much attention. Possibly the most incredible part was that I wasn’t hungry at the end :eyes:

Hopefully both chefs set up shop somewhere I can more regularly patronize :drooling_face:

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great review. did they collab on each course or did they just alternate courses?

benu does a nice omija sorbet too.

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My impression from the way they described the dishes as they were coming out was that, at the very least, some of the dishes were primarily the work (or inspiration) of one person. e.g. the tang pyeong chae and the mandu were both Jang (as was the rice cake :sweat_smile:).

Good to know about Benu… I might find myself in the Bay in the near future, though I have a long list to work through there.

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@PorkyBelly this one bite is what I want over and over every time I eat Brian’s food. The best there is and reminds me so much about CTBF’s nigiri neta and toast together! Can’t wait until he establishes a location somewhere around Ktown :crossed_fingers:

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Anyone score a rez this month? Going on the 28th, excited.

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bite of the year. so good we preemptively ordered two.

i’m not sure if this is a japanese/spanish play on an anchovy, pepper pintxos but it’s brilliant either way. there’s a bit of sourness from the vinegar, sweetness from the peppers, creaminess from the aioli and fatty oils dripping from the iwashi with a touch of binchotan charcoal. all on a slightly toasted, spot on piece of milk bread. pro tip, order two.

@rlw review forthcoming?

iwashi toast - homemade milk bread, pickled red peppers, aioli

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… so tasty, and so sustainable too.

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