Nuri Steakhouse has a new chef, and the Uptown restaurant is leaning harder into its Korean roots because of it. Kyungwon Kim, who goes by Ky, has been named executive chef at the Cedar Springs steakhouse, and his first menu is already on the tables.
Kim was born in Korea and comes to Dallas from New York, where he spent three years at Daniel, Daniel Boulud’s flagship on the Upper East Side. He started on the line there and worked his way up to executive sous chef. Before that he was sous chef at Oiji Mi, the Michelin-starred Korean restaurant in the Flatiron District, after years spent cooking in New York’s Korean kitchens.
That mix of French discipline and Korean cooking is exactly what owner Wan Kim was looking for. The Smoothie King CEO, who is no relation to the chef, opened Nuri in August 2024 after a buildout that topped $16 million, with a menu that originally bounced between Seoul, New Orleans and Texas. The name means “whole world” in Korean. Under the new chef, the Korean side of that world moves to the front of the room.
“Nuri was created to bring people and cultures together around the table,” Wan Kim said. “This next chapter gives that vision a clearer Korean point of view.”
For the chef, it starts at home. Some of his earliest food memories are of eating with his grandparents in Korea, especially their homemade kimchi, and he talks about those dishes less as recipes to copy than as a feeling he wants to hold onto. “I want guests to experience Korean food through my perspective,” he said. “I use flavors that are personal to me, and I want to work more with local Texas farms and ingredients. The menu shows where I come from and what I want Nuri to become.”
Here is what that looks like on the plate. The Hamachi & Chamoe Crudo pairs hamachi with chamoe, the small yellow Korean melon, stuffed with snow crab and cucumber, all dressed in a Korean pear, gooseberry and kombu-cucumber vinaigrette. The Korean Ceviche takes its cue from mulhoe, the chilled raw fish dish Koreans eat in the summer, and sets fluke with chili vinaigrette, sesame leaf and stone fruit.
The Caviar Service swaps out the blinis for gamja-jeon, crisp Korean potato pancakes, and adds tamagoyaki, finger lime and citrus zest. Bibimyeon, the Korean cold noodle dish, comes cool and bright with seasonal vegetables, soy, tahini, chili oil and scallion oil.
The steaks get the same treatment. Nuri still builds its beef program around Texas Akaushi, and the new Steak Service sends it out with a house-made steak sauce, ssamjang and seasoned salt, the same way you would dress a piece of meat at a Korean barbecue table. Then there is the Cowboy Crab Cake, the most Texan thing on the new list. It is a jumbo lump crab cake topped with avocado and served with roasted Texas sweet peppers stuffed with more crab, charred scallion, Rio Grande Valley citrus and a romesco made with regional peppers.
The rest of the operation stays in place. Master Sommelier Barbara Werley still runs a wine program of more than 1,300 selections, one that earned a Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence, and the art deco dining room that made Nuri one of the most talked-about openings of 2024 is still the showpiece it was at opening. What has changed is the voice coming out of the kitchen, and it has a Korean accent.
“In Korean culture, sharing food is how we connect,” the chef said. “I want guests to feel that at Nuri and have an approachable way to experience Korean food, even if the flavors are new to them.”
Nuri Steakhouse is at 2401 Cedar Springs Rd., Suite 120, across from Uchi. It serves dinner nightly starting at 5 p.m. Reservations are recommended at (469) 270-1745.
