8282 – the Lower East Side's hurry-up take on Korean food

On a stretch of Stanton Street that longtime residents still call Loisaida, 8282 took over the old Meatball Shop storefront in November 2021 and turned it into something unapologetically its own: modern Korean cooking served fast, loud and without ceremony. The name is a small joke that doubles as a mission statement — +82 is Korea's international dialling code, and read aloud the digits echo a Korean phrase meaning quickly, or faster, the get-it-done energy that runs through the kitchen. Behind it is a married couple, chef Bong Le Jo and Jee Kim, who previously ran Pado in the East Village before building this 33-seat room with a bar to one side and a handful of outdoor tables on the street. It holds the MICHELIN Bib Gourmand distinction, awarded since 2023, the Guide's recognition for excellent cooking at a fair price, and it has become one of the Lower East Side's most talked-about tables.

01The room and the setting

8282 occupies the space a beloved meatball shop vacated, a modest storefront that chef Bong Le Jo and Jee Kim reopened on Stanton Street in November 2021 after Pado, their previous restaurant in the East Village, closed in the fall of 2020.

The dining room seats just thirty-three, with a small bar along one side; at busy hours it runs loud but never so much that conversation is lost. Weather permitting, a run of outdoor tables spills onto Stanton Street, giving diners a ringside seat on the Lower East Side's parade of downtown fashion and mixed crowds that the neighbourhood, still nicknamed Loisaida by those who remember its grittier decades, is known for.

02The chef and the couple behind it

Bong Le Jo's training began in Koreatown and was sharpened in the kitchens of Perry St, Dovetail and Kissaki, the technical grounding he carried into 8282's modern Korean menu. He runs the kitchen; Jee Kim, who had previously launched fashion and lifestyle brands and worked as a truffle distributor in Seoul, oversees the floor and the restaurant's direction as co-founder and managing partner.

Insider tip

Dinner only, five nights a week; book ahead given the small room.

The pair were both born in Korea and spent formative years there before emigrating to the United States, and that grounding shows in how unforced the cooking feels — confident enough in its Korean roots that it doesn't need to perform authenticity, only flavour.

03The cooking

The menu is built around two Korean drinking-food categories: Anju, small plates meant to be eaten alongside alcohol, and Banju, the larger shared plates that pair good food with good drink. It's a structure lifted straight from Korean bar culture and reset for a Lower East Side crowd that wants to order widely and share everything.

Dishes move between comfort and refinement without much warning — a bowl of golden and red beets with tomato kimchi and burrata sits a few lines from sweet shrimp and uni tartare over seasoned sushi rice, while grilled octopus with roasted squash and gochugaru vinaigrette shares a page with soy-braised honey BBQ ribs.

04What to order

Start with the Boneless K.F.C., fried chicken thighs in soy garlic sauce with shishito peppers and pickled radish, or the Golden Beets & Kimchi Salad with burrata and yuzu kosho vinaigrette. The Littleneck Soojebi — steamed clams in a black pepper soy and butter scallion broth — is worth the extra course.

From the Banju side, the Dakgalbi Kimchi-Bap (gochujang chicken over braised kimchi rice with mozzarella) and the Jjajang Bori-Bap, seared scallops and shrimp in black bean sauce over barley, show the kitchen's instinct for comfort food rebuilt with sharper technique. The Honey Miso Glazed Black Cod and Grilled Lamb Chops with ssamjang harissa carry the table through a bigger night, and a $70-per-person prix fixe bundles a daily chef's-choice canapé with a first course, second course and dessert. For dessert, the Honey Yakgwa — a Korean cookie with barley crumble, black sesame cream and lemon gel — and the Injeolmi Ice Cream, dusted with Korean multi-grain, honey and Parmesan, close the meal on the restaurant's own terms rather than anyone else's.

05Drinks

The bar programme leans into the same playfulness as the kitchen: a Gochujang Margarita built on Tres Agaves tequila and yuzu, a Jeju Old Fashioned made with Suntory Toki whisky and Hallabong syrup, and a cocktail called Seoulstice that layers Old Overholt rye with a red wine floater, pamplemousse, ume and elderflower. A $38 flight offers a daily selection of three Korean spirits, designed to run before, during or after the meal, alongside a short list of zero-proof options for anyone sitting out the soju.

06When to go and booking

8282 opens for dinner only, 5.30 to 10.30pm Monday to Thursday and Sunday, and 5.30 to 11.30pm on Friday and Saturday, as listed on the restaurant's own site in October 2026. Given the thirty-three-seat room and the Bib Gourmand crowd it now draws, booking ahead is the safer plan, though the bar holds a handful of seats for guests who turn up without one.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.