Atomix – Korean storytelling behind a Murray Hill door

Behind a near-anonymous townhouse door on East 30th Street, Junghyun “JP” Park and his wife Ellia Park run one of the most studied tasting counters in New York. Atomix opened on 30 May 2018 in the NoMad neighbourhood as the more considered sibling to the couple's banchan bar Atoboy, built for guests who want to go deeper into Park's reading of Korean cuisine through a single nightly tasting menu. Downstairs, a U-shaped, fourteen-seat counter wraps around the open kitchen; upstairs, a six-seat bar runs a shorter menu of its own. It holds Two MICHELIN Stars, awarded in 2021 and held ever since. The accolades keep stacking: three stars from the New York Times, the James Beard Award for New York State's Best Chef in 2023, and, in 2025, first place on the inaugural North America's 50 Best Restaurants list. For a room with barely twenty seats in total, its reach has become extraordinary.

01The room and the setting

Guests arrive into a two-storey lounge with a stone floor and scattered geometric sofas, somewhere to take a drink before the stairs lead down to the counter proper: fourteen grey-suede chairs set around a U-shaped, black-granite bar that looks straight into the kitchen pass. The design is credited to Studio Writers, trading the dark-wood clichés of fine dining for something closer to a quiet gallery.

There are no printed menus. Instead, each of the evening's courses arrives on its own card, presented alongside bespoke ceramics, explaining the dish's inspiration, origin and ingredients. It is part of a wider intention: Park has said he wants Atomix's ceramics, cards and interiors, all crafted by Korean designers, to double as a showcase for Korean artists and artisans.

02The chef

Park trained first in food science before turning to kitchens, taking apprenticeships in Finland, London and Australia to make up for a lack of classical training. Back in Seoul, he worked at the two-MICHELIN-starred Jungsik, and in 2011 he crossed to New York to help open its American outpost, which still holds two stars today.

Insider tip

Book via Tock; Chef's Counter has no vegan, vegetarian or celiac options.

In 2016, Park and his wife Jeongeun “Ellia” Park opened Atoboy, a casual room that put Korean side dishes, or banchan, at the centre of the meal while folding in French technique. Atomix followed in 2018 as a more refined version of the same vision. The couple's company, NA:EUN Hospitality Group, also runs Atoboy, the restaurant Naro and the cocktail bar Seoul Salon.

03The cooking

On opening night in 2018, the ten-course tasting moved from golden-eye snapper dressed in jinjang and mustard, to grilled langoustine with nasturtium and anise hyssop, before settling into Wagyu finished with fermented pear juice and garlic. The menu is rewritten constantly rather than following a repeating formula: traditional Korean ferments, seafood and seasonal produce are reconsidered course by course, pushed through contemporary technique rather than repeated from season to season.

04What to order

Because the Chef's Counter menu changes with the seasons, there is no fixed list of signature plates — only the current narrative. Recent menus have moved through scallop with gim bugak and mustard kimchi, littleneck clams with dashima and chrysanthemum, abalone with pomegranate and red cabbage, lobster with white asparagus and cheongju, and squab finished with a garlic ganjang sauce.

Upstairs, the six-seat Bar Tasting is a separate, shorter menu developed by Atomix's R&D chef and served with its own beverage pairing — distinct from the Chef's Counter in content, length and format. Worth noting before booking: the Chef's Counter cannot accommodate vegan, vegetarian or celiac diets, nor allergies to fish, shellfish, dairy, gluten or alliums.

05When to go and booking

Reservations open on Tock and tend to disappear quickly; the Chef's Counter seats twice nightly, at 5:30pm and 8:45pm, with no walk-up option. Diners who bring their own bottle pay a corkage fee of $100 per 750ml, limited to two bottles.

The restaurant sits in NoMad, close enough to Koreatown's late-night barbecue rooms that Park's modern Korean cooking reads as both a continuation of that neighbourhood and a deliberate departure from it.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.