Mari – the convenience-store roll, reinvented in Hell's Kitchen

On Ninth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen, Mari treats the Korean hand roll as a complete idea for fine dining rather than a quick bite from a corner store. It is chef Sungchul Shim's second restaurant, opened in December 2021 as a companion to his nearby Kochi, the skewer counter where he first made his name. Mari, whose name simply means "roll" in Korean, pairs that street-food memory with an extensive wine list and a selection of Korean spirits such as soju and makgeolli. Dinner unfolds as a tightly plotted tasting menu built largely around seaweed-wrapped rolls and a handful of warm, savoury courses, eaten at a counter set around an open kitchen or in a cosier room behind it. Mari earned its own recognition fast: it holds One MICHELIN Star, awarded first in 2022 and held in every edition since.

01The room and the setting

The address gives little away. Inside, the bright, intimate space features engaging counter-style seating around an open kitchen, with a cosy outdoor dining area that is heated once the weather turns colder, alongside a quieter room of tables for larger groups.

The layout favours the counter: a u-shaped bar at the front, tables tucked further back for bigger parties. At the door, an arrangement of flowers marks the turn from the traffic of Ninth Avenue into a calmer room, and regulars tend to angle for a counter seat precisely to watch the rolls come together course by course.

02The chef

Sungchul Shim was born and raised in the Korean province of Jeollanam-do, and grew up cooking in his family's kitchen for large gatherings and parties, before working in acclaimed kitchens including Le Bernardin, Per Se, Morimoto and Neta in Greenwich Village. In October 2019 he opened his first solo project, Kochi, a nine-course tasting menu of Korean skewered dishes that went on to receive one MICHELIN Star.

Insider tip

Book 30 days ahead at midnight; menu unsuitable for vegetarian, vegan or several allergy diets.

Mari, opened two years later, is Shim's reinterpretation of a different piece of Korean everyday food: the kimbap roll sold in every convenience store in Seoul. At the pass today is chef de cuisine Feridun Fangaj, running the kitchen alongside Shim's wider Sung Shim Food Group, which also operates Kochi a few blocks away.

03The cooking

The hand rolls at the centre of the menu are shaped like small tacos rather than the cylindrical maki most diners know, a shape Shim has said was inspired by kimbap, Korea's everyday rice-and-seaweed snack. The rice itself follows kimbap tradition rather than sushi orthodoxy: seasoned not with vinegar but with sesame seed and sesame oil, then mixed with scallion and daikon, while the fish is marinated in one of three soy-based sauces for as long as three days before it is served.

Earlier versions of the tasting menu opened with a bracing salmon and caviar roll and closed with an A5 Wagyu finale built on a bulgogi marinade; the kitchen moves the menu with the seasons, and the current line-up opens instead with a kimbap of striped jack, halloumi and koji barley, and ends with a doughnut built on gochujang and ganjang.

04What to order

The current seasonal tasting menu, read on Mari's own site in October 2026, runs through a kimbap of striped jack, halloumi cheese and koji barley; a naengchae of cactus, Jimmy Nardello pepper and tiger melon; hand rolls of salmon, mushroom, fluke and spicy tuna; a sablefish course and a savoury mille-feuille; deulkkae guksu, buckwheat noodles in a truffle perilla sauce with zucchini jeon; a corn bingsu of doenjang dulce de leche and sujeonggwa shaved ice; and, to finish, a chewy mochi doughnut seasoned with gochujang, ganjang, fig leaf and a cherry crumble.

05Wine and drinks

Mari's tasting menu is complemented by an extensive wine list and a selection of Korean spirits like soju and makgeolli, alongside a formal wine pairing. Guests who prefer something closer to home can instead add a Sool pairing of Korean alcohol matched to each course, an option that runs alongside the standard wine pairing on the menu.

06When to go and booking

Mari seats Monday to Thursday and Sunday from 5pm to 9.30pm, and Friday and Saturday from 5pm to 10pm, according to its own site in October 2026. Reservations are released thirty days in advance and go live at midnight daily, and the kitchen asks that guests arrive on time, since it cannot guarantee the full menu to anyone more than fifteen minutes late. Because every course is built around raw and soy-cured seafood, Mari is unable to accommodate vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, rice-free or egg-free diets, nor allergies to fish, allium, soy or sesame.

07The neighbourhood

Mari sits on Hell's Kitchen's Ninth Avenue, between 46th and 47th Streets, in a stretch of Manhattan better known for pre-theatre crowds than tasting counters. Shim runs it a few blocks from his other MICHELIN-starred restaurant, Kochi, making this one small patch of Hell's Kitchen a quiet capital for Korean fine dining.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.