Nudibranch – East Village's sea-slug-named ode to Korea and Spain

Nudibranch occupies a narrow room at 125 First Avenue in the East Village, the place where chefs Jeffrey Kim and Matthew Lee turned a pandemic-era pop-up into a permanent restaurant in March 2022. The name comes from a scuba dive off the coast of Indonesia, where the pair encountered the tiny, improbably coloured sea slugs that gave the place its sense of purpose: food that is unexpected, vivid and built for closer looking. The kitchen reads Korean fermentation against Spanish habit, so a mushroom dish finished with raw egg yolk sits on the same menu as jamón ibérico and a porrón of wine passed down the table. It holds a place in the MICHELIN Guide, which lists its cooking as Contemporary and Asian, and the restaurant has drawn attention well beyond the neighbourhood since opening, including a nod from Esquire as one of the best new restaurants in America. Portions are small, built for sharing, and the room rarely feels like it is trying too hard to prove any of this.

01The chefs

Jeffrey Kim and Matthew Lee built their partnership in other people's kitchens before opening their own. Kim started as a busser at Momofuku Ssäm Bar and worked his way through line-cook posts at Atoboy, Eleven Madison Park and Jua in New York, as well as a stage at El Celler de Can Roca in Spain. Lee began at Joule in Seattle before moving to New York to cook at Jungsik, Momofuku Ko and Jua, the restaurant where the two chefs' paths properly crossed.

The restaurant began life as a pop-up in 2020, a project born largely from pandemic circumstance. Originally opened in 2022 after getting its start as a pop-up in 2020, Nudibranch quietly built a reputation for itself as a destination for globally inspired cooking, and the brick-and-mortar room opened a few doors from the original pop-up site. The new home of Nudibranch recently debuted at 125 First Ave. between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place, after Nudibranch got its start as a pop-up restaurant across the way at 130 First Ave. In the kitchen today, Jiwon Bang runs as chef de cuisine alongside sous chef Josue Salvador Jr.

02The room and the setting

The dining room was designed by architects Gunnar Burke and Lindsay Reichart AIA, with furniture by Kyle Sheth, and the result reads as something between a bistro and a well-stocked study. It looks a little like a chic, farmhouse library, with a long high-top parallel with the bar near the entrance, a banquette along the far right wall and a row of wood grain-patterned tables in-between, almost equally white and oak-hued across surfaces of exposed brick and shining tiles, with potted plants and a few populated book shelves poised throughout. It's electric, but humming, not blaring, surprisingly roomy considering the small space, and fine for low-stakes private conversations. A long communal table sits under a modern mural, a detail that turns up in the restaurant's own photography of the room.

Insider tip

Open Wednesday to Sunday evenings; à la carte menu, small shareable plates, porrón service.

03The cooking and what to order

The menu has not stood still. The East Village pop-up-turned-brick-and-mortar traded in its signature prix-fixe menus for à la carte, leaning more into its Korean and Spanish sensibilities. Nudibranch's biggest Korean cooking influence shows up in the use of fermented ingredients, like fermented Fresno chiles used for a housemade hot sauce that appears in a fried chicken sandwich. Other dishes nod toward Spain's own borrowed influences: an oxtail tagine nods to the Moroccan influences in Spanish cuisine, as well as Caribbean influences the chefs have encountered elsewhere.

One dish has never left the menu. The signature mushroom dish has been on the menu since day one, a pile of roasted mushrooms under a raw egg yolk and crumbed breadcrumbs, rich enough that diners are warned not to leave without it. Start instead, or alongside, with fried frog legs finished with bright galangal and lemongrass, then move to a golden and crisp dry-aged branzino with Korean sweet potato and beurre blanc and a side of spicy cucumber kimchi. The restaurant's own photography also shows a soba dish built on sea urchin, red fish roe and garlic panko, thin-sliced jamón ibérico served with green chilies, a cavatelli tossed with n'duja and pecorino, and a Denver steak finished with smoked chimichurri in a mushroom jus. For dessert, the rich and creamy masala chai tres leches cake is a delightful way to end the meal. More recently, the kitchen's 14-day dry-aged duck has drawn its own following: Nudibranch's 14-day dry-aged duck topped a New York food critics' roundup of best dishes, served with lavender, nori rice, and scallion pancakes, called one of the best duck dishes going.

04Wine and drinks

The MICHELIN Guide's own facility notes flag an interesting wine list, and the restaurant leans into a social, shared style of drinking that matches the food. Nudibranch is a Korean-Spanish restaurant with thoughtful small plates and juicy wines in a modern, chic space in the East Village, plus cocktails and porrons. The communal jug-and-cup Spanish wine vessel turns up often enough on tables that it has become something of a house signature. Cocktails rotate through the seasons, built by beverage manager Sammi Schachter and head bartender Astrid Martinez; the restaurant's own gallery shows a Dongchimi Martini finished tableside with a dropper, and an Oaxacan Old Fashioned served with a single cherry.

05When to go and booking

Nudibranch runs Wednesday through Sunday evenings, with service that stretches later toward the weekend; hours of operation run Mon–Thu 5:30 pm to 10:00 pm, and Fri–Sat 5:30 pm to 11:30 pm, per the restaurant's own OpenTable listing read in October 2026. The à la carte format means walk-ins at the bar are a reasonable option for a quick plate and a glass of wine, though the room is small and books up for dinner on weekends. The restaurant's recognitions have kept accumulating since opening: a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence arrived in July 2025, following earlier nods from Esquire and The Infatuation in 2022, according to the restaurant's own press page.

06The neighbourhood

First Avenue between Seventh Street and St Mark's Place sits at the quieter, more residential edge of the East Village, away from the bar-crawl density of Avenue A but still a short walk from Tompkins Square Park. The pop-up that preceded the restaurant traded a few doors down the same block, giving Nudibranch a neighbourhood history that predates its own address — a small, local arc that mirrors the slow-built, word-of-mouth reputation the restaurant has traded on ever since.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.