Kisa

The set meal at Kisa buys one main, rice, soup and a metal tray of banchan: soy-marinated shrimp, a rolled omelet, mung bean jelly, crispy jeon.1

Why go

David JoonWoo Yun and Steve JaeWoo Choi, who run C as in Charlie in Noho, built this one with Yong Min Kim to evoke the taxi-driver restaurants of Korea, where cheap and fast come first.2 The room has rotating fans and VHS tapes, and you make one decision at the table: which of the four mains.1 Eater NY made it Best New Restaurant in 2024, and the James Beard Foundation made it a Best New Restaurant semifinalist the following year.2 4 The tray changes with the season: potato jorim with big chunks of slow-cooked beef one night, sodduk sodduk with gochujang-glazed sausages and chewy rice cakes the next.1

Order this / avoid

Order: the spicy pork. Bryan Kim calls it deeply marinated and speckled with char, and it is his go-to.1
Order: the bulgogi if you want the sweeter one, sliced into smoky ribbons.1
Order: a black bean latte out of the machine by the door on your way out. Eater says it is complimentary; Kim says the server hands you the quarter.2 1
Avoid: ordering either spicy dish for heat. Kim says the pork is not especially spicy and the squid is a bit one-note.1
Avoid: counting on free refills. Morgan Carter: While the restaurant initially offered free refills of banchan, that is no longer. Minus the kimchi, refills will cost you $2 per side.5

What locals & experts say

Bryan Kim, The Infatuation, 17 May 2024, rating it 8.5: At $32 for a comprehensive homestyle set meal, this retro diner from the folks behind C as in Charlie is one of the best deals on the Lower East Side. Factor in the cool list of Korean rice wines, coin-operated coffee machine, and bottomless banchan, and it's a no-brainer.1
Kim on where the cooking is: The entrees are truly nothing fancy, but the various banchan go above and beyond.1
Morgan Carter, Time Out New York, 31 January 2025, rated 4 of 5: The gamjatang is a pork-bone soup simmered in gochujang, garlic and soybean paste; the donkatsu is a breaded pork cutlet under a Worcestershire-based sauce. Two people at dinner came to about $116 with drinks, tax and tip; lunch for two was $47.5
Ligaya Mishan, The New York Times, 11 May 2026, with the room in her hundred and a caveat of her own: the menu has almost no choices and not all the banchan are created equal. Nevertheless, the main courses at the center of each $36 set meal are bluntly satisfying.3

Good to know

The price: $32 in 2024 at both Eater and The Infatuation, $36 when Mishan wrote in May 2026. The most expensive thing at lunch was $19 in January 2025.3 5
Walking in: the room's own Resy page holds two-thirds of its tables for walk-ins, which is why the queue is worth joining.5
Booking: none. It is walk-in only and there is always a wait, so put your name down and walk.1
Drinks: Korean beers, clementine and plum wines, makgeolli, cheongju and soju. There are no cocktails.5

Jeff's take (his words)

Note: eater best new restaurant 2024 He was right: Eater NY gave it that award on 3 December 2024.2

Verdict

should-visit — It ran $36 when the Times wrote in May 2026, and there is one decision to make at the table. Eater NY made it Best New Restaurant in 2024. Nobody books, so put your name down and expect a wait. Do not order either spicy dish for heat: Bryan Kim says neither delivers it.

Kisa.