The next restaurant from the owners of Michelin-starred Korean restaurant Ssal in San Francisco is a modern steakhouse dedicated to premium beef.
Owners Junsoo and Hyunyoung Bae will open Monami this fall at 2001 Fillmore St. in Pacific Heights, according to an announcement. Junsoo Bae told the Chronicle that Monami will steer away from the all-you-can-eat format often seen at Korean barbecue restaurants — it will serve both an a-la-carte and tasting menu — and focus on premium cuts of Californian, Japanese and Korean beef. “We’re looking for the highest quality beef people can enjoy,” he said. Diners will be able to cook their own meat on tabletop grills that discreetly pull smoke though the bottom of the grill.
Non-barbecue dishes will include seafood such as oysters, raw marinated spot prawns and Dungeness crab, when in season. Banchan, the side dishes commonly eaten with Korean meals, will incorporate seasonal ingredients. Small bites from Ssal, such as a pudgy scallion pancake, might appear on the menu. The wine list, including Champagne, Bordeaux and Rhone as well as other wines from Napa and Sonoma, will be designed to complement Korean barbecue. “I want it to be a Korean barbecue version of House of Prime Rib,” Bae said…