Friday Feature: Ahri's Kitchen Bone In Short Rib Soup

Welcome to a new weekly series,"Friday Feature"! The first Friday of every month will continue to be "Get to Know JC Eater" showcasing a local resident and their recommendations, but on all other Fridays, a specific dish or food find from around Jersey City will be featured on the blog.

This week's Friday Feature is Galbitang, a traditional Korean bone-in short rib soup from Ahri's Kitchen.

Ahri's Kitchen

I'm going to cut right to the chase: Ahri's Kitchen is killing it.

Of the many new restaurants to open downtown over the past year, Ahri's stands out as one of the best. It's also one of the more unique, serving up authentic Korean food, something we don't see a lot of in Jersey City. Everything about this small, friendly spot is meeting, and often, exceeding expectations.

For being a fairly limited menu, they offer a lot of options with everything from appetizers to Korean BBQ to Korean ramen and everything I've had so far has been delicious. While the menu is a bit heavier on the seafood/meat side of things, there are a couple of strictly vegetarian options and some meals I'm sure could be made vegan upon request. They also specify which dishes are entirely gluten-free. It's fairly affordable too, meaning you can easily get out of there for under $20/person, having enjoyed pretty generous portions.

On the appetizer side, they recently added Korean dumplings (Mandu, 5 to an order) with a chicken, scallion, and carrot filling that was tender and delicious and I would definitely recommend them. However, in case you're not willing to eat the entire menu, either of the fritters are a much better choice (unless you're getting take-out; they tend to get a bit soggy although still delicious). My particular favorite is the kimchi fritter: crisp triangles of their housemade spicy kimchi sliced, floured, and fried, but the seafood version is also excellent. Both are packed with flavor but are light enough to be an excellent  and nonfilling start to your meal.

Ahri's Kitchen is Officially Open!

Good news, Jersey City!

Ahri's Kitchen, the much-anticipated Korean restaurant coming to Hamilton Park, is officially opening to the public today. After starting work last fall. launching a successful kickstarter, and doing a few test-runs over the past few weeks,  the family-run restaurant has finished the permit process and gotten the official OK from the city to begin. 

Ahri's Kitchen Launched a Kickstarter

Ahri's Kitchen, a new casual Korean restaurant coming to Downtown Jersey City, launched a kickstarter yesterday.

Andrew and Aena, the force behind Ahri's Kitchen, decided to open their restaurant after finding a lack of quality Korean food in the area. They've named it after their daughter and to keep it a true family effort, Aena's mother, who has restaurant experience in Korea and China, is coming from Korea to handle the kitchen so we should be able to count on authentic, homemade dishes. Currently, they're anticipating having items like kalbi, bulgogi, jeon, and Korean ramen on the menu and will be serving not only meat-oriented Korean dishes, but traditionally vegetarian and vegan ones as well.