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12Hell’s Kitchen · Handrolls

Mari makes the gimbap a one-star course.

Warm nori cones passed hand to hand on Ninth Avenue, so the seaweed stays crisp.

Dine Digest desk · NY + L.A.

From Mari’s gallery on its MICHELIN Guide listing — Mari
Mari · Hell’s KitchenFrom Mari’s gallery on its MICHELIN Guide listing.Photo: Mari, via MICHELIN Guide

Along a culinary stretch of Hell's Kitchen, Mari's blonde timber counter and soft floor-recessed lighting offer a sleek, calm retreat from the West Side avenues.

Chef Sungchul Shim's team hand-assembles warm nori cones: soy-marinated bluefin tuna with crispy kelp, sweet sea urchin with mountain herbs, and soft-cooked egg rice with winter truffles.

Swift, energetic, and rhythmic; each handroll is passed directly from chef to diner's hand to ensure the seaweed remains shatteringly crisp.

Holding a Michelin star, Mari elevated the humble Korean gimbap into a world-class tasting menu format with remarkable textural precision.

From the MICHELIN listing

Distinction
One MICHELIN Star · 2025 USA
Price band
$$$$
Cuisine
Korean
Address
679 Ninth Ave., New York

Sources

  1. MICHELIN Guide · Mari (2025 USA) · checked Sep 28, 2026

Distinction, address, cuisine and price band come from the listing above. Descriptions of rooms and dishes are from Dine Digest’s earlier reporting and were not re-checked for this issue.

Next · p.13Cho Dang Gol still makes its own tofu.Kochi and Mari hold a star each. The briefs that follow are where Koreatown eats most nights.

Chapter 02 · Koreatown, UpstairsRead it in the issue →

More from Koreatown, Upstairs

p.08 · Koreatown, UpstairsJoo Ok brings two-star Seoul to the sixteenth floor.p.09 · Koreatown, UpstairsCote put the Korean grill in a steakhouse and kept both.p.10 · Koreatown, UpstairsNōksu hides a starred counter in the subway.

Every seat in the house.

This story is from the September 2026 NY + L.A. issue of Dine Digest. It’s free, monthly and independent.

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Dine Digest is an independent publication. No restaurant paid to appear. Stories are written by the Dine Digest desk from the public sources linked under each piece; photographs belong to the credited restaurants and remain under rights review.