As a Yankees fan, I know a thing or two about rooting for an empire.
So when I realized I had quietly eaten my way through every corner of Simon Kim’s restaurant kingdom, it felt right. Kim opened Cote in Flatiron nine years ago. Then came Coqodaq. Then he took over three floors of 550 Madison, the landmark tower that used to be the AT&T and later the Sony building, and called it his grandest project yet. Cote 550 downstairs. Bar Chimera upstairs. David Rockwell on design. Kim’s own words for it: “This is my Sistine Chapel.”
No pressure, Simon.
Now, I did not do this as one heroic crawl. I am a fat guy, not a stupid guy. Four restaurants in one night is how you end up in an ambulance explaining galbi to an EMT. I did it as four separate trips. Here is the tour.
Stop One: Coqodaq, the Fried Chicken Cathedral
I will be honest. Coqodaq is not a place I would have booked myself. The reservation Olympics are not my sport. I outsource that. The ladies insisted, and for once they were right.
We did the Chef’s Signature Brunch, a $52 prix fixe that comes out almost tapas style. French toast soldiers you dip in vanilla cream. Hash browns with salmon roe. Kimbap that stopped the table. Then the signature fried chicken, which is the whole reason you are there. Get the regular chicken and every sauce. Build your own adventure.
We also got the caviar nuggets, because obviously. Over the top? Yes. Worth doing once? Also yes.
Honest take: the egg cocktail was not my thing. And the champagne glasses are so delicate that watching me hold one with my bear paws was probably dinner theater for the whole room. The martini was jealous that day. Champagne got the spotlight. It happens.
Stop Two: Cote Flatiron, Where It All Started
Then I went back to the beginning. The original Cote. The Michelin-starred Korean steakhouse that built the empire.
The move is the Butcher’s Feast. Four cuts grilled tableside. Dry-aged ribeye, the American Wagyu Cote steak, hanger steak, and marinated short rib galbi. The ribeye was my standout. The galbi was the table’s favorite. The server even rescued an overstuffed friend with a gin, absinthe, and lime digestif that sounded like a dare and worked like medicine.
And somehow you walk out not smelling like smoke. Their ventilation is witchcraft. I have no other explanation.
The one catch: this is not a solo seat kind of place. The Butcher’s Feast is built for a group, which also makes the reservation harder to land. Bring friends. Bring someone with good reservation alert instincts.
This is why Cote sits on both my Best Steakhouses in NYC and Best Restaurants in NYC lists. It earned both spots.
Stop Three: Cote 550, the Sequel That Holds Up
Sequels are risky. Ask anyone who sat through a bad one. Cote 550 is not a bad one.
Shannon and I hit it Fourth of July weekend, right after a Yankee game, while half the city was stuck in Hamptons traffic. Empty reservation slots. We struck.
You walk straight into a bar that is sexy as hell, with a DJ spinning late 2000s throwbacks. The dining room is calmer than Flatiron, with a pond in the middle of the room and lighting that makes every table feel like its own little island. Same Butcher’s Feast DNA, but 550 has its own signatures, like the Dungeness crab fried rice mixed tableside. The crab is the star. Nothing gets in its way.
Three martinis. Four perfectly cooked cuts. I will still defend the galbi next to the Wagyu. I do not care who disagrees.
Honest take: they had a Wagyu hot dog cart going for the holiday. Cute. But a Wagyu hot dog is not meaningfully better than a regular one. I grew up on Nathan’s and dirty water dogs. You cannot out-premium nostalgia.
Stop Four: Bar Chimera, the Sistine Chapel Itself
And then the ceiling. Upstairs at Bar Chimera.
Three separate bars. Whiskey, wine, and martinis. Guess which one I parked at. A living evergreen tree grows right up through the middle of the room. Sounds like a gimmick. It is not. It is one of the coolest things in any dining room in the city.
Here is where it gets personal. Simon Kim is on record saying he wants Bar Chimera’s martini program to be “the best martini bar in the world.”
Simon. Buddy. You have my attention.
The Potocki, a small batch Polish rye martini, was one of the cleanest drinks I have had in years. No sharp edges. The Haku, made from Japanese rice and filtered through bamboo charcoal, was lighter and dangerously easy to keep going. Shannon, who is not a martini person, ordered the Paradise and loved it. That alone is a scouting report.
Best in the world? I need a much bigger sample size. I am willing to do the research. Somebody has to.
The food backs it up. The 550 Burger, a USDA Prime blend with peppercorn mustard and a thin slice of raw onion on the bottom, landed on my Best Burgers in NYC list. The Wagyu steak frites came a little smaller than you might expect, but the tallow fries dunked in green peppercorn sauce are unhinged. The chocolate cake was just solid. The croquembouche cream puffs were the move.
Honest take: getting a reservation here is a nightmare. Shannon pulled it anyway, because that is what a BFFL does.
So Is It an Empire Worth Touring?
Yes. And the funny thing is how different each stop feels.
Coqodaq is the party. Cote Flatiron is the classic. Cote 550 is the grown-up, polished sequel. Bar Chimera is the showpiece, the one Kim clearly built to be remembered for. The common thread is the service. Every one of these places runs like a machine, but a machine that still tells you honestly what to order.
If you only do one, start at the original Cote. If you have a martini problem like me, end at Bar Chimera. And please, for your own safety, do not try all four in one night.
As always, what do I know? I am just a fat guy from Brooklyn trying to survive the week, one martini at a time.
Looking for more NYC restaurant reviews? Check out my Best Steakhouses in NYC, Best Burgers in NYC, and Best Restaurants in NYC lists.