The grandiose Dallas restaurant Nuri Steakhouse, which will open August 20, 2024, was designed to become “the No. 1 restaurant in Texas,” said owner Wan Kim, CEO of Smoothie King.
Kim is the sole investor in Nuri Steakhouse and it cost him $16 million to build this 9,000-square-foot gem near Maple Avenue in Dallas.
The total price was almost $20 million, says Kim The Dallas Morning News. Add in the $150,000 silk wallpaper in the private dining room, the glamorous custom chandeliers, the fine tableware from Kim’s native Korea and the extensive wine collection that stretches from the ground floor dining room to a cellar with another 6,000 bottles, and the original $9 million budget is long gone.
The $20 million price tag for this 150-seat restaurant makes it likely the most expensive restaurant per square foot in recent Dallas history. Some of the most expensive restaurants in Dallas cost around $1,000 per square foot, but Nuri costs over $1,600 per square foot. That’s a lot more total than The Mexican, the restaurant in the Dallas Design District that cost a shocking $11.5 million to build—and was one of the most expensive we could find.
“I think we need a steakhouse in Dallas that can scream, ‘Dallas is one of a kind,'” said the 52-year-old CEO.
He has lived in Dallas since 2018 and said Nuri was built out of necessity. He couldn’t find a restaurant in Dallas that was owned by a Dallas resident and that he would be proud to share with friends and business colleagues, so he built one.
And there is one more thing: The restaurant does not have to make money, said Kim The news.
Kim said he “never thought about our return on investment” – a view shared by few in Dallas.
As the sole investor, Kim doesn’t have to ask anyone when he’ll get his money back. He tilts his head and half smiles, as if confirming what we’re both thinking: This $20 million restaurant is going to take a while to turn a profit.
Kim hired renowned design firm AvroKO, which has designed California’s three-Michelin-starred Single Thread, New York’s one-starred Oiji Mi, and dozens of other restaurants. Kim has Michelin in mind for his beautiful new restaurant. Michelin’s anonymous restaurant critics will surely give Nuri a look.
Kim stands in the bar beneath a piece of art that was once a milk truck tank and is now a shiny light fixture that costs $65,000. This vantage point, which looks into the restaurant but is close to the bar, is his favorite view of the steakhouse. The tables are perfectly set, and warm light illuminates Kim’s office where he conducts business.
“We wanted to create a restaurant that makes you feel like it’s the only place in the world,” he said.
The Dallas-Seoul connection
Nuri Steakhouse is Kim’s “passion project,” the crown jewel of the businessman who made his fortune selling smoothies. The restaurant is also the intersection of his childhood in Seoul, South Korea, and his current life in Dallas.
The restaurant had to be a steakhouse, he said. Nuri’s menu consists mostly of classics like the 10-ounce prime filet ($69) and the 16-ounce rib eye ($75). Customers can also go all out and spend up to $350 on shareable cuts of Texas Akaushi from HeartBrand, a ranch about 250 miles from Dallas.
Beef lovers can also try 3 ounces of Wagyu in American, Australian or Japanese varieties for $60, $90 or $120 respectively. If money is no object, get them all and compare.
Caviar service is another stop on the menu. Each 1-ounce serving costs between $160 and $270. At a VIP party the weekend before Nuri’s opening, waiters offered generous scoops of caviar to hundreds of guests—one of the most expensive party tricks I’ve ever seen.
Chef Minji Kim (no relation to Nuri’s owner) left Korea to work as Nuri’s chef in Dallas. She helped source Korean serving boxes decorated with oyster shells, called hunt in Korea because it serves the most expensive dishes at Nuri.
She has also added Korean dishes to the steakhouse menu. Korean-style lobster is served with chili sauce and soy butter rice. And there’s a story about two tartares: West and East, or the option to have both on the same plate. The West is raw beef with capers, anchovies and egg yolk. The East is raw beef with fried noodles, a quail egg and yuzu ponzu. Wan Kim suggests that customers order both as a kind of roadmap of his life.
Following a similar motto, Nuri sells two types of gumbo. When CEO Kim moved to the US in 2013, he lived in New Orleans for five years before moving Smoothie King’s headquarters to Dallas. And so Nuri’s menu features Louisiana-style gumbo with chicken, andouille and okra, and Korean gumbo with kimchi, akaushi sausage, beef and potatoes.
The Korean version, called budae-jjigaehas its origins in the Korean War. It is a stew soup made from whatever is in the pantry or fridge. Nuri takes this everyman’s soup and serves it in a lavish setting.
The $99 Nuri Tasting Board may be a great way for customers to sample some of the best bites. A large wooden board designed to look like you could play an oversized game of tic tac toe on it, it is served with chunks of meat, kimchi and Korean condiments. It is designed for one person.
“If business travelers want to experience Nuri, this is the perfect combination,” says Chef Mario Hernandez, who previously worked at Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House and Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant headquarters in Irving.
Kim attended the weekly design meetings and said he tried everything on the menu.
“There is a lot of Asian culture embedded in this restaurant,” he said.
A back door for “big animals”
Kim expects celebrities to be interested in Nuri. A back door leads directly into the private dining room, so that “bigwigs” can enter the restaurant unnoticed, he said.
The back room can accommodate two dozen people or can be converted into a party room with a private bar.
Other well-heeled guests might enjoy Nuri’s private social club, located behind another door at the back of the restaurant. The members-only area features a private terrace, dining room and bar stocked with bourbon and Japanese whiskey. The room is decorated in burgundy and dark wood, and more of those large gold chandeliers hang luxuriously above.
The private lounge will eventually have 100 to 200 members, but Kim isn’t recruiting anyone yet. He would rather open it up and let customers take a look. Who will get a seat here? We can only guess.
Kim said he could have opened a restaurant anywhere, and in fact he owns a casual Korean barbecue restaurant called JOA on Dallas’ Royal Lane. For the much more expensive steakhouse, his map zoomed in on Uptown Dallas, specifically “between the Ritz and Nick and Sam’s.” The two iconic addresses will look familiar to Nuri’s future customers, he said.
Kim seems confident about the 20-year lease he signed for a $20 million restaurant.
“The is the right place,” he said.
Nuri Steakhouse is located at 2401 Cedar Springs Road, Dallas and is scheduled to open on August 20, 2024. Reservation strongly recommendedand spaces are available 60 days in advance. Valet parking is available in front of the restaurant.
For more food news, visit Sarah Blaskovich on X at @sblaskovich.
