Kimchi Kitchen Debuts This Week in Cambridge

Kimchi Kitchen’s daeng-jang jigae, bibimbap, and bulgogi. / Photos provided

UPDATE, September 12, 2016: Kimchi Kitchen has reopened after shuttering in early June for repairs.

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A casual Korean restaurant is getting ready for its grand opening on Wednesday. The 16-seat Kimchi Kitchen will provide a low-frills option for homestyle Korean cuisine, said Jeannette Park, a part-owner along with her mother, Helen Park.

“The food is top-notch, it’s just not full table service like a lot of the Korean restaurants in the area,” Jeannette Park said. “It’s a way for us to keep our costs low and also deliver great food.”

Kimchi Kitchen is the first ownership venture for Helen Park, who helped open the standout Meju in Davis Square earlier this year, supervising its bibimbap line. Previously, Park managed front-of-house operations at mainstay Korena outside Central Square, and H-Mart locations in Burlington and Cambridge. She oversaw the latter’s busy food court when it debuted last spring.

“In addition to working in those restaurants, she’s drawing on 25 years of home-cooking experience,” Jeannette Park said. “A lot of the recipes are her family’s: She makes certain dishes the way my grandmother made them. They are adapted for a restaurant environment, but a lot are from my family.”

The menu, which tops out at $12, offers favorites like bibimbap; japchae with clear sweet potato noodles; bulgogi plates with housemade kimchi; and warming kimchi jigae; seasonal specials will rotate as well.

The counter-service restaurant replaces the greasy spoon Cambridge Coffee & Pizza, which shuttered in September, and while the Parks are starting small for now, they have no ruled out applying for an alcohol license in the future, Jeannette said.

After a successful soft opening over the weekend, Kimchi Kitchen debuts for lunch tomorrow. It will be open Wednesday-Monday 11:30 a.m-9 p.m.

Kimchi Kitchen, 847 Cambridge St., Cambridge; 617-512-8848 or kimchicambridge.com.