Mom’s Jang In Cau Giay District: How Chef Joon Hyuk Made His Korean Fine Dining Restaurant ONVIT Feel Like Home

We’re deep inside the Grand Plaza Hotel. It’s a hulking 5-star, 613-room hotel, with a shopping mall and office complex in Cau Giay District. It’s a part of Hanoi turned Korean. A place where geopolitics meets gastronomy. And a space where Chef Joon Hyuk Chi has opened ONVIT, Vietnam’s first Korean fine-dining restaurant. 

What started as a gradual migration in the area has evolved into a Korean enclave redefining Vietnamese cosmopolitanism. That means lots of Korean food. So, there are K-Marts and a JINRO BBQ, and a Bu Too Mac. And at the Grand Plaza, between the ballrooms and meeting rooms, the swimming pool and fitness centre, Chef Joon Hyuk Chi, at his new restaurant ONVIT, is doing Korean fine dining.

The Ambition And The Intimacy At ONVIT Hanoi

This is a restaurant – with elevated Korean cuisine infused with Vietnamese ingredients – that fits the hotel’s and the district’s ambitious scale while refusing to lose its intimacy. 

Besides his love for the country (Chef Joon describes the restaurant as “an expression of his Korean roots with a voice shaped by Vietnam: a voice that’s still discovering, still connecting, and finally confident in its own clarity”) there are poignant touches too. 

“I remember the smell of jang – fermented sauces – wafting from my mother’s kitchen as a kid,” Joon remembers. “They were earthy, deep, and comforting. That taught me early on that Korean food doesn’t have to be loud or flashy. It’s subtle, emotional, and full of attention and caring. That’s the spirit I’m trying to preserve and elevate at ONVIT.”

Joon says he’s been exploring local markets, often tagging along with Linh, his wife and partner of 10 years — growing to understand Vietnamese herbs and spices; to appreciate the purity of local seafood, “transforming how I think about flavor.”

It’s a journey that’s taken him from unfamiliarity to, through observation, beginning to see how deeply intuitive and expressive Vietnamese food culture is. “It made me realize that true flavor innovation doesn’t come from invention, but from understanding. The deeper your relationship with an ingredient, the more clearly it tells you how it wants to be used.”

From The Shelter To The Heart 

Labri Oriental Neo Bistro, which cagily opened its doors in January 2021, is a sheltering, darkened space (labri means shelter in French) with ornate chandeliers and an open kitchen at one end. 

There, Chef Joon Hyuk Chi, who cut his teeth at Abysse — the French-Japanese Michelin one-star in Tokyo’s Minami Aoyama — after making his mark across Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Canada, led casual fine dining out east, calling it a ‘neo bistro’ to avoid the stuffiness that comes with the fine-dining moniker. 

Now, at ONVIT, he’s kept on going, amplifying the niceties, while heading all the way home, with Vietnam’s first Korean fine-dining restaurant. 

Despite their differences, the same DNA runs through both projects, “spaces that craft experiences that carry warmth and sincerity, where every detail speaks without words.” Plus the name, ONVIT, has its own sense of shelter. “‘On’ means warmth in Korean, and ‘Vit’ light,” Joon smiles.  

Five Years On

After almost five years of Labri – and of Vietnam, and Hanoi, his city of “quiet depth, with its thoughtful and discerning residents who appreciate craftsmanship, and are loyal when something truly resonates,” Joon feels ready to own the fine dining tag.

So, ONVIT is a coming of age of sorts. “Everything I’ve learned along the way really does come together here at ONVIT,” he says looking around contentedly.  

It’s not just technical growth. He is, he says, getting to express his soul and the soul of Korean culture elevated by the richness of Vietnamese terroir. So, ONVIT’s ingredient list spans the country: baby octopus from Phan Thiet, sweet potato from Vinh Phuc, slipper lobster from Cat Ba. Award-winning ST25 rice from Soc Trang anchors dishes alongside Muscovy duck from Hoa Lac and beef tongue from Tam Dao. These aren’t substitutes for European imports. They’re premium ingredients from Vietnam.

True To The Name 

True to the restaurant’s name’s meaning, the ONVIT sign glows invitingly at the entrance. Beyond lies a long, hushed hallway lined with shelves of ceramics and earthenware pots that Joon collected in Korea. Further along, a wine fridge displays the bottles that punctuate the pairing menus.

There’s the succinct four-glass journey from Champagne to Bordeaux via the Rhineland and Cape Town — a proper wine tour without the jet lag.

The seven-glass menu expands the narrative. Gosset Champagne, Von Winning Riesling, and Glen Carlou Chenin Blanc from the four-glass selection are joined by Azienda Foradori’s Italian Pinot Grigio and Louis Latour’s Burgundian Chardonnay. The Château La Commanderie Bordeaux finale remains, with Château Doisy Daëne’s Sauternes added for dessert. France, Germany, South Africa, Italy – Old World authority with New World precision.

And the premium seven-glass version elevates with Dom Pérignon and Trimbach upgrades.

A Premonition 

At the end of the corridor, an intentionally-chosen framed print, ‘Universe’ by Kim Whanki, gives a premonition on one element of the dining experience. 

It’s a luminous print full of thousands of meticulously placed blue-gray dots that dance across the warm, cream-colored ground. The composition pulses with organic rhythm – dots clustering densely like nebulae in some areas, thinning to cosmic dust in others. It’s just like the headlights of traffic streaming along Nguyen Canh Street bob and dance, merge and fade. 

A Particularly Local Touch 

Inside, another work, ‘Brushstroke Si26’ from 2022 by Lee Bae presents a black ribbon that twists and doubles-back on itself. Like a heatmap of the curved lines of the front-of-house team’s pacing through the space – mirroring the long walk from the kitchen to the tables lined up facing the window, or to the two booths behind for bigger groups. 

The positioning of the chairs facing the window is a particularly local touch. Watching the road is a pastime. “Linh’s been instrumental to all that,” Joon smiles. “Her deep insights into Vietnamese culture, hospitality, and the local fine dining landscape, and her sensibility, and her ability to translate between worlds have helped bring clarity and direction to what ONVIT has become.”

Decision Time At ONVIT 

The menu opens with snacks that immediately affirm Joon’s philosophy. Chives pie tee with octopus gets straight to his point about understanding ingredients. Vietnamese chive dumplings are street food — they’re not meant to be precious. But he wraps the octopus in one and adds some yuzu miso.

The gochujang tart with foie gras and sweet potato foam delivers gentle Korean heat with French technique, and the nori cracker with beef tartare and Korean pear presents flavors that surprisingly feel inevitable together. And the Gosset Grand Réserve Brut’s minerality echoes the octopus’s oceanic intensity and the nori’s umami depth.

His abalone congee is a reminder that porridge is universal Asian comfort food – cross-generational, please-all, honest and humble. Only this one is created with ST25 rice. And the added abalone brings a luxury touch – high and low culinary culture in conversation on the same plate, with the Von Winning Estate Riesling’s acidity keeping the conversation grounded.

There’s the springy served-on-a-rustic-skewer beef tongue tteokgalbi served with Korean perilla mayo and a sprig of Vietnamese herbs, with a deep-fried ball of backbone marrow accented with smokey gochujang sauce. It’s matched with the Glen Carlou Chenin Blanc that matches the dish’s intensity.

The stand-out ‘Mu Ni’ lobster, from Cat Ba, with ganjang, radish kimchi, and caviar pulls Vietnamese seafood into Korean territory. And his amadai with massaeng sauce, zucchini, and shrimp paste shows sweet restraint.

Then comes decision time: Muscovy duck or Hanwoo shortloin for a modest surcharge. This isn’t just an upgrade — it’s Joon’s premium Korean BBQ, transforming comfort food into fine dining without losing its soul. The rice, this time from Anseong, south of Seoul, and served in a Gamasot cast-iron pot, and the delicate banchan include pickles and a daub of lotus root ssamjang, and even the greens come bundled together with a belt made of chives leaf. 

Not to be outdone, the duck comes atop the same trolley from which Chef Joon served the Andong rice, which he theatrically opens the doors of, throwing smoke across the section of the restaurant. 

And the dessert delivers the final statement: sparkling tomato sorbet with burdock roots white chocolate ice cream. Château Doisy Daëne’s sweetness plays counterpoint to tomato’s natural acidity, and the meal ends where it began – with ingredients speaking their truth, wherever they’re from.

“To me, fine dining, especially Korean fine dining, has never been about imported ingredients or extravagant components. It’s about refined simplicity, depth, precision, and intention,” Joon says, restating his vision for ONVIT.

Dishes That Get Their Place In The Spotlight 

The distance between the chairs adds to the immersiveness of the experience. No chatter from the tables alongside. The ebb and flow of other guests and the staff in the background. All of which leaves a full focus on the food. 

Dishes like the three precise slices of Hanwoo shortrib sitting on the white plate, get their moment in the spotlight. The beef is a deep burgundy color and the sear creates a dark, caramelized crust. 

By the time we’ve turned back from taking a last look at the traffic flowing more easily now outside, there’s a pot on the table labelled ‘Lotus Root Ssamjang, Recipe By Chef Joon Hyuk’s Mother,’ as a parting gift to take home.

More Korean flavors ready to meet local ingredients in a kitchen in Vietnam.

ONVIT is at 3rd Floor Grand Plaza Hanoi Hotel, 117 Tran Duy Hung Street, Trung Hoa Ward, Cau Giay District, Hanoi and you can book via the website or learn more on Instagram.