Nowon

Jae Lee moved from Seoul to New York at the age of eight, and he named his restaurant after Nowon, his home district in the Korean capital. It began in 2019 as a pop-up called Him, Korean for “strength”, in the kitchen of an East Village biker bar, serving Korean-flavoured American classics such as kimchi burgers and honey-butter tater tots. The first Nowon restaurant opened in the East Village the same year.

Nowon has since opened in Bushwick, Brooklyn, in 2023 and, through a licensing deal, in Boston’s Seaport in 2025. The rooms are dark and loud, with tiger decor and the hip-hop and R&B of Lee’s teenage years; the food mixes Seoul street snacks with New York bodega classics, as in its chopped-cheese rice cakes. In 2026 the ranking The World’s Best Burgers placed it 13th in the world.

The famous burger goes back to Lee’s first meal in America: a Big Mac, which he fell in love with and later set out to remake with a Korean touch and better ingredients. The result is built around a special sauce infused with kimchi, which takes two weeks to make, and roasted kimchi, with a fresher style of American cheese than the shelf-stable kind.

Restaurants in New York’s East Village, Bushwick in Brooklyn, and Boston’s Seaport.

• Burger Lounge (United States, since 2007). A San Diego burger chain from a butcher’s son, built on grass-fed beef and fries cooked in beef tallow. Also built on beef, a special sauce and cheese.
• McDonald's (United States, since 1940). Same golden arches, wildly different burgers in every country. Also built on beef, a special sauce and cheese.
• Crown Burgers (United States, since 1978). The Greek family burger joint that made the pastrami burger a Salt Lake City staple. Also built on beef, a special sauce and cheese.
• Harlem Shake (United States, since 2013). A retro Harlem diner serving smash burgers, jerk fries and thick shakes, ranked among the world’s best burgers. Also built on beef, a special sauce and cheese.