Advertisement

foodRestaurant News

Dallas’ new Nuri Steakhouse might be the most expensive restaurant in D-FW history

Nuri Steakhouse is a ‘passion project’ from Smoothie King CEO Wan Kim. He spared no expense on the $20 million restaurant.

Grandiose Dallas restaurant Nuri Steakhouse, which opens Tuesday, was designed to be “the No. 1 restaurant in Texas,” said owner Wan Kim, the CEO of Smoothie King.

Kim is the sole investor in Nuri Steakhouse, and it cost him $16 million to build out the 9,500 square-foot stunner near Dallas’ Maple Avenue.

The total price was closer to $20 million, Kim tells The Dallas Morning News. Add in the $150,000 silk wallpaper in the private dining room, the glammy custom chandeliers, the delicate plateware sourced from Kim’s home country of Korea, and the expansive wine collection that extends from the dining room downstairs to a basement holding 6,000 more bottles, and the original budget of $9 million is ancient history.

Advertisement

The $20 million price tag at this 150-seat restaurant likely makes it the most expensive restaurant per square foot in recent Dallas history. Some of Dallas’ most expensive restaurants hover around $1,000 a square foot, but Nuri rings up over $1,600 per square foot. The total is significantly more than The Mexican, the Dallas Design District restaurant that cost a shocking $11.5 million to build — and was one of the priciest we could find.

Restaurant News

Get the scoop on the latest openings, closings, and where and what to eat and drink.

Or with:

Smoothie King CEO Wan Kim's favorite glimpse into his restaurant Nuri Steakhouse is this...
Smoothie King CEO Wan Kim's favorite glimpse into his restaurant Nuri Steakhouse is this one: From the bar, looking straight into the opulent dining room.(Kayla Enright)

“I think we need a Dallas steakhouse that can scream, ‘Dallas is unique,’” the 52-year-old CEO said.

He has lived in Dallas since 2018, and he said Nuri was built out of necessity. He couldn’t find a restaurant in Dallas owned by a Dallasite that he would be proud to share with friends and business colleagues. So he built one.

Advertisement

And there’s just one more thing: The restaurant doesn’t need to make money, Kim told The News.

Kim said he “never thought about our return on investment” — a sentiment shared by nearly no one in Dallas.

Wan Kim was a Smoothie King franchisee in Korea before he bought the company and became its...
Wan Kim was a Smoothie King franchisee in Korea before he bought the company and became its CEO. Kim is seen here in 2023 at the Smoothie King headquarters in Dallas.(Tom Fox / Staff Photographer)

As the sole investor, Kim won’t have anyone asking when they’ll make their money back. He tilts his head and smiles halfway, acknowledging what we’re both thinking: This $20 million restaurant will take a while to turn a profit.

Kim employed lauded design firm AvroKO, the company that outfitted Michelin three-star restaurant Single Thread in California, one-star restaurant Oiji Mi in New York, and dozens of others. Kim has Michelin on his mind for his beautiful, new restaurant. Michelin’s anonymous restaurant reviewers will surely give Nuri a look.

Advertisement

Kim stands in the bar, under a piece of art that was once a milk-truck tank, now a shiny light fixture that cost $65,000. This vantage point, looking into the restaurant but tucked near the bar, is his favorite view of the steakhouse. The tables are set perfectly, with warm light illuminating Kim’s deal-makers den.

“We wanted to create a restaurant where you feel like this is the only place in the world,” he said.

When designers couldn't find a light fixture impressive enough to hang over the bar, they...
When designers couldn't find a light fixture impressive enough to hang over the bar, they created one. Look up next time you go to Nuri Steakhouse: A former dairy tank was fashioned into a shiny chandelier and bolted to the ceiling. It weighs 1,400 pounds and cost $65,000.(Kayla Enright)

The Dallas-Seoul connection

Nuri Steakhouse is Kim’s “passion project,” the pièce de résistance for the businessman who made his fortune selling smoothies. The restaurant is also the convergence of his upbringing in Seoul, South Korea, and his life today in Dallas.

Executive Chef Mario Hernandez pours a Wagyu tallow "candle" over the 36-ounce Tomahawk...
Executive Chef Mario Hernandez pours a Wagyu tallow "candle" over the 36-ounce Tomahawk steak. This shareable dish is served with charred green onion, grilled peppers, roasted garlic, Ssamjang, kimchi butter and peppercorn sauce at the new Nuri Steakhouse in Uptown Dallas.(Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer)

The restaurant had to be a steakhouse, he said. Nuri’s menu is anchored by classics like the 10-ounce prime filet ($69) and 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 enthusiasts can also taste 3 ounces of Wagyu in American, Australian or Japanese variety, for $60, $90 or $120, respectively. If money is no object, get ‘em all and compare.

Caviar service is another stopping point on the menu. Each 1-ounce serving is priced between $160 and $270. A VIP party the weekend before Nuri’s opening saw servers offering generous scoops of caviar to hundreds of attendees — one of the priciest party tricks I’ve ever seen.

Chef Minji Kim (no relation to Nuri’s owner) left Korea to work as Nuri’s director of culinary in Dallas. She helped source Korean serving boxes decorated with oyster shells, called jagae in Korea, for serving the most expensive dishes at Nuri.

She also added Korean dishes to the steakhouse menu. Korean-style lobster comes with chili sauce and soy butter rice. And, there’s a tale of two tartares: West and East, or the option to have both on the same plate. The West is raw beef with 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 should order both as a sort of road map of his life.

Korean Gumbo is made with kimchi, Akaushi sausage, beef and potatoes at Nuri Steakhouse in...
Korean Gumbo is made with kimchi, Akaushi sausage, beef and potatoes at Nuri Steakhouse in Dallas.(Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer)

Following a similar theme, Nuri sells two kinds of gumbo. When CEO Kim moved to the United States in 2013, he lived in New Orleans for five years before moving the Smoothie King headquarters to Dallas. And so, Nuri’s menu offers a Louisiana-style gumbo with chicken, Andouille and okra, alongside Korean gumbo, with kimchi, Akaushi sausage, beef and potatoes.

The Korean version, called budae-jjigae, has origins in the Korean War. It’s a one-pot soup, created from whatever was in the pantry or fridge. Nuri takes this everyman’s soup and serves it in an opulent setting.

The Nuri Tasting Board $99, is an entree that gives diners a taste of the steakhouse's best...
The Nuri Tasting Board $99, is an entree that gives diners a taste of the steakhouse's best dishes, in small portions. (Kayla Enright)

The $99 Nuri Tasting Board might be a good way for customers to sample some of the best bites. A large wooden board, designed as if you could play an oversized game of tic tac toe on it, will be served with cuts of meat, kimchee and Korean condiments. It’s meant for one person.

“If business travelers want to experience Nuri, this sums it all up into one,” executive chef Mario Hernandez said. He formerly worked at Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House and Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant headquarters in Irving.

Advertisement

Kim was involved in weekly design meetings, and he said he’s tried everything on the menu.

“We have a lot of Asian culture built inside this restaurant,” he said.

A back door for ‘big shots’

Kim expects celebrities to take interest in Nuri. A back door leads straight into the private dining room so “big shots” can enter the restaurant without attention, he said.

Advertisement

The back room can seat two-dozen people, or it can be fashioned into a party room with a private bar.

Other deep-pocketed patrons might like Nuri’s private social club located behind another door near the back of the restaurant. The members-only area has a private patio, a dining room and a bar stocked with bourbon and Japanese whisky. The room is draped in burgundy and dark wood, with more of those big, gold chandeliers hanging luxuriously above.

"Literally, we customized everything in the restaurant," owner Wan Kim said of his new...
"Literally, we customized everything in the restaurant," owner Wan Kim said of his new Dallas restaurant Nuri Steakhouse. It is likely the most expensive restaurant buildout in Dallas history.(Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer)

The private lounge will eventually have 100 to 200 members, though Kim isn’t recruiting anyone yet. He’d rather open it up and let customers get a glimpse. 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 named JOA on Dallas’ Royal Lane. For the much pricier steakhouse, his map was zoomed in to Uptown Dallas, and more specifically, “between the Ritz and Nick and Sam’s.” The two iconic addresses will be familiar to Nuri’s future customers, he said.

Advertisement

Kim seems confident in the 20-year lease he signed on a $20 million restaurant.

This is the spot,” he said.

Nuri Steakhouse is at 2401 Cedar Springs Road, Dallas. It’s expected to open Tuesday. Reservations strongly recommended, and seats become available 60 days in advance. Valet parking is in front of the restaurant.

For more food news, follow Sarah Blaskovich on X at @sblaskovich.