Nui: A Korean Chef’s Tribute to Family on Main Street

Opening his own restaurant was always Korean chef Jae Hwang’s dream, so when Nui openened in Vancouver, he knew exactly which food he wanted to share: the gentle, carefully balanced dishes of his childhood home. His mother was a pharmacist in Korea, and when the family settled in Canada she became the household cook almost by necessity. She learned as she went, and showed a natural knack for it. The result, in her son’s memory, was home cooking of rare finesse, and that finesse became his own style.

A family hommage

The name carries just as much family history. Nui means older sister, a word less common, closer in feeling to a mother figure, the sibling who looks after the younger ones. The chef grew up with that kind of bond with his own older sister, who has always looked out for him, and his wife is just as close to hers. Someone who feels like family without quite being a parent seemed like the right spirit for a dining room. 

Before opening his own place, the chef cooked at Maenam, Bufala and Wildebeest, among others. He and his partner, Dominic Yun, spent a couple of years hunting for the right room before finding this one on Main Street, in Riley Park: small, with an open kitchen and 29 seats, and a neighbourhood they fell for right away. The welcome has been warm on every front. Neighbours from the surrounding residential streets have embraced the restaurant, many of the city’s chefs and bartenders have come through the door, and the team is grateful for all the love the community has shown.

Nui: A room inspired by New York

The look took shape after a trip to New York, where the team from Nui fell for dining rooms that kept things minimal and chic, and brought a bit of that feel home to Vancouver’s Main Street. Dominic Yun does woodwork and built every chair and table himself, and much of the design came from within the family, with an eye trained in the fashion world. Warm wood tones meet stainless steel, with bar seats facing the kitchen and square tables lined up under high ceilings.

One soup that will never leave the menu

Everything started with the gomtang, the dish the kitchen opened with and has vowed to keep forever. A clear, seasoned pork broth with rice and barley with thin slices of pork and a thread of chive oil. It is a bowl built for everyday eating, light on the palate yet deeply savoury.

The rest of the menu follows the same logic: food the team would happily eat every day, snackable, delicate, and friendly to a glass of soju, sake or wine. Outside the soup, chef’s Hwang favourite would be the Korean pancake, which is cooked until the top and bottom both crackle, studded with prawn, then crowned with a tangle of herbs including dill and cilantro and a snowfall of grated Brazil nut.

At Nui, everything is designed to be shared, from the cold starters to the warm plates and dessert, with the same finesse and Korean flare. Rather than one plate per person, the chef suggests ordering for the table: for him, the fun of any meal out, here or elsewhere, is tasting as many dishes as possible. 

The bar grows the way the team does, by curiosity. The wine list changes as the owners discover bottles they like while eating out with friends. Korean classics like soju and Korean beer hold their ground, and the chef, a sake fan, is constantly working to bring in more interesting bottles.

For the cocktails, Nui called on a young Korean bartender from Nomo Nomo, the Commercial Drive cocktail bar, to design a Korean-leaning list. The gochujang margarita is the one people talk about, and a slushie machine behind the bar can churn out other creations. The chef counts them among the best cocktail deals in Vancouver: fresh, fun and priced to stay approachable.

Nui: A stage for friends in the kitchen

What the chef treasures most may be the room’s role in the local scene. Even before the opening of Nui, he pictured the space as a place to showcase friends’ projects, and that idea became a running series of pop-ups and collaborations. It’s definitely good to keep an eye on the announcements: each of these evenings happens only once! And with 29 seats, the room books quick. In a way, the restaurant has grown into its name, looking out for the city’s cooks the way an older sister looks out for her siblings.

Written by Marie-Françoise Malo
Photography by Nui

Updated on October 14, 2026

Make a suggestion