Sam Yoo can handle the TikTok influencers

The chef-owner of Golden Diner on menu development, TikTok surges, and *the* pancakes.

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Sam Yoo is the chef-owner of Golden Diner, serving classic New York diner dishes, often through an Asian-American lens. After years working with Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone, he opened the restaurant in 2019 in Manhattan’s Chinatown. The restaurant has always been packed during brunch, but there’s been a recent surge in traffic because TikTok influencers have “discovered” a restaurant that was definitely not a secret. I spoke with Sam Yoo about how he thinks about menu development, how he deals with the TikTok surge, and *the* pancakes.

Brianna Plaza: You’re a native New Yorker and your restaurant is on the outstretches of Chinatown. As the neighborhood has changed, how has that influenced your restaurant and menu? 

Sam Yoo: The neighborhood changes have influenced the menu because you have to cater to the locals. What also influences our menu is the history of the neighborhood that we're in. Our primary neighboring hoods are Chinatown, Lower East Side, and Little Italy, so when we think about our menu here at Golden Diner, we think about what do the people who live here like to eat? I live in the neighborhood and my background is in more Italian and French cooking. Naturally, I love cooking pastas, so I cook a lot of noodle specials on our menu. 25% of our menu also is vegan, and that's something that we definitely considered to appease the community.

Brianna Plaza: Many of the brunch classics on the menu have modern interpretations. Tell me about how you approach menu design. 

Sam Yoo: When we developed the first iteration of the menu, I went to every diner below 14th Street, picked up a menu, and just started looking at what makes sense, and then putting our own spin on it. If this were an Asian diner, how would this dish make sense for this menu? A lot of what's on our menu are items that seem recognizable. But we definitely try to reinterpret and reimagine them in a way where we would not only make it very considered and thoughtful, but also pay homage to our neighborhood and my background as an Asian-American, but still be baseline delicious.

Chicken Katsu Sando, Thai Cobb Salad, Korean Wings at Golden Diner

Brianna Plaza: How do you think about specials?

Sam Yoo: I think that's where we get to have fun and show off our cooking chops a little bit. It's a platform where our chefs can work and play and do things that are a bit more unconventional.

Once we served a Korean blood sausage on the menu, which was really tasty and actually sold pretty well. We often have pasta specials that are rotating. It depends truly on bandwidth and if our team has the time to create and then to teach and produce. I think quality control of the regular menu has been our biggest priority. But on top of that, once you get that under control, it's like, "Okay, what's next?"

There are less rules around specials. I think the only rule that we do have is that it needs to make sense on our menu, which means it should have some Asian or classic diner influence. Once we served a Greek-style, feta gnocchi with olives, sun gold tomatoes, and a safron-chili-honey drizzle. And that to me makes sense, because everyone knows what a Greek diner is. And Italian food is not only in my heart as a professional chef, but Little Italy is just a stone's throw away from our restaurant. That dish was very much in Golden Diner's DNA. 

Brianna Plaza: A recent Eater article was lamenting that “food influencers just found out about Manhattan’s popular Golden Diner” even though you’ve been open since 2019. How does TikTok culture influence your restaurant, if at all?

Sam Yoo: It definitely changes the way we operate, so that effectively changes the restaurant. We try to stay the same in terms of our principles and who we are and how we try to approach hospitality.

We definitely have seen a huge uptick in volume of people walking through the door. The challenge becomes how can we maintain the quality of food and service that we've been serving prior to the uptick? Production becomes a challenge when you're making 200 pancakes a day. Because we have such an awesome team, we're able to figure it out together. And whether it means staffing up or creating new positions, we do what makes sense both for our guests and for the business.

Golden Diner’s Honey Butter Pancakes

Brianna Plaza: You mentioned staffing up. That makes sense when there's an influx for brunch, but I don't know how long a TikTok wave lasts. How do you think about when the wave ends?

Sam Yoo: I think that's a great question because it's something that I concern myself with because I want continuity and stability for my team. They've committed to working with us, so we try our best to commit to them in terms of the hours and shifts that we can offer them. 

The good news is that the wave hasn't lessened yet. I think another piece of good news is that, in terms of our reviews and people who have walked through the door, we have been getting positive feedback. My hopes are that that will turn one-off diners into more regular customers. That way, ideally, we can one day be an institution in the city.

Brianna Plaza: The TikTok influencers love the pancakes and they’re always on nearly every table. As a business owner, how does it feel that people are coming in for one specific item when you have an amazing menu? 

Sam Yoo: It's funny because one of my managers asked me, "How does it feel to be a fine dining-trained chef and you're known for your pancakes?" And I don't care. It doesn't matter to me.

To just have a successful business in this very difficult industry, in this impossible city, where most restaurants don't make it past year three or five, is a blessing. I'm just super grateful to be known for anything. That's pretty much how I view it. I think as long as we have that one thing — and could be anything — I am just grateful about it.