Korai Kitchen in Jersey City has once again been singled out by The New York Times, this time as one of its 50 favorite restaurants in the country.
In honoring this tiny Bangladeshi spot, chief restaurant critic Ligaya Mishan said, “…two nights a week you are invited to dine in, for a three-hour-long feast of theoretically eight courses that ends up far exceeding that number. Chiles and mustard oil are exuberant signatures, and everything is cooked with vigilance, down to each grain of rice. You leave enlarged — your heart does, too.”
The restaurant is run by James Beard Award-nominated chef Nur-E Gulshan Rahman and her daughter, Nur-E Farhana Rahman.
In 2025, The Times gave Korai Kitchen three out of four stars in an effusive review, in which it also christened the Bangladeshi spot a Critic’s Pick. “I keep thinking I’ve found my favorite dish, and then comes the next,” wrote chief restaurant critic Ligaya Mishan.
Last year, this spot also made The Times‘s list of the best restaurant dishes their staff ate around the country. Mishan singled out the lau chingri, a “fresh” and “unfussy” bottle gourd dish served with “tender shrimp and an extravagance of chiles.”
New Jersey Monthly has long adored Korai Kitchen, too. The restaurant appears on our roundup of the best restaurants in Jersey City and in our favorite restaurant towns feature. Our readers voted it one of their favorite spots in last year’s restaurant poll.
Located in Jersey City’s Journal Square neighborhood, Korai Kitchen serves dinner only on Friday and Saturday nights. Reservations are required, and the $95 prix-fixe menu is always changing. Takeout and delivery are available Tuesday through Sunday for dinner, and on Saturday and Sunday for lunch.
