66 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM Yeobo, Darling is arguably Menlo Park’s buzziest new restaurant. But for husband and wife owners and executive chefs, Meichih and Michael Kim, that was never the goal. They say the eatery is more of a love letter to the food of their combined cultures and the community they call home. “It’s a very personal restaurant,” Meichih says. “There’s a general respect for each culture and an open-mindedness that travel gives you. And that’s what our menu is a reflection of. We want people to come in open-minded.” Having met while working the kitchen at the now shuttered Craft in Los Angeles, Meichih and Michael eventually went on to open Michelin-starred Maum in Palo Alto, and then the more casual Bao Bei in Los Altos. Their experience working at awardwinning restaurants (Per Se and Benu for her, SPQR for him), along with their heritages—Meichih is Taiwanese American and Michael’s Korean American—make up the foundation for Yeobo, Darling. “There’s a lot of different cultures in each dish, but at the end of the day, our menu is very cohesive,” Michael says. “What resonates with me is what I grew up eating,” Meichih adds. “We marry that with all our experience in fine dining and put that all into one bite.” A self-declared “voracious eater” as a child, Michael has always loved food. But for Meichih, her culinary passion didn’t appear until she was in college. “I would miss my mom’s cooking and try to make her dishes,” she recalls. “I realized I enjoyed cooking and thinking about how to execute a dish, change it, revise it. I really {food coloring}
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