About
Dongnae is the second restaurant that Kyu Jeong Jeon and Duncan Robertson have opened together in Bristol.
Opened in September 2024, Dongnae's opening trajectory has been incredible; for which we're both grateful and humbled. At the Good Food Guide 2025 Awards, we were recognised as Chef to Watch. For the National Restaurant Awards 2025, we were named No.46 on the Top 100 and nominated for New Opening and Restaurateurs of the Year. Kyu was also nominated for 2025 SquareMeal Female Chef of the Year and among CODE Hospitality’s 2025 Women of the Year. TimeOut London recognised our sister restaurant, Bokman as the No.2 Best Restaurant in the UK, and the Best Korean Restaurant in the UK.
Duncan and Kyu met in Paris at one Michelin-Starred L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon Rue du Bac. They then moved to Brive La Gaillarde in SW France where they opened and ran Restaurant L’Envie, which received a Michelin star two years after opening - the first restaurant in the area to recieve a star for over 30 years. Kyu and Duncan subsequently spent nine years in Korea, prior to moving to Bristol. They opened Bokman in 2019, bringing a delicate and creative take on authentic Korean dishes to their intimate spot in Stokes Croft.
Menu
We are open for lunch and dinner, Tuesday to Saturday.
Join us Tuesday to Friday for lunch, where we offer our fantastic value set menu alongside a short selection of dishes from our evening menu.
For dinner and Saturday lunch, our à la carte menu is available. For the curious, our Hanjeongsik menu is available at dinner service only.
Ingredients & Processes
We are proud to focus on refined methods of Korean cooking with an emphasis on premium ingredients and time-honoured processes.
Kyu and Duncan spent over two years working on the concept and menu, deriving reference from traditional Korean recipes. Our kimchi and jeotgal are carefully fermented in-house and our banchan are all made fresh in house from local ingredients. We also make our own jangs (doenjang, gochujang, kanjang) by hand using traditional methods taught to us by the master Sukja Jo in Korea.
We work closely with a local network of producers and suppliers to source specific ingredients of the highest quality. Our seafood is supplied from The Conscious Fish Shop who specialise in sustainable fish sourced from Devon and Cornwall. Local farms are the source for our premium beef with our wagyu farmed by Cotswold Wagyu. When we do use ingredients imported from abroad, we either source them ourselves or painstakingly track down the finest foreign producers.
To learn more about our story, marination and supplier processes and general updates, sign up for our newsletter here.
Wine
We believe there is a certain synergy between our emphasis on long fermentation methods and the processes used to create low-intervention wine.
Since Day One of Dongnae, we have worked exclusively with our friends at Vine Trail to create our wine list. Bristol-based importers, Vine Trail’s specialism is in sourcing and distributing beguiling wines meticulously sourced from France, northern Spain and Sicily. Progressive and sustainable philosophies are at their core.
On our list you will find wines that have been cleverly selected to bring out different flavour profiles in our dishes. Be that a grower-champagne, an aromatic Alsace white or a chilled Pinot Noir, these are the wines that we feel complement our food. And for those looking for a little more, there are some special bottles on the list too from the likes of Domaine Labet and Pierre Gonon.
Take a look at our wine menu here.
