About the brand
156 is a contemporary Korean restaurant in Toronto built on a deceptively simple operating principle: happy staff create happy guests. Founded in 2021 by husband-and-wife team Chef Myeongseok 'MJ' and Jennifer Jeong, it translates Korean food through a modern, approachable lens while treating its own people as the first guests. MJ moved from South Korea in 2016, trained at George Brown and worked through Canoe, R&D and Canis before the couple had just three months to open their doors (with Jennifer leaving the healthcare industry to make it real.) Recently awarded MICHELIN recognition (and the only Korean restaurant in Toronto to do so), the restaurant's hospitality starts behind the pass, and diners can taste it. 156 is a small restaurant with a big thesis about what makes hospitality sustainable. In a brutal industry, it bet on kindness as the model — and the model works.
