A new Korean restaurant on Claremont Avenue is making its own soy sauce, soybean paste and chili paste from scratch, aging them in traditional clay crocks before they ever hit a plate. Chez Maeju, led by chef-owner Soojin Kim, opened in Rockridge in September 2026, offering a compact menu built almost entirely around housemade jang and inventive fermented dishes.
The restaurant sits at 6200 Claremont Ave., the former home of Oken and Momo Ramen, according to The Oaklandside. Kim makes three core jang in house — ganjang, doenjang and gochujang — starting from fermented maeju blocks and aging them in onggi crocks before refrigerating the finished sauces at 41 degrees Fahrenheit, per the seed reporting from The Oaklandside. The restaurant's own site describes a menu centered on fermentation, chezmaeju.com.
A Path From Seoul to a San Leandro Strip Mall and Back
Kim was born and raised in Seoul and moved to the United States in 1998, later attending the San Francisco branch of Le Cordon Bleu, per the same report. Her family valued homemade, fresh food and good ingredients, she said, a philosophy she has carried through a winding restaurant career. In 2013 she founded Chez Maejoo, a catering and meal-kit business that went on to cook for corporate clients including Apple, Netflix, Google, Airbnb, Samsung and Dell.
That catering operation eventually grew into a sit-down restaurant: in 2018, Kim opened Maejoo Korean Restaurant in San Leandro's Pelton Center, which closed in 2022. Her return to a storefront came through Micah Oh, founder of OMC Hospitality Group, who has operated Bay Area restaurants for more than 20 years and convinced Kim to take over the Rockridge space once occupied by Oken. OMC Hospitality Group now handles Chez Maeju's operations, staffing and setup, while Kim runs the kitchen herself.
A Smaller Menu Built Around What the Crocks Give Her
Chez Maeju serves dinner, with a smaller menu of elevated classic Korean food focused on fermentation. The restaurant's own site echoes that approach, noting the offerings change with the season and with what the fermentation crocks produce. Standouts include tomato and olive kimchis, a detail also reported by East Bay Express, and most menu items are gluten-free, with Kim adjusting most dishes on request for food allergies and other dietary restrictions.
Kim has said that younger generations of Koreans increasingly buy rather than make their own kimchi and jang. Her kitchen makes its three jang from scratch. Chez Maeju is open Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m., closed Tuesdays.
Beyond Dinner: Workshops, Buyouts and Catering
Diners can book online up to 30 days ahead for parties of up to six, though walk-ins are always welcome at the counter, according to the restaurant's reservations page. Beyond nightly dinner service, Chez Maeju also runs fermentation workshops, tasting menus and private buyouts, along with the catering practice the business was originally built on. Private buyouts and off-site catering are available.
The restaurant's Instagram account, @chezmaeju, bills itself as a fermentation home, a fitting label for a kitchen where soy sauce and chili paste are treated as a slow-cooked craft rather than a store-bought shortcut. For now, Rockridge diners can taste the results during dinner service.
