mandu: korean dumplings

cavin and i attended our second don rockwell event: $20 tuesdays. this time it was at mandu, the newest korean restaurant to hit the district proper.

when we arrived around 6:30pm, not too many people were there, but when we were actually eating, i noticed that most of tables filled up. so it seems like the word got out since they first opened about a month or two ago.

when we walked in, some of our dining companions were already there enjoying cocktails, and since cavin and i didn't want to feel left out (hihi) we split a bottle of mountain soju (the one with the mountains on the bottle in the picture on the left, duh). the soju we had was made from sweet potato and uses fresh mountain spring water and green tea for other flavorings. we thought it was quite delicious and encouraged others to try it. someone said it tasted like gin, but without the juniper berries. hmmm...not a bad description, i guess. [picture taken from here.]

two members of the dr board (one being korean) talked to yesoon & danny and had our menu already set up for all 14 of us, so we didn't have to worry about deciding on what to order. we got a lot of food for the amount we paid ($26/person includes tax&tip) and everyone had ample leftovers for future meals. but...

the panchan consisted of kimchi, green beens with tofu, black beans with potatoes, fish cakes, or eggplant, and spicy cucumber slices. while the panchan wasn't bad, i am used to seeing more variety, though, whenever we finished, the staff was very generous in bringing out more to us.

next came the mandu. mandu means dumplings in korean. in my opinion, if you are going to basically call your restaurant "korean dumpling" you had better have some kick-ass dumplings. i was able to taste all three flavors of their mandu (which were offered steamed as well as fried). the only one i really cared for was the veggie dumpling. the shrimp mandu was really dry and was almost inedible for me (woah!). and the only flavor the shrimp and the beef&pork dumplings had was the soy sauce/rice wine vinegar/chopped scallions condiment i doused quite liberally on them.

we then received pa jun, a korean seafood pancake. i normally see the pa jun as one big pancake, which is then cut into pieces for everyone to share. yesook serves hers as individual pancakes, a shade smaller than a cd. one critique that i heard the most around the table was that we couldn't tell if there was any seafood in it. usually larger pieces of seafood are left in the batter so when it fries up, you are like, 'look! a shrimp! oh! a piece of squid!' we heard later from the waiter that yesook grinds all the seafood before adding it to the batter.

eh. i think it's a mistake to grind it up, but perhaps i'm biased because pa jun oddly reminds me of filipino ukoy. i'm not sure why i think this. the pa jun is pan fried and ukoy is deep fried. and pa jun has more batter in it as well. not to mention that pa jun is a pancake, where as ukoy is a fritter. i guess the fact that the pa jun was formed into individual pancakes similar in size to ukoy might have something to do with it. oh, and btw? i love ukoy!

we also got jap chae which was not bad. it was served only mildly warm, which some of the non-experienced korean eaters at our table questioned: 'is it normally served just warm like this? or is it supposed to be hot?' (when i've ordered it in the past or had it at my korean friend, sojin's house, it's been served hot).

our mains consisted of bulgogi (marinated and grilled strip loin) and dak-geem (chicken simmered in spicy flavored sauce), of course served with white rice. while the bulgogi was ok, it wasn't nearly as good as i've had it at other korean restaurants. i missed the charred and carmelized flavor that comes from leaving the meat on the grill for a tad bit longer. the dak-geem had a nice heat to it (i believe the spice used is the same as the red spice that is used to make kimchi - red chili peppers), but there wasn't anything spectacular about it.

along with the mains came yache gui, which essentially is grilled veggies (eggplant, peppers, zucchini) that were marinated in some sort of soy/vinegar mixture, and topped with sesame seeds. while it was very tasty, it didn't strike me as being "authentic korean."

we finished the meal with fresh fruit (cantaloupe, blueberries, grapes, strawberries) which was actually very refreshing.

would we go back to mandu? eh. first, there is no table top korean bbq grilling. more importantly, everything there is pretty general. don't get me wrong. it wasn't bad, but there really wasn't anything outstanding about the place. yesook came up to our group during the meal and asked how everything was going. she seems like a very nice lady and i hope she does well - and she just might because there is a lack of korean restaurants in the district. but it's just not worth it for us to metro (& change lines) and then walk half a mile out to mandu. i think cavin and i will just stick to koreatown in annandale.

mandu
1805 18th st. nw
washington, dc
202.588.1540