Mandoo Bar

This spot looks clean and service was friendly but very slow. We ordered bibimbap and veggie dumplings. The veggie dumplings had a strong pepper flavor and something else that was off putting but they were made fresh and if that’s your taste then probably pretty good good. The Bibimbop was a big disappointment, it was burned. It wasn’t just that the bottom rice was crunchy but it was blackened along with most of the veggies– maybe that’s why it took 40 minutes to come out :(

My wife and I have been coming to this restaurant for years. We love the food. However, on our last visit on 2÷13÷16, we heard what we are nearly positive was several rodents in the ceiling squeaking and running about. We weren’t the only ones — even the bus boy was watching the vent in the back of the restaurant during the squeaking. Luckily, this happened as we were leaving, but it wasn’t the only issue we had. When she went into the bathroom she read a sign saying that toilet paper couldn’t be flushed because the toilet bowl was not working. Indeed, she was unable to flush the toilet. Toilet paper had to be thrown into a basket. I don’t think I could ever go back to this place and that’s a huge disappointment for us.

The boiled dumplings were disaster! Way too much black pepper and scallions. The strong taste of black pepper and scallions made me couldn’t finish even one. The filing was too mushy. I couldn’t even taste the seafood. The dumpling skin was really thick.
The beef dumplings were ok. The service sub par.
It was the worst experience I ever had in k-​town.
My friend and I were so disappointed. Don’t do it to your self!

Nooo! The boiled dumplings were SO disappointing! Ordered the combo mandoo so I could have a taste of each (seafood, veggie, pork) and regretted it immediately. The dumpling skin was so thick and doughy that I cut away at least half of it. The filling (in all 3) was no better due to blandness and an overwhelming taste of black pepper. Ddukbokki was good. Could be spicier, but flavorful. (Menu says for 2 people, but it can easily feed 3.)
Service was pretty awful. Bus boys tossed plates onto our table, had to ask 3 separate waiters for our order of tea, and waited too long for the check. Very inattentive for a small restaurant.
Cute ambiance, but that’s about it.

Decent place to grab food in K-​Town. The food was flavorful and the service was fast. Go before 1 pm to beat the crowd. No real waiting area, so you’ll be waiting outside if it’s too crowded. It’s a narrow set up but you still feel comfortable. I would closely describe it as a Korean «diner». I felt a little sick to my stomach that evening. Great possibility it was my lunch here but it’s «alleged».

Definitely would not recommend. The typical side dish of Kimchi is replaced by some sort of lettuce salad. I don’t frequent too many Korean restaurants, but isn’t Kimchi the standard side dish? We ordered two dishes; a mandoo combo (all steamed) and a bulgogi stone bowl. The pork mandoo had an ok flavor, but the vegetable and seafood mandoo were too peppery for my taste. All three were wrapped in a too thick, chewy and doughy wrapper. The stone bowl had unusual vegetables in the mix, including seaweed and lettuce. The crucial egg component was missing. Overall, a disappointing meal, especially since the signature dish is underwhelming. To top it all off, the service is sub par, although they do offer to mix your stone bowl, which is something I’ve never experienced.

My fiancée and I ordered the Bulgogi Dolsot Bibimbop and the Combination Mandoo.
The Bibimbop was definitely better than the Mandoo. It had Bulgogi beef, rice, zucchini, and carrots, though it was missing egg and also had a bunch of lettuce in it. Being in a stone pot with the burn rice bits at the bottom was the redemption for this dish.
The Mandoo was simply mediocre. The dumpling skin was so thick and doughy, I ended up just eating the filling for half of the order. The seafood and vegetable Mandoo had too much black pepper, and generally just didn’t taste good. The regular pork Mandoo was the best of the three, only because the filling tasted close to what I would expect.
Though the wait staff was quick and friendly, given the high price and low quality of the menu items, I consider the overall experience at Mandoo Bar to be poor.

Mandoo Bar is a little Korean dumpling place in K-​town. The hubs and I came here to grab a quick little late-​night snack before heading back to the hotel. The menu offers steamed dumplings, pan-​fried dumplings, fried tofu, soups, noodle dishes, as well as other Korean entrees (such as jahp chae and bibimbops). We tried the Kimchee Mandoo (that automatically comes steamed, which were filled with kimchi, tofu, pork and vegetables; we weren’t a fan of this, as it was more tofu-​based rather than kimchi, and it wasn’t that spicy); an order of the Goon Mandoo (which were lightly pan-​fried dumplings filled with pork and vegetables — these were okay, as they were just regular gyozas; and, an order of the Mool Mandoos (boiled dumplings filled with pork and vegetables; I really liked these, as the outer exterior dumpling skin was thick, and it was super juicy inside). You also receive a complimentary salad with a ginger dressing and some pickled chayote. We requested for regular soy sauce, as there are only the sweet dumpling sauce at each of the tables. Service was super fast and efficient, and the place was pretty packed late at night.
+Mool Mandoos
+ask for regular soy sauce
+fast and efficient service

Our selections from the menu were:
Pajeon (Seafood Pancake), A
Bulgogi Dolsat Bibimbap, A
Chicken Fried Rice, B+
Mandoo Combo (Pork, veggie, and seafood), B
Ironically, it was the mandoo that didn’t win me over at all. I felt that the skin was too thick, and it lacked flavor when you don’t douse it in a sauce. The seafood pancake and bibimbap were delicious though, and the chicken fried rice was good.
Service was very friendly, and they responded to requests very quickly. Personally, I consider them a lunchtime win (minus the higher price tag).

Cheap and quick and delicious. We split the pan fried pork dumplings and the steamed spicy kimchi dumplings. The pan fried ones were a bit too crispy and overfried but the steamed ones were great. Price came out to $ 15 per person for two girls. Come here if you’re craving a variety of dumplings!

This place can be a hit or miss depending on what you order. I love dumplings and am a huge fan of skin with a slight chew so I thought the thicker texture of the skin was yummy. That said, I really only enjoyed the pork ones since the vegetable ones had a slightly sour taste and the seafood ones were just overall peculiar though that may just be the typical flavor of a seafood Mandoo.
In terms of their bibimbap selection, I really enjoyed the hot clay pot that came out and the mixing of the ingredients right at the table. It was cool how the rice crisped up at the edges of the pot over time. Overall a good dish but not anything special.

The trick to any restaurant is ordering the right dish. That can change a 3 star restaurant to a 5 and a 5 down to a 3. The problem is when a restaurant is named after a signature dish (mandoo meaning dumpling in Korean) and that signature dish doesn’t quite live up to expectations.
I went here on a Thursday night looking for a bite to eat. Craving bimimbap, I dove on the chance for the octopus bimimbap, which had some pork, onions, red pepper, and other toppings. Of course, being at a place named after its mandoo, I had to try the mandoo as well, in addition to the fried tofu.
I’ll start with the fried tofu — it wasn’t the way I’m used to fried tofu (which is the Taiwanese way of being slightly breaded and then totally encased in a crispy skin), but it was still food. Almost seemed more pan-​friend than deep-​fried, it tastes a little healthier, and paired with a spicy topping, no complaints.
The mandoo could have been better, which is disappointing considering the name. The filing was great but I needed more of it, and the skin was too thick for my liking. Couple that with the smaller dumpling size (at least relative to Chinese dumplings, which are often cheaper), and I was a little disappointing in the let-​down of the namesake.
However, full redemption came in the form of bimimbap, which was steaming upon arrival and had a good balance (in my opinion) of salty and sweet (my friend would’ve preferred less of a sweet taste). The octopus was cooked well, there was a decent bit of pork, and overall the flavor combination was great.
Overall, a good restaurant with a few interesting options to test out. I think the mandoo was good, though it could’ve been better — but hey, to each his own, and everyone likes their mandoo a little differently, so maybe it’s just my taste. That being said, the bimbimbap was to die for.

I thought the dumplings here were delicious. I tried the pork and the kimchi mandus. The pork one was fried and the outer skin was nice and crispy with a juicy filling. The kimchi mandu was steamed and was very generously filled.
This place is not very big so I think it would be difficult if you had more than 4 people. Definitely good for small gatherings though!

I had been looking forward to Mandoo Bar for weeks — right in the heart of Ktown, I had heard before about the dumplings, and seeing the past Michelin Guide Recommended stickers on the door, I had high expectations and excitedly ordered from the dumpling-​heavy menu.
Unfortunately this was a disappointment. We ordered the kimchi dumplings ($ 11.5). While the filling was above subpar, the skin was dry and uncooked in places. The texture of the skin was rough and tasteless, so much to the point that my friend and I peeled it off and only ate the filling.
We did, however, love the egg washed fried tofu. Crispy, fresh, and a mix of savory and sweet, this was the (only) hit at dinner.
For the price and lackluster taste, Mandoo Bar was a disappointment. I think I might stick to Prosperity or Vanessa’s instead — better dumplings and cheaper prices.

I’ve been coming to Mandoo on occasion for several years now and it’s always consistent.
The décor is minimal and has suffered a bit throughout the years but service is efficient, the food is always tasty and the prices are fair.
I usually get the pan fried vegetable dumplings and always order 8 so I can take a few leftovers with me for a snack on the subway later. My husband most recently got the kimchi noodles and really liked it but admitted it was very spicy, even for his iron palate.
Overall, Mandoo isn’t the best Korean dumpling place in the city but it’s dependable which is really great.

The dumplings weren’t BAD, they were fine. The pork and veggie pan fried ones were the best ones. The kimchi dumplings had a weird mushy texture to it and were too spicy for me.
My friend and I also wanted to split our dumplings since we didn’t want to eat 10 of the same ones, but the cashier told us that it wasn’t possible to separate them into two containers. Even though they came in two containers, just one type in each. Don’t understand!
Anyways… at $ 1 and some for one dumpling, I’d rather just go to Chinatown.

I guess when it comes to korean dumplings your choices are somewhat limited. Overall I would say the food here is a little overpriced for dumplings (even fancy shmancy korean ones). I wasn’t a fan of the skin and but will say it was stuffed pretty well with kimchi and pork. Of all things the tofu soup was pretty good. It’s by no means soondubu, but if you want tofu, it’s pretty good and went well with the dumplings. You don’t get the traditional mountain of sides you expect from a korean restaurant which was a disapointment.
When you can get 4 – 5 chinese dumplings for a dollar, it’s hard to compare so this might be a bit downward biased.

Decent food but service is a little slow.
Came for a early dinner on a Sunday and despite the lack of customers, the service was still a little slow, took the waiter a while to come take our order (we were trying to get his attention) and took about 20 minutes before the first dish was brought out. They also brought out my main before my appetizers and my friend was waiting another 15 minutes before her order even arrived on the table.
The dumplings were okay, not bad but also not amazing. The skin on my appetizer pork dumplings were nice and chewy whereas the dumplings in the ramen had a very thin skin that was already ripped so the meat was falling out into the soup. The ramen was tasty, a little salty since I was chugging my water but the noodles were nice and soft. It was a good one time experience.

Solid mandoo! Def get the lightly fried options (although I didn’t try the steamed to compare)
Unfortunately you can’t pick any type of cooking technique for any flavor mandoo, it’s a set menu. BOO! So since we wanted to try the lightly fried mandoo we couldn’t try the kimchi pork mandoo & Just got pork with veggie
–complimentary ginger salad and radishes: nothing special
–lightly fried pork & veggie mandoo: yum! Liking the thin fried skin
–seafood pancake: HUGE great for sharing, loved the fried crust on this although it was a bit too oily
Didn’t know this was sit down waiter service type place, it always looked more like a fast food restaurant when I walked by in ktown

Mandoo Bar is definitely a hole-​in-​the-​wall gem! I have not had dumplings anywhere else that have topped the fresh and delicious dumplings here. One of my favorite things about this place is seeing the dumplings being made right in front of the restaurant, from your table or right outside the location on the street. You can order your dumplings two ways — boiled (mool) or pan-​fried (goon). I love mines boiled. I always go with the Mool Mandoo which is a combination of pork and vegetable filling. I have also tried their vegetable and kimchee dumplings which are also very delicious. Their dumplings come with a side of delicious ponzu-​like sauce and a spicy red sauce — the trick is to combine both sauces together and dip your dumplings in it. Delicious!
I have also had their hot Bibimbob which is a fried rice dish cooked table side with vegetables, egg, and your choice of meat and spice. The best part is the crispy rice at the bottom of the Bibimbob!

I feel like Mandoo Bar is just a place for drunk people to go to after a night of drinking in K-​Town. It’s open til 4 a.m. The food comes out pretty quickly. What more could you ask for? And you know how it works — when you’re drunk, everything probably tastes like the best meal you’ve ever had in your entire life.
Unfortunately (or fortunately? depends on how you look at the glass), I was not drunk. So the food was definitely not amazing.
I had dinner here on a Saturday night with a friend at around 8:30. The place wasn’t empty but it wasn’t full either. But that might be because 8:30 is kind of late to be having dinner. And if my theory of it being a place for K-​Town drunks stands true, then it would be way too early to be having a crowd.
They give you three dishes of banchan — kimchi, iceberg lettuce salad with ginger dressing (almost like the ones they serve at sushi restaurants), and some type of marinated radishes.
And since it is a dumpling place, we decided to try some. We ordered the Goon Mandoo, which are pan-​fried dumplings filled with pork and vegetables. They were good but it tasted really similar to the ones you can get in Chinatown — for the same amount of money and double the portion.
For my entrée, I went with the seafood noodles, which was stir-​fried udon with octopus, shrimp, squid, and exactly ONE mussel. The flavor was okay (I had to use the bibimbap paste to enhance it… or maybe even cover it?) But the sauce they used was WAY too thick. It was almost gloopy. But they did use a good amount of seafood in the dish, which is pretty rare — usually, places will probably give you 20% seafood and 80% noodles, but this place was almost 50/​/​50 — so I’ll have to give them that.
I do still want to try their regular (non pan-​fried dumplings). It looked pretty good when they were making them in the window. So I MIGHT come back for that. Otherwise, the next time you’ll be seeing me here is if/​when I’m drunk.