Mandu

My wonderful friend took me out to dinner here at my request — the menu looked interesting and I’m a sucker for most Asian food. I’ve had my share of delicious Korean food, so I was really looking forward to this meal.
While the price is very reasonable, and the patio looks great, the food itself ranges from okay to bad. I’m giving it three stars because our apps (a combination of dumplings and seafood pancakes) were great, and I believe those who ordered the bim bim bap enjoyed their entrees, but my squid stir-​fry was inedible. It had all the right elements to start with — fried noodles, plenty of squid, and vegetables — but they DRENCHED the entire dish in what tasted like a sweet sriracha sauce, so my noodles basically tasted like ketchup. I could barely finish my meal, unfortunately.
Another snag is related to the drinks — our table tried to order different combinations of drinks from their menu, and they either 1) weren’t available, or 2) took about 30 minutes to be served. How do you not have your most popular drinks available on a Friday night? Why are you taking so long to serve drinks when there is barely anybody inside? Weird.
I would go here again if I was really in the mood for bim bim bap and I wanted to stay in Dupont, but you’re probably better off finding a different Korean spot all together.

The patio was nice and the staff was friendly.
Came here a month ago — the food was average. Not too many Korean options so went again last night but this time the food was really bad. Ordered the sea food Jajang and Sundubu. The Sundubu was average but the Jajang was not good… could not eat more than a few bites… Hope they improve their food and not just count on their location

Although the happy hour (and dumplings) are a really sweet deal… the food is only average. It’s missing some important traditional favors and some much needed salt. The service is great though, and it’s got some awesome people watching seating.

This place is pretty bad. The Korean food is mediocre and the interior is overwrought and badly lit. If you are gonna pay Mandu a visit, come for the happy hour and have a sojutini. I recommend the kind of made with yogurt. The mandu dumplings (their signature dish?) are really not good at all. The pa jeon is passable and I will give them credit for a pretty good dduk bok gi (beef smothered in gochujiang). But the jajang is greasy. Prices are unsurprisingly high.

Food is just okay.
Their fried dumpling is not good. The filling is just warm. It tastes no better than frozen dumplings in supermarket.
Its kimchi has a very weird taste. It tastes worse than those you can buy from supermarket
Even Hmart can do better than them.

Mandu is a good neighborhood restaurant. Convenient when I’m craving good Korean food. Went for dinner last night and it was as good as always. The food and service were great! I had the bi bim bop which is one of my favorite dishes there, but I also like the bulgogi. The upstairs seating is a little loud but spacious, whereas downstairs is quieter but not sad roomy — so something for everyone.

Had a great time at Mandu the other night. I brought one of my coworkers from EquityEats for dinner and drinks — I had the bibim bap and he had the kimchi jjigae. Both were fantastic and the bartender did a great job of recommending drinks that paired very well with our food.
Definitely coming back again soon.

For now it’s a 4-​star venue:
I came by Mandu last night with two other friends, they were pretty busy for a Friday night which is great for them! But reservations are probably recommended if you want to come in a larger group. I love their upstairs area, it’s so nice and classy.
*Pa jeon (mixed seafood pancake) — $ 9: I have had better at Bul so I was not particularly impressed. More seafood, less batter, more chewy-​ness, and more dipping sauce.
*Soon doobu (spicy seafood and tofu soup) — $ 17: Looking at the price now I cry, because 17 dollars for a bowl of soon doobu? Hm, yeah that’s expensive as I’ve never paid that much for it ever before. However, the soup was good, spicy and the base was well done.
*Bulgogi (grilled slices of marinated ribeye) — $ 25: this was very well done, a good serving of meat and it came with grilled vegetables as well! Good for the price, and even though bulgogi isn’t my all time favorite, I would order it again.
All of the entrees came with rice and side dishes! And the side dishes are re-​fillable so get your fill. It came with kimchi, bean sprouts, seasoned spicy tofu, spicy cucumbers, broccoli and fishcake.
I will be back for happy hour to try their mandu’s!

Went in on a Sunday evening for food and drinks at the bar. We were starved. Started off with drinks, «Please Meet Ken» & «Bittersweet Bulleitt», signature cocktails of the house. They were both beyond excellent. We started with the fried eggplant, it was outstanding, had to wait for it to cool down before we could enjoy it, not a bad thing. For entrees, we had large portioned dishes that we loved but couldn’t pronounce. Large bowls of house made noodles and juicy meat, great ingredients. It was great, we couldn’t finish, so we got our leftovers to-​go. Our bartender, Ken, was the best. He walked us through the menu, from drinks to entrees. Every suggestion he gave was spot on. We’ll definitely be back. Cheers! –T+K

This review is for their happy hour. I live near this place, and I’ve walked by it countless times and finally decided to go on a surprisingly warm day for March in DC. I got there at almost 6:00pm on a Tuesday and it was busy, but not packed. With only an hour left to the happy hour, we went straight to work.
The happy hour is pretty straightforward. Mandu, well drinks, sojutinis, beer and house wine — $ 4 each. We ordered fried veggie, fried shrimp, and steamed pork and beef mandu, and were very happy with each, but I was surprised that the veggie mandu was my definite favorite.
As far as drinks, I ordered a couple of sojutinis. There are plenty of flavor options, and I went with a peach and a pineapple. The peach tasted more like alcohol, but the pineapple was sweet and fruity. I would come back just to try the other flavors.
I also have to note how great the service was. I hate that I can’t recall my server’s name, but he was great. Very friendly and fun, and gave us our space while still coming around just often enough.
I wish there were more options on the happy hour menu food-​wise, but you really can’t complain much about a $ 4 happy hour.

I walked by this spot several times before realizing it was a Korean restaurant. Thrilled to know it’s located so close to my DC digs. We ordered takeout. Food was ready promptly at promised time.
I ordered the bibim bap with tofu, which I have only ever ordered in-​restaurant in a stone bowl. The veggies were fresh and delicious and perfectly cooked. My only wish was that the to-​go order came with more sauce. If you like your bibim bap spicy, make sure to ask for extra!

I just keep coming back here. Not a big restaurant, but they are hella efficient. Every time I come here I order the beef bibimbap. It’s filling and, in my opinion, cooked authentically. They are quick with taking your order and bringing your food. Also– they offer happy hour. For as long as they keep this up, I’ll keep returning.

I LOVE Mandu for one thing and one thing only — really excellent bibimbap (okay actually they also have excellent pajeon so two things). The bibimbap is so great: it’s better than any I’ve had before. They make the veggies super well and it’s just all-​around delicious. However, the mandu themselves are really quite mediocre. Unlike the bibimbap, they have a really boring flavor. I’m also not a big fan of the chap chae and I really don’t love the ohjinguh bokum guksoo, which is overly spicy without anything else to redeem it (you know when things are too spicy and it overwhems anything else?).
I’m also not big on the cocktails here. I’ve tried the sojutinis and I think the flavor is weird. I’ve also had the pear cosmo and some cucumber cocktail — they were too strong and not in a great way.
However, despite my blasting I really love eating here. The atmosphere and service are great — the Chinatown location is beautifully decorated and the dupont location has a really lovely patio. I just get the same good dish every time :)

I love Korean food and I was staying nearby so I came for lunch. The staff was attentive but wasn’t particularly friendly. I ordered tea and dolsot bibimbap. They were out of green tea so I got Korean herbal tea, it was good.
The banchan were… meh. The kimchi was HORRIBLE. I don’t know if they try to make it in house or what but man, what a let down. Maybe it was just too young because there was no fizzy, fermented taste and it just tasted like vinegar. They had boiled potatoes that were literally soaked in soy sauce (ew!). There was some standard sesame broccoli and cucumber kimchi which I normally love but it was not great.
The dolsot bibimbap was yummy but for the price I would have expected way more meat. There was just a little dollop right under the egg, that’s it. The zucchini was salty as all hell. The vegetables shouldn’t be salted because the gochujang is salty enough. That’s another thing– I wish they brought out squeeze bottles like other places. I know they are trying to be hipster and whatever but when you put gochujang in a little dish with a spoon, it’s not easy to evenly distribute it over the dish. Also, the rice hadn’t been given enough time to get crispy at the bottom. Overall it was tasty but there are definitely some things that made it not the best.

I just have to say that I love you Mandu. I’ve been coming here for years and quite unintentionally, I find myself eating here every time I’m in DC even though Koreatown in LA is a stone’s throw away.
The food ingredients here are just higher quality than most other places I’ve been that serve traditional Korean food. The much-higher-than-I’m-used-to-paying costs match that quality.
I always start with the dumplings (mandu) and this time, we had an order of the fried shrimp ones. You can choose to mix and match with the beef/​pork and vegetarian ones. For $ 7, you get six delicious morsels with an awesome savory/​tangy dipping sauce.
I always get one of the meats on a sizzling platter. I’ve had the galbi before which is VERY good but this time we got the bugolgi. The meat was a bit on the sweeter side but I like it that way. It comes with fresh vegetables, too, lettuce wrap, miso and a bowl of rice. At $ 25 a platter, it is more expensive than any other bugolgi I’ve had but it is also the best quality meat.
We also had the rice cakes (ddukbokki) which is cooked in a spicy and sweet sauce, beef and shitake mushrooms. It was just SO delicious. It’s sweeter than ddukbokki I’ve had elsewhere and the beef is definitely a higher quality touch than the usual fish cake. For $ 15, I would most definitely order this again. I would suggest ordering more rice to eat with this because you just want to scoop up every last bite from the sauce. The rice cakes themselves were perfectly fresh and chewy.
Lastly, the stone pot rice (dolsat bibim bap) was really good. Again, the quality and freshness of the ingredients stood out. The rice on the bottom could have used some crisping up – I think maybe we stirred it too soon. For $ 16, I think it is pretty reasonable.
Until my next visit… I’ll be missing you.

My friend wanted Korean food and we decide to give this place a try.
Food is about average here. We shared a few dishes here. We started with drinks. I had the Aloe sojutini and my friend had the yogurt one. It is a bargain at the happy hour special. I like my drink, fresh and light, not very strong though. Our appetizer, steamed shrimp and veggie dumplings with soy sauce on the side, is not bad either. I doubt it is the packaged frozen kind though. Then we ordered seafood pancake and galbi bibimbap. The seafood pancake is quite different from what you get at traditional Korean restaurant. It came in two small pieces and I can’t say I like it too much cause it lacks some flavor and tastes bland. And I can’t see the seafood in it at all. The bibimbap is quite delicious. Overall, the food is about average, not comparable to what you can get Annandale in my opinion. For the price, you can get more authentic Korean food in Annandale.
Service is fine. Our server is very friendly and it can get slow when it is busy here. Bear in mind you probably need to ask for the side dishes if they forget to bring them.
However, the ambience is much better than those traditional Korean restaurants. This place has outside patio and the inside is quite relaxing.
Tip: happy hour every day from 4−7pm.

Opentable reservations available, yay!
Lunch service is quick even on a Saturday during brunch. We came two days in a row during a conference. Beef patty jeon is just a patty dipped in egg and fried. It’s oily and tastes ok with the sauce but Id skip it.
Order the galbi dolsot bibimbap with extra meat. The bowl is hot, let the rice crisp a little on the bottom before U mix is all up.

For the longest time, I heard that Mandu was a great Korean restaurant with a lot of vegan dishes. It is old school — having been open in DC since 2006, but there’s nothing wrong with trying an old-​school restaurant. They have two locations — on in Adams Morgan and one on K Street. We went to the one in Adams Morgan.
Mandu is a fairly large restaurant with seating on the first and second floors. The first floor, on which we were seated, was quite plain with plain tables and Asian artwork on the walls. The door did not have a lobby with a second door so every time it opened, we got cold. It wasn’t long before we had wished we were seated on the second floor. That, coupled with a family that had two small children and a mother who thought it was so cute that her children were disturbing everyone made it a bit intolerable in the beginning.
Nevertheless, we perused the menu. I started with a cocktail and my friend ordered a soda. The server returned and abruptly slammed the soda on the table making us jump and asked if we wanted to start with anything. I informed her that I was vegan and she proceeded to tell me that something that had egg in it would be good for me. I had to remind her of what vegan was. We started with the Mandu — 6 steamed dumplings with tofu. They were about as plain as could be – no flavor whatsoever.
My Bittersweet Bulleit made with Bulleit rye, St. Germain, bitters and a lemon twist was very good though.
After we finished our appetizer, we waited and we waited. Our server did not take our entrée order until like five minutes after we finished our appetizer. Yeah, really.
After we finally placed our orders, as is typical in Korean restaurants, we were served some side dishes to tide us down until the entrée arrived. We were served a root vegetable, broccoli and cucumber. It was not very good.
For my entrée, I ordered the Veggie Soymun Bowl (hold the egg). I did not realize this was a soup as it was not under the soup section. After stating that I did not want a soup, I ordered this. It would have been nice for the server to have informed me I was ordering a soup, but that probably would have required an extra second of her time, which she didn’t have. The soup was actually pretty good. The broth was very flavorful and was loaded with scallions, bok choy, mushrooms, carrots, and tofu.
My friend ordered the Yache Gui, which was seasoned and glazed veggies and tofu. She and I were not fans. It did not taste at all like a Korean dish.
As expected, it took a long time to get our check. By then, we were pretty much done with this place. One dish out of many was good and the rest were not good at all. The entrees were priced at $ 14-​$ 16, which was overpriced for what it was and the service was perhaps the worst service I’ve had in years. Not recommended.

Amazing Modern Happy Hour!!! Mandu’s happy hour is the perfect «start your weekend right» place! I went at around 6 pm on a Friday and there was still plenty of seating and the bartender and waiters were super attentive.
Sojutinis
My friend and I tried a few sojutinis. The mango tasted a little heavy on the alcohol, while the yogurt was very on point and was the perfect combo of refreshing yet strong for my alcoholic soul. Also, got the not on menu pear which had a subtle pear flavor and really highlighted the Soju.
Mandu
We ordered the pork/​beef and the vegetatian mandu. We tried the pork/​beef fried and steamed. I love fried things so I was in heaven with the fried, but you can taste the meat more with the steamed. In terms of the vegetarian, it looked beautifully green. Also, the filling was so so good especially paired with the light sauce.
Overall, I would love to go back to mandu again especially when the weather is better and the outside patio opens up! Wish the menu was less expensive but great happy hour!

This place is amazing for happy hour! $ 4 soju and $ 4 mandu, yes please! The soju is so good, the yogurt is the best and after two I was definitely buzzed for a while. The mandu was great too. We ordered the beef and pork and loved them both steamed and fried. We then ordered the vegetarian one, and it was just as good! I am a huge meat eater, so it was surprising that the vegetarian version was just as tasty.
The prices for the regular menu items were crazy expensive and I also wish the happy hour menu had more that just mandu and drinks which is why I give this place a 4.