Restaurant: Sinpo Woori Mandoo
Cuisine: Korean
Last visited: April 6, 2010
Location: Insadong (Seoul), Korea – Multiple locations
Address: 2 floor (Address is Korean)
Price Range: $10CAD or less
1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!
Food: 4.5 (based on what I tried)
Service: 3
Ambiance: 3
Overall: 4
Additional comments:
- Since 1971
- Korean chain restaurant
- Popular to locals
- Famous for Korean dumplings
- English on menu!
- Great for snacks
- Casual/Fast/Quick
- Cheap eats, good quality
- Shareable portions
- Complimentary appetizers
**Recommendations: Gogi Mandoo, Jjol Bokki
Sinpo Woori Mandoo is a popular Korean eatery that is famous and well known for their home made Korean dumplings. Sinpo is a small town in Incheon, Korea and the dumplings originated in this part of town.
Sinpo Woori Mandoo is a well established family store that has now expanded with many locations throughout Korea. My Korean friends took me here for a mid-afternoon snack so it is a popular restaurant for locals to grab casual eats. It looks like a fast food restaurant but the food is home made and really good.
It’s one of the VERY few places I went to where there was English on the menu. In this case it also didn’t mean it was a tourist trap/not authentic…it was still traditional Korean food but established enough for a fancy menu. Insadong, where Sinpo Woori Mandoo was located is also a touristy location and this is one of the non-touristy restaurants.
I only came here once and it was just for a snack, but based on the items we ordered I would definitely com back. For cheap eats it was a hit…even for not cheap eats I still think it was great!
On the table:
**Gogi Mandoo (Korean Dumplings) – 6/6
- Pork and vegetable dumplings (8peices) – $3.00CAD (Cheap right?!)
- These are the home made authentic Korean dumplings that made Sinpo Woori Mandoo famous!
- It was my 1st time trying Korean dumplings so I have nothing to compare to, but these were good and even in Korean standards (from my Korean friends) they are good!
- The dumplings were stuffed with juicy ground pork, chives, and clear thin vermicelli noodles. The skin was quite thin and I found them delicious!
- They were really tender and the noodles helped keep them even more tender and moist. The technique reminded me of the stuffed squid aka Pla Muek Pad Keaw Wan from Thangthai Thai Restaurant in Vancouver, BC.
**Jjol Bokki (Rice Cakes) – 5/6
- Rice cakes with spicy sauce served with fried dumplings and egg (hard-boiled) on the side $4.00CAD
- DROOL! I really enjoyed this dish. I had this dish about 3 times while I was in Korea, but this place was the best. It’s probably not the BEST in Korea, but it’s a good one!
- I ordered it at this other cheap hole in the wall popular to locals Korean place and it wasn’t as good as this place. Those ones are reviewed here.
- This one was spicy, creamy, and also slightly sweet. The flavour was more well rounded not just spicy. I think they added some tomato paste in it to give it a richer flavour. It was almost like the canned Alphagetti sauce, but better and spicy.
- The rice cakes are the long tubes you see underneath the triangular slices of fish cakes. The rice cakes are delicious, chewy and quite filling. They’re perfect match with the spicy chile sauce.
- The deep fried dumplings are equally as amazing as the steamed ones! They’re so crispy and crunchy I loved them! Almost like deep fried won tons.
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