Obok Inc

This place is small but it's clean. It stands out on the block because of the lovely mandoo preparers in the shoppe window. The dumplings, both seafood and veggie are quite good and homey. The price is decent for what you get. The noodle soup with the dumplings is my favorite. Their Korean scallion pancake is another choice, with the only drawback is being a little too oily. A nice place to stop for a quick fresh bite.

Of all the places in Koreatown, I especially like Mandoo Bar (mandoo means dumpling in Korean). A little tight in terms of space, it still provided a fun vibe, especially with the women up front making dumplings for all of 32nd street to see. We were served the dumplings relatively quickly, and each of the different kinds I tasted, both steamed and fried, were just the right consistency. Just as good as the dumplings, though, was my bibim bap. Filling my need for entertaining, interactive eating, the server opened a raw egg over my bowl of artfully arranged, colorful veggies and rice, and mixed it all together. Hot, tasty, and fun to watch. The udon was somewhat less inspiring, but no matter. The rest of the meal was worth another trip.

We visit 3-5 Korean restaurants every time my husband and I visit NYC and Mandoo Bar was the WORST one we've ever been to. All the Korean restaurants in the area are a lot better than that. First of all, we thought it was pricey for mandoos but we thought it would be a good place since they were shown on a Korean TV show but we regret that we went there. We went there last weekend and I ordered Combo Mandoos so I can try three different mandoos (pork, seafood and veggie). I got them 10 minutes later and they all tasted the same and bland. My husband ordered Ramen with Mandoos and he had to wait 30 minutes to get his food. The restaurant wasn't especially busy at that time and I know it takes less than 10 minutes to make ramen so we don't understand why it took so long. When we complained to the waiter, he told us to wait only a couple more minutes, and we had to wait 10 more. My husband finally got his ramen, but guess what, it was barely cooked! Also, on the way to the bathroom, I found the side dishes piled next to the bathroom door, all opened. We decided not to complain again since we were about to miss our bus. We went to there because we wanted something quick before we catch our bus and we knew places like that serve food pretty quickly but we had to wait so long and almost missed our bus.