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Home > Restaurants > Mandoo Bar

All Reader Reviews of...

Mandoo Bar

2 W. 32nd St., New York, NY, 10001
nr. Fifth Ave.
212-279-3075

6.4 "Mixed Reviews"
Average Reader Rating
on a Scale of 10		 Write Your Own Review
62% Would you go back?
62% Would you take a date?
62% Would you take kids?
12% Would you go on business?
0% Would you go on a special occasion?
Food: 6.1
Service: 7.5
Décor: 6.6
Value: 6.1
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  • Showing reviews 1 through 8 of 8

It was awful

mandulover from 21144 | Posted on 10/17/09

Overall Rating: 3 (Not Recommended)
Would you go back? No
Would you take a date? No
Would you take kids? No
Would you go on business? No
Would you go on a special occasion? No
Food: 2
Service: 2
Décor: 5
Value: 3

Never recommend the place. There are lots of nice Korean restaurants around Mandu bar. Please don't waste your time at the Mandu bar.

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3 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

Excellent dumplings, noodle soups, everything!!

girlwithbigappetite from 20009 | Posted on 8/3/09

Overall Rating: 10 (Highly Recommended)
Would you go back? Yes
Would you take a date? Yes
Would you take kids? Yes
Would you go on business? Yes
Would you go on a special occasion? No
Food: 10
Service: 10
Décor: 9
Value: 10

Mandoo Bar is excellent - they make the dough in the window so you can see how fresh it is. I especially like the dumplings ordered in the spicy broth, and the lightly fried dumplings. Unless you're on a strict diet, it seems pointless to order steamed dumplings here because the light crispiness is what brings out the flavor. I have been here several times over the past 3 years, the most recent being in July 2009, and it's consistently good. Planning to come back after a show in 3 weeks. Casual enough for kids, but also still has a more formal/modern feel than other well-priced asian places.

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4 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

Decent dumplings

buddhabelly from 10018 | Posted on 5/7/08

Overall Rating: 8 (Recommended)
Would you go back? Yes
Would you take a date? Yes
Would you take kids? Yes
Would you go on business? No
Would you go on a special occasion? No
Food: 8
Service: 8
Décor: 8
Value: 8

I, too, am of Korean decent and had their fried pork dumplings and seafood dumplings. The dumpling wrappers are made from scratch so they are a bit thicker, yet light and fluffy, than the standard thin, crispy wrappers we are accustomed to in a traditional Korean mandoo/mandu. The pork dumplings I had were lightly fried and, agreeing with some reviews before me, the filling could've used more scallions or seasoning, but overall it wasn't too bad. The seafood dumplings are steamed and similar to the pork dumplings, could use more seasoning as well. I think the main draw back to my dumpling experience were the dipping soy sauce. A true Korean mandoo experience is to dip it into a soy sauce conconction with sesame seeds, sesame seed oil, some chili peppers, and maybe some scallions, but all you have at Mandoo Bar is soy sauce and Vietnamese Srirachi chili. Overall, these dumplings are decent.

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4 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

Worst fake korean dumplings ever

bynecessity from 10012 | Posted on 12/18/07

Overall Rating: 1 (Not Recommended)
Would you go back? No
Would you take a date? No
Would you take kids? No
Would you go on business? No
Would you go on a special occasion? No
Food: 1
Service: 3
Décor: 5
Value: 1

This is my first review on NY Mag and I felt compelled to write one b/c the dumplings, in which they claim to specialize, were absolutely disgusting. I welcome the diverse crowd that korea-town is attracting more recently, but b/c many non-koreans don't have a sense of what is truly good or authentic, terrible restaurants are doing well in the area, including this one. Not only were the dumplings horrible (I literally wanted to spit it out), they weren't even korean dumplings, but more like chinese dumplings. If they were good chinese dumplings, I wouldn't even complain, but these were so appalling in taste, texture and color that I would never ever step back into this con of a restaurant. By supporting such unacceptable culinary establishments, you would be doing everyone a disservice.

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58 out of 161 people found this review helpful.

Yummy dumplings

exciteme from 10005 | Posted on 7/8/07

Overall Rating: 8 (Recommended)
Would you go back? Yes
Would you take a date? Yes
Would you take kids? Yes
Would you go on business? No
Would you go on a special occasion? No
Food: 8
Service: 10
Décor: 7
Value: 7

I love this place and highly recommend it to others. The dumplings are great! The seafood pancakes and the bibimbops are also good. Service is impeccable.

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184 out of 358 people found this review helpful.

Pleasantly Surprised!

Aeren from 10019 | Posted on 12/5/06

Overall Rating: 8 (Recommended)
Would you go back? Yes
Would you take a date? Yes
Would you take kids? Yes
Would you go on business? No
Would you go on a special occasion? No
Food: 8
Service: 9
Décor: 5
Value: 8

It was surprisingly good. The dumplings were fresh, flavorful and very well made. Service was attentive & accomodating. I would definitely come again. Don't know about the University place branch but the establishment on 32nd & 5th was very nice. I'm Korean & the dumplings were just as good as home made. But the decor is nothing to write home about although it was clean. So, it's a nice place to go to for a casual outing with a group of friends or by yourself.

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254 out of 515 people found this review helpful.

I've only been to the one on University, but DO NOT GO!

susanec | Posted on 10/5/04

Overall Rating: 3 (Not Recommended)
Would you go back? No
Would you take a date? No
Would you take kids? No
Would you go on business? No
Would you go on a special occasion? No
Food: 2
Service: 9
Décor: 5
Value: 2

I am Korean so I should know what I'm talking about when I say this place has the Worst Korean food in the world. The only edible thing we had were the pork dumplings and we ordered a ton of other stuff, which we couldn't even bring ourselves to eat so we left it all on the plates. I wouldn't even bring it home for my dogs...

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256 out of 528 people found this review helpful.

Classic Korean Comfort Food at a Bargain!

battousai from 07632 | Posted on 3/26/04

Overall Rating: 10 (Highly Recommended)
Would you go back? Yes
Would you take a date? Yes
Would you take kids? Yes
Would you go on business? No
Would you go on a special occasion? No
Food: 10
Service: 9
Décor: 9
Value: 10

Eating those delicious homemade Korean dumplings brought back a lot of childhood memories of my mommy fixing me up a batch in the days of yore. The space is narrow and "cozy," but nonetheless relaxing and casual enough where you can stop by with friends or a date to munch on steamed, boiled, or fried mandoo. Mom, I'm coming home this weekend!!!!

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266 out of 519 people found this review helpful.

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