Ella M.
Yelp
Worst "korean" food I've ever had. The ambiance of the restaurant was fine; no bad notes on that front. However, in terms of the food and the culinary description of the restaurant's background, I could not have been more disappointed -- truthfully, I was fuming when I left the restaurant.
My friend and I found this restaurant on a list from Vogue France about the best Korean restaurants in Paris. We were very excited for our meal because we were missing having Asian food on our Europe trip and saw Mandoobar had great michelin reviews. Our expectations were high because of how this restaurant prided itself in being "authentic" and the chef's upbringing in Seoul.
We ordered the Korean side salad, gougi mandoo, shrimp mandoo, kimchi mandoo, and the sea bream tartare. All of these dishes stated they had sesame oil, vinegar, gochugaru, and/or gochujang (all staple Korean ingredients) in these dishes. This could not have been farther from the truth. The dishes were ridiculously bland, leaving my friend and I to drown our mandoo and sea bream in the sad "soy sauce" (which isn't even Korean) dish they gave us on the side.
Aside from the five-year-old level taste profile of our meal, to make matters worse, our kimchi mandoo DID NOT EVEN HAVE KIMCHI IN IT. We had to open up our dumplings after eating the first one to check if there was kimchi in it because, once again, the taste was not there at all. We were met with two red pepper flakes in the filling that were supposed to "mimic" the flavors of kimchi (which it absolutely did not).
Not a single dish lived up to our expectations, nor should any of them be considered Korean food -- let alone AUTHENTIC Korean food. To validate my review, I am Korean, have grown up eating homemade Korean food made by my immigrant aunts/grandmother/mother, and have visited Korea multiple times. We were furious when we had to pay $80 for the food we did get and we were still hungry when we left the restaurant. We were happier to leave the restaurant hungry than continue to order more food at this establishment.
If I am ever in Paris again, I will never spend a single euro at Mandoobar and would strongly advise anyone who is craving and looking for a delicious Korean meal to NOT go to this restaurant. Save your money and time and visit Shin Jung (7 min walk away from Mandoobar) instead. My friend and I went here immediately after leaving Mandoobar and were pleasantly greeted not only by Korean restaurant staff and chef but also with delightful Korean aromatics.
Tldr; DO NOT GO TO MANDOOBAR -- scam, NOT authentic Korean food, go to Shin Jung instead.