December 11, 2008

Mandarin House

I ended up not going down to SD because I was too tired to drive today. I'm going to leave tomorrow. So with that said, here's a Thursday post.

I went to LA/Koreatown this week after my finals to take my grandpa out for lunch. He's over 90, and this man still loves to go out to shop and eat. As we entered the food court, he started getting really excited, just because there was so much variety and forgot that we were there to go to Mandarin House, one of his favorite eats in the area. The place serves Korean-Chinese food.


I haven't tried many things here because we go here mainly for the jjajjangmyun (black bean sauce noodle). It is derived from the Chinese dish, but the taste is definitely different. I've only been here for lunch, and a lot of times, there's a bit of a wait, but never longer than 10-15 minutes. The inside of the place isn't that big.


After we were seated, we were given the standard: tea, cabbage kimchi, and raw onions, which I enjoy with a bit of vingear, with black bean sauce. I thought the kimchi wasn't ripe enough. It tasted like they just made it that day, and it needed to sit out for a bit longer. It's usually good though.




I ordered the gan jjajjang for a little over 8 bucks. The sauce and noodles come out separately, and you have to mix it together. They were a bit skimpy on the cucumbers, and I wish I got more. The noodles were cooked fine, and the waitress cut them for me. It's a pretty good portion, and you'll definitely be full. The sauce had small chunks of pork, lots of onions, and some zucchini. I don't know why, but the past couple times I've eaten this, I started having really bad gas pains. I think it was just eating too much of the onions and the fact that my stomach has gotten more sensitive lately because this never really happened until this year. So a caveat to you all. I was careful not to eat all the onions this time although I wanted to. Next time, I'm just going to pop a couple tums after I eat.
The jjajjang for the most part has been pretty consistent here, and I personally think it's a much better place than what the DB and Rowland Heights area offers. It's the sauce that's superior to the other places I've tried, and I think it might be because of their liberal use of meat. I've also tried their jjamppong here and wasn't very impressed with it because I thought the broth was bland and oily, but like the jjajjang, it came in a big portion.

Service wasn't that attentive. We had to ask for everything, but they were pretty busy. I've never really had a problem with the service here though overall.

Mandarin House (Koreatown Plaza 1st Floor)
928 S Western Ave Ste 147
Los Angeles, CA 90006

3 rah rah rahs:

shavedicesundays said...

I'm always amazed by the older generation. They just keep going and going. The food here looks good. You gotta tell me where the best place for Korean tofu is in the DB area since you're probably an expert.

Selba said...

Wow.. your grandpa is already over 90 years old?! And he looks so healthy from behind. Any health tips from him? :D

imjustatree said...

sis: please, I'm no expert haha...honestly, i just end up going to chodang soondubu on grand/db blvd bc it's the closest...i think koba in the hmart plaza is not as good, but the difference isn't huge. i had myung dong a couple months back and didn't think it was that great, although I did go there for quite some time. I also noticed that there is a new tofu house on Grand Ave. in Chino Hills right before Peyton, so I might be checking that out soon. Imo, none of them really stand out to me, and I'd say they're all ok...you might find that you like one better than others though. This is simply on the tofu soups alone...not on service/banchan.

selba- he exercised a lot since he was young. i can still remember when I was a kid, he would wake up early and do his exercises.

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