Wednesday, May 21, 2008

A spicy beginning... Don De Mun (Korean)

I thought that May 20th would be a great day to embark on what I hope will be a fun, useful restaurant review Blog for anyone in the general Kofu, Japan area. It also happened to be our wedding anniversary and going out for a celebratory meal took us to a small, Korean restaurant in the middle of the city -- a place we had seen only a few days prior and decided would be worthwhile trying out someday. This will be a fairly simple, straightforward review, but I hope you enjoy it.

This unassuming, little restaurant is located on Showa Dori, near the Arakawa River, specifically, across from Coco's, a large family restaurant. The signage is mostly in kanji, and even if you can 't recognize the characters for "Korean" it's pretty obvious from all the color photographs of delectable-looking dishes decorating the building's exterior. The kanji for the restaurant's name reads: "East Large Gate" but the furigana next to it shows a more Korean reading: Don De Mun.

As we entered through the sliding doors, two women sprung into action, welcoming us and offering us a place to sit. It seemed we were the first customers of the evening, and that's the way it would remain until we left. I do wonder if they have a time or day when they are busy -- but I guess 9:00pm on a Tuesday wasn't it. The hours, though are very long -- 5pm to 3am so they can accommodate just about anyone, even the busiest of salarymen, providing they aren't working a night shift until morning. Unlike many such restaurants I've seen in the past, even though the decor was sparse and unimpressive, save a few Korean knick-knacks decorating the walls, the seating area, floors, and walls were kept squeaky-clean. The layout allowed us to see part-way into the kitchen, and I must say that even the stainless steel cooking area and grills were well-kept. So far, so good. I did ask how old the restaurant was, and the waitress said that they've been around for a while but moved to their present location only a year ago.

The first item of business was ordering a draft beer (¥600) for me and a Coke (¥400) for my gracious, designated driver Bonnie. I thought that the prices for drinks in general was a bit on the high side of average, but to the restaurant's credit, four dishes of appetizers soon followed. A bowl of the quintessential kimchi (spicy, pickled cabbage), sesame oil-flavoured bean sprouts, sweet, dried and marinated squid jerky, and marinated seaweed salad. I would have been happy even just munching on the appetizers as they were both plentiful and very flavourful. You'd also never guess that the chewy, sweet and tasty morsels in one of the bowls was squid... We were certainly off to a fine start, I thought. I tend to judge Korean restaurants based on the quality (and quantity) of kimchi (I hate to admit) but Don De Mun passed both tests. It was very traditional-tasting, spicy, (but not overly spicy) and when we finished the first bowl, I asked for some more and an even larger bowl appeared thereafter -- something that's always appreciated.

The menu prices were on the high side of average. I ordered another quintessential Korean dish: Bulgogi (sweet marinated beef and vegetables) (¥1500) and Bonnie tried the stone-cooked Bi Bim Ba (fried rice, vegetables, egg, sauce) (¥1200) which gets served to your table sizzling in a stone bowl. The non-stone-cooked variety is also available for ¥1000. The Bulgogi was exactly what I had expected and didn't disappoint. It was comfortably sweet, not spicy and the vegetables retained a fair amount of crispiness. As for the Bi Bim Ba, just as the kimchi preceding it, was spicy but not overly. Sometimes I forget that restaurants in this country do cater largely to a Japanese audience, many of whom tend not to care for spicy or hot foods. Having said that however, I would not recommend coming here to someone who cannot handle such dishes, as my mouth was definitely aglow for a good portion of our meal. I enjoyed the Bi Bim Ba for the rice since my own Bulgogi didn't come with any and would have cost ¥300 extra. In addition, it was served with two bowls of clear, seaweed broth that was an enjoyable contrast to the Bi Bim Ba. As it was, the portion sizes were quite large and we were both quite well satisfied with it all. I felt that we got our money's worth.

As an additional note, when I ordered my second beer, we were served another snack -- apparently a specialty of rural, Southern Korea: dried seaweed with sesame seeds. The best way to describe it would be to say it was like a seaweed jerky -- tough to chew but not unpleasantly so. It complemented the beer well.

When it was all said and done, our final bill for two people, including two beers and a Coke, came to ¥4300 -- which is exactly what I hoped I'd end up paying. This means that all the appetizers and snacks and side dishes we received were part of the bill total and not as part of a seating charge which tends to be very common in Japanese restaurants and izakayas where beer and snacks are served.

I enjoyed our time and look forward to coming again, hopefully to try some of the other interesting-looking dishes on the menu.

Summary:

The good: very tasty food, friendly staff, clean atmosphere, no seating charge, drinks served in chilled glasses.

The bad: eyeball-burning fluorescent lighting, average to high drink prices, horrible menu photography -- pretty much all amorphous, blurry masses... (Hint: examine the pictures of the dishes outside, before entering the restaurant -- outside, they are crystal clear and look tasty).

Menu: Traditional Korean dishes. Korean BBQ, Bulgogi, Bi Bim Ba, Korean "maki" (sushi) rolls, soups, salads, Kimchi pork soba noodles, full alcoholic drink menu including Kirin draft beer.


Price range: ¥500 for a soup or salad, ¥1000-¥1500 main dishes, ¥3000-¥5000 groups/Korean BBQ yaki-nikku plates. Average price for 2 (including drinks): ¥4000.

Smoking: Probably. No one else was there when we went and we don't smoke. If smoking is permitted, consistently keeping with the overall cleanliness of the restaurant, there were no ashtrays on the tables.

Recommended?: Yes

Details:
Don De Mun
Tel. 055-226-3676
Hours: Daily from 5pm-3am
Location: Showa Dori, across from Coco's Restaurant
Languages spoken: Korean, Japanese (no English)
Parking: yes

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nice! Can't wait to try it!