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| MokoMandy's take on Korean Bulgogi |
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| Foie Gras Dumplings and POUTINE! |
Most restaurants I go to, there are a couple of things on the menu that I know I’m gonna love and that I want to order. In addition, if I’m lucky, there may be a couple of things that I’m very curious about. MokoMandy blew me away with the number of interesting dishes, new ingredients I’ve never heard of and dishes I HAD to try.
Location and Ambience – 4/5 Stars. Easy to find and parking is no problem because… it’s at a strip mall! The restaurant is small and very nice inside. The bar stools were very cushiony and comfortable.
Food – 5/5 stars.
Foie Gras Dumplings – Foie Gras is a fairly fragile substance and I was curious how they would cook it in a dumpling without it being a mushy mess. This turned out incredible and was my favorite dish. Three homemade dumplings with foie gras and pulled duck meat inside. Each bite was pure heaven. I’m pretty sure my good friend Carissa in California experienced remote mouth orgasms from me eating this as she lives and dies for Foie Gras. They aren’t cheap at 15 dollars for three, but it’s still a must-try.
Bulgogi Beef – Traditional Bulgogi makes me gag at times as Koreans choose some pretty fatty sections of beef to marinade and cook for their Bulgogi. However, Exec Chef Dan Stevens and owner Thaddeus Kim decided to use Filet instead. I was shocked to see pieces of dried seaweed (like Japanese nori but a little lighter) on the side. I used the seaweed to make little bulgogi sandwiches and added the various condiments and banchan on top. The beef was seasoned expertly and I much preferred this dish to the traditional Korean Bulgogi.
Shrimp Etoufee – I really wanted to sample some of the Cajun food as well as some of the Korean food so I ordered the Shrimp Etoufee after listening to Thaddeus go into detail about the laborious process they use to create the sauce. It’s nice to hear that the kitchen staff is not just opening up cans to make their shrimp sauce but to hear how they use special tools and lengthy processes to extract as much shrimp flavor as possible to use in their sauces, I had to try it. It was easily the most flavorful Shrimp Etoufee I’ve had and a good amount of heat (I give it a 2 out of 5 on the forehead sweat-meter). Hopefully they’ll put crawfish etoufee on the menu before my next visit and I’ll be in heaven.
POUTINE – This was what brought me in the front door while everything else is what will absolutely keep me coming back. I went to Montreal last summer and experienced Poutine for the first time. After getting it once, I was on a mission to eat as much of it as possible before coming home where I was told it is very hard to find. Sure enough, since coming back, I haven’t found it anywhere in northern Virginia. MokoMandy’s POUTINE is excellent. When my server Phil dropped the plate off, my heart sank a bit as I saw the fries were skinny and not fat Five Guys style fries like I had in Montreal. However, the dish was excellent. I stuffed bite after bite of cheese curd gravy fries into my mouth. What made the dish mind-blowing were pieces of the best bacon I’ve ever had in my life. There is a pork genius working in that kitchen. They also choose to put sliced sausage on top and that also added some heat and texture to the dish. I’ll be ordering this again… and again….
For dessert I had to try the bread pudding but I had my eye on another ingredient used in another dessert called “chicory”. Thaddeus brought us a small sample of the chicory mousse on the side and it was excellent. I don’t trust mousse’s that are too smooth. I like a little contrast in texture and the tiny pieces of chickory provided that. If you enjoy coffee desserts, give this a shot. The bread pudding was very good. Not the best I’ve had, but very good.
Dishes for the future – I’ve never had gator and the gator croquettes sounds like it could be good. Our server Philip really likes the Grilled Quail and house-made ramen soup. The thought of quail and duck meat in a nice ramen soup in the middle of January sounds perfect. I really could go straight through the entire menu and try everything on it, that’s just how good this menu is to me.
Service was 4/5 stars. Food came out when I wanted it to and my water glass stayed full. I don’t expect the Head Chef and Owner to be able to be as attentive and conversational as they were as they get more and more busy but it was a very nice touch. I love to talk food with other people that love to talk food and it made the meal extremely enjoyable. As an fyi, a 5th star is tough to achieve with me and it is not a knock on the restaurant at all. 4 stars is way above my expectations for a strip-mall restaurant in Sterling, VA.
These guys aren’t open for lunch as they are slaving away in the kitchen preparing food for the dinner crowd and make sure you reserve a table if you plan on going on the weekends. They are already turning people away on Friday and Saturday nights. I’m not only giving this restaurant 5 stars but I’m putting it in my top 10 places in the DC area.
*** Updated 1/28/12 *** - A subsequent visit to MokoMandy on a busy Saturday night. The Wild boar rice bowl was very good. Tender chunks of boar as well as charred chunks on top mixed with slightly kimchi'd cabbage and two types of rice. There are two scallop dishes on the menu so we decided to try the Modern Korean Scallops. The presentation was A+ (photo below) with the variety of colors and a delicious foam on top (foams look delicious to me but not to my dining partner), however, the entire dish fell short on flavor and execution. The scallops were tough and if you are not a fan of sweet entrees, stay away as the sauces were more sweet than I expected. The server never asked if we liked the dish in spite of the fact that we were sharing it and still managed to leave a scallop on the plate uneaten. It might seem nitpicky but it's things like this that will make people not want to spend 100 dollars for a dinner for two in Sterling, Virginia.
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| Modern Korean Scallops - Beautiful, but almost inedible. |
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