New Wonjo

Foggy and humid.

 So, we got into NYC around 9 on Thursday night, and of course, as usual, I was pretty hungry. We checked into our hotel and figured we would find a good restaurant nearby. We originally thought we would look up some really good restaurants in advance, but since we wanted to do a lot and not be on a set "schedule" to go to certain places, we approached this trip as an adventure of sorts, with a few key areas and places that we wanted to see, and the rest we just explored and tried out as we saw them.

After walking around the Herald Square area for awhile, we decided to eat on Korean Way(23rd block of W 32nd St.), which is filled with all kinds of Korean restaurants. I think the sign stating "korean bbq" is what really drew us into the New Wonjo.

We were led to a cool lofted upstairs area, which was not very busy (As we would see throughout dinner, true New Yorkers must not eat supper until at least 10pm or later, as by the time we left at 11:30-ish, the place was packed). One really cool thing was that each table had a built in cooktop and a neat overhead vent system that allowed chefs to cook the meat right at the table.

After a quick glance at the menu, we decided on the mandoo jjim (steamed dumplings) and the bul goki (marinated prime rib eye). Although it didn't list this on the menu, our order included a huge array of extras to make the prime rib into a "wrap" of sorts.

The dumplings were amazing. Light crunch on the outside, but super tender, with the meat inside of it being medium-rare, which was excellent. I don't think I have ever had a dumpling that had meduim rare meat inside of it. A great start to our NYC food experience.

Our waiter said that the best way to eat it was like a wrap or burrito, using the lettuce as a shell and adding all the toppings onto the prime rib. The toppings included spicy kimchi (wonderful), calamari, eggplant, soy bean paste, jalapenos in a spicy sauce, spicy vegetables, pickled celery, mushrooms, another unknown vegt., and lettuce wraps. It was all very fresh and very flavorful.

Afterwords, our waiter also brought us an unknown dish that consisted of a creamy, egg-bake type dish. It bas fairly plain tasting, but it worked well with the spicy food that we had just eaten.

And like this wasn't enough, we also each got a cup of some very good cinnamon tea, and a really fresh slice of watermelon. If you happen to be in this area on a trip to NYC, I would highly recommend checking out New Wonjo.

Little fuzzy, but shows how busy it was getting as we were leaving.