Quickbites — Manhattan

Address: 2 West 32nd Street New York, NY 10001

Mandoo Bar is a Korean restaurant located in KoreaTown (K-Town) in Manhattan. KoreaTown is mainly located in Midtown, specifically West 32nd street spanning from Madison Avenue, Sixth Avenue and Broadway.

K-Town is one of my favorite places to eat in Manhattan. I’ve been eating in this area since 2009 and getting dumplings at Mandoo Bar since 2010. K-Town is conveniently (for me) located just a few blocks away from where I work so you can often find me here getting dumplings, Korean Fried Chicken, dessert from Spot Dessert Bar, or drinks at any one of the many karaoke bars located in this area.

Since K-Town is located in Midtown (one of the busiest areas in Manhattan) the best option for dining here is via subway: B,D,F,M,N,Q,R,W trains are all options. A ride-share is also an option but traffic tends to be a bit hairy here so the subway will be your best friend.

Mandoo Bar is famous for its dumplings. Mainly the “Mool Mandoo’s” and the “Goon Mandoos”. Mool Mandoo’s are boiled dumplings filled with pork and vegetables and the Good Mandoo’s are lightly fried dumpling filled with pork and vegetables. If you intend on visiting this restaurant I highly recommend you order some sort of dumpling from here. And, if you do not eat pork, they offer Vegetable Mool Mandoo’s and Vegetable Goon Mandoo’s.

Items on the menu range from $6 dollars to $16 dollars. You’ll leave here full and not break the bank.

Every single time I’ve dine at Mandoo Bar, I order the goon mandoo (pictured above) and share an order of Bulgogi Dolsot Bibimbap (a hot beef, rice and veggie dish). If I bring someone here for the first that’s what they try and I haven’t received complaints ever!

The staff members are always super friendly, attentive, and quick.

The restaurant is a bit small but I feel about 30-40 people can dine here at once. There may be a bit of a wait if you arrive with a larger group but if you plan on coming with a party of 2-4 the wait time is minimal.

If you do have to wait, I suggest hanging out in front of the restaurant and watch the amazing dumpling creation before your eyes! You can see the work and skill going into the food you may order.

Mandoo Bar is perfect for catching up with friends, trying popular Korean style dishes, bringing friends from out of town, or going on a chill date.

Address: 238 East 14th Street, NY NY 10003

BaoHaus is a small Taiwanese bao shop located in the East Village area of Manhattan. If you do not know what a bao is, it’s a small Chinese steamed bread-like bun/roll filled with all kinds of meats or veggies. Most commonly filled with pork.

BaoHaus is a teeny tiny restaurant with a limited seating. I would be surprised if no more than 15 people can fit in here at one time. However, this concept works for the type of food and for the area. The East Village is a very popular area to grab all kinds of food (American Fare, Dumplings, Thai, Burgers, You-Name-It). So BaoHaus fits right in.

The best way to get here I’d say is by train or a share ride service. There is absolutely no parking in front of this place or near (remember when I mentioned it was a very popular area). The L and/or F train will be your best option for getting here.

I first heard of BaoHaus on the cable tv station Viceland from one my favorite food personalities Eddie Huang. Eddie and his brother opened this NYC location and a LA location. I was curious to visit this location because Eddie is inspired and involved in the culture of hip hop so I knew I’d enjoy the ambiance and music while dining here.

I’m not going to front, I’m going to be real with my readers. The bao’s here are expensive. 2 bao’s could cost anywhere from $5-6 dollars. This is pretty pricey being that you could get double the amount of baos for that price in Flushing Queens. But I understand the game, the rent is too damn high in Manhattan.

I ordered the birdhaus bao (I usually go for pork bao's) based solely on the description. How could you resist fried chicken in a soft fluffy bao?! And my partner got the Spiceland Bao (fried chicken bao is some hellishly hot sauce). Both bao's were served quickly and were hot. The birdhaus was seasoned well and quite simply delish. The Spiceland bao's sauce dripped onto my bao and i got a few drops of the heat. My lips were on fire. So if you like HEAT, go for the spiceland, if you do not like heat avoid it or get lots of water.

I can’t really comment on the staff here as we walked in, ordered, secured a seat, got our food, ate and left. There really wasn’t much interaction with the staff here.

If you plan to come with a large group, kinda don’t do that. And if you do, plan on eating your bao’s outside because the whole crew will not fit by any means.

I’d say this place is perfect for a super quick bite. Possibly when you’ve had a few beers or glasses of wine or if you and a date (a super-chill date) want to grab a bite before a movie or concert this is the place to go!