My Favorite Korean Restaurant in SF

    

Since I have been here in America, what I miss the most in Korea is my family, friends, and the scrumptious mouthwatering authentic food. There are so many of Korean restaurants in the U.S. and I have tried a lot of places, but I’ve only found a few places that I like. The food tastes great like my mom’s cooking with that perfect Korean spiciness to it. Most of places here are Americanized and serve fusion food, adjusting Korean food to non-Korean’s tastes. There’s nothing wrong with it, but people can’t say they love Korean food when they are actually eating Korean based American food. When I go to a Korean place to eat spicy pork, for example, I expect the spicy Korean red pepper paste, not sugar sweet pork. Thus, I have been looking for an authentic Korean restaurant around the school, where I don’t have to make a long trip only for one meal. And I have finally found one. Today, I would like to introduce one of my favorite Korean restaurants, ‘Manna’, and a couple of dished that I tried recently.

   



The restaurant ‘Manna’, meaning ‘delicious’ in Korean, is on the corner of Irving and 10^th avenue. It is a very small restaurant; maybe about 20 people can fit in. The first time I went there was three month ago, I saw a new Korean restaurant on Irving Street so I wanted to give it a try. Since the first time, I have become a regular because of the food, atmosphere, and the service. Even though the owner said that he never has been in restaurant industry, he is doing a great job. When we walked in and were seated, they brought us Korean water, which tastes like Oolong tea but Koreans usually drink it as water with a meal or anytime. I tried many kinds of dishes at Manna, such as Bulgogi, Tofu soup, Bibimbob, which most of Americans think are the only types of Korean food, but that’s not true. To broaden my readers’ choice of Korean food at a restaurant, I ordered two dishes that a lot of Americans might not have tried before, which was Kanpongki (Sweet& spicy chicken wing) and Nakji bokum (Sautéed small octopus& vetegable & spicy sauce).

             While I was waiting for the main dishes to come out, there were six kinds of side dishes that came out first, as I assume that most of people know that Korean dishes come with rice and side dishes (One of my friends told me that the first time she dined on Korean cuisine, she was frustrated with many kinds side dishes that came out although she didn’t order them). You can also refill them as much as you want, as long as you ordered a main dish. For your information, Manna doesn’t even charge for any extra rice. 

                The food came out while we were munching the various side dishes. On the left side of above pictures, that is sautéed small octopus with spicy sauce. A lot of people are afraid to eat octopus, but these baby octopus are known as healthy food, and it is very chewy and tasty. The sauce for this dish is spicy but delicious with a little bit of sweet taste. On the right side of the pictures was spicy and sweet chicken wing. The chicken wing is crispy and is deep-fried perfectly, and it goes well with the thick spicy sweet sauce.  Even though they both taste spicy, the first one is red pepper spicy, and the second one is Cajun spicy with more of a sweet sauce. Those two dishes were amazing, so my friend and I literally finished everything in the above picture with side dishes refills.

                Manna has been opened only for four months now, but in general the food was very tasty and fresh. The owner was one of the servers, who was friendly, and the atmosphere was cozy, clean, and neat. The selection of food was modest size. Moreover, the price is very reasonable, compared to other Korean restaurants, and the portion was of the food was filling. This place has 4 stars out of 5 on yelp, which is fairly high. I also give an average of four stars. If any of you would like to experience affordable authentic Korean food around the school, I strongly recommend Manna restaurant.