Introduce your palate to Asian food that isn’t Chinese or Thai with today’s deal: $15 for $30 worth of Korean food and drinks at Mandu in Dupont Circle, one of the few authentic Korean restaurants in the DC area.Besides, they’re only cute because they taste so good.
Woomi Garden's expansive menu teems with authentic Korean barbecue, fresh entrées, and schools of sushi. Lunchtime combinations serve up an assortment of fresh sushi served with miso soup ($9.95), or spoon out yook gae jang, whose shredded beef and spicy broth grant both satisfaction and the ability to start a fire with a mere whisper ($8.95). Diners can kick off dinners with an appetizing appetizer of lightly battered and fried soft-shell crab ($8.95) before diving into hearty entrées, such as broiled chicken teriyaki doused in flavorful sauce ($15.95). The popular bulgogi, a dish of marinated, tender beef rib eye, arrives sliced thin for an easier slide down fun-loving fork tines ($19.95). A variety of special sushi rolls, such as the Rock 'n' Roll, warm the cockles of the belly, snuggling a mouthwatering medley of fresh salmon, eel, flying-fish roe, crab, avocado, cucumber, and lettuce ($11.95). Once organic furnaces have been fully fueled, cool off overheated mouth-grates with sips from a sake martini ($5.50) or a glass of wine ($4.85).
With a savory selection of fresh seafood, delectable steaks, and tasty sandwiches, Gaffney's menu features classic American cuisine with a Cajun and traditional Southern influence. Land-meat lovers can hunker down with steaks ($21–$29) and barbecue pork ribs ($22), while diners desiring delicacies of the deep can partake of the specialty Maryland crab-cake sandwich ($16). After tasting the jambalaya ($20), the New Orleans shrimp etouffee ($21), or the bayou stew ($24)—a hearty helping of shrimp, scallops, and crawfish in Creole-mustard sauce—tone-deaf taste buds find themselves serenading incisors with John Fogerty lyrics.
Hungry twosomes can warm up palates with organic tofu miso soup and a starter to share, such as a Dragon Taco, a combination of eel, cucumber, and salsa tucked inside a grilled-tortilla sleeping bag. The second course confronts chopsticks with two of more than 35 special rolls, including the Crunchy Infinity, a symphony of shrimp tempura, spicy crab, cucumber, masago, and crunch flakes, and the Out of Control, which attacks tongues with tuna, salmon, soft-shell crab, and spicy tuna, all drizzled with spicy aioli. Special rolls are then sidekicked by a choice of two classic maki such as California rolls, spicy-scallop rolls, and Spider rolls—deep-fried soft-shell crab dressed in the finest bright-orange masago overcoats.
At HeeBeen Asian Bistro, visitors delight in a culinary exploration that’s aided by a wide buffet counter topped with myriad dishes that invite sampling. Trays of Korean barbecue meats lay next to hot entrees of ramen, teriyaki, tempura, and oysters rockefeller. After trips to the sushi section, patrons’ chopsticks grip morsels of unagi nigiri, slices of sashimi, or pieces of a smoked sake crunch roll. While enjoying their spread, patrons sit beneath ceiling-mounted cubes lit from within, comforted by sleek woods that dominate the dining room. And behind one of the buffets, a glass case shows off small pieces of art beneath clusters of small fairy lights.