New Korean restaurant, Meju, is soft-opening this week

[teko.livejournal.com]

According to Eater, the new Korean place where McDonald's used to be is soft opening tonight, featuring a rotating selection of dishes.

http://boston.eater.com/2015/1/22/7872733/meju-softly-opens-this-very-night-in-davis-square

Comments

[mem-winterhill.livejournal.com]

Bibimbap shall be mine.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

report back to us on how it is!

For vegetarians, meh

[tequilamckngbrd.livejournal.com]

I'm Korean, but a vegetarian, so I can't speak about the meat-items.

We ordered the Pajeon (Korean version of the scallion pancake). It was crispy on the outside, but a little too mushy on the inside. It tasted like it wasn't thoroughly cooked on the inside. It could have been better.

The Spicy Tofu Stew with mushrooms was okay. It wasn't spicy enough for my liking, and it didn't have much flavor. I usually add some rice to the soup (maybe it's a Korean thing), so that may be why it was toned down as far as spiciness. I don't know, it just felt like something was missing. It felt more like a soup than a stew. I would have added some more gochujang (chili pepper paste), bean sprouts, garlic, ginger, scallions, sliced radishes... the list could go on. It seemed like all it had was soft tofu with mushrooms and red pepper flakes with some salt.

The Bibimbap with Tofu was the better dish we had. You really can't go wrong with that dish, but you can make a lot of things go right. Unfortunately, the spice was decent enough, but they could have added a few more things to my liking. There wasn't any gochujang (chili pepper paste), soy sauce, or doenjang (salty soybean paste). To me, those 3 things is what makes Bibimbap pop with flavor. Oh, and sesame oil. Coat that bowl with sesame oil, please! I also usually like a little bit of crumpled seaweed, shredded cucumber, some lettuce, more bean sprouts, maybe some sliced pickled radishes, and some sesame seeds. Instead of soft tofu, maybe some firm sliced and fried tofu could have given it some extra flavor and texture as well. It was a very basic bibimbap dish, but the better of the three dishes we tried.

The waitstaff was attentive and nice. It took maybe a bit too long for the dishes to arrive. It was about a half-an-hour wait, but with only 5 tables occupied when we ordered. The decorations were basic, but it felt and looked nice inside.

Some dishes I'd have liked to have seen:
Vegetarian Kimchee
Vegetarian Jajangmyeon - Korean Black Bean Sauce Noodles
Vegetarian Teeokguk - Rice Cake soup
Red Bean buns

If they adjusted those things, I would be a happy camper and eat there at a weekly, if not bi-weekly, basis. Hell, maybe even 3 times a week.

RE: For vegetarians, meh

[teko.livejournal.com]

I'm no expert on Korean food, but I'm seriously weirded out by the idea of Bibimbap being served without any gochujang or doenjang, much less soy sauce. That's like getting a pizza without any cheese or sauce, or french fries served without salt or ketchup.

I'm definitely going to wait a bit until the 'real' opening rather than the soft open, and hope they work out the kinks, because when it gets cold and snowy, there's nothing better than a big bowl of kimchee chigae.