A long awaited return to Namu, which I’d been to a couple of times pre-pandemic, and though higher priced than heading off to Koreatown, more convenient, and always delicious. Met up with a friend last weekend for a Sunday lunch. Oh… my. A pale shade of what it was a year and a half ago. I mean, I don’t want to bash restaurants in this post-pandemic reopening world, but the dumplings were still cold inside and had no seasoning to the filling. The sweet and sour prawns (a dubious dish in my book at any time, but my friend wanted to try them) were so sickly sweet and gloopy, and the coating on the prawns still semi-raw. And the chicken ssam, while reasonably tasty, was missing all the good stuff like herbs and fresh slivers of vegetable to wrap in the lettuce leaves, as well as the latter being cut up into small squares, barely big enough to wrap anything. Overall, very disappointing, and these three dishes plus a water and a soda, plus tip, came in at 3000 pesos.

Kimchi-calamari pancakes… delicate, thin, crisp. Hmm… they’re tasty, but I’ve never seen Korean pancakes so thin and just kind of lacking in substance. I don’t know if it’s a style from some particular region, or if this is just a fancied up way of cost cutting, because at 150 pesos, they’re not cheap, and all four of them don’t add up to a quarter of the size of one you’d get in Koreatown for around the same price.

Japchae – an appetizer of sweet potato noodles with beef and egg and vegetables. Quite good, and even a reasonable portion for the 170 peso price tag.

A reasonably classic bibimbap with vegetables, beef, and egg. But back to being a pretty small portion for the 350 pesos it runs… then again, still Palermo.

Kimchi bocumbap – basically kimchi rice with a fried egg, and a bowl of soup on the side. A nice brunch dish, just not a lot of substance. 280 pesos.

And, gueranchim, basically scrambled eggs and prawns floating on vegetable soup, with rice on the side. A decent portion for 300 pesos, though there were few prawns, it was far more of an egg dish.

All told, in general, and mostly just in contrast to Koreatown restaurants, the portions are really small, and expensive. But, again, for Palermo, not out of line. The banchan are variable – one day the kimchi is spicy, another day it’s not, and the others vary similarly. But, we’ve liked everything we’ve tried. So all in all, especially as an alternative to trekking out to either of the Koreatowns, I recommend the place.

Hope you like it, we were pretty impressed with the setup and the quality.