Miran Korean Restaurant

[sockii]

While I mourned the passing of Midori Mart sometime ago, I've been looking forward to the opening of Miran Korean in the old Midori location on Chestnut Street (near 21st). I love Korean food but usually end up only satisfying my craving for it on visits to New York when I can get over to Korea Way. Miran finally opened around Labor Day and I had a chance to go check them out yesterday for lunch. Was not disappointed!

The space is small and the decor simple: dark wood paneling and floors, light yellow walls. All the tables are set up for BBQ (minimum 2 people to use the grill). I went with my basic "test" dish for any Korean place, the Soft Tofu Chigae. It came out bubbling hot, a large bowl of tofu in a red hot oily broth. An egg came on the side to be cracked over the bubbling stew and cook on the spot. The "seafood" in the dish consisted of one large mussel and some small bits of squid, octopus, and perhaps some other fish--not a lot but not really insufficient, though it would have been nice with a little shrimp as well. The dish came with rice and four side dishes: kim chee (very good in flavor but kind of unwieldy to eat, very large pieces), potato slivers in a peppery dressing, and cucumbers and one other vegetable in that kim chee-like red pasty sauce. Would have liked a little more flavor variety in the side dishes, but I barely had room for them anyway.

All told it was quite a lot of food for $5.99, and I'll definitely give them another try. The menu isn't too lengthy--mostly just your basic picks of Bi Bim-Bap, BBQ, and some noodle dishes, but it's enough to satisfy my craving when it hits (and from what I tasted, perhaps better than the only other Center City choice I know of, Pastoral...which for some reason I remember as being "okay" but nothing that really compelled me to visit frequently.)

[mrbigjas]

thanks for the review, sockii! i've been waiting and waiting, but i had just noticed that it's open the other day--i also miss midori mart, but hope that miran is good enough to make up for it.

i was going to go with some friends on friday, but they all bagged out on us... hmm, maybe it's time for an ISO dining friends post...

edited to say that i picked up a menu the other day, and several things stood out from the usual korean places around town:

--they have soondae, the pasty blood sausage that is the only korean food i've ever had that comes with no adornment except a dish of salt; also abai soondaegook, which is the same sausage in a soup

--they have beef tongue, as well as pork neck, as options on the bbq portion of the menu

--the dolsot bibimbap options, including beef, chicken, spicy pork, octopus, eel, tofu or shrimp

looks good.

Edited September 28, 2005 by mrbigjas (log)

[philadining]

Funny how similarly hungry eGullet minds work... I walked by there a couple of times over the weekend, but didn't take the plunge. I grabbed a menu and had the same reaction as mrbigjas, I was intrigued by a few unusual offerings.

Place looks nice, decent-sized grills, funny retro-modern-looking exhaust duct thingies that can extend down over the grills, that would have looked at home in the movie Brazil.

Indeed thanks for the report sockii, that might be enough of a prod to get some more of us there!

[mrbigjas]

went over tonight about 730--and had to wait about 20 minutes to be seated! this place has gotten popular fast, especially with the young korean crowd.

so on to report:

four banchan: pickled greens, kimchi, shredded daikon and myulchi (the little bitty fried fish). all were good, but i have to admit that i'm spoiled by woo rae kwan and their seemingly endless dishes of banchan, to the point where if 8 or 10 things aren't set on the table i'm disappointed. i have to get over that, though, since really they're the only ones who go to that extent, in my local experience.

but on to the dishes:

dolsot bibimbap with spicy pork: this was definitely a highlight of the evening, a huge bowl of rice with the spicy pork, the various mushrooms, seaweed, vegetables and of course the fried egg. abundant and varied toppings made it a great example of the dish.

haemul pajun: the traditional seafood pancake was given a unique touch by being cut into pieces and served on a fajita skillet. what a great idea, keeping the pajun crisp and hot while you're eating it. the rice flour it's made of tends to get gummy, and this is a great solution. actually this is probably the second best haemul pajun i've had in the area, second only to the one at pojangmacha, which defies the laws of physics by barely being held together by anything.

mixed bbq: kalbi, spicy pork, and thin-sliced fatty beef were as you might expect--korean bbq is what it is. changing the grate before the fatty beef was brought out was a nice touch, as are the retractable vent tubes for over the grill (that didn't entirely work when it came to the fatty beef--the place filled up with smoke, and my clothes smell like it). serving the bone from the kalbi and the pork was nice for those of us who like to grill and then gnaw on the bones.

oxtail soup: it says on the menu 'cooked for 48 hours' but the oxtails didn't show it--some pieces were tough, while others were rich and meaty. the broth was cloudy and very lightly flavored. note: also served in a stone bowl, which kept it very hot. probably our least favorite dish of the evening, although it had its moments too.

udon noodles with black bean sauce, scallop, vegetables, etc: noodles and sauce served separately; this was kinda gloppy, but tasted good. it wasn't bad but wasn't great either.

service was a little funky, but very nice. a couple weird things:

1. they were out of soondae

2. they'd stopped serving naeng myun because it's no longer summer, which i understand, but still i wanted some and it was on eht menu...

3. they were out of tea. now that's just weird.

4. they were out of... something else i ordered. i started off with soondae? no. nang myun? no. (the other thing?) no. can we get some tea? out of tea. an inauspicious start to a night that nevertheless turned out very well.

(unfortunately i don't know the name of that barley tea that you can usually get by the pitcher at korean places, but since our server wasn't korean i suppose it wouldn't have mattered.)

five of us were stuffed for $15 each before tip, which is pretty damn reasonable.

anyway: the food was overall very good; it's close to home for me, and cheap. i think service/availability issues will work themselves out; i wouldn't be surprised if soon you'd need reservations--assuming they'll take them.

good for the midori mart owners! everyone go!

[philadining]

Wow, has it really been almost a year since anyone reported on this place? I'd been meaning to go since those earlier posts, but every time I think of it, they've been closed, Sundays mostly...

But we finally had the opportunity after discovering that Giwa closes at 7:30, but still jonesing for Korean food. At about 8pm on a saturday, there were only a couple of tables full, but it filled up completely soon after.

Apparently the funky exhaust tubes were working well, there were people grilling near us, but I noticed no smoke.

As noted above the banchan are a little sparse compared to some places, but they're good enough.

We started with a large order of dumplings, which they were nice enough to make half and half pork with kimchee and vegetable.

These had very delicate, thin, tender wrappers, and good fillings.

Next was a Dolsot BiBimBap, with spicy pork.

The pork wasn't especially spicy, but the dish itself was very tasty, and with some of the chile sauce stirred-in it had a bit of a kick. But the best part, of course, was the crust on the rice, from continuing to cook in the hot stone bowl.

We also indulged in a Spicy Galbi Tang, a stew of shortribs and cabbage.

This stayed nice and hot in its stone bowl. It was not all that spicy either, all in all the spicing of everything we had was pretty tame, even the kimchee, but still tasted good. The large chunks of shortribs were still pretty chewy, but the broth was absolutely delicious.

Even though the food was not quite as hot as many Korean meals I've had, it was a nice touch that they left a pitcher of water on the table. But were rather amused by the brand name of the container.

In fact, Katie couldn't get a certain image out of her head....

All in all, it was a very enjoyable meal, and I'll go back to try some more, probably to grill something. It wasn't the most amazing Korean food I've ever had, but I liked it.

[KatieLoeb]

Biotank! :laugh: Too funny.

Dinner was indeed quite delicious. The place was filled with lots of Koreans, which is always a good sign in my book. Service was friendly and efficient, and we were quite happy to be there after getting aced out of dinner both at GIWA around the corner and at Han Chon, my fave go to for Korean in Cherry Hill.

The banchan offerings weren't quite as extensive as I would have liked (and one of my favorite things about Han Chon, since they serve about a dozen little dishes before dinner!), but they were well prepared and tasty. If we'd had enough presence of forethought instead of sheer ravenous hunger we also might have thought to stop and pick up some wine or beer. But no matter. We'll know for next time.

My only real complaint about the dinner is that the shortribs in the Galbi were really stringy and tough. Way too much connective tissue and not the usual falling off the bone texture that I expect from shortribs. There's a reason that shortribs, no matter what cuisine the recipe is from, are always cooked long and slow in liquid. I fear these might not have had time in the broth for quite long enough. The broth itself was quite delicious and almost lightly gelatinous in texture. I had commented that I thought the broth had a similar texture to a Japanese Miso soup, and a "proteinaceousness" akin to miso as well. Well spiced too. The dumplings were very good and I'd go back just for those. I'd not had the crusty riced Dolsot BiBimBap prepared that way before and it might be my new favorite Korean dish. [Homer]Mmmmmmm...Crusty rice.[/Homer]

All in all Miran is a fine alternative for Korean in Center City. I agree that a BBQ reconaissance mission needs to happen before I pass final judgement.

[Andrew Fenton]

My only real complaint about the dinner is that the shortribs in the Galbi were really stringy and tough.  Way too much connective tissue and not the usual falling off the bone texture that I expect from shortribs.  There's a reason that shortribs, no matter what cuisine the recipe is from, are always cooked long and slow in liquid. 

Galbi/kalbi aren't always stewed; fast grilling is a traditional preparation as well. Depending on the exact cut and quality of the beef, they can be connective tissue-y. But they're really really good...

[ellencho]

The short ribs in kalbi tang are supposed to have some chew, but I've found that a lot of places aren't cooking their meat quite long enough. Next time mention something about it, or ask for very tender meat when you order. It shouldn't be so tough that it's a battle to take a bite. I prefer it falling off the bone myself, it's a lot easier to eat the entire piece of meat instead of eating around that rubbery piece of "skin" holding the bone to the meat.

[KatieLoeb]

These ribs were definitely a struggle. I was afraid I'd fling a piece across the room accidentally whilst trying to chew through and get a small bite off. Tasty but a real chore. I'm willing to believe they aren't usually like that. Philadining didn't think his piece was too bad, so maybe I just got the tough stringy one. :shrug: