Midtown Lunch

If you’ve walked by Daheen Wang Mandoo (32nd St. btw. Broadway + 6th) recently, you’re probably wondering what’s going on. Have they shuttered for good? What we know for sure is that they haven’t been open and there are two signs on the windows with something written in Korean. Well, according to Luncher Sam Kim – who wrote our Guy Fieri live-blog – and his somewhat shaky handle on the Korean language, it appears that Daheen is closing and will reopen with a new concept.

We’ll keep you posted as we find out more.

Got this report the other day from Lunch’er Dan L. about Daheen Wang Mandoo, the newish Korean bao place on 32nd btw. 5+6th.

With Bunch opening last fall and Daheen Wang Mandoo opening earlier this year, wang mandoo are taking K-Town by storm. For the uninitiated, just what are wang mandoo? They’re basically the Korean version of the more familiar Chinese baozi, which are fluffy steamed buns stuff with goodies inside. They are not to be confused with mool mandoo, which are basically the Korean version of Chinese jiaozi (aka dumplings), or goon mandoo, which are just the fried version of mool mandoo, similar to how Chinese guotie are just the fried version of jiaozi. So for example, although neighbors Mandoo Bar and Daheen Wang Mandoo look like they should be mortal enemies, Daheen’s true enemy is Bunch, which is directly across the street in Food Gallery 32.

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Koreatown, the buzzing stretch of bars and restaurants on 32nd between 5th & 6th, packs a lot of venues into one street. With such limited space, competition is fierce, especially among restaurants that serve similar food. For quite some time, Mandoo Bar, has served as the sole Korean dumpling specialists in K-town, but not for long. As we reported earlier, Daheen Wang Mandoo, a dumpling chain from South Korea, is scheduled to open in October. But we didn’t realize that they would be opening right next to Mandoo Bar. Sure, it could be a coincidence, but I like to think that this is a ballsy move to steal some of Mandoo Bar’s fire. Although their product isn’t perfectly fungible – Mandoo bar focuses on boiled and fried dumplings while Daheen focuses solely on steamed mandoo – given how cheap and awesome Daheen’s dumplings are, my money’s with them.

Our friends over at NYMag’s Grub Street recently unveiled a massive line-up of up-and-coming restaurant openings. While we’re looking forward to some exciting expansions and new additions to the NY food scene, we couldn’t help but be a little disappointed over the lack of new midtown restaurants. In fact, the only real Midtown Lunch worthy newcomer seems to be an outpost of South Korean dumpling chain, Daheen Wang Mandoo, which will serve their awesome and cheap steamed dumplings in K-town (32nd St & 5th Ave).

Other potential midtown lunch spots include a “retro soda shop” concept called The Skylight Shoppe at 50th & Madison, which will serve an oysters Rockefeller po’boy. Additionally, Laurent Tourondel, formerly of the BLT group, will be opening an upscale burger joint at 40th & 5th, and will be serving his signature burgers, kobe hot dogs, and boozy milkshakes. In brighter news, it looks like the new Midtown Ippudo is finally set to open in December.