The micro-galaxy of Korean eating places in Oakland’s Temescal District has gained a brand new star, Mugunghwa.
Increasing from the unique location in El Cerrito, the eatery opened in late June within the former tackle of Korean-fusion joint Hancook. It’s nonetheless within the soft-opening section, based on a banner on the window, with a particular that ought to attraction to cut price drinkers: Sapporo drafts are $3 and makgeolli, the milky-white rice wine, is $10 for a bottle to (advisably) share with mates.
The inside is minimalistic and practically monochromatic, save for slightly gold bling and a wall of inexperienced soju bottles separating the eating room. Ordering might be carried out at tables with digital tablets and electrical stovetops with vacuum hoods. Present up at any time on weekends, however through the week there’s a roughly two-hour service break between lunch and dinner.
Appetizers embody steamed mandu (pork/kimchi/vegetable) for $14, savory pancakes in seafood and green-onion varieties ($18-$22) and yukhoe, a flippantly iced steak tartare with Wagyu eye-of-round and uncooked egg yolk with Korean seasonings ($30). Diners may also order that yukhoe over rice with seasonal greens ($23), with the choice so as to add galbi or a half mackerel, and get the mandu in a soup with rice desserts and veggies ($20).
For these grey days, the kitchen makes seolleongtang, which the menu describes as a “Korean soul-food” soup made by simmering beef or ox bones for twenty-four hours to create a wealthy however healthy-tasting ivory broth draped with varied cuts of cow ($18-$24). There’s galbi tang, a transparent and supremely beefy soup with glass noodles ($25), and a “premium” galbi tang that provides in abalone, shrimp and octopus ($30).
All that is the tip of the iceberg for the menu at Mugunghwa. Fried rooster, bibimbap, Korean barbecue and chilly buckwheat-noodle soup – it’s all right here for individuals who crave it.
Particulars: Open each day (with a break 2:30 p.m.-5 p.m. on weekdays) at 4315 Telegraph Ave., Oakland; instagram.com/mugunghwa_official, yelp.com/biz/mugunghwa-oakland-2
