It was about 10 years ago, that I ate Korean food for
the first time and it was love on first taste. Since the day I tried
Bulgugi and Kimchi, I have been a genuine Fan of Korean cuisine.
When a Korean friend recommended a new Korean
restaurant in Dortmund to me a few weeks ago, I was rather curious.
(When a Korean recommends a Korean restaurant it is good, most
probably, if not certainly.)
Last Wednesday I was in Dortmund, at about one
o’clock I had finished my business and my stomach was starting to
grumble. As I was thinking what I could get for lunch, I remembered
the recommendation of my friend and decided to give this new
restaurant a try.
The weather was very nice
that day, so I decided to walk. It took me 10 minutes to reach it
from Dortmund's main station.
The restaurant is named
Namu, which is Korean for tree and there is a tree directly in front
of it as if to compliment it's name. It lies in a quiet side street
with only very little traffic passing by.
As I entered, I was greeted
very friendly by a young woman behind the bar. The interior was
minimalistic yet aesthetic, with the motif of the tree appearing here
and there.
Directly on the first page
the menu proclaims, that the dishes listed are prepared without the
use of additives like MSG (which I consider the scourge of Asian
cuisine). The menu offers a wide variety of classic Korean dishes
like Bulgugi Bibimbap and Kimbap. But there are also some “modern”
dishes like grilled fish with yuja (an Asian citrus fruit) sauce,
which caught my eye. Luckily this dish was the Wednesday lunch
special (every day of the week there is a different one) at a
unbeatable price of 5,50€, so I went for it. The lunch specials are
served with rice, soup and some pickled radish. But I had to order
some Kimchi, because I just love it as a side dish. The waitress recommended
to try some freshly made ransons Kimchi. I have never eaten this kind
of Kimchi and was glad for the recommendation, because it was not
listed on the menu.
The Food was absolutely
great the fish was cooked very well and I liked the freshness, the
yuja added to the soy based sauce. All the other components were very
well prepared too: the soup, the pickled radish and especially the
ransons Kimchi. I left absolutely nothing behind, which speaks for
itself, but i was not done yet. I still had room for desert. So I
looked at the menu and immediately found something: Pumpkin crème
caramel, although I adore crème caramel I have never encountered this
version. What can I say, it was simply fantastic and a great way to
end this meal.
The recommendation
of my friend turned out to be as good as I thought and now I am
left with nothing else to do, but to recommend the Namu. Everything left me satified the atmosphere, the service and the food. This is a
restaurant I will definitely return to very soon.
