Korean cuisine in Dortmund: a visit to the "Namu"

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.