G.A. Benton
Korean food has turn into pretty well-liked in Columbus — it’s even showcased in chain eateries — but scanning a substantial menu of Korean dishes can nonetheless be intimidating for folks who didn’t expand up eating the delicacies. Enter Manna Korean Cafe.
Due to the fact it focuses on effectively-executed, crowd-pleasing classics — and exhibits them in menu shots — Manna is a fantastic place to explore Korean foods. It’ll hook veterans of the delicacies seeking for superior values, also.
(Bonus: You can shop until you bop soon after eating at Manna.)
“Bop” — aka “bap” and “bob” — pops up frequently on Korean menus because the term indicates “cooked rice.” Manna (like Momo Ghar and Ranchero Kitchen area just before it) is another robust-undertaking eatery launched within the global-ingredient wonderland of Saraga Worldwide Grocery on Morse Highway.
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Soon after taking in at Manna, then you can shop for the bop and other components in the dishes you just ate mere feet away— then intensify your training by striving to replicate the dishes at house. Or you can just continue to keep “studying” at Manna.
Manna Korean Restaurant: Common dishes, generous portions, reasonably priced charges
Occupying a area of interest on the correct-hand aspect of Saraga’s entrance with about a 50 percent-dozen basic, perfectly-spaced tables and a blond picket counter with about a 50 %-dozen stools, Manna is compact but not cramped. Although barely fancy, Manna provides friendly services, and its largely wood-paneled place features endearingly homey touches: several crops, swaths of crimson paint, strings of multi-coloured lights and (head-scratcher alert!) Norman Rockwell-model decorative plates on sale for $3 to $5.
Shade pics of well known Korean dishes, most positioned above the purchasing counter with their affordable selling prices, provide as Manna’s ornamental, effortless-to-navigate menu.
The Kimbap ($7) — a Korean twist on sushi without the need of uncooked fish — was characteristically larger and better than a lot of local versions. The maki-design roll’s properly sesame-oiled and faintly sweet interior of rice (the “bap” in kimbap), fish cake, omelet-like egg in addition pickled and marinated veggies (carrot, fernbrake, daikon) produced it an straightforward-to-like delight.
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Ditto for Manna’s characteristically sizable get on beef bulgogi with rice, maybe the best-acknowledged Korean dish (bulgogi deopbap, $12). Seared and notably tender superior meat was taken care of to a fewer-sweet-than-ordinary marinade that accentuated relatively than dominated the beef’s steak flavor. Stir-fried carrots, scallions and onions manufactured vibrant, suitable companions.
If botanical heat is calling, the spicy pork bulgogi ($12) was equally superior and distinct adequate from the beef bulgogi to advantage buying both equally if you’re not eating alone — or even if you are.
Both appear with rice and all entrees arrive with banchan — good very little sides that might involve semi-sweet pickled veggies, garlicky greens, kimchi or (if you are fortunate) a entire-sized, fiery salad assembled with cabbage, cucumber and watercress.
Like botanical and thermal warmth? The kimchi soondubu jjigae ($10) — a kimchi, tofu and pork stew with veggies and a total egg beneath its spicy broth — arrived gurgling scorching, as is regular with this healthful and delectable classic.
The new “KFC” — sweet-and-spicy Korean fried rooster — has been soaring in reputation lately. Manna’s version ($12) was good: considerable knobs of breast meat beneath reasonably gentle breading coated in a soy-and-gochujang-centered sauce that is finger-licking superior.
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By emphasizing its salad-like characteristics, Manna’s bibimbap ($12) was an outlier, and not in a poor way. A person of the a lot more colorful, veggie-ahead presentations of bibimbap all over, it was rice topped with hefty garnishes these types of as : raw and cooked-down greens and spinach, fernbrake, kimchi, carrots, daikon, cucumber, red and yellow pepper strips, bulgogi and a fried egg.
You will locate many of the exact same veggies — plus zucchini, shiitakes and bulgogi — in Manna’s served-amazing, umami-loaded, profitable acquire on one more outdated favored, j
apchae with rice (below spelled “jbchae bob” $12). You will come across sweet-potato-primarily based glass noodles — like the type nicely cooked to agency-however-yielding in this dish — on a grocery-retail store shelf just a short stroll from this welcome new restaurant.
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Manna Korean Restaurant
Exactly where:1265 Morse Highway (within Saraga), Northland region
Speak to: 614-204-9401
Hrs: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays by Thursdays 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays shut Sundays and Mondays
Price tag vary: $7 to $12
Atmosphere: helpful, homey and idiosyncratically appointed area of interest in the Saraga Global Grocery on Morse Road
Children’s menu: no
Reservations: no
Accessible: certainly
Liquor license: no
Speedy click: Properly-executed Korean classics are offered in significant portions at very cost-effective selling prices at this welcome new minimal eatery within a world wide-component-prosperous grocery keep.