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DaMoim, Little River Turnpike in Annandale


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Even more important, anyone know what they charge/how much you get/how great it is? One great thing about Annandale is the value for the quality of food you receive. I see a menu like that and my price-gouging alarm begins to warm up...

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DaMoim Restaurant at 7106 Columbia Pike in Annandale opened a couple of months ago, and last night one of my Korean friends who knows the owners took me. This is a nice spot with a clean bright interior located at the end of a small strip mall. The menu features traditional Korean served with an upscale flare and some Korean "fusion" dishes such as Kimchi Quesadilla and a Galbi Taco. I stuck with the traditional last night -- the galbi which was a generous portion of savory marinated short ribs. We started with an assortment of apps including saewoo pama -- shrimp with fried garlic -- absolutely delicious and a savory crepe-like vegetable/seafood fritter -- called haemool pajeon-- also quite good although the fritter was a bit doughy. They are building a wine list. We were compted a bottle of Hall Merlot, the managing owner said he'd welcome some advice on building his selections. I'd welcome the comments of others on this place which looks to have some potential. Website

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I was very excited when I saw this thread and learned about DaMoim because Korean fusion sounds really fun to me. I immediately decided that we were going there for dinner that night.

The staff was very friendly, and our server spoke English. Prices seemed reasonable. To give you an idea, the appetizers are around $5 to 12 with many of them in the $6 to 8 range. The charcuterie platter is $12. The tacos are $8 for 3 tacos. The traditional Korean entrees are mostly in the teens except the DaMoim steak is $24 and the fish of the day is market price. The Korean short rib entree is $18 for the braised version and $15 for the regular. The bulgogi is $13. (Though based on what the menu says, it sounds like you don't get the flurry of side dishes with the traditional Korean entrees that you do at a typical Korean restaurant.)

I was skeptical of the chili with kimchi and cheese ($6), but I really liked it. It was small chunks of beef, pinto beans, chopped cooked kimchi, in a tomato base with some light spiciness and flavor from the kimchi.

I also had the galbi (short rib) tacos. The thin, soft corn taco shells were filled with chopped, moderately sweet marinated galbi, lettuce, tomato, and shredded cheese, and came with salsa verde and sour cream. They were basically tacos but with Korean meat. The shells were delicate and broke while I was eating them. I liked the tacos, though I think an additional Korean component may be good (for example, like a chopped kimchi salsa?) for more of a fusion flair.

I also got the Korean fried chicken to go. It was in a soy ginger sauce. Ginger's not one of my favorites so I prefer the sauces at BonChon. I was so stuffed that I only had a couple of bites of a wing when I got home and put the rest in the fridge so it's hard for me to say how the crispiness compares to BonChon.

My husband had the vegetarian dumplings and the vegetable dolsot bibimbap $10 (mixed rice in a stone bowl). (The short rib and seafood versions of the bibimbap were also $10.) The availability of veggie options was a big plus because we've only found a few Korean restaurants with vegetarian options on the menu. They were having a grand opening special so we also got two free mini spring rolls (with shrimp), and our soft drinks were free.

It was a Sat night, but we were the only customers in the dining room the whole time. There seemed to be a couple of customers at the bar. I hope they get more business. I'm planning to go back and try more of their menu and want them to stick around.

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I went with friends to DaMoim a few weekends back, and it was okay.

The big disappointment was their korean tacos. We ordered the galbi (rib) and jaeyook (spicy pork), and the meats were good albeit the portions were not large. Also, they used flour tortillas, and loaded it with shredded american cheese and lettuce.

It was like a taco bell soft taco- boo. I want my corn tortillas and maybe some kimchi- it should look like this, not this.

On the other hand, I did like their sliders- their was a good hunk of well cooked burger topped with caramelized kimchi. Also, their fried chicken was well fried a la Bon Chon, however their only flavor was more of a soy. I wanted spicy.

pics

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It was like a taco bell soft taco- boo. I want my corn tortillas and maybe some kimchi- it should look like this, not this.

That's interesting. They do remind me of Taco Bell. At my visit, they were using corn tortillas. I wonder why they changed. Here are (bad) camera phone pictures of the tacos I got:

post-889-127696125941_thumb.jpg

post-889-12769612778_thumb.jpg

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Far be it for me to say anything, but why would you go to a Korean restaurant and expect Mexican based foods to be good, much less extraordinary? Fusion restaurants generally mean nothing is done well. If you've ever had sushi in a Thai restaurant or kimchi made in China or tacos from a Korean restaurant, you know what I mean. If I want tacos, I can think of at least two restaurants that make tacos. True, they don't have kimchi but from the looks of the pictures above, neither do those. I rarely go to Mexican restaurants and expect good galbi or mool-pajun. The next thing you know, McDonald's will have haggis on the menu and Burger King will be selling kosher pastrami sandwiches (and those will suck too)

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Far be it for me to say anything, but why would you go to a Korean restaurant and expect Mexican based foods to be good, much less extraordinary? Fusion restaurants generally mean nothing is done well. If you've ever had sushi in a Thai restaurant or kimchi made in China or tacos from a Korean restaurant, you know what I mean. If I want tacos, I can think of at least two restaurants that make tacos. True, they don't have kimchi but from the looks of the pictures above, neither do those. I rarely go to Mexican restaurants and expect good galbi or mool-pajun. The next thing you know, McDonald's will have haggis on the menu and Burger King will be selling kosher pastrami sandwiches (and those will suck too)

because kogi's tacos are actually really tasty and it would have been nice if someone here made something similar? http://kogibbq.com/

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Finally made it to DaMoim. They have a huge menu but the pricing doesn't seem all that bad.

I ordered the seafood pancake for $8, an order of fried drumsticks (6 for $9), and Kal Gooksoo (noodles and vegetables in clam broth for $8). That was a ton of food. The seafood pancake was at ten inches in diameter but it wasn't loaded with seafood like some other joints that charge twice as much. The texture is a little more gooey than I liked. The noodle soup was quite tasty. It had somewhere around 10 clams in it but the broth wasn't particularly clammy, might've been chicken broth based. Finally, the fried chicken with original recipe. The chicken was crisp and juicy, more crisp and more juicy than the chicken at Crisp and Juicy B) I managed to eat half of the pancake, 2 drumsticks and most of the noodle soup.

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