Myungdong Noodle Shabu Shabu - Korean Restaurant Mississauga - 명동 샤브샤브 — Restaurant in Mississauga

For this review, we went to Myungdong Noodle Shabu Shabu Korean Restaurant in Mississauga. It is conveniently located inside the King Shepard Square Plaza near the Hurontario and Dundas intersection (Shepard Ave. Mississauga).

This place is famous for their homemade steamed pork and tofu dumplings, which is not included in my review for this visit. However, we did order quite a lot to which I will be enumerating shortly. First off, we ordered a large portion of the MD Bossam which is basically steamed pork with sweet and spicy radish kimchi and vegetables, ssamjang. Let me just say that the large portion is good enough to feed 5-6 adults. You get a plateful of lettuce for this order as you need to wrap those hearty pork slices with them and add the necessary condiments (if you will or for lack of a better term). Bossam is something that you should always get when eating in a Korean restaurant. Their version is very tasty and the pork slices were very generous, I mean we did get the large portion. The platter is placed on a portable stove in order over steaming water which keeps the pork hot and juicy.

For the other plates, we also ordered their famous Bibimbap. I mean, one must order this staple dish whenever you eat Korean. Theirs is on an iron pot which keeps the dish piping hot and gives that bottom layer of rice with a bit of crunch.

Another favorite of mine is the Budae Jjigae, which is Korean army-based stew made up of beef bone broth with spicy sauce, tofu, spam, sausages, pork, vegetables, rice cake, ramen, and a rice. You cannot go wrong with this stew because if you like to have a very, very hearty meal, this is what you should order. One would ask as to why put spam and sausage in this stew.  You can ask all you want but at the end of the day, it worked, and it tasted amazing! The weather outside was below freezing and this stew just made it warm enough for me to enjoy our lunch.

The wife ordered a plate of L.A. Kalbi, which marinated sliced beef short ribs. Their slices were cut perfectly, and the sweet kalbi marinate wasn’t overwhelming or too sweet, it was grilled perfectly. The service portion was good for at least 3-4 people, or even 5. Paired with their famous Kimchi, this was a perfect combo. I forgot to tell you that their Kimchi gets rave reviews.

The last dish we ordered is another Korean staple, the Jajangmyun which is stir-fried black bean sauce with pork and vegetables on noodles. I will be honest with you, when I first learned about this dish decades ago, I wasn’t fan. It was only a few years thereafter, and after some convincing from my family that I tried this dish. It’s a hearty noodle dish that simply hits the spot. I mean, I’ve always been a fan of black-bean sauces on dishes, most especially Chinese made dishes. But this Korean dish really hits the spot.

Service was fast and friendly. The place can get busy as soon as it opens. The volume of diners speaks of their popularity, and I can attest to that as well. 5 out of 5 for this restaurant, highly...

Starting off with the food, we were slightly disappointed. The bossam set was really good and the pork belly with the sauces were delicious. I do wish they gave more vegetables to eat with it. We were only given 2 pieces of lettuce and 2 pieces of napa cabbage to eat as a wrap. The spicy seafood soup was okay, it was actually spicy which was a pleasant surprise! Sometimes restaurants don’t make it really spicy but I was glad this was. I feel like the menu photo was a bit misleading because it looked like there would be a lot of seafood in the bowl but there wasn’t really. There was 1 mussel. 2 shrimps and small pieces of squid. The noodles were amazing though! Like seriously the best texture and it was amazing with the broth. The MD mandu was the biggest disappointment because we were the most excited for it. Both my partner and I found the texture of the filling to be a bit off. Yes the portions were huge and it was cooked perfectly juicy, but something about the meat filling was mushy and texture felt like it was raw but it 100% cooked - not raw at all it was cooked so we were confused! I did like how the kimchi came in a big jar and was self-served because I love having kimchi with every bite. Now the service…we came before the dinner rush and even then the service was very short and blunt. But that is typical of these types of establishments. But I did see the table next to us who were Korean were receiving really friendly service and the server kept checking on them to make sure they were satisfied…lol…It started to get really busy so we were trying to pack our leftovers and pay our bill but none of the servers were paying attention to us haha eventually we got their attention and they quickly rushed us out. It was the dinner rush so I won’t penalize them that much but still. I feel like the service could have been better and more fair (if you know...

The restaurant has a nice decor with seating for 2 to 10 people. It is a small restaurant, so it does get busy during the dinner hour. We came early at 5pm, but there was a lineup by the time we left. Our group enjoyed their rice tea, it was delicious. Their kimchi looks fresh and tasted perfectly seasoned. We ordered their MD dumplings, which were large steamed pork dumplings that tasted freshly made. We were quite hungry, so most of my pictures didn't capture the original state of the food! But they were all great and presented nicely. We also had the pork gunmandu, which were pan fried dumplings and they were gobbled up so quickly that I only took a picture of 1! We also ordered the spicy ddukboki and liked the sauce so much that we packed it home. 😋 the only suggestion I would make is to cut the rice cake into smaller pieces rather than really long pieces. We ordered japchae and vegetarian bibimbap and those were a hit. We also had a bulgogi set meal, and the meat was well cooked and the soup flavorful. I had the Jeyukbokeum Set Meal, and enjoyed the crispy vegetables, the sauce and the marinated pork. My husband ate this dish himself, and I shared an order with 2 other people. There was also a spicy seafood soup noodle dish and the jajangmyun noodle dish. Both were very good. For 9 people, it was about $25-30 per person after tips and tax. Very reasonable. The only thing we wished was also on their menu is some fried chicken! Otherwise the decor is modern and inviting, the staff were courteous and the food cooked just right!...