Cafe MiMi — Restaurant in Madison

I've been here 3 times ever since they opened, trying to eat everything that I can on the menu. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get the tangsoo mandu yet because they ran out as of today (4/14).

For the context, I'm a Korean American dude who spent a fair bit of years in Korea - 4 years of my childhood there, as well as having spent half a year working in corporate.

Tteokbokki - 9/10. Easily the best tasting tteokbokki (and most affordable!!) in Madison. I've had tteokbokki twice from them. The first time, while the taste had acceptable medium level spice and the texture was perfect, it was too soupy rather than saucy, which made it harder to fully dip other things in the sauce. However, when I came by a week later today (4/14), the tteokbokki was spicier and more saucy. This tteokbokki's taste is unapologetically Korean, as it should be. This tteokbokkis taste exactly like the ones that I would get from food carts after hagwon when I was a kid in Korea. Only reason I'm not giving a 10 is due to very personal reason - when I was a child, there was this place that had unusually thick rice cakes in their tteokbokki.

Gimbab - 9/10. I've had 3 different kinds from them. The classic, which has crab meat and hot dog, the bulgogi and spicy pork variant. Gimbabs are very common things to find in Korea, and as such, it's actually very difficult to be amazing at it. The bulgogi and spicy pork options actually have slightly different veggie combinations in there, adding lettuce into them. Usually lettuce isn't something you see in gimbabs, but for these meats, it works perfectly in a surprising way. You can tell that these gimbabs are made with genuine care, and they remind me of my childhood gimbab.

Mandu - 7/10. I've only had the plain mandu once. I'd like to try it out again, especially the tangsoo variant, but they're currently out so I guess I'll come back to it. It was fried to perfect texture. As noted above, I'd recommend popping this in a microwave or frier for like 30 seconds. The texture makes it so that it should go really well with tteokbokki sauce. They do provide soy sauce to eat with this, but I'd highly recommend just dipping in the tteokbokki sauce.

Gimmari - 7/10 - Another food that I think I should have heated up. The texture was good, though not as crispy as I'd like - that's just a personal preference. The inner core of the noodles was cooled by the time I got home. Otherwise a great thing to dip in the tteokbokki sauce. I'm willing to give both gimmari and mandu another chance, because I think with proper set of food, the scores for them can be higher.

Sweet Potato tempura - 8/10. Very crunchy, just the way I like it. I thought the pieces could be bigger, which is the reasoning for the score. I know it says tempura, but make no mistake, this is a twigim; the crunchy texture is different from a tempura, as it should be. They only put it as tempura so non Koreans can understand what it is.

Sweet & tangy chicken - 8.5/10. This is their variation of yangnyum chicken, and their take is on the sweeter side, it's not a spicy dish at all, but in a good way. The breading is a bit thicker than what I'm used to from Korean chicken, but great crisp. Looking forward to trying out other chickens from here later.

This is the only Korean place in Madison I can confidently recommend to people. Tastes better, more affordable.

This place is a proof that you don't need to have unordinary items or other quirkiness or hip factor to compete. This place focuses solely on people's experiences, giving them the best food that they can. This place also isn't trying to cater to "American" taste buds. It seems like they clearly wanted to deliver a very honest Korean taste and experience, and this is exactly what Madison needed. Other Korean restaurants in Madison can learn from this. My biggest complaint about this place was that it didn't exist 15 years ago, when I was a student at West High.

Please support this business so I can keep...

The food is so good I'm craving it again just thinking of it. If you have been thinking of going here, hesitate no longer because you have to try this cafe. I ordered the tteokbokki, it was delicious and made perfectly. The tteokbokki is full of flavor with mild spiciness and a hint of sweet. The rice cakes are large, and very good. My son got the kimbap, he loved it. I tried a piece and it was delicious, it gave a very fresh taste. He also got the fish cake, which he really enjoyed. The staff was very friendly and sweet. There is a small amount of seating outside. Be prepared to wait a bit when they are busy. They make everything very fresh, but it is absolutely worth the wait. I highly recommend this stop to-go or for a quick bite to eat if you can get seating. Otheriwse, you can easily walk to a park or somewhere near by with your food to eat. We took ours home, but it was so good my son ate his kimbap and fish cake before we got in the door! Everything is very reasonably priced, especially when you're getting fresh, good quality delicious food. I can't wait to go back and try more of their items. Definitely my goto from now on when in the mood for Korean...

Went here last week and it was such an amazing experience. Got the combo meal ($12) and it reminded me of being back in Seoul. The owner is super kind and even her friends come by to help also! Not much seating so be prepared to look for a bench nearby if it is busy, but honestly this food is great for a picnic, similar to eating by the Han river in Korea. This is a great place to go practice your Korean as well! Also the price is actually good compared to other Korean restaurants that have insane upcharge for the food being “Korean”. Thank you to the owner for giving Madison good authentic, tasty, and fairly priced...