Restaurant Review: Moodaepo (무대포)

It was raining when we went so I grabbed this from Daum Streetview instead of taking a picture myself.

     Makgeolli (막걸리) restaurants are fairly common across Korea, with Makgeolli 3000 perhaps being the most well-known franchise for people to get their fix. Downtown especially, has had makgeolli places come and go over the years and I've heard people bemoan the fact that the downtown Makgeolli 3000 has shuttered their doors as they location they were at is under heavy construction. Don't worry though! Across the street from the old Makgeolli 3000 place is an even better makgeolli restaurant! It's true! Moodaepo (무대포) has been serving up makgeolli and side dishes for over ten years now. Knowing how often businesses turn over in this competitive area, that means they are doing something right. Let's check it out.

     The interior of the place is pleasingly dim, with manga covering the walls. Most of the tables are OLD with drunken customers having carved things into them over the years. Covering the manga that is covering the walls are more things that customers have written using whatever they had on them.  Smoking is allowed, though it seems like it would be a fire hazard with all of the paper everywhere. All in all, it's a nice atmosphere. This place is extremely popular. It has lots of tables but it's not uncommon for all of them to be full and have people waiting at the door. 

  

     The menu is entirely in Korean without helpful pictures so if you can't read Korean, then you know how I feel about that. But, I won't leave you hanging, please read on. You can check out what we ordered below. On top of that I also recommend the 치즈 계란말이 (Cheese Omelet), 빈대떡 (Mung Bean Pancake), and 모듬 전 (Assorted Korean Pancakes).

정구지찌짐 (Garlic Chives Pancake) This is Daegu dialect, this is known as 부추전 in other places.

연탄석쇠 돼지불고기 (Charcoal Grilled Marinated Pork) It's a little dry but comes with sauce to dip it and is good with alcohol.

추억의 도시락 (Memory's Lunchbox) Don't dig in just yet, you're meant to mix this up Bibimbap style.

After breaking up the large pieces, I put the lid on it and shook it all up. Now it's ready to go!

     I realize that in some of these dishes, simply reading Korean might not be enough to help you navigate through, so I've made a full menu translation and posted it online so that you could print out the menu or just go to the page with your smartphone and then basically point at what you want if you don't speak any Korean, or if you can read it, but don't have a great vocabulary yet, you won't have to guess at what you're ordering. Ok, so that was our meal but what about the drinks?

     We ordered dongdongju, the Gyeonggido variant of makgeolli, it's slightly sweeter than makgeolli, and authentic versions will actually have rice floating in it, leftover from the brewing process. This was just from a bottle. I recommend going for the 꿀막걸리 (Honey Makgeolli) instead. Something college students are known to do is order regular makgeolli and a Chilsung cider, then pour the cider into the makgeolli creating a slightly carbonated, sweeter makgeolli. Try it, it's good. If you aren't in the mood for rice wine then the beer here is cheap, and the the fruit soju is awesome too. They also have fruit flavored makgeolli, though I haven't tried it. Yet.

Menu Link

Final Review: 4/5   It's easy to come in here to start off your night and end up staying for most of it.

Location: Moodaepo is located downtown right around the corner from the bar street. Here's a map.

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