The micro-galaxy of Korean restaurants in Oakland’s Temescal District has gained a new star, Mugunghwa.
Expanding from the original location in El Cerrito, the eatery opened in late June in the former address of Korean-fusion joint Hancook. It’s still in the soft-opening phase, according to a banner on the window, with a special that should appeal to bargain drinkers: Sapporo drafts are $3 and makgeolli, the milky-white rice wine, is $10 for a bottle to (advisably) share with friends.
The interior is minimalistic and nearly monochromatic, save for a little gold bling and a wall of green soju bottles separating the dining room. Ordering can be done at tables with digital tablets and electric stovetops with vacuum hoods. Show up at any time on weekends, but during the week there’s a roughly two-hour service break between lunch and dinner.
Appetizers include steamed mandu (pork/kimchi/vegetable) for $14, savory pancakes in seafood and green-onion varieties ($18-$22) and yukhoe, a lightly iced steak tartare with Wagyu eye-of-round and raw egg yolk with Korean seasonings ($30). Diners can also order that yukhoe over rice with seasonal vegetables ($23), with the option to add galbi or a half mackerel, and get the mandu in a soup with rice cakes and veggies ($20).
For those gray days, the kitchen makes seolleongtang, which the menu describes as a “Korean soul-food” soup made by simmering beef or ox bones for 24 hours to create a rich but healthy-tasting ivory broth draped with various cuts of cow ($18-$24). There’s galbi tang, a clear and supremely beefy soup with glass noodles ($25), and a “premium” galbi tang that adds in abalone, shrimp and octopus ($30).
All this is the tip of the iceberg for the menu at Mugunghwa. Fried chicken, bibimbap, Korean barbecue and cold buckwheat-noodle soup – it’s all here for those who crave it.
Details: Open daily (with a break 2:30 p.m.-5 p.m. on weekdays) at 4315 Telegraph Ave., Oakland; instagram.com/mugunghwa_official, yelp.com/biz/mugunghwa-oakland-2