Solid Korean Comes to Former Wasteland

Craig LaBan doesn’t have to venture far for his latest review as he heads up Callowhill to praise the latest addition to the street’s “restaurant row,” Doma where the Korean dishes work the best.

Hot stone bowls of dolsot bibimbap cradle mounds of rice topped with beef, veggies, and a raw egg yolk that sizzles and crisps at the table, sending up the warm piquance of gochuchang chile paste and sesame oil when you stir the orange sauce in. That signature Korean chile-paste zing finds its way into myriad other winners, such as the chewy tubes of “duk” rice cakes whose taffy-like centers get the subtle contrast of a deep-fried micro-crust. Or the coffee-brined kalbi short rib, which had a nice tenderness to go with its gingery, sweet savor. Or the tuna yuk hwae, a fish variation on a traditional raw-beef dish that brings threads of tuna with a quail egg hemmed in by crunchy rails of deep-fried rice.

Doma [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Doma [Official Site]