Myung Dong Restaurant

We went to this place for the first time with a group of 6 friends with no reservations. Their customer service is speedy & courteous. They make their food from local products & sometimes it make take them a little time to cook. They brought out extra sides & gave us yogurt drinks at the end. Great time w friends. I got the noodle with seafood. It was good. Highly recommend for authentic Korean food.

This is an awesome mom and pop shop for Korean food. With that in mind, the service is slow but the food is great so it’s worth giving it a try. It’s also kind of located in a shady part of town so be careful…
The seafood pancake here is the biggest and thickest one I have ever eaten. They don’t skimp on the seafood in the pancake either! I also really enjoyed the kalbi here! It was flavorful and not just with a soy sauce taste. The side dishes here are excellent, but I’m usually a fan of it at any Korean restaurant. I highly recommend checking this place out if you’re in the mood for Korean food. It’s one of my favorites in Houston.

Setup: both before and after management changes
The good: food is still good. Seafood pancake is still huge, but has less seafood than before. Still very good. Good sized portions, banchan variety, very friendly service when I’ve been there (always non-​busy times)
The bad: still a very small staff, I see how service can be very slow when they are busy. No sign outside, not the best neighborhood
Observations: look for the neon green walls outside, they now accept cc, they end your meal with a probiotic yogurt drink
Overall recommendation: still a good choice for K-​food, especially if you don’t want to go to Long Point

Food was great. Service was a little slow but attitude more than made up for it. Will definitely be visiting again.

This place is very authentic and interesting. It’s a tiny place and the décor has lots of room for improvement. But food is good and portion is huuuuuge. Rumor is that the owners are North Koreans who escaped to US, but not sure if that’s true… It’s said that they didn’t even speak English before and customers could only point at the menu to order. I only started going there recently and the owner/​waitress was speaking English so I could not validate the story:)
My favs are: seafood pancake, Korean BBQ tender beef slices, and Bee-​Bim-​Bap. Portion is large and we never manage to finish what we ordered, but the leftovers still taste good the next day so no complaints.

I’m a fan. Yes, service can be slow, but that doesn’t mean the food isn’t awesome! The place can be a little tricky to spot since the sign is in Korean, so I recommend plugging in the address on your phone and finding it that way. If you go while it’s busy, there’s a chance the lot might be full– I once parked on the street behind the restaurant.
I’m no expert on Korean food, but I’ve liked everything I’ve tried here, so that makes me happy! I’ve been a few times now, but the dishes I remember (from my last visit) were the seafood pancake, kalbi, seafood tofu soup, and bibimbap. If you’ve never tried bibimbap, don’t be afraid to add a bunch of the spicy sauce that they bring out! Really great stuff. And of course, the meal comes with all the unlimited side dishes!

I loveeeee Korean food and this place is A-​OK. I came here with a girl friend of mine one cold evening and it was scary! Let’s just say I was glad I had my mace and whistle on my key-​chain… The parking lot is small-​ish, but there were about two vacant parking spaces available once I arrived around 8pm on a Thursday night. The lot is shared between a small strip center which includes the restaurant, a hair salon, and some other small businesses. Definitely search for the lime green building when you’re driving at night as you can easily miss this place.
The first thing I noticed when I walked in was that this place is run by a cook and one very nice Korean lady. She was all over the place! I noticed her helping to clean tables, give us our food, and also triple as our waitress when it came to paying the bill. No problem with that, but you can expect the service to be slower here than the other Korean restaurants in Houston. If you have time to sit around and wait or mingle with your dinner date, it’s not a big deal. I wouldn’t recommend coming here for a quick meal though.
My friend and I ordered the bibimbap, galbi tang soup, and one seafood pancake. For a seafood pancake being priced around $ 17… it didn’t include much seafood. It was quite doughy, but the flavor of the green onion was evident. I think there were just a handful of shrimp in the entire thing (and this pancake is huge). The texture was nice as it was very crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, but I think we still would have liked more seafood; after all, it is a seafood pancake.
Since it was cold outside, I decided to order the galbi tang beef soup with egg. The galbi tang was good, minus the fact that the meat was pretty chewy. I’m not sure if that’s how the meat was supposed to be like (as I’ve never ordered galbi tang before). I think if any meat is boiled long enough, it will become tough first, and then tender. Or, maybe the meat is just in the soup for flavoring and you’re not supposed to eat the meat? I’m not sure. The soup itself was delicious. I love clear «broth-​like» soups so this was right up my alley.
My friend ordered the bibimbap which came with all veggies and an egg. We joked that she could have made her own bibimbap with the complimentary side dishes and rice, but it was still really tasty. One thing that caught our attention was the complimentary brown rice green tea. It was strange at first, but I started to really enjoy the flavor after a while.
Overall, I’d definitely recommend coming out to support this business and try their food. Maybe next time I’ll try regular galbi and see if it’s more tender than the galbi in the galbi tang.

A small korean restaurant at a corner with green windows… does not look too appealing but I decided to give it a try after reading the review on Unilocal.
I ordered jap-​chae, bulgogi, and seafood tofu soup for the two of us. They don’t serve alcohol but the server mentioned that you can BYOA. Food took a little long but were pretty good.
Jap-​chae– my all time favorite in Korean cuisine. unforunately, it was a bit too oily (I saw excessive oil on the plate). Flavor was great though.
Bulgogi– the sauce was a bit watery… usually it’ served sizzling on a hot iron pan. Taste was alright.
Tofu soup– not cooked on the usual stone/​iron pot and didn’t come with an egg.
Side dishes– too many spicy dishes– tho the spicy cucumbers and spinach were refreshing. Bean sprouts and dried fish were the best.

Disappointed in the seafood pancake after the owner changed. The pancake is still thick but there was much less seafood in there!!!

This is such a hidden gem! It does appear extremely scary, but the inside is not as bad, trust me. Anyways, we came around 1pm on a Saturday morning and there were only about 3 other tables there. The service was not as slow as everyone in the other reviews have been griping about. One look at the menu and the prices will definitely scare some people, but just go ahead and order! My family ordered 1 beef short rib, seafood pancake, 2 spicy hot tofu stew, and the salted fish. Yes the price is high, BUT the portions are HUGE and there are unlimited side dishes.
I will definitely recommend the seafood pancake. It has a generous ratio of green onion, shrimp, squid, carrots, and dough. If you get a side piece, it is super crispy and crunchy. It is not as flavorful as most people would like it to be, but I believe the whole point of it is to really taste the ingredients inside. The side dishes were another highlight. My favorite were the bean sprout and fish cakes, but since service was so slow, we could not make use of the «unlimited sides». I was actually surprised by the two spicy hot tofu stew because it turned out to have mussels in it and shrimp. So along with the gigantic pieces of tofu there were a lot more than just «tofu stew». Once you pair it with the purple korean rice, you’re aboslutely good to go. The salt fish to me was perfectly seasoned. It’s already naturally salty, so all they really had to do in the kitchen was fry it, which they didn’t mess up.
Myung Dong is a great hole in the wall restaurant. One thing about is that they need to hire more efficient servers and move to a more inviting location. But hey, if they do they’ll lose the whole «hole in the wall» restaurant feel.
I will be back.

Awesome restaurant! Very good food and the waitress was very nice and friendly! They accept credit cards now even though on their menus it says they don’t. Many side dishes to eat from and you can also get refills too. Once you sit down they give you a spoon and some chopsticks wrapped in a napkin you can ask for a fork if you don’t know how to eat with chopsticks as well.

As part of the new ownership, we are trying very hard to update the old building interior as well as improving service and waiting time, everything on the menu is cooked after you place your order (nothing is pre-​cooked) Houston is such a large city almost every restaurant requires a long wait on Friday and Saturday nights, but we will continue to do our best to improve that, our mission is to serve great food in a clean, pleasant atmosphere, so, please be patient, and understand that we are all working hard to make Myung Dong a comfortable place you will want to return to and recommend.
Thank you!

I cannot think of one thing I liked about this place except leaving.
There service is awful.
Food meh. Definitely overprices for quality.
They do not service any adult beverages nor are they BYOB. Boo.
I could keep going, but needless to say I will not be going back and I would tell friends to avoid this place. In place like Houston, there are some many better places.

Eh, not sure what the fuss is about. Between the hit-or-(mostly)-miss food and lackadaisical service, I wouldn’t bother.
Saturday, believe it or not, was fairly quiet, with a few other tables, but by no means slammed. It’s a complete lime-​green painted, hole-​in-​the-​wall, complete with tables that wobble and uncomfortable stacking chairs. Doesn’t matter, but the food and service absolutely should.
It started off well enough with the banchan, the traditional side dishes. The kimchi — fresh, effervescent, tart. The namul — eh, boiled bean sprouts ain’t great, no matter what, but the spinach is deliciously nutty with sesame oil. The little dried fish — well, if salt is needed, add these. But trust, it won’t be necessary.
After being resoundingly ignored for a solid forty-​five minutes (including, getting our own water refills and watching the others receive banchan refills… but alas, not us!), our food arrives. It was disappointingly, depressingly, unimpressive. A teeny– tiny portion of gristled, salty, chewy meat. I might as well ordered jerky. Speaking of chewy, squid should not have the texture of chewing gum. The only saving grace was the gochoujang.

HUGE portions in a great authentic mom and pop Korean food in no frills atmosphere! Don’t be afraid of the reviews on the sketchy neighborhood nor the boarded up windows; you’ll be fine for the 1 – 2 hours you spend here in delicious Korean food heaven.
Best for groups of at least 3 so you can try more things family style — portions are too big to get more than 1 dish per person.
Group of 4 of us got 3 things and couldn’t finish it all:
— seafood pancake (yes it’s $ 17 but it’s
giNORmous! Yummy fried goodness.
— spicy pork bulgogi: loved the spicy level
and texture of this!
— hotpot w/​seafood and veggies: good, but I
preferred the others. My friend from Korea
loved it, though.
Best thing is the INCREDIBLY kind people who work here and the huge portions. Also loved the generous banchan (the free side dish appetizer things) — better than at other Korean places in Chinatown, and the loads of free hot tea.

I was visiting my family in Houston and my mom wanted to eat Korean food instead of our usual chinese fix in Bellaire. I’ve never driven through this neighborhood… but like others have mentioned, it’s kinda in the hood. I’m glad I came here for lunch and not dinner :)
The rundown:
1. The seafood pancake was HUGE and probably the best I’ve ever had. We had a total of 4 people and ordered this as an appetizer and also ordered 3 other plates (seafood jigae, bibimbap, galbi)
2. Galbi was ok. It wasn’t as tender as I hoped it would be. Seafood jigae and bibimbap were good (nothing out of the ballpark).
3. 2 korean ladies running the place. We were surprised that they were the only ones working the place during lunch. They are super nice and you can tell they are hardworking. Tip them well!!!
4. Cash only
4 people and our end total was $ 60something. We were already full before the bibimbap came out, so I think we would’ve been ok with just 2 entrees and an appetizer.
Overall, good food, but not worth the drive for me (40mins) and I could get the same dishes for cheaper with the same quality elsewhere (except for the seafood pancake. I’ve never seen another place that makes it so gooood. Keep in mind that I’m only visiting Houston!).

First off… This is in the hood. So lock your car. Secondly, this place is cash only; there is, however, a Chase ATM a couple miles into the hood so if you are feeling brave and have a bullet proof vest and really want Korean food, you can get cash there.
Now to the food, the portions are decently sized. We order the bugolgi and kalbi and they were both relatively flavorful. The sides weren’t as great as we had hope but they did give us some variety. Houston’s Korea Town isn’t as big as NYC, or LA or even Dallas but this is one of the few places you can get decent Korean food. It isn’t all-​you-​can-​eat like other places but they get the foods and sides out pretty quick, depending on the time.
When we went, there were only 2 older ladies running the tables so even though we got our service quickly, we did notice some tables not getting served as hastily.
Also, the barley tea is bomb; considering how hot it is in there, get it ice cold.

Sometimes the best places are where you least expect it. There are no Korean or Chinese restaurants within miles. Sharpstown is not exactly your Chinatown. Enter Myung Dong, a mom and pop in the middle of nowhere.
This place has solid Korean dishes. The ban chan was excellent. It did not have the variety like some places, but it was spot on. We passed on the seafood pancake (wow, $ 17!) but we ordered the bipimbap and the Daeji bulgogi (spicy pork). The bipimbap was not served with the rice inside the bowl, so it seemed to function more like a salad. However, the combination was good. We also loved the daeji bulgogi, which as one reviewer said, it was more sweet and tender (than spicy). For dessert, they gave us the equivalent of Yakut’s (probiotic drink). By that time, we were checked in with major food coma… two dishes gave us so much good food.
This visit has brought me to conclude there is decent Korean food in Houston. And we didn’t even have to go to Memorial to find it!

We knew it was closed on Sundays, so we came the following Monday, but surprise… it was closed two days in a row! Still craving good Korean food, we then came back the next today on a Tuesday.
Unilocal had warned us about the slow service, so we came right at opening, 11:30 on the dot. It still had the closed sign on the door, but the lights were on so I gave a quick knock on the door and the owner came to let us in. The décor was very minimal inside with just simple tables and brown shades over the windows. After being seated, it was a couple minutes before were given the menus and other people had started to trickle in. We opted for #2 seafood pancake, #5 bibimbap, and #9 spicy soup with noodles, shredded beef, and egg. We originally wanted #1 man-​du (gyoza) also, but she said they didn’t have it that day, so we ordered soondubu instead.
It took 40 minutes before we received our food, and in the meantime I could hear some of the other tables grumbling about their wait, so I was extremely glad we arrived first. The food looked delicious! The seafood pancake was huge (enough for 3+ people), crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. My second favorite dish was the bibimbap. The 3 of us finished this off easily. The two soups we ordered were both very good. The soondubu was a little too spicy for me to keep sipping the broth (we ordered it mild), but the other soup was fine. They were probably near the same spice level, but I’m still working on my heat tolerance with food. The banchan were also very good, especially the fishcake.
Drinks and extra utensils were self-​serve, which confused me a little at first. The glasses are on a tray, but the water jugs are hidden in the back of the mini fridge. We couldn’t find any bowls, so we used the rice bowls for our soup before we asked the owner and she gave us an extra set of bowls. We also asked for a soup ladle, which she brought to our table.
Tips: 1) Arrive early unless you are willing to wait! 2) Bring cash or check. 3) Note that the price of the seafood pancake was bumped up from $ 15 to $ 17. We did not even know this until we double-​checked our bill since it wasn’t changed on the menu yet.
Overall, good food if you don’t mind the wait!

Do you like to support local businesses/mom&pop shops? Yes?
Then this is the perfect place for you to get Korean food!
Myung Dong is definitely a hole in the wall restaurant, but has its own charming qualities. From the small kitchen staff of two sweet Korean ladies, to the poor husband waiter who doesn’t speak a lick of English as he struggles to courteously wait on customers who speak english. It’s cute.
I had a difficult time even finding the restaurant until I went on Unilocal to see a photo of the front of the restaurant (it seems like people have difficulty finding it, thanks fellow Unilocaler for the photo or else I might have just settled for fast food or an empty stomach that night).
Cash only, like most Asian restaurants.
Employees do not speak English very well, but if you kindly point to what you would like to order on the menu & confirm it with the number next to it on the menu they will get the jist of your order.
Love the roasted barley tea. The tea is self serve cold/​hot.
Seafood pancake is good, though I wish they had a little more seafood in it. Which is my only issue.
Nice variety of banchans, they were delicious.
I also ordered the spicy pork, pork was sweet, juicy & tender.
Sometimes service is slow, but courteous. Is it worth the wait? Personally, I’d say yes. If you’re in a time crunch & need to show up back for work within 45 minutes to an hour? Try some other time when you are more available.