Mongjungheon

Chinese dim sum chefs at Mongjungheon put their heart into the creation of each bite-sized portion, stuffing thinly rolled dough with filling. There have been attempts to create proper dim sim in Korea since the 1970s, but these attempts were never able to overcome the hegemony of popular Korean-Chinese dishes such as jjajangmyeon (noodles in black bean sauce) and tangsuyuk (sweet, sour and crispy pork). And as the pan-fried dumplings of Korean-Chinese cuisine came to be widely regarded as something that came free with large orders, dim sum also suffered, as a fellow member of the dumpling family. Things changed in the 2000s as overseas travel became more common. Korean diners who’d fallen in love with the taste of dim sum in Hong Kong found a close match at Mongjungheon in Seoul. Mongjungheon is famous for its delicious shrimp dim sum and its shrimp and scallion dim sum but also has its own signature dish—the Cantonese-style seafood stir-fry. It’s a dish widely acknowledged to be invigorating for the body, filled with various seafoods—including abalone, sea cucumber, shrimp, and octopus—and vegetables, including shiitake and matsutake (pine) mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and asparagus. The interior of Mongjungheon is also striking, recalling the ambiance of an old mansion as might be found in Shanghai or the Guangdong region.