Immediately upon walking into Mokban, I was skeptical about whether this restaurant was serving the traditional home-style Korean food it advertised. There was just no smell of cooking sesame oil, which I associate with great traditional Korean restaurants in NYC and Korea. But after eating there, I just think Mokban’s kitchen has an extreme air extraction system in place, because the food was home-style and excellent.

All of the banchan (small plates brought out with the meal) were really good and the seafood pancake (Haemul pajeon) was one of the best I have had in a long time.  The pancake was very crisp, thick with seafood, and was delicious.  The seafood Jjamppong I had was also very flavorful, with a serious seafood broth, although maybe a little mild on the spiciness. Mokban also serves a side dish of crispy rice, which I really enjoyed (seen on the left of the bowl of Jjamppong).

The Dumplings:  Makbon serves fried or steamed dumplings that are filled with either, beef, pork or shrimp.  The fried mandoo are deep fired and the pork dumplings I got were very crisp on the outside, very juicy on the inside, and had a robust pork flavor.  The dipping sauce was mildly spicy, but I could taste the mild, and enjoyable, funk of Gochujang paste, which can be very spicy.

While the dumplings were good, they were not good enough to motivate a second visit, but the Haemul pajeon is worth a second visit.

The Location: Mokban is located in downtown Providence RI, on the corner of Eddy and Westminster Streets.