Yeonnam-dong Chinese spot: Peking duck with my son, Panda Dim Sum

Today I went to Panda Dim Sum, a dim sum restaurant in Yeonnam-dong, with my son, whose hobby is hunting down good restaurants. We came for Peking duck, the signature dish of Beijing-style roast duck. I'll tell you about this unusual dish with its wonderfully tender, savory duck meat, and the other tasty Chinese dishes we had!!

Where is Panda Dim Sum, and what are the hours and parking?

Panda Dim Sum (판다딤섬) is at 22 Donggyo-ro 38an-gil, 2nd floor, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea, about an 8-minute walk from Hongik Univ. Station. It is open Wednesday to Monday, 11:30 to 21:30 (last order 20:30), and closed every Tuesday. Group seating, reservations and high chairs are available.

For parking you can use the Dongjin parking lot or the Yeonnam 3 public street parking, but Panda Dim Sum doesn't offer parking support. I'd recommend taking public transport and making an outing of it ^^

Keep wandering through the Yeonnam-dong alleys, and when you see a brick building, head up to the 2nd floor ^^

What are the atmosphere and seating like at Panda Dim Sum?

Stepping inside, every corner is filled with cute panda dolls and little props, so hunting for them is half the fun. The space is wide with high ceilings, so it feels comfortable, and a huge screen at the front was playing a panda cartoon nonstop ^^

The floor-to-ceiling windows make the window side bright and airy, and it was the seating most guests went for.

Seats are mostly for two or four, but the space works well both for eating solo and for coming with a group.

The kitchen is completely open, so you can watch everything being cooked while you eat. It made me feel they really care about cleanliness.

I had booked ahead, so they gave us a window seat ^^ Each table has an ordering device, so ordering is easy.

Panda Dim Sum menu and what we ordered, with prices

The menu at Panda Dim Sum in Yeonnam-dong includes main dishes like Peking duck, tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork), yurinki (fried chicken with sauce) and mayo shrimp, plus sides such as many kinds of shumai, xiaolongbao, boiled dumplings and spring rolls.

For meals there are so many unique things I wanted to try: braised pork belly (dongpayuk) rice bowl, black pepper beef rice bowl, mala mapo tofu rice bowl, chicken tantan noodles, Chinese-style tonkotsu ramen and mala mixed noodles. I agonized for a long time.

• Peking duck (half) ₩39,000
• Corn shumai ₩9,000
• Black pepper beef rice bowl ₩15,000

The whole table was filled, and the colors and presentation were just so beautiful.

There was the Peking duck topped with flower petals like a work of art, the popular black pepper beef rice bowl, and corn shumai, which I was trying for the first time! They all caught my eye, but the bright yellow of the corn shumai caught it most.

How does Panda Dim Sum's corn shumai taste?

The corn shumai (₩9,000) is a dim sum with a chewy wrapper that has a faint corn aroma, filled with meat, and with corn kernels that pop in your mouth. Small and cute, with green scallions on top, it gave off a sweet smell even just looking at it.

Biting in, the plain, savory meat inside the chewy, faintly corn-scented wrapper and the sweetness of the popping corn kernels came together beautifully. It's delicious and nutty on its own, but dipped in soy sauce it became salty and really good.

Why is the black pepper beef rice bowl a best seller?

The black pepper beef rice bowl (₩15,000) is a best-selling dish with peppery beef piled high on fluffy rice. At mealtime you have to have rice, so I ordered it after some thought.

The beef is piled really high on the fluffy rice, with crispy french fries, grilled vegetables and spicy chili peppers. It looks like it would grab your appetite just by sight.

I picked up a piece of nicely grilled beef with a fragrant pepper smell. Salty, yet it melts softly in your mouth!! It looked like it might be a bit hard, but no!! It was really good.

Beef on rice with potato and well-seasoned vegetables is a total rice thief (so good you keep eating rice). There's a reason it's a best seller ^^ The amounts of meat, seasoning and rice matched perfectly, and I enjoyed it down to the last bite.

How do you eat the half Peking duck at Panda Dim Sum?

The special menu item, Peking duck, costs ₩39,000 for a half, and comes with thin wheat pancakes, cucumber, shredded scallion and sweet bean sauce (chunjang). And this Peking duck was the dish I was most curious about.

Layers of crispy skin sit on top of the tender meat, decorated with fragrant flowers, and it was so, so beautiful. I was so, so curious whether it would taste as good as it looked!!

Peking duck dipped in sweet bean sauce alone

First I tried the duck with only the bean sauce. The meat was so tender and juicy that I was surprised. It's plain yet has that distinctive nutty flavor.

Peking duck wrapped in a wheat pancake with scallion and cucumber

The pancakes come with cucumber and shredded scallion, and each pancake has paper on both sides so they don't stick and are easy to peel apart.

Put a piece of duck on a pancake, pile on lots of scallion and cucumber strips, roll it up and dip it in the sauce.

I dipped it deep in the bean sauce and popped it in whole. The chewy, soft pancake, the tender, juicy duck, the sauce that's a bit sweeter and more savory than ordinary chunjang, and the fresh, crunchy vegetables all went together really well.

The nutty duck and the deep, rich sauce matched really well, and with the plain chewiness of the pancake, my hand just kept going back for more. The sauce isn't harsh, so it's good even when you dip a lot.

Black pepper beef and gungchae (crunchy celtuce stem) in a pancake too

Wrapping the spicy, salty black pepper beef together with gungchae (a crunchy stem vegetable) in the pancake was also great, great!!

Crispy Peking duck skin dipped in sugar

This is the glossy skin that was on the very top. It's roasted so crisp that it shines and glistens.

Dipping it in sugar is sweet and just excellent too. It felt like eating premium fried chicken skin? ^^

The restroom at Panda Dim Sum is next to the kitchen, so feel free to use it ^^

Is Panda Dim Sum in Yeonnam-dong worth a return visit?

Panda Dim Sum in Yeonnam-dong is a place where you can try Peking duck with nutty, plain, tender duck meat that isn't easy to find nearby. We enjoyed many kinds of shumai and tasty, varied meals in a cozy atmosphere. The owner and staff were very kind too, so it was an even more relaxing time. I recommend it as a tasty Hongdae Chinese restaurant date course ^^