Sonamu

Asiana hotel is located in Deira and has a fresh, luxurious feel to it. The hotel has one Japanese restaurant called Hanabi which supposed to be very good, but today I wanted to try the Korean restaurant Sonamu. The venue is pretty big and stylish and most of the waiters seems to be Korean as well as the guests.

The food menu is very big with a lot of mouthwatering dishes to choose from. Unfortunately the wine list wasn't as extensive and the few bottles listed wasn't anything that caught my eye so both I and C went for a few cold pints of Kirin (the Korean beer was out of stock).

After we placed the order we got the whole table filled with small plates of goodies. Kimchi, pickled cucumbers, water spinach, mushrooms and various dipping sauces. They where all served cold, straight from the fridge which wasn't ideal. After a few minutes in room temperature the flavors came together and all tasted great.

I noted a fish tank with alive abalone so obviously we had to chose that as a starter. The mollusk was served in a Japanese sashimi style with gari and wasabi but also with some non-Japanese dipping sauces. Abalone is truly a unique experience with it's crunchy texture. Good but nothing amazing.

Then we got served Korean crepes with crab, eggs, vegetables and mustard sauce. 

Korean barbecued sirloin (looks more like rib-eye to me) grilled on the table with onions and mushrooms. Very juicy and tasty meat despite that the waiter mis-understood my cooking preference of the meat.

Then we were served man-doo; fried pork dumplings, very similar to Japanese gyoza. Perhaps the best dish of the evening.

At this point we were very full but still curious for more so we ordered nok-du jeon which was a korean pancake filled with pork meat and mung beans. Great but a bit too big and you got tired of the dish after a few bites.

I want to come back and try more dishes from the vast menu but I think I have to visit the Japanese restaurant Hanabi before.