I just ate at Tiger Mama in the Whit for the first time, and it was amazing…read more
Tiger Mama has that Korean pocha feel, where the food, drinks, and atmosphere all belong together.
I stopped in for a drink while my to go order was being made and had a Tiger Bomb, a beer with a shot of soju mixed in. The drink was great, and the service was incredibly hospitable. Even though I was just waiting on a to go order, they offered me complimentary banchan, little bites of cabbage, carrots, and cucumber, to snack on while I drank and waited. That was much more hospitality than I expected from simply picking up food.
The prices are very reasonable for what you get. The portions are generous, everything tasted fresh, and the food felt genuinely high quality.
The Korean fried chicken is really, really good.
I got the Volcano sauce, and it is legitimately hot. Not restaurant spicy. Actually spicy. I eat the spiciest of the spicy food, and this was a good 8 out of 10 for me, which is probably a 15 out of 10 for most people. It has serious heat, but plenty of flavor underneath it.
The dry rub chicken balanced it perfectly, with a tangy, acidic, savory flavor that cut through the richness and paired really well with the Volcano sauce. Crispy chicken, acid, spice, and a cold beer is a pretty hard combination to beat.
I also got the kimbap with spicy pork, and that was amazing too. The rice and fillings tasted really fresh, the pork had a great savory sweetness and heat, and the vegetables added freshness and texture. Every bite had a little bit of everything.
Between the food, Tiger Bomb, complimentary banchan, and service, I was already thinking I had found a new place I really liked.
Then I got home.
The only real downside was unfortunately the tteokbokki, which is ironic because that was the entire reason I found Tiger Mama. It was literally the term I typed into Yelp that led me there.
And this is where the review gets complicated.
Flavor wise, it was amazing.
The sauce was sweet, tangy, savory, and a little spicy, with that deep gochujang flavor you want from tteokbokki. The fish cakes were tender, plentiful, and full of flavor. There were glass noodles, mandu, and half a hard boiled egg, giving it a lot of different textures. It felt like a more elaborate, modern take on the classic Korean dish.
The rice cakes themselves were fantastic. Great size, wonderfully tender and chewy, and soaked in that delicious sauce. Honestly, the tteok I did receive might be the best I have had while dining out.
My problem was that I received three of them.
Three individual rice cakes.
In an $18 order of tteokbokki.
That was genuinely disappointing.
Tteokbokki was why I came here. It was what I searched for and what drew me in. The menu picture showed plentiful, delicious little rice pillows sitting in sauce, which was exactly what I had been craving.
Instead, I got a large serving of glass noodles, fish cakes, mandu, sauce, egg, and three rice cakes in a dish named after the rice cakes.
If this had been the only thing I ordered, I could easily see myself leaving a sour one star review and never going back.
But that would not represent the experience I had. Everything else was too good.
As someone who loves Korean cuisine, both cooking it at home and eating it out, I can tell there is a lot of care put into this food. Even the tteokbokki was excellent in every respect except the rice cake quantity. The sauce was perfect, the fish cakes were great, the mandu was a nice surprise, and the sweet, spicy, tangy, savory flavors worked ridiculously well together.
It also pairs really well with a beer.
Or six.
Unfortunately, I live too far away to have noticed until I got home, and they were already closed. I'll call tomorrow, and based on the service I received, I'm confident they'll make it right.
Three rice cakes for $18 was genuinely disappointing, but I'm not going to let what seems like one portioning mistake outweigh an otherwise excellent experience. The food, atmosphere, hospitality, and care put into everything were too good.
Tiger Mama is a great addition to the Whit, and I'll absolutely be back.
Especially for more tteokbokki.
Hopefully next time, more than three.