Dinner Date Night – Mingle
Friday night Chris and I had a Date Night, which included dinner at a new local restaurant and a movie.
We went to the new restaurant called Mingle on Delaware Avenue, located in the old Wine n Diner spot.
Gone were the trippy paintings of Wine N Diner. Instead we found a nice romantic atmosphere.
We each wanted to try an appetizer, so I ordered the Korean shrimp pancakes, and according to the menu they are: Korean style gluten-free potato pancake with shrimp, zucchini, carrots and Korean chives. Our pancakes are served with a honey-sony-ginger sauce for dipping.
These pancakes were amazing! They were so flavorful and had lots of little bites of shrimp inside, which I was impressed with since usually places skimp on seafood items, but these were great. They were lightly fried and crispy, too. I was a fan.
Chris got the pan Fried Yakimandu, “crisp handmade dumplings stuffed with chicken, ricotta cheese, soy bean sprouts, scallions and Napa cabbage.”
For my meal I went with the special of the evening, the crab cakes served with rice and vegetables along with a dipping sauce.
They were unlike any crab cake I’ve had…light and fluffy and very flavorful. The dipping sauce was also great and went along good with the crab cake. The rice was tasty, but the veggies were a bit bland. I was expecting them to be cooked a bit more.
Chris’ entree was one of the Korean specialties, the Steamed Bibimbap, seasoned and chilled soy bean sprouts, gosari, Korean radish, spinach and zucchini served over sticky rice in a traditional Korean clay pot topped with a sunny side up egg.
He enjoyed his meal, also!
I was pretty happy with my meal overall. The only downfall was that because it was its first week open, they didn’t have their liquor license yet. No wine for me with dinner! 🙁
Chris and I also decided to split a dessert, the carrot cake which was topped with a lemon glaze and a dollop of whipped cream.
It looks good, but it was a huge let down for me. My favorite part of carrot cake is the cream cheese frosting and this cake had none! It had a watery glaze and the cake itself was a bit too dense for me and didn’t have much of a carrot cake taste. A let down. 🙁
At least the meal was good, though! The service was outstanding also, we let our server know that we had a movie to get to so he rushed our order, which was really nice of him!
We’ll probably go back when they have their liquor license!
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7 Comments
Heather
i want to try Mingle! [but I already miss Wine N Diner! That was the best burger of my LIFE after the Delmar Dash!]
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Emily
Thanks for filling me in on this! we were driving by and curious what it was.
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Liz @ iheartvegetables
That sounds so fun!!! 🙂 Looks like a fabulous date!
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Jen@FoodFamilyFitness
The meal looks great, but I’m with you on the carrot cake, my main reason for carrot cake is the cream cheese frosting 🙂
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Chris
I actually do have a bone to pick with Mingle that I somehow forgot at the time but remembered as I was relaying the experience to my parents. Maybe this is because they haven’t had their grand opening yet, but the bibimbap is supposed to be served in a too-hot-to-touch clay pot. In fact, it’s what makes the dish so appealing because it is crackling, steaming and still cooking when it arrives at your seat. As you can see from the picture (despite what they advertise on the menu) this wasn’t the case. The dish was tasty, but adding a real hot pot would go a long way to making it memorable and more authentic.
Daniel B.
I’m glad Chris chimed in about the clay pot, because I read the words in your post, but saw nothing but a white porcelain bowl. Maybe in the spring the chef will realize how much money she could make by opening the only Korean taco truck downtown.
Seriously.
Moe
I think the clay pot deal must have been corrected; I had the Kimchi Jigae recently and it was served bubbling in a clay pot. Really good and spicey, wonderful broth. Apparently the kimchi is homemade, as is the kaktugi (fermented radish chunks) – much better than I’ve had at previous local Korean restaurants.