Delicious Korean dishes at Nam Dae Moon

The new Nam Dae Moon Restaurant is clean, spacious, bright, and located across Bank of Guam in Garapan. (Bea Cabrera)

“Nam dae moon” in Korean means south great door that bids travelers a good entry and journey to South Korea. In the same way, Nam Dae Moon Korean Restaurant located in Garapan welcomes the community to enter their doors and experience delicious, hearty, and humble Korean dishes cooked like it was made at home.

When asked what her specialties are, owner Mi Yun Lee Kim said that they don’t really have specialty dishes. “We serve various regular Korean dishes but what sets us apart from the others is that people love our food because it reminds them of the comfort of home cooking…Our restaurant is also conducive to pleasant meal time with family or friends because it is clean, spacious, bright, and the design is like what most restaurants look like on Korea,” she said.

“Our regular customers are mostly locals… Our original restaurant was located in another part of Garapan but when we moved to Beach Road also in Garapan, loyal customers followed us and have been coming here. When we had tourists, business was very busy. Today, they are missed but we are happy to serve our local customers every single day,” she added.

“We always want to put customer first,” said Nam Dae Moon Korean Restaurant owner Mi Yun Lee Kim with one of her friendly staff in photo. (Bea Cabrera)

Kim moved to Saipan in 1997 with her husband. They have had many business ventures throughout the years but putting up Nam Dae Moon has been her joy. “Of all the businesses we had, I really love this one…my heart is in service and we want our ‘customer first’ mentality to reflect in the food we serve and how we customer care for customers.… I always want to be the best and not fail when it comes to taking care of customers,” she said.

“We take to heart what feedback we get from our customers because we always want to improve and be better. In fact, I encourage customers to say any observation during their meal so if there is something that they don’t like, we can improve it while they are in the restaurant, “ she said.

The first Nam Dae Moon Korean Restaurant opened in 2016 but moved to their new location across Bank of Guam in December last year. “Two months into operations, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and we had no choice but to close temporarily. We re-opened in May and started take-out orders and when regulations changed, we started taking in dine-in customers and were happy to see familiar faces,” she said

“We follow COVID19 Task Force health guidelines in our daily operations. We make sure that dine-in customers sign their names and numbers, get their temperature, alcohol and hand sanitizers are visible everywhere in the restaurant, and social distancing rules are in place…Our staff works really hard and their good attitude at work makes customers at ease and comfortable when they dine with us,” she added.

Local favorite at Nam Dae Moon is their braised short ribs. (Contributed Photo)

Many of Nam Dae Moon Korean’s dishes are composed of meat, seafood, and vegetables. Grilling your own meat is also an option. “Many customers want to cook their meat which is good as we have premium beef ribs, short ribs, bulgogi, and pork belly…favorites in our menu include braised short ribs, chili shrimps, spicy stir fried chicken feet, and many more,” Kim said.

“We also welcome private get togethers for meetings or parties as we have three rooms that can sit 18, 14, and 13 guests and we offer 20-25% local discount. We can send our menu via Watsapp upon customer’s request for take-out or dine-in if they want to order ahead,” Kim added.

Nam Dae Moon Korean Restaurant is open from Monday to Saturday, 11am-9 pm, and Sunday, 5pm-9pm. For more information, call (670) 233-2325, (670) 483-0008, and (670) 783-3003, and email leeroyal42@gmail.com