John L.
Yelp
I'm always excited when I see Koreanized Chinese food restaurants open. I had mixed feelings about whether to expect something amazing or something terrible.
The expectation of something amazing comes from the man that is plastered all over the walls in the restaurant. He is probably the foremost food celebrity in Korea and produced some of my favorite food documentaries. Would he dare stake his reputation on anything other than excellence in the food industry?
The expectation of something terrible comes from the fact that I've only had good Koreanized Chinese food from Chinese chefs who developed their career in Korea. A chain? Hopefully it was not going to be just a random, run-of-the-mill line cook in the kitchen.
Upon entering, we were immediately greeted, seated, and presented with menus. The inside was nicely decorated and clean. The area next to the cashier station, however, was in stark contrast to the rest of the place and looked kind of sloppily thrown together.
We ordered the 4 basic dishes that all restaurants of this type are judged on: jja jjang myeon (black sauce noodle), jjam bbong (spicy soup noodle), tang soo yook (sweet and sour pork), and fried rice. Dishes came out as they were completed, with tang soo yook coming out first. This is very typical, normal, and almost expected for these restaurants. You don't get everything at once when ordering a variety of dishes because they are avoiding a situation where things sit under a heat lamp forever.
The jja jjang myeon was absolutely delicious and is very close to being as good as I can imagine it to be. The noodles were perfection (size, texture, flavor) and the sauce was so flavorful and wonderful. The cuts on the ingredients were just the right size, the sauce was not too thick, nor too watery. My only nitpick was the quality of the pork. There was the slightest hint that it wasn't the absolute top quality meat. Still good, but this is what could improve. If jja jjang myeon was the only item on their menu, then I wouldn't really have a choice but to give a 5 star review, though I would point out and complain about missing the other staples.
The tang soo yook had good and bad. The pork itself was not the best quality and the sauce was too sweet with some weird, extra processed flavor going on. The coating on the pork seemed to be perfect, but as soon as we put the sauce on it, it instantly started losing the crisp factor and started becoming chewy.
Jjam bbong was kind of okay. The noodles were perfect, but the seafood was average and the broth was also sort of average. The pork in this dish was especially unimpressive, as the lower quality taste of it seemed to be fully expressed in this dish.
Finally, the fried rice. Their only options were vegetarian and shrimp. I was hoping for combination meat, but strangely that wasn't an option. It had that classic Koreanized Chinese flavor in it, but I wasn't impressed with anything else about it. When executed well, this dish can be outright addicting. The fried rice here was about what i would expect at the cheapest, most careless Koreanized Chinese restaurants. This one felt extra greasy, as if butter or too much oil were added. At least it didn't taste bad, I guess.
To sum it up, their noodles are a perfection that is not often achieved by their peers. The quality of pork flavor left much to be desired. The jja jjang myeon was excellent. Everything else was a average to below average, and frankly disappointing compared to their jja jjang myeon. 3 star overall, but I will absolutely come back for their 5 star jja jjang myeon. For everything else, I have a short list of other places in Denver to get those items.
