[Food Review] Jjangmien Korean restaurant, Paju

South Korea has become famous for its amazing cuisine, from bibimbap and BBQ to sweet treats like patbingsu. This time, Thuy tries dishes from Jjangmien in Paju-si.

Jjangmien restaurant in Paju-si offers a wide range of dishes, both Korean and Chinese-inspired. Image: Thuy Bui for Cherry Chu Magazine.

Black Day is an unofficial holiday for singletons in South Korea, celebrated on April 14th. What do you do on this day? – You eat Jjajangmyeon, of course! And that’s exactly what I did in the Jjangmien restaurant in Jeokseong-Myeon.

I was recommended this restaurant by my work colleagues and heard that it’s pretty famous around the area, so I waited until April 14th to do as Koreans do. My work colleagues joined me so I was able to enjoy other dishes, as eating out is a very sociable event in Korea.

Jjajangmyeong

짜장면. Image: Thuy Bui for Cherry Chu Magazine.

A classic Korean foodstuff, jjajangmyeong is a black bean paste mixed with soy sauce, (minced) pork, cabbage, onion and courgette (zucchini). Whenever I have this dish, I find it on the sweeter side and for that reason I don’t really like it, but I really enjoyed this version.

The noodles are made from wheat and are thick, soft, and chewy. The sauce wasn’t too viscous and was seasoned to my liking. An ultimate comfort dish.

Tangsuyuk

탕수육. Image: Thuy Bui for Cherry Chu Magazine.

If you like Chinese sweet and sour pork, then you’ll definitely like tangsuyuk. The sauce was served on the side with onions, carrots, and courgettes; it's less tangy than sweet and sour as well. The battered pork was crisp and light. It wasn’t served with rice and I didn’t think it needed to be as rice is usually served to balance the saltier dishes.

Seafood Nureungjitang

삼선해물누릉지탕. Image: Thuy Bui for Cherry Chu Magazine.

This dish was similar to a seafood and vegetable oyster sauce stir fry. The oyster sauce was thickened to perfection with cornstarch (or potato starch) and served with scorched rice to soak up some of that flavoursome liquid.

Seafood Jjamppongtang

삼선짬뽕탕. Image: Thuy Bui for Cherry Chu Magazine.

The next dish was a dry version of jjamppong, a spicy soup noodle dish with seafood/pork-based broth, flavoured with gochugaru. The restaurant combined seafood and vegetables and accompanied them with rice. And what’s a Korean meal without at least one spicy dish, right?

If you’re not a fan of soup noodles then this is the dish for you. Spicy, with subtle sweetness, but without the noodle soup of jjamppong. 

Cream Shrimp

크림중새우. Image: Thuy Bui for Cherry Chu Magazine.

What I thought should have been a savoury dish was deep fried battered shrimps coated with a sweet salad cream, with a teriyaki-style sauce drizzled on top. Personally, I didn’t really enjoy this dish as much as the others, but it did remind me of a Cantonese dish called Thousand Island Sauce Pork Chops (千島汁豬扒) which I love. However, with shrimp it just wasn’t for me, so choose carefully!

Overall, a very enjoyable meal! It was great having a variety of both spicy and non-spicy food options. Chinese food is definitely something to eat once in a while whenever you're not feeling Korean food, so (as there is a handful of Chinese influences) give Jjangmien a go.

Location:

짱미엔

경기도 파주시 적성면 마지리 45-12

Jjangmien

45-12 Maji-ri, Jeokseong-myeon, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do

Edited by Gabii Rayner.