A few months back; "FOY" Elle asked me if I'd been to the new location of Paik's Noodle, which had moved from the Zion Market Food Court, where it was known as Hong Kong BanJum, to a location next to the Hive in the same strip mall as CoCo Ichibanya and Da Nang Corner. I felt a bit hesitant about checking them out. You see, I tried Hong Kong BanJum way back at the end of 2013 when they first opened and I really didn't care for the Jajangmyeon. It was greasy and much too sweet, so I never went back. Those were the days when I used to make sure to visit at least twice before doing a post, so those photos ended up in the recycle bin. I thought about returning once or twice, especially since Cathy seemed to enjoy her visit, but I just never made it back.
So finally, about two weeks ago, I decided to head on over and check the place out.
The location is shared with the Hive. Go right, it's the Hive, go left it's Paik's.
The space is elongated and quite spartan.
The two folks working here were so very nice. This was especially admirable when I watched them deal with the very rude, demanding, and entitled young men that came in a bit later on.
Ordering here is done off a tablet like display.
I knew I had to give the JaJangmyeon another try. I saw an option I thought I might enjoy; I ordered the JaJang Rice ($14.95), which came with an omelete and a side of the Jjampong. Also, based on my previous experience, I asked for the JaJang, the black bean based sauce on the side, so I could control flavors and texture.
Soon enough, some Takuan Danmuji arrived.
Accompanying the JaJangmyeon, which according to several sources derives its existence from Chinese workers in Incheon in the late 19th, early 20th century. I've always found it kind of interesting that the Missus does not care for this dish, since it's origins have been traced to Shandong Province, where She is from!
I'm glad I ordered my dish in this fashion as it was a heck of a lot of JaJang! While it still has a bit of that greasy mouthfeel, this wasn't overly sweet, had some decent umami tones, and some interesting pungency. It was definitely better than what I had experienced at Hong Kong BanJum in the Zion Food Court.
The rice was moist, there was also a good amount of fairly fluffy egg, which I guess because of the JaJang didn't seem to be seasoned at all.
While definitely not a "go to" dish for me, this was not bad. The portion size was quite generous.
I was glad that the Jjampong was included as it was my favorite of the meal.
Another dish which claims an interesting history, this was comfortingly spicy, with good savory – pungent – umami tones. I'm thinking I'll order the Meat Jjampong if I return.
Overall, quite a hearty meal, generous portion for the price. And while not claiming a place among Korean (or Korean-Chinese) eateries on my rotation, I'm glad I visited under the auspices Paik's which I think is better than the former iteration of Hong Kong BanJum. I also enjoyed reading about the history of these dishes while doing this post as well.
Paik's Noodle
4428 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Sun – Thurs 11am – 9pm
Fri – Sat 11am – 10pm
Thanks for the reminder for Paik's Elle!
Ok, the beef in the meat jun was nicely marinated, if a bit on the chewier side; sweet-salty-hint of garlic, very bulgogi-ish, the batter was a bit thicker and gritty than I prefer and it had been over-fried a bit. But, the Missus enjoyed the mild eggy-ness and the combination of flavors. She liked the meat jun dipping sauce which also had a hint of vinegar, some spice, balanced sweetness.
Wasn't sure what to expect with the hash browns….there were three to an order, more than I could consume. This was typical Sysco quality, fast-foodish hash browns dusted with a truffle-Parmesan powder. It had a sweet tinge to it, I later found out that it is also dusted with black garlic. Not sure what hash browns are going for these days at your local fast-food joint, but I'm guessing that it's pretty reasonable for $4.50. Not that I would order it again though.
Just having the mix of cheddar-mozzarella which made things nice and gooey and the under-seasoned egg was not enough to overcome the brioche toast. There was a lack of savory flavors to me. I'm sure that some folks might really take to this, but it was just not my kind of thing.
This was a pretty messy sandwich. The bacon, which almost reminded me of "Canadian Bacon" hadn't been crisped up enough and was quite rubbery. Still, the savory-saltiness…it didn't seem smoky to me, really added balance to the sandwich.
I walked up to the counter, the place had just opened, but there seemed to be a couple of folks waiting for their orders already. The young man working was really nice, though he looked a bit overwhelmed. I took a look at the menu….even though the portions looked pretty large, I went and ordered the Mix Katsu Combo ($19.99), which included both pork and chicken katsu and curry. 
The katsu had not been fried evenly and there were some darkly colored spots, the texture of the panko was kind of mealy, at least the breading wasn't separating from the proteins, but it was easy to tell which was the pork and chicken. The pork was on the left; it was thicker, had a more spongy texture, but was fairly tender, if a bit on the dry side. The seasoning was one dimensional being quite salty. The chicken on the right side was thinner, dry, and chewy. It was also quite salty. I'd take the pork any day of the week.
I'm pretty sure the curry had been made with "cubes", it had a nice spice, but was barely lukewarm….and I was eating in the food court. It was quite gloppy and was also on the salty side. Dipping the katsu in this was just too much sodium for me.
These were those jumbo sized wings; the batter was really thick and more hard-crunchy than crispy. The seasoning was a good amount of salt and black pepper. The wings were moist, especially the flats, and looked to be of good quality. As whole, just way too much batter for me, but decent wings. It threw the entire proportion off and I really needed that cabbage with dressing and the mul kimchi, which hovered on the sweeter side of things to reset my palate.
The batter for this seemed a bit different; it was thinner, more lacquered, but still on the crunchy end of the spectrum. The menu says "aromatic and slightly spicy", I'd go with barely spicy and teeth rattling sweet and sticky. The wings were, as before moist and tender, but this was too much for me. I ended up needing the cabbage a mul kimchi to recover! Also, I had to request extra napkins, because of that sticky sauce. Perhaps they'll stock some wipes in the future?
The wings came with a rather large order of Mul Kimchi, crisp, not overly sweet, a good palate cleanser for fry-o-lated foods.
The batter was somewhat crunchy, but it really got soggy quickly. The seasoning seemed quite mild, but I had a raging thirst after eating 6 of these wings. I took the remaining wings home and even tried to revive in the air fryer, but that didn’t work too well. I’m thinking that if I tried this again it would have to be with some kind of sauce; but based on experience with other KFC chains of this ilk, I’m going to assume it’s going to be too sweet and heck, it already gets soggy-mushy too quickly anyway.
As you can see, the chicken took up only two-thirds of the sandwich surface area, so there were "fowl-less" bites and with all that bread and mayo, it was hard making heads or tails of the flavors. So even though that label said "please enjoy it as soon as served" there was no way I could finish this. I put half in the fridge at work and took it home. During dinner that evening, I brought out the remainder of the sandwich and the Missus and I took out the piece of chicken. Even though the batter had sloughed off, it seemed like the chicken thigh meat was nicely seasoned and fairly tender. 
The wings were on the larger end of the spectrum and were lightly seasoned. The sauce was much too sweet for me. 
And when the gyeran jjim (steamed egg) hit the table, I thought that this would be the interesting test of the service. You see, the Missus enjoys some sesame oil on Her steamed egg. I think it's kind of a Northern Chinese thing. On our 
