Dong Chun Hong

312 Fifth Avenue

(between 31st and 32nd Streets)

www.dongchunhongnyc.com

Busy Korean/Chinese fusion restaurant that is seemingly a popular place for lunch. DCH does offer a $9.99 lunch special, but most diners seemed to have a hankering for noodles!

And not just any noodles, but specifically JaJangMyun noodles. These are noodles with black bean sauce, and they are so popular at this restaurant that they even offer a happy hour price for it!

Since nearly every table with an Asian occupant ordered one, I being a proud Asian myself, of course, ordered the DCH JaJangMyun for lunch:

 

It arrived in a large bowl, along with a server carrying a pair of scissors. She used the scissors to cut the long noodles before I dug in to the task of mixing up the black bean sauce with the noodles.

It had an interesting taste, and glad that I tried it, but I must confess that I found it rather bland. I guess you have to be a fan of black bean sauce, or perhaps I should have added some kimchee (which came as one of the banchans) to my bowl to add more spice or flavor.

Vegetarians and vegans please note—the black bean sauce contains ground pork!

My dining companion ordered the shrimp fried rice, which she loved. She raved throughout the lunch about how “clean” and not oily or greasy it tasted.

 

For starters, we had ordered shrimp dimsum. And in a nice surprise, as opposed to the noted 4 pieces on the menu, it arrived with 6 pieces—at no extra charge!

 

Interesting Side Note. Each table had a “Call” button, which is used to summon the waitstaff. I was surprised to hear it go off quite frequently from other tables throughout my meal. I could see how it might be useful during a drunken, crowded late-night 2-in-the-morning party, but it seemed rather imperious to be used during a lunch rush where it seems more polite to just flag down someone with a glance or a hand wave.

 

Pros:

Clean and spacious.

Vegetables and seafood seem very fresh.

Service is helpful and friendly.

Cons:

Banchan—only two sad small plates were offered, but they were continually “refilled” with two new plates throughout the meal.

Final Thoughts

Decent restaurant option in Koreatown.