Stick With the Korean Menu at Hyo Dong Gak

Hyo Dong GakRecently I had a hankering for some jjajangmyeon- noodles with a brown sauce made from fermented soybean paste. The Chinese version uses ground pork and is less saucey than the Korean counterpart, but both versions are quite excellent. Hyo Dong Gak a Chinese/Korean restaurant (on35th btw. 5+6th) has been the ML jjajangmyeon go to for awhile now, but while looking at the lunch specials (just to see if there was anything tasty looking) I spotted double cooked pork!

Ever since my mediocre experience at Joe’s Shanghai I’ve been on a mission to try all the double cooked pork dishes I can find in Midtown (going to save Szechuan Gourmet for last since it’s probably the best). Will this version come with pickled daikon? Maybe the spiciness is from kimchi? (It is a Korean/Chinese restaurant after all.) But mostly… will this be any good?


I was hoping since this was a Chinese/Korean restaurant I would get a tiny container of pickled daikon or kimchi or something! Nope. For $7.95 the entree came with soup and a fortune cookie. I got an egg drop soup and it was terrible. Basically it was a container of bits of egg white floating in a neon yellow thick liquid that tasted nothing like egg drop soup. The soup had the consistency of oil.

Double cooked pork

As for the double cooked pork I was once again disappointed to find no pork belly at all but instead thin slices of roast pork. Like the version at Joe’s Shanghai, the dish had bell peppers and onions, but at least it was a bit spicy (just enough heat to enjoy the dish).

Fortune
My fortune for that day.

Despite my overall disappointment, the dish was actually pretty tasty- and a nice step up from Joe’s Shanghai.  But in the end I think next time I’ll stick with what they do best at Hyo Dong Gak. You can never go wrong with their jjajangmyeon.

Hyo Dong Gak, 51 W. 35th St. (btw. 5+6th), 212-695-7167

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    I took a coworker here and she ordered something from the Chinese lunch special even though I told her to order what I was getting. She didn’t and was sorely disappointed. Actually I just went here last night and shared the jjajangmyeon & Chicken w/garlic and red pepper sauce with someone. Pretty good dinner if I say so myself. Saved some for lunch today as well.

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