Buk Kyung II

Loved the Buk Kyung in Somerville so I decided to come here the next day! Did if match the other location? Not at all.
This time I went with a group of three people, and we all got something different. I got the Naengmyeon aka Korean cold noodles. This had thin buckwheat noodles that I liked, but the broth tasted like the pickled radish that was garnished with it. Like the entire flavor of the broth was the pickled radish… ugh. Two slices of beef too. So disappointed. I actually expected a lot from this dish because it sounded perfect for the weather, but I don’t think I’d ever eat it again. My friend for the Dolsot Bibimbop that was decent. I, and she herself, both prefer Kaju Tofu House’s better, but it wasn’t horrible. Then comes the Mapa Tofu stir fry that definitely was the best dish out of the three. If you like a bit of spice, this is the dish for you.
Also to note, they don’t give you lemon water like the other Buk Kyung, which was a downer for me since I liked that from the other one.
Based on the experience here, I just prefer the other Buk Kyung better.

I can’t speak for the authenticity either way, but I LOVE this place. My BF and I make the trip from JP all the time. Nice atmosphere, service is good, and the food always hits the spot. We’ve tried most of the chigaes, most of the cold noodles, the jjajang, and some other random stuff. Never disappoints!

Best authentic Korean food you can get in Boston — this is not including Korean BBQ. Customer service is friendly, place is clean, food is delicious.
If you’re just trying this place out, I suggest the jajangmyeon and if your into spicy food, the cheese (or traditional) tteokbokki as well (but without bamboo shoots). The jajangmyeon black bean sauce is thick enough that it sticks to the chewy noodles that come with it. The meat braised in the sauce with onions and zucchini is just melt in your mouth delicious and flavor explosive. Tteokbokki (also spelled dukbokki) is soft, chewy, smothered in gochujang and intense chili spices. These two dishes is literally what keeps bringing my back.
If you want pajeon or seaweed noodle balls in your tteokbokki, head down to bonchon because that place is much crisper and has more substance in the batter (its mostly dough at this place, it is also very soggy if you get it to go or delivery).
A little over priced, like most Korean places, but it is definitely the best place for jajangmyeon!

Buk Kyung II in Allston is my favorite Korean restaurant. I like the atmosphere. The staff is great. Samsun Jambong (Homemade Noodle Dish N6) is an amazing spicy seafood stew. If you’re not into spicy food there are lots of other things on the menu that are flavorful but not spicy-​hot. The seafood pancake is really good, too. I would recommend sharing it because it’s really dense and decadent. I’m always there with either one other person or a few friends and we always get a table right away even when it’s busy. There are always tables of 10 or more people and the staff seems to be really great at accommodating multiple large groups at a time.

This is a decent Korean Chinese food place that’s been around for awhile (especially the original location in Somerville). Get their sachun jjajangmyun (spicy version).
Jjajangmyun is my favorite Korean dish and a passion of mine. I’ve tasted many different versions of it — the original Chinese versions in China, Singapore, and even the Japanese version in Japan– not to mention some of those «mat-​jibs» (famous jjajangmyun places) in Korea. Buk Kyung serves a good jjajangmyun. Lots of onions, pork fat, and decent noodles. What more do you want? For a city like Boston, we’re lucky to have this place.

We went for lunch. Had the lunch special– bulgogi and kimchi tofu soup. The bulgogi was extremely oily, meat was small pieces like low quality. The ban chan didn’t taste right. We both got food poisoning a couple hours later. Not concluding if they are definitely related but definitely not coming back.

I’ll keep it short and simple. The ban chan (side dishes) are great, lots of variety and they taste very homemade. I love the kimchi here! went here with a friend of mine because we were having some serious jajajangmyung cravings. It was delicious and completely fulfilled my carvings. They give you a large portion of noodles, however once my friend and I finished all of the noodles literally half of the bowl was filled with onions. Other than that, the kimchi and seafood jjigae were great and filling. Buk Kyung is a good choice if you’re ever craving Korean food!

Been here about three times and I don’t think I can eat here anymore. The restaurant in Somerville with the same name is much better. The side dishes are ok at best, the kimchi tasted more fermented to my liking and the radish is bland and a tad bit bitter. I ordered the cold noodles in the summer and it isn’t bad. The jambong and woodong are ok. I’m sure there are other things on the menu that I haven’t tried that is very good, but my opinion is that the restaurant in Somerville is way better.

This place has come a long long way from when I first came to Boston 3 years ago. When I first got here the food was terrible. The jajangmyun was some crap. The noodles were a bit chewy and the sauce was watery and the wrong kind of sweet.
NOW: the jajangmyun is pretty decent. The sauce is still a little watery but the flavor is what it’s suppose to be. If you can deal with spicy I would recommend the jjambong. It’s a very spicy seafood soup that comes with a lot of seafood and I have never seen it be completely finished.
The place is a very large space and have plenty of seating. Usually there is no wait for this place and if your really in the mood for ja jang myun this will definitely suffice, but it won’t blow you away. Come with your expectations tempered.

Ya. Not the greatest food but service was quick and amiable. Jjajjangmyun was watery and lacking flavor and side dishes were also not that great. Maybe it might be better for dinner or other dishes.

I’m the type of person to binge watch Korean dramas and look at their food to try out!
Food: There’s not that many places that offer up the option of jjajangmyeon (with noodles on the side) which is why I decided to come here. It was so delicious I make it at home and when I’m feeling lazy I stop by here! And for about $ 9 it’s enough to feed two people with the amount given. They offer a lot of side dishes which was great to pick at while waiting for the main dishes. Their seafood soup included an egg and was delicious, just the perfect amount of flavor. Dukbokki was just the right amount of chewy-​tenderness by far one of my favorite places to go and not be disappointed.
Setting/​Atmosphere: Going around 1PM on a Tuesday afternoon it wasn’t busy at all. The inside was spacious, but according to other reviews it’s cramped.
Customer Service: Our waiter was fine, he didn’t hover over our shoulder and was always on his toes if we needed him.
Extra: I know that there are two locations, hopefully I’ll be able to try the original sometime within the next few weeks.

I, being a California native will always feel that the Korean food in Boston is subpar.
My BF and I decided to order takeout and got 2 dishes. The jjangjang noodle was 10x better than the kimchi bokkeum dish.
+ The JJAJANG NOODLE dish was $ 9 and enough for 1 person only. We did appreciate the large amount of black bean sauce. There was enough sauce to keep the noodles from tasting dry or sticky. I would get this dish over any of the other dishes. With this order, it comes with a side of onion and pickled radish with black bean sauce. (⁴⁄₅)
— KIMICHI BOKKEUM w/​PORK AND RICE: so salty! Big kimchi pieces and small dry pork pieces… So salty. All I have to say is too salty. I have said it enough… Just save yourself the thirst.
Pros:
* relatively quick deliver on a thursday night
Con:
* over priced
* no side dishes provided like the other Korean places

— BOTTOM LINE:
Ja jang myun! Ja jang myun!
— SPACE:
Cramped, dark, chaotic. Tables are teeny tiny and there’s not enough space to fit all the ban chan, let alone your food (first world problem alert: I am getting too much food for my table). All worth it for the ja jang myun. I usually call ahead 20 minutes and get do pickup so I can pig out/​drop black bean sauce all over my shirt in peace.
— FOOD:
Ja jang myun.
(Everything else is very hit or miss. Seafood pancake was enormous but kind of soggy.)
Ja jang myun.

My husband, baby and I just came back from lunch at Buk Kyung. Here are my thoughts on the staff and food. The staff was not attentive. I especially loved how the waitress threw to go containers at us but politely packed up another tables. Honestly, I have to wonder if that is because we are not Korean.
The food was all over the place. We have the seafood scallion pancake and that was pretty good. It is big and filled with seafood. We also ordered the buglogi and that was a mistake. What we thought should be a staple Korean dish was oily and filled with MSG. Both my husband and I had a weird taste in our mouth afterwards from the MSG. We also ordered the japachae and it was filled with oil.
Do yourself a favor and go somewhere else. There are better Korean restaurants in the immediate area where the food is more refined and the staff is more professional.

We ordered the bimbibap, bulgogi, seafood tofu soup, jab Chae (clear noodles). Everything we ordered were delicious (or maybe we were just too hungry!).

We wanted to try something new because we’ve been to that other Korean restaurant 2 minutes away far too many times. I think we’ll just continue going to the other place.
The gangpoongki was the star of the night. Its basically korean boneless chicken wings dipped in a tangy, spicy sauce. A large was too much for three people concentrating on 3 entrée dishes.
Service was a bit slow, water refills took a while, and the food came out cold. Of course, that’s going to affect taste quite a bit. My chicken bulgogi was pretty forgettable. I’m sure if they could bring up service it would make everything better.
Its hard to avoid that other restaurant down the street that serves food in a burning hot clay pot…

Delicious black noodle and lots of seafood inside.
Side dishes was ok but the staff was kind.

TLDR: The food is mediocre.
I’ve come here a number of times and always feel pretty disappointed when I leave. The food is really average and the prices are up there. There wasn’t any rich flavor to any of our plates, which is a huge bummer since I love that aspect of Korean food. It can easily cost $ 30/​person if you’re with a group. The service isn’t the greatest, to say the least. Go elsewhere — there’s plenty of other options in this area.

Went here on a tuesday evening and when we got in the person greeting us was so friendly as she rushed us to our table and came back 1 second later asking us what we wanted to order just as we had only taken off our outerwear and barely looked at the menu. We needed a few minutes and she kept coming back within 3 minutes.
We ended up getting, tansuyook, japchae, dukkbokki, and tong mandu. The sweet and sour pork was good but the pork was extremely dry and it actually seemed like it was old and had been sitting out for awhile just waiting for someone to order and then they would pour the sauce over. The sweet and sour sauce was hot but the pork was cold.
The japachae was actually really good, compared to some other places. They executed it well where there wasn’t so much oil and the seasonings were good so the noodles weren’t bland. They gave a generous portion so we were happy .
DUKKBOKII, the epitomy of korean snacks was good like any other place, but the rice cakes were fresh so it had a distinguished taste and literally melted in my mouth. This was surprising since I’ve had dukkboki here before and it didn’t taste the way it did the most recent visit.
The tongmandu were huge and came in a large steamer. The dumplings had soo much filling inside and were a heafty serving. The filling was bland though. The steamer was layered with napa cabbage so it gave the dumplings some sweetness.

Boiled pork and leek dumplings — Nicely stuffed with a good portion of pork, but this tasted similar to what I’m used to eating at home. Tip — The «lightly» fried dumplings are completed deep fried to a crisp based on what I saw from neighboring tables.
Soft tofu soup with pork — Piping hot as expected with a bowl of rice but it didn’t come with a raw egg to crack inside! I thought that was just standard practice. The soup was mildly spicy but lacked the depth and complexity of flavors that the soup from Kajou Tofu provides.
Chicken bulgogi — Came out a bit watery and the onions were almost completely raw. The dish came with one bowl of rice.
Lastly, the small side dishes only come out when the main food comes out, and there are only a handful of dishes that are provided.