Paik’s Noodle

Simple casual Korean. Authentic noodle joint. We got a 4 and a 5. Both were good. It’s a casual noodle joint. Don’t come expecting high-​brow anything. Just relax, get a few dishes and enjoy being transported back to Korea. I did.

What a great disappointment… I was super excited this chain restaurant was gonna open close to me. Servers seemed lost, not knowing who is doing what (3 servers asked us how many people we are before we set down directing 3 different tables). Food was just horrible. There are a few decent Korean-​Chinese restaurant around the NW suburbs and this one would come last in my book. noodle felt it missed the timing (super). portion was ok but with minimum amount of sauce (hence the cheap price). Sauce was plain with very little vegetable. I hope they put their act together soon otherwise no one will make 2^nd trip ever to this place.

We gave this place three shots. Once during the first week and then again a few weeks ago and then for carry-​out today. If you’re going to have only three things on the menu (now four), you have to make pretty darn sure that you nail those dishes every time. But each time has been a disappointment. The jjajangmyun noodles are always overcooked and the sauce way too starchy with no flavor. The jjambong broth lacks depth and has an overly fishy taste of the bad processed squid they use in it, and the tangsuyuk needs to be crispier to withstand the sweet and sour sauce without getting soggy immediately. We were really hoping that this place could replace Chef Ping because it is so close to our house, but unfortunately, it is so bad that we will not be going back. Too bad.

I felt so hungry after I picked up some groceries nearby so I dropped in this restaurant. I had the soup noodle which is not bad at all in a cold hungry evening. May come back again

I dined at this place twice, once back in November when the place was still being settled and recently yesterday to see if the food and service quality have improved. To my disappointment, the restaurant is still serving food that tastes like an instant noodle (except tang-​su-​yuk) with service that barely beats take out delivery.
Never going to visit this place again.

Came with a low expectation with some friends but turns out the noodles are pretty good! We ordered the jjampong, jjajangmyeon, bokkeumyeon and the tangsuyuk. The handmade noodle has nice & chewy texture. Overall, it was a good experience & we’ll definitely come back!

The idea behind this restaurant is to have 6 items and to do the 6 items well. Unfortunately, of the three things I sampled (jjampong, jjajangmien and tangsuyook) they did all three things rather poorly. I recommend going to Empire Schezwan down the road instead.

Came into restaurant today and was greeted by confused staff. I placed a carry out order and was told that I need to pay $ 1 extra for carry out. In addition, I was also over charged for the jjang myun and tangsuyuk that I ordered.
I hope this place gets better, but some staff training is much needed. Also, they only offer three things at this time.

Visited Paik’s noodle for an early dinner. Place is clean and modern with a very simple menu (6 items you can choose but really more like 3 since 4 of the items are either a noodle or rice variation of jjampong or jjajang. It took awhile for the server to come take our order. Actually we had to waive her down to bring water and utensils. Definitely not impressed by the service. As far as the food goes we ordered jjajang myun, tangsuyuk, and jjampong. One of our bowls had a hair in it! The tangsuyuk was ok but lacking in sauce and skimpy on the veggies. The jjajang myun was really bland. The jjampong tasted like ramen soup base. Overall the food was pretty lousy and forgettable. Based on the poor service, finding a hair in our bowl, and the bland food I can only give 1 star. Will not return. The only positive was the meal was fairly cheap.

This place deserves two stars just for their laughably terrible service. The place was pretty full when we walked in (rather shocking considering the quality of this restaurant), and we waited about 20 minutes to get seated. A waitress finally got us a table and slammed a stack of cups on our table, then decided to give us the actual pitcher of water 10 minutes later. When the waitress came back to take our order, she obviously wasn’t very interested in getting it right. She was rude and left before we could correct our order, so we had to go up to the counter and tell them again. If they don’t step up their service, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to see this placed closed in the near future.

Service was ridiculously bad. The shop was a bit busy, but nobody came to tell us even to wait, and the cashier lady didnt look at me when I asked several times to be put on the waiting list. The waitress was very impolite as well. They saw us raise our hand but did not come until a whole later. Felt very insulted; they dont seem to appreciate their customers.
The tangsooyook (sweet and sour pork) was smaller than usual (despite the $ 10 price) and rather soft for my taste, although the sauce was pretty good.
The jjampong was not really like jjamppong. It had too many vegetables and too little noodles. Smelled kinda weird as well. However, the soup itslef tasted fine (not jjamppong-​like but the taste was pretty good) and it seemed that they were looking for somehing healthy, as it had less oil and MSG. The noodles were great though
The jjajangmyun was very good, although i usually dont like jjajangmyun it was nice, not too oily with good taste.
overall, service was bad (it may be just our waiter and the manager/​cashier lady though, since a few others seemed more sincere in their service)
and the food was okay, felt healthier but not great in taste. Good actual noodles

Horrible service, made me feel insulted. Not even looking nor turing her head when I asked for seats. The waitress told us to count the orders of each dish instead of writing it down. And she didn’t even get the numbers right. Noodle itself separate from sause/​soup was good. Overall sucks.

Whoa, stay away until they settle down with their basic service standard.
It takes 4+ requests for water, and we had to wait again after a liter of water for all 7 of us.
And I’m hearing my next tables complaining about why their orders are not out yet when we start getting ours, understandably, because they only have 6 items on their entire menu… there shouldn’t be any mixup or delays as they’re just a few variations of the same noodle kind.
We only came back because they overcharged on credit card for the first visit and decided to give it another try with a store credit…
Plz, get better. We’d appreciate decent establishments around.

Ok new restuarant in a mostly-​Korean Glenview strip mall, next to the famous soon-​tofu place. Overall, it’s a simple, clean, Korean fast-​food restaurant with a bare-​bones menu. I think the main draw here is their jajangmyun and it tastes pretty good. Their tangsuyuk (sweet-​and-​sour pork) is ok but the meat was rubbery and the sauce too slimy. In my opinion, the main problem is that the menu is too «bare-​bones.» I wish they had more than 1 kind of jajangmyun. I went to similar restaurants in LA and Korea and they served at least 3 different kinds of jajangmyun (pan-​fried, seafood, beef only, spicy, etc). Also, it would’ve been nice if they offered a half jajangmyun-​half jang-​pong dish like in other similar restaurants. And lastly, the only banchan (side dish) offered is pickled radish and nothing more… no raw onions or kimchee. Shame.

This new franchise restaurant bears the name of a famous chef in Korea. BUT, it only bears the name… not the quality or taste.
The food was mediocre and bland… the sweet & sour pork was very dry & sickly sweet… the black bean noodle was bland & tasteless.
We were willing to put up with the place for the convenience and the location, but they even refused to-​go pick up order because they were «too busy».
Wow. Chinese restaurant that doesn’t do to-​go orders. So the quality of service goes right along with the quality of the food.
Sub-​par service. Sub-​par food. Only two things I really look for in a restaurant seem to be substandard. We won’t be returning.

Ordered jjampong, jjajangmyun, and Tangsuyuk. I loved Paik’s noodle while I visited California so had high expectations. If you’re considering visiting here because you tried this franchise at California, I recommend not giving it a consideration.
Jjampong had too much black pepper flavor. The soup tasted like typical factory-​made soup (with msg) with LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of black pepper. SORRY I don’t like putting lots of black pepper in my jjampong.
Jjajangmyun was mediocre at its best. At least that didn’t had black peppers phew. It was ok kind of similar to one I had in california. However it was sweeter by huge margin. Very sweet.
Tangsuyuk was like the one I had at California. However the portions were still small. I’ll come back to why this is problematic here.
So the decors look nice and really like how they showed pictures of the food item. However here the foods are served to you and plates are cleaned up for you after you leave at least that’s how they served us today. It was like any other restaurant. This means YOU HAVE TO PAY TIP. I’m okay with paying tips but if you add the tip then the foods become QUITE EXPENSIVE for the quality and PORTION of the food you get. Tangsuyuk with tips would be Like 11 dollars and I would rather pay 16 dollars for Tangsuyuk at empire szechwans. Just to let people know, at Cali things are self served so no tips and foods are quite the right price considering the high quality of the food there.
Was really excited that this place opened up in the beginning but not anymore. What a shame. If the place changes the service into self-​served like panera and no black pepper on jjampong and less sugar on jjajangmyun then I think this place would be a bit more like the franchises at California.
Noodles that I ordered were 6.99 each and Tangsuyuk 9.99. Our bill before tip was about 34 dollars.

Man. This chain of Korean Jjamppong and Jjajangmyun is AMAZING, like AMAZING in California. With great anticipation I came here to try it out. My brother and I ordered the Jjamppong and my father the jjajangmyun. We also order the sweet and sour pork. First off, this is NOTHING CLOSE to what it is in Irvine, California. The black pepper was way too much and the soup tasted like factory made… the soup was all black pepper tasting. You might say that they were not ready. If so they shouldn’t have opened at all. That’s poor business. Now here’s something they did get right: interior design.
*NOTE: This is a CHAIN and when I come here, it should be just like the ones in California. Why is Mcdonalds so good? Its consistent. A big mac from japan tastes like a big mac in USA or whatever. Same should be applied here.
Now the price before was great. For $ 6.99, it was okay, the the Sweet and Sour pork was awfully small for ten bucks. After eating it isn’t even worth my money. Horrible… Very disappointing.

Not my «cup of tea» or in this case «bowl of noodles».
We ordered 3 of the 4 things on the menu (really 6 things on the menu cuz 2 are available with rice instead of noodles) cuz they didn’t have the last item yet. Weird, but they told us it will be available in December. My brother said «they probably didn’t learn how to make it yet .
Jjajangmyun (black bean noodles also available with rice) was the best of the 3, but not great. Sauce had lots of big chucks of veggies but didn’t really have any meat in it (shrimp nor pork). Just very small bits n like 5 pieces n I’m not exaggerating. The sauce was way too sweet for my liking n couldn’t taste the flavor of the black bean sauce itself cuz the sweetness overpowered it. But the noodles itself was fantastic. Texture was on point and cooked perfectly! It takes both noodles n sauce to make a great bowl of Jjajangmyun! Sauce was a miss here.
Jjampong (spicy seafood noodle soup also available with rice) again noodles were great, had lots of veggies, not a lot of seafood (shrimp, mussels, squid/​octopus nor pork) but the broth tasted like a packet of ramen noodle soup base. Didn’t have any kind of seafood taste at all n very little seafood in it. Total miss!
Tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork) was ok. I love the Korean style one that has the clear light colored sauce vs the Chinese orange colored sauce and I’ve been wanting to find a place that serves it and here it is. BUT the pork was a bit chewy and the batter on the pork when it sits a few min. with the sauce makes the breading soggy n chewy. Weird texture. It may be better if they just served it separately n used it as a dipping sauce.
The last dish is bokummyun (stir fried noodles). They said it’s not available til December. Didn’t say why but it’s prob a plot to get you to come back next month. So I may just have to go back to try it. But most likely will not be going back for the rest of the stuff.
Chef Ping has the best jjampong n Jjajangmyun in my book… so far but always on the hunt for a place closer to home which this place is, but missed the mark.
1 star for great noodles, ½ star for having Korean style sweet and sour pork n ½ on anticipation of the bokummyun.

This place has been opened for two days now~ the line is long but the wait isn’t so bad! The founder and Chef of this chain restaurant in South Korea is one of the most talented and well known chef. With that said, there is only six items on the menu. Short and concise~ black bean noodle or black bean and rice, jam pong (spicy broth noodle) or jam pong and rice, tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork), and also their spicy noodle Bokeum. My family and I ordered the black bean noodle, jam pong and also the tangsuyuk. I also wanted to try the spicy noodle Bokeum (stir fry) but they were out and couldn’t make anymore (mind you it was 1pm and they are opened until 10pm) for ingredients to be out that early in the day is a huge disappointment.
The tansuyuk is by far the chewiest sweet and sour pork I’ve ever had. The batter is light, crispy and more pork than batter combination. I usually don’t like the sauce drenched in my tansuyuk but I didn’t mind it this time because the sauce isn’t overly sweet like other places make them.
Black bean noodle– when the dish comes out you can already see a shine and gloss to the noodles~ not overly cooked but the texture feels like spaghetti noodles but chewier. The sauce was typical (I prefer twin dragons sauce) but it’s the noodle that will make you want to come back.
Jam pong– same noodle but the broth has a curry spice to it. Overall, it’s a ⁷⁄₁₀. I prefer my jam pong to have a nice spicy refreshing kick with a seafood after taste. I love curry but not really the taste I want in my jam pong.
Unlike regular Korean/​Chinese restaurants this place does not give you kimchi or raw onions. Just a little dish of daikon. That does make the place cleaner and smell more refreshing.
Overall, for it being opened only for two days– the staff was quick and attentive. I will try this place again and order the rice and black bean combo, def the tansuyuk and hopefully get to order the noodle Bokeum!

Yum! So happy for this place to finally open. I just got done getting a filling, but I just had to get my tangsuyuk fix.
I just love their tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork). Light yet crispy batter with the perfect sauce. Just enough too, so it’s not drowning.
Jajangmyeon is great as well. Noodles have a good texture, you get a good amount of radish on the side, and the sauce is to my liking. Some people might find it but on the sweet side.