I’ve had a jjajangmyeon-shaped hole in my heart since Eastern Paradise closed in December, so I was excited to see a new Korean-northern Chinese restaurant on Instagram. Hong Yeon 홍연 opened on Sept. 10 in the former Maple Garden space on Isenberg Street. Its grand opening special of $9.99 jjajangmyeon through the month of September is a good incentive to try it.
On opening day, I’m there at 5:30 p.m., but the restaurant is packed and everything is sold out. Seeing that the Korean community has come out in force, Frolic’s Thomas Obungen and I try again the next day at lunch.
At 11:30 a.m., I manage to get a table; people filing in after me have to wait. The tables are filled with mostly older Korean folks—clearly, word of mouth has spread. And everyone is eating jjajangmyeon (black bean noodles) and tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork).
Lunch specials are available from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays only. Twelve combos, all $24 or $26, come with your choice of jjajangmyeon or jjamppong, a spicy noodle soup loaded with seafood. We get one of each to try with tangsuyuk ($24).
Since it’s only Day 2, service is understandably slow. The jjajangmyeon arrives, but because the camera eats first when you’re writing for Frolic, we wait for the rest of the food before digging in. That wait time leaves the noodles clumped together, though they separate after vigorous mixing…