Woo Jung Restaurant — Restaurant in Ayer

NOT a place to go for an authentic Korean-Style Chinese food. Cabbage kimchi was one of the most flavorless kimchi I’ve ever had. There are no flavors of fish sauce or subtle hint of garlic. Pepper flakes only add to the color, and there is no spiciness to kimchi. It merely tastes like salted cabbage. Radish kimchi also has no deep flavor... just that of salt. Store bought kimchi will often have a better flavor than this. There is no depth in flavor for a lot of the side dishes. Interestingly enough, lettuce kimchi is flavored with vinegar and sugar, and is rather good as a pickled vegetable, but not as a kimchi. By definition, “Gan-jjajang” requires the chef to cook the black bean paste sauce at the time of order with fresh vegetables, pork and lard. However, the one I received today had fully-cooked vegetables, meaning that the sauce was made ahead of the time. I can also taste that the sauce was made quite a long time ago, as the characteristic scent of caramelized onions were absent. Also, the pork used in the sauce was either old, not of a good quality, or undercooked. Or, all of the above. Ggan-pung-gee, or fried chicken bites in spicy sauce, was quite disappointing as well. The fried bits were not drained well, and the fragrance of the oil when biting into the bits was quite pungent; the cooking oil may be quite old. I went to this restaurant because the title of the business claims that it is a Korean style Chinese restaurant. The result was very disappointing. However, I’ve read other reviews of Korean dishes offered by this restaurant and I can’t speak for Korean dishes. However, I can confidently guarantee that today’s experience does not represent that of a proper Korean-style...

Solid Korean-Chinese spot in Ayer.

Heard the buzz about Woo Jung from my colleagues, so I decided to check it out while I was in the neighborhood. Even during off-peak hours on a Saturday, the place was buzzing with locals—always a good sign.

Like any respectable Korean restaurant, Woo Jung serves up a variety of banchan (small side dishes) with every entrée, and they didn't disappoint. From kimchi to the pickled radish and red cabbage, every bite was great. For me, well-executed banchan is the backbone of a great Korean meal, and Woo Jung definitely had that flavor-packed foundation locked down.

From the noodles, Jajangmyun (Black Bean Noodles) was a tad disappointing. The sauce lacked that rich, savory depth I was looking for, and the noodles felt a bit soggy. Thankfully, the Jjam Bong was great. Packed with seafood and just the right kick of spice.

From the entrées, I went for the beef Tang Soo Yuk and the La Zo Gi. The former was a hit—while I usually prefer the chew of glutinous rice flour batter, this classic take worked well. Some pieces had just the right amount of fat, and overall, the beef was tender and juicy. The La Zo Gi, though, was a total disaster. What should have been crispy fried chicken coated in a rich, sweet, and spicy sauce turned into a salt bomb. The chicken itself was dry, and the overly salty sauce only made things worse. It was so bad, I couldn’t make it through more than half of it.

Definitely recommend sticking with their soup-based entrées and the Tang Soo Yuk. While I can’t say it’s better than the top Korean-Chinese spots in Boston, it's still worth a visit if you’re in the area and craving some solid Asian...

Probably the most disappointed I've been since the last Star Wars movie. I love Korean food, and after reading all the reviews, I was really excited to try this place. The interior was, well, underwhelming: cramped and a little dingy, but hey, we're here for the food, right? Out came the banchan, and they're good--not great, but good! The baechu (cabbage) kimchee was tasty, though not quite spicy enough for my liking. The kkakdugi (radish kimchee) is nice, right combination of sweet and umami. Next came the gyeran-guk (egg drop soup). A little watery, but the flavor was fine. On to the entrees. And this, my friends, is where things fell off a cliff. Words like "bland" and "flavorless" don't really do justice to what we had. I can't even describe what we had, because it really didn't taste like much of anything at all, good or bad. There was a shaker of what I hoped was red chili pepper on the table, which I dumped on my dish in a desperate attempt at adding some kind of flavor. I think it was stale paprika, because it really didn't do much of anything. My son got chicken fried rice, which was the highlight of the meal because, while it was equally bland, it was at least intellectually interesting; we agreed that there was a 99% chance the "chicken" was in fact turkey from somebody's thawed thanksgiving leftovers. Oh well. The service was pretty good, at least.

Note: another reviewer said this was the most authentic Korean food they'd had since they were actually in Korea. One can only assume they meant North Korea, because this food probably would make one nostalgic for the taste of...