Daesung Korean Noodle — Restaurant in New York

I’ve already lost count of how many times I visited Daesung. If you ask for my favorite spot for korean food in NYC, Daesung is 10/10 all around.

When I entered the restaurant, it was full house and I was surrounded by koreans - clearly I went to the right place. We were impressed that the store was extremely clean and modern. Prompt service and food arrived quickly.

I am very obsessed with their seafood oko pajeon, bibim guksu (mixed cold noodles) and mandu. Come hungry or drag more people because the food portion is gigantic.

＊Steamed Mandu (찐 만두)** We tried their steamed and fried mandu, and I prefer the steamed ones. It is fully stuffed with minced pork, chives and glass noodles. It tastes divine by itself, or when you dip it into the vinegary soy sauce.

＊Seafood Oko Pancake (해물 오코 파전)* Imagine it is a seafood pajeon meeting okonomiyaki. Served on a pan with bonito flakes, drizzles of mayonnaise and teriyaki sauces. Their pancake is a BIG BOY, so huge even if we share with a group of four. Each slice is heavily loaded with shrimps and squid. The crispy edges are delightful.

＊Fishcake Kalguksu (어묵 칼국수) My fam can’t handle spice so they got a clear and non-spicy broth. The fishcakes absorbs the essence of the broth. They offer long or wide noodles. Both types are bouncy and chewy but we like the long noods a little bit more.

＊Soft Tofu Stew (순두부찌개) First time getting the tofu jigae and it was surprisingly good. You can pick from different spice levels and my fam went for the non-spicy stew. We loved the jiggly soft tofu. The hot stone pot kept the food hot throughout the meal.

＊ Haemul Pajeon 해물파전 Truly, the best and the crispiest seafood scallion pancake I’ve eaten in NYC so far. Sometimes a pajeon tastes bland if it has too much batter, but this one hit the mark. It was well seasoned and loaded with fresh shrimps, squids and chives. They also have oko pancakes with bonito flakes and mayo on the menu, which I really wanna come back to try!

＊ Pork Bulgogi Bibim Guksu 돼지비빔국수 Incredibly refreshing. It’s a cold noodle that you can mix the pork bulgogi, kimchi, boiled egg and assorted veggies with gochujang. My fam has low spice tolerance so we didn’t pour the sauce into the bowl directly, but it wind up the sauce was sweet and not at all spicy! I can’t praise this noodle enough, but personally I wish it could be spicier.

＊ Fishcake Kalguksu 어묵칼국수 The thin noodle was chewy, soaked in rich and thick broth. It came with soft tofu, narutomaki and fish cakes skewered in a ribbon pattern. I enjoyed it but would have loved it more in winter⛄️

They serve housemade kimchi for free as a banchan - freshly made and on the spicier side. I was so tempted to buy and carry a pot home.

Worth...

more of a 3.5 star kinda spot! (separate rant, we need .5 star rating system)

came here with my family during non-meal hours and we were quickly seated. the restaurant was quite spacious and the decor looked pretty modern. the menu is pretty simple, consisting of different kinds of pajun, noodles/soondubu/hot pot using the same toppings. we got the following to try:

-haemul oko pajun: thiiiiiiick and crispy, topped with kewpie and bonito flakes. it's as if a korean seafood pancake and an okonomiyaki had a baby. the pancake itself is thick but very crispy, filled with large pieces of squid. it tasted great! the portion was huge and very share-able.

-seafood soondubu jjiggae

-haemul ulken sujebi: thick, short noodle pieces in seafood broth (with clams, shrimp, and mussels).

-haemul ulken kalguksu: same seafood as above and with long, freshly-made kalguksu. it had lots of seafood but noodles were a tad too soft for my liking. i think the biggest flaw was that there's no depth of flavor in the broth (no umami flavor, even tho there were lots of fresh mussels and clams) than just spiciness from the chili flakes.

-haemul kalguksu: seafood noodle soup, my young nephew had this and liked it. he ate the seafood and kept going back for more.

the banchans were pretty good. we loved that the kimchi served was slightly sweet and tasted very fresh/homemade. i'd recommend buying their kimchi to enjoy at home if you liked it. portion size was really good and i highly recommend the pajun. service was good too. overall, it's a pretty good spot and i will return if i'm...

This place is slowly deteriorating as it gets busier. I went here for lunch today and their hygiene was terrible. My water cup wasn’t properly washed and had food stains on the bottom inner rim of the cup. Im not talking about a small pepper flake stuck to the side but actual food smeared at the inner rims. It was so disgusting that I didn’t even bother asking for another water cup because it’s obvious that they don’t wash the cups properly. The water pitcher cap was also filthy. I believe they refill and rotate the same water pitchers throughout the whole day without washing in between serving customers. Same goes for the sauces they provide. They serve it in a container with a spoon which is unhygienic because you don’t know if the previous customer was clean or not. In addition, i ordered the clam noodle soup and originally its a clear broth without spices. However, my soup had random red pepper flakes floating inside. Who knows where that pepper flake came from? It could’ve been the workers not dish washing properly, cross contamination between utensils or food just being splattered everywhere. I wouldn’t have thought much of the pepper flake in my soup but after seeing how nasty my water cup was, everything felt very unhygienic. My stomach is gurgling while writing this review and i hope that it isn’t food poisoning. The food here is decent but if you must try, go at...