Given the last minute nature of our decision to have Easter brunch, I was hard-pressed to find a place serving a more ‘traditional’ Easter meal that could accommodate my family. But luckily my brother stepped in to suggest a few places, one of them being Guh Song. I hadn’t been to Guh Song since last year and I was fairly certain if we went early enough, we’d have no trouble getting a table for the 6 of us.
We were pretty surprised to pull up and see that it’d moved a few doors down to a much larger, brighter space. Not an unwelcome change – the previous space was kind of divey – but very surprising regardless. We were quickly seated in the near-empty restaurant around 11:45am.
First up: an order of fried mandoo, or Korean dumplings. I thought these were fried really nicely – crisp exterior, piping hot interior – but the interior meatwad lacked flavor or oomph. So a nice nibble to start, but nothing to get excited about ordering. 
Our next dish, tangsoo yuk, came out quickly. Guh Song serves “Korean Chinese food” — essentially a Korean interpretation of some Chinese dishes – and this one is likened to ‘sweet and sour pork’. The sauce is a bit thick and sweet, but not cloyingly so; I appreciate the lack of orange-hued artificial dye, and the pork was fried expertly. Crisp and lightly sweet, tiny bit sour, I enjoyed this dish and think I wound up eating a large portion of it while everyone else busied themselves with the next few dishes.
Ahhh, the main event! My favorite Korean-Chinese dish! Jjajungmyun, which translates directly to ‘fried sauce noodle’! This is #1 on the menu. But wait…
This is #2 on the menu, “special jjajungmyun” – what’s the difference? Well, we tried both to find out. Our server explained that the first one has ‘water added’ and the second doesn’t. Tasting both side by side, the sauce in the second one is thicker, richer, and meatier… while the first one tastes a bit more onion-y. I liked both just fine, but the consensus around the table was that #2 (which is $1-2 more? not sure) was better… to the point we ordered a second dish because my eyes are bigger than my stomach haha.
To the dishes themselves — the noodles, per my memory, were thick and chewy, perfect vehicles for the black bean sauce. The sauce itself was rich and flavorful, with bits of meat, zucchini, and onion scattered throughout. I really love this dish and the version at Guh Song is one of my favorites – mostly due to the noodles being so wonderfully chewy. You must get yourself out there if you like this dish — it’s just so good here. If you have any recommendations for where else I must try it, please let me know in comments!
Our final (two) dishes (though I only photographed one since they looked almost identical) — spicy jambong (jamppong? not sure of spelling) and one not-spicy. They looked identical except ‘spicy’ had dried chilies scattered on top, which FeistyMom promptly removed and put on Hubba Hubby‘s plate (at my suggestion). FeistyMom enjoys spicy food, so I was pretty surprised when she began eating and declared it was too spicy for her – very, very spicy. Hubba Hubby agreed that it was spicy – particularly the broth – so I didn’t try any (we were eating family-style and sharing most things). He liked it quite a bit though and continued to eat after FeistyMom gave up and began sharing the other, “not spicy” (still a little spicy but not SUPER spicy) jamppong that was in front of my sister. There was a lot of seafood in there — tons of mussels, some shrimp, squid, etc. — and I know Hubba Hubby liked this dish more than the black bean noodles I was enjoying.
Overall, a very fun and delicious meal to mark the end of Lent with Feisty Family. The place was packed as we left, surprisingly so, but our table was to one side and in the front, so we avoided all the crowd just in time. I will definitely be back — but I probably won’t stray too far off the menu, unless you have some suggestions for other dishes to try at a place like this! (I do want to try the tangsoo shrimp…)
Guh Song
45-44 Bell Blvd
Queens, NY 11361
Maggie says
ahh just about the only old school krn-chns place left in NYC. I hope this place never closes. If you want to deviate from the tangsooyuk one day, try the Kanpoong chicken WITH the bone attached (make sure you specify the With bone part as the boneless is the default).