I have been a fan of Baek Jong-won (aka Mr. Paik) since becoming addicted to his show Delicious Rendezvous during the pandemic.  The Korean food documentaries that he co-hosts on Netflix are also excellent (the KFood Show A Nation of [Insert Korean Food] series and the [Insert Korean Food] Rhapsody series).  He has several global restaurant chains and a large packaged food company.  But he has been taking some heat lately for poor quality control across his empire and he has stepped back from hosting TV shows to focus on his food companies.

His Korean-Chinese fast casual chain, Mr. Paik’s Noodles, now has 300 locations, and I recently tried the Granada Hills, CA location.  The Jjamppong (noodles, vegetables, seafood and pork in a spicy broth) and the Tangsuyu (sweet and sour pork) were both excellent.  We also got the Mapo Tufo, which I am not a fan of overall, but my dining companions reported that the version at Mr. Paik’s was very good.  The two-part Netflix show Jjajangmyeon Rhapsody gives a hunger inducing overview of Korean-Chinese food, including covering Jjamppong and Tangsuyu.

The Dumplings: Mandu (dumplings) came to Korea from China, so it makes sense that they are part of the Mr. Paik’s Noodles menu.  Deep fried, pork and vegetable filled dumplings are the only style that serve. The dumplings were really tasty, but a little greasy, they needed to have been shaken a little more before serving to remove the grease.  I pounced on the dumplings as soon as they arrived at the table and the first dumpling I had was deliciously crispy.  But then I got distracted for a few minutes by the other dishes and by the time I returned to the dumplings the bottoms of the dumplings had gotten soggy with oil and lost their crunch.  My recommendation is to eat the dumplings first, while they are still crispy.     

The Location:  There are 14 Mr. Paik Noodles locations in California with a bunch of them in the LA area.  The local intel is that because the locations are franchises, the quality varies a lot between locations, with the Grenada Hills location being the best. This location is at 10650 Zelzah Ave, at the corner of Kingsbury Street.