Il Poom Hyang

Best jajangmyun and fried dumping!!!
First time visit this restaurant and I did not expected anything… and the waitress was kind ! It’s much better than I thought!!!
I am very pleased with choice that I made. Actually my friend suggested and I am glad that come. I will definitely come again and try other menu…

Very delicious korean chinese food. If u miss korean chinese food this is where u can get the best Zza zang men, tang soo yook etc. Must go. Way better than original greasy oily chinese food.

If I hadn’t seen the Korean newspaper article and made an active effort to come here, I don’t think I would have ever come here by chance. As a MD Burb Unilocaler, my geography of fairfax is limited to the Mosaic District-​Merrifield area and I didn’t think Il Poom Hyang was buried so far away from I-​495.
First and foremost, I want to say that you get a tremendous value for what you pay here. For every entrée you order on the left side of the menu (this usually costs $ 19 or more), you get a free noodle dish valued at around $ 6 – 7. We ordered TANG-​SOO-​YOOK (sweet and sour beef), KANG POONG GI (glazed chicken), fried dumplings, JJA-​JANG MYUN (noodles with black bean sauce), and JJAM PONG (noodles in spicy seafood broth).
The KANG POONG GI was probably the best I’ve tried in VA and is 2^nd only to Da Rae Won in MD (which I still think is the best in the area). The TANG-​SOO-​YOOK was crispy and well prepared and our special order of dumplings (which we requested «extra crispy» b/​c of Hannah H.) was quite tasty.
For a Chinese-​Korean restaurant, I didn’t feel that I was overwhelmed b/​c of the MSG… which is a good thing b/​c that’s usually not the case for most Chinese Korean restaurants. It was unfortunate that I went on a Sunday when they do not prepare hand made noodles (Sunday is the only day I think when the don’t serve it) but hopefully we will return soon to try their full offerings!

I’ve been here once before with my Korean friend. The first time we went service was eh… but I she did most of the communicating. Food was good so I went back today.
ABSOLUTELY NEVER GOING BACK AGAIN!
I ordered the combo lo-​mein. At first I thought the beef just had a weird marinade as it was covered in sweet soy sauce. I asked my Korean friend to try it as she could probably pin point why it could have tasted funny to me. Even she couldn’t figure it out. I ruled it as a just something I wasn’t used to. Second bite in and it hit be that this meat was completely spoiled.
Now I wasn’t looking for a refund as everything else tasted fine. I just wanted to let the restaurant owners know that they should check their meat before serving it to anyone else. My friend who speaks Korean basically told me that our waitress was basically like… «Ok? Theres no way our food could be spoiled, so I don’t know what you want me to do». She then proceeded to ask me «If I wanted them to take out the meat and make it again». But that doesn’t solve the problem… I just stopped eating it all together, paid, and I am never coming back. That was the rudest encounter I have ever been to. I rarely ever complain when it comes to food, but this was just not how you handle the situation.
ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED WITH YOUR SERVICE!
Sincerely, a girl with food poisoning…

Had takeaway lunch there today. Not a glamorous spot but the jampong broth is excellent and the value (amount of tasty food for the money) can’t be disputed. The tangseeuk sauce is very gooey, I would like it to be thinner, but I can’t complain about the delicious crispy fried pork YUM

Wow, 3 years can change a place completely– this time it was for the worst.
This location is super convenient when on campus, so my friends and I usually opt to come here versus driving all the way to Centreville in between classes. However, the past few visits haven’t been up to par at all.
The last visit prior to today’s was about a month ago and while the food was alright (wasn’t AMAZING, but was good enough to warrant another visit) the service was very slow and it wasn’t even very busy (maybe 2 other tables, so 10 customers in total).
Today, my friend and I were the only customers in the restaurant, yet again service was a bit slow and it looked like they were still setting things up which is fine, but it was 30 minutes past opening and they were mopping the floors while we were seated.
I ordered the jjajangmyun and she ordered the combination lo mein. When the food arrived, the waitress brought over a fork and asked my friend (who isn’t Korean) if she wanted to use it to which my friend politely declined. The waitress then turns to me and says, «so should i cut it for you or no?» in harsh-​slang Korean. I’m 21, but I’ve always had servers use the formal Korean when asking me questions so this threw me a bit off because when greeting us they were so polite.
My friend proceeded to eat some of her noodles and then tried a piece of her beef and asked if I could try a piece to make sure it wasn’t just a marinade/​sauce that was making it taste different than the last time she ordered it. I tasted it, and immediately I could tell it wasn’t just a marinade and that the beef was off. She picked out all the beef from the dish and put it to one side of the plate and you could tell it was gray in color.
I asked one of the waitresses to come over, and we told her about the problem and she and the other waitress gave us about a minute of blank stares before immediately proceededing to tell us that «there should be no reason it’s spoiled», «did it taste bad?» and kept asking «so…what do you want us to do about it?». My friend replied with, «the dish itself tasted fine, but the beef tasted like it was old I just thought you would want to know». The waitress then kept asking me about what we wanted her to do about it and finally she offered to scrape out all the beef and recook the noodles for my friend. My friend and I declined and decided that we should just get the check and leave.
I did eat a few chopsticks full of jjajangmyun which had a slightly weird texture and didn’t really coat or stick to the noodles well and both my friend and I are feeling pretty sick.
If you’re looking for a Korean-​Chinese fusion, I would suggest just biting the bullet and driving the extra 10 – 15 minutes to get to Centreville. You’ll get better service (even with more people in the restaurant) and will save yourself the trouble of feeling sick.

Il Poom Hyang is a Korean-​Chinese restaurant, located in a nondescript plaza (where the old K-​mart/​now to-​be Lowe’s is). I have to admit, I was a little (hardcore) resistant in coming and trying out this place, but I am so glad that I was outnumbered: D I first heard about this restaurant being mentioned from an ad in a Korean newspaper, advertising that they offer fresh hand-​pulled noodles (!). The menu is typical and comparable to other Korean-​Chinese restaurants, offering items such as tangsooyook, jahp chae, gganpoongi, jajangmyun, jjambbong, etc. A few of my favorite people and I came here to have some dinner and tried the following: fried dumplings (filled with pork and veggies, these were super crispy and pretty addicting!!!); so gogi tangsooyook (sweet & sour beef; this was super crispy and battered well, but I wasn’t really a fan of their sweet & sour sauce — it was a little overly sweet and way too thick; however, either dipping the deep-​fried beef nuggets into the crushed red pepper oil/​soy sauce mixture or first dipping it into the sweet & sour sauce and then the oil/​soy sauce mixture made it much better); gganpoongi (Korean-​Chinese style kung pao chicken (you can choose between boneless or bone-​in; we opted for bone-​in); this was definitely saucy, and I was super surprised at how extremely large/​meaty these chicken lollipops were and how actually pretty tasty they were! Don’t forget to dip these into the oil/​soy sauce mixture (the way Koreans actually do ittttt) for that extra oomph!); sam sun jjambbong (spicy seafood noodle soup, I was a total fan of their broth! Reminded me of my favorite jjambbong place back in Chicago; it was flavorful, filled with a generous amount of decently-​sized seafood, and plenty of noodles!); and, jajangmyun (we received these for free, as any of the large-​portioned entrees get you a free bowl! I thought the jajangmyun was okay). Them ggakdukies (spicy radish cubes) were pretty well-​fermented (thank goodness) and tasty. Unfortunately, we went on a day when the noodle maker was off, but that’s okay — even the noodles we had were pretty good and cooked perfectly. I can only imagine how much more delicious it will be with those fresh noodles the next time I go! The service was pretty spectacular, as the friendly staff were quite attentive, got us plenty of extra bowls, gave us refills without even us asking for them (like the ggakdukies), and made sure that everything was satisfactory. I love that they also had packages of hand wipes for those messy fingers! I am so glad that I was able to check this place out — I will definitely be back! :D
+crispy fried dumplings: D
+sam sun jjambbong: D
+gganpoongi :D
+ggakudkies (unlimited refills)
+gochu geereum (crushed red pepper oil; mix this with the soy sauce and it’s money!)
+complimentary hand wipes!
+super friendly and attentive staff: D
+fresh hand-​pulled noodles offered everyday except Wednesdays

Big fan, I have to come back here! The noodles in the Jjangmyeon are handmade. handmade! It was so chewy and cooked perfectly, also generous with the sauce too. I also got some kind of dumpling covered in a General Tso’s type of sauce and it was delicious and unique. Potato boyfriend calls it «The Saucy Dumplings», obviously he loves it too.

Got jajang to go. Cold sauce and no toppings in the sauce. I will never ever ever ever ever be back.

Would def. go again. Not my favorite NoVA spot for jja jjang myun or jjampong, but super friendly, fast, and good service.
It’s conveniently located in Fairfax, so if you’re not in the mood to trek to Annandale or Centreville, this is the place.

The portions were huge! Service was great, but the food wasn’t as flavorful or as rustic as Korean street food should be.

This place is alright. I came here with a group of 5 so I got to try a couple of different dishes. We ordered pork Tang Soo Yuk (sweet and sour, crispy pork), Yu San Sul (seafood & beef medley), and two Jja Jang Myuns (black bean noodles) to share.
FYI: if you get a big sharing dish, you get a bowl of Jja Jang Myun for free! Pretty sweet deal, but the noodles were «meh». They were cooked well, but the sauce was way too thick for my taste. The main dishes were ok — nothing to write home about. I gotta say though, portions were huge and prices were reasonable. Maybe I’ll try this place out again in the future *shrugs*

Service is friendly but not quick. We had to ask a few times for more banchan.
I ordered jjajjabap. The jjajjang sauce was kind of gelatinous but still had flavor. The fried rice was just okay. It was $ 8.99. I wanted to order one of the combo bowls but it seemed too expensive.
The food was so-​so but at least the service was bot rude.

Yum! Great Korean style Chinese food. Get a big sharing dish and a jja jang myun for free. Then go pick up some Middle Eastern foods at the grocery store next door.

Ugh why did I give this place another chance… big mistake. Jja-​Jang-​Myun was watery, Tang-​Soo-​Yuk was too sweet, radish kimchi was too raw, etc. etc. Never again!
Again, service was good but then again only 2 tables were occupied, including our table…

Had lunch here.
Jja Jang Myun (black noodles) was not the best. Had better at Choong Hwa Won in Annandale which is still my fav. The noodles are handmade but way too soft for my taste & wasn’t a huge fan of the flavor. Also, the Jja Jang sauce was burned and had this weird after-​taste that was not pleasant.
Other party had Cham bong which was pretty good. Pork Tang Soo Yuk was not very good. Did not like sauce nor the weird batter.

Our favorite Chinese Korean place in northern Virginia. I got the Don katsu fried rice and jjajangmyeun and a tsingtao.

OMG.
This place is amazing. I came here with a friend after our intense yoga session on a Friday night. I was craving jajangmyun for an entire week, and I had googled/​yelped this page and also had a strong recommendation about this place too. It is a little far, but I had to find out if this place was worth my time.
Let me tell you, the Pork Sweet and Sour was sooo good. The breading was very light and it wasnt tough. The sauce was soo good. I couldnt stop myself from eating the entire thing. But once my jajangmyun came out, that too was on point. The spicy-​spicy jangpong was really good. The jangpong broth wasnt heavily MSG. This place was definitely worth the drive and HELLA better than driving to Annandale.
FINNALLY, found my favorite jajangmyun place.

Came here with the wife unit for the jja jang myun based on fellow Unilocaler recommendations. Both of us got the regular jja jang. As soon as our noodles arrived and we took our first bite, both of us looked at each other. The jja jang myeon had a weird taste that after we talked about it, the common word we settled upon was «microwave». The jja jang sauce tasted like it had been poured out of packet they just bought at HMart.
This is based on one outing so they may have had an off night which is understandable. Also based solely on the regular jja jang. Will give this another try since it’s right across from CJ Haircuts where I always go to get my $ 10 chop but. In the meantime, I’ll be going to Jang Won in Annandale or Kang Chon in Centreville or Tian for my JJM fix.

Il Poom Hyang is your everyday Korean restaurant with a slight twist. The twist is that they offer some fusion cuisine in the form of a Chinese food section on their menu. While I have not tried that section yet, I have been able to try a number of items on the Korean section of their menu.
If you’re expecting BBQ, bibimbap, or a pure Korean experience, this is not your restaurant. In that case, try Meega next door (no really, it’s actually two steps away next door). If you’re looking for other rice and noodle dishes, Il Poom Hyang is good. Their Jja Jang Myun (Noodles in Black Bean Sauce) is pretty good; not extraordinary or full of meat, but tasty enough. Their fried rice is on par with the noodles, a solid showing, but nothing that will make you go wow. If I did have one dish which I liked quite a lot, it was the Szechuan Myeun. Also black bean based, the sauce had a little more kick and more meat. The sauce is served on the side with a big bowl of noodles so come hungry. The addition of some gochujang (hot pepper paste) makes it a bit spicier as I like it, but it is plenty flavourful on its own. Also pretty good, their fried dumplings are deep fried rather than pan fried. They are large, tasty, and not too greasy so give them a try for sure. Unlike most Korean restaurants, the banchan (small side dishes) are pretty limited. Usually this is one thing I look forward to the most when I go out for Korean food, but here, all you’ll get is a dish of pickled daikon and onion and some radish kimchi.
The restaurant itself isn’t anything fancy inside. Forgettable would be the best way to describe it. It has never been very busy when I’ve gone, but they’re still in business after all these years so they must have some loyal following. Service is very good overall, very friendly and helpful. Finally, as for value, most noodle and rice dishes will run you around $ 9-​$ 12 which is good for the portion size.
Overall, Il Poom Hyang is a very average Korean restaurant. It is like the vanilla of vanillas, the saltines of the cracker world. So it won’t blow you away, but then again, if you do go, you will probably not leave disappointed either.