Lincoln Noodle House (Korean)

I've long looked at Korean restaurants only as a source of cheap and sometimes more creative Japanese food. Now I've tried to get a better look at Korean cuisine on its own. Koreans make up the largest segment of the Asian population in Chicago, but my Asian restaurant experiences here have been almost everything but Korean. Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Malay, even Laotian, but never Korean.

At a recent LTH event I asked about Korean restaurants to try

G Wiv wrote:Go to Lincoln Noodle House

So I went with two other equally inexperienced but adventurous diners, dressed for spicy weather, and drove North.

The menu was on the wall, in Korean with such useful English translations as 'Noodle with Vegetable'. The owner brought out a picture menu so we could point, which was useful but now I have no idea what I ordered. With the exception of the Bi Bim Bop:

We all liked this one. Not seen underneath the vegetables is a large portion of rice. Underneath the fried egg is a lava-like flood of hot sauce. After confirming several times that we liked spicy food, the owner stirred all of the ingredients together into a tasty but less photogenic mush.

I have no idea what this was called, but we liked it even better

It's a stir fried mixture of vegetables, fried tofu, and the large cylindrical objects are actually rice noodles. Imagine a really thick udon noodle cut up into 2 in long pieces.


This is mostly buckwheat noodles, with hot sauce and some vegetables mixed in. We liked this too. Also makes great leftovers the next day with two poached eggs.

We didn't like the Korean meat dumplings. We enjoyed a large bowl of noodles with vegetables, which is my new favorite cold remedy. Overall, a tasty and healthy meal with lots of tofu, vegetables, and noodles. As I'm looking for more food consistent with my prescription of Lipitor, Korean is definitely an option.

Lincoln Noodle House
5862 N Lincoln Ave
Chicago
773-275-8847

the second dish pictured is dduk bok-ki. The thick cylindrical objects are rice cakes and a real common korean ingredient. For example if you go to the korea festival on bryn mawr in a couple weeks, you'll see numerous vendors selling this dish on the street, it might be the most common item offered there.

The other thing that has to be pointed out about lincoln noodle house is the utter inexpensiveness. You can get about half the very large menu for around 30 bucks

Well, Korean is one of those complex cuisines that you don't think too much about until you look into it and open up a door to a whole new place.

Bibimbop is a great "glutinous" rice dish, up there with paella and risotto. Far better than regular bibimbop is dolsot bibimbop, where the rice is cooked to sizzling cripness with sesame oil in a stone pot (the dol sot).

But my single favorite dish at Lincoln is the kimchee fired rice. No one gets their wok hotter than those ladies. You get a great, garlicky spicy pile of red rice and cabbage speckled with black, charred crispy bits, practically for free.

To try lots of pretty good stuff, all at once, while dining in the presence of turtles and koi, try Koren Garden Buffet. It's like a working class Korean Fogo de Chao.

Koreans are fantastic drinkers, too. I mean. they love a good bar with good food (at least my Korean freinds do). To that end, try The formerly mysterious Hourglass on Lawrence, which has been written about here.

zim wrote:For example if you go to the korea festival on bryn mawr in a couple weeks....

Actually, this weekend:
Chicago Korean Festival 2004
August 14 & 15, 2004
3200-3400 W. Bryn Mawr (Kimball & Kedzie)
August 14: 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.
August 15: 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.

Rich4 wrote:Now I've tried to get a better look at Korean cuisine on its own.

Rich,

I'd ask how your Korean Quest is going, but as you've been asking for comparisons between Kang Nam/Hae Woon Dae and searching out the best Yook Hwe (Korean version of steak tartare) I think I know.

Glad you enjoyed LNH, it's one of our all time favorite inexpensive meals, though in looking at the menu it seems LNH has raised their prices from ridiculously cheap to very inexpensive. Though, don't get me wrong, two can still eat well for under $20.

By the way, the dish you did not know the name of is, as Zim said, Tuk-Bok-Ki, #4 on the new menu. I also like Zuk-Suk Tuk-Bok-Ki, instant rice cake with vegetables and hot sauce, which is cooked at the table. #2 on the menu.

Last night we started off with Ellen's favorite dumpling, Mul-Man Doo (#33), small boiled meat filled dumplings that are really quite addictive. Though the Mul-Man-Doo are served with a dipping sauce ask for the spicy table sauce, which is actually a small bowl of hot chili paste mixed with dried fish, sesame seeds, fermented black beans and various other mystery ingredients, slightly salty, very addictive.

Mul-Man-Doo


LNH Spicy Table Sauce


Next up was O-Moo Rice (#25) fried rice with vegetables. A clean flavored blend of white rice, peas, diced carrots/yellow squash/zucchini/onion, covered with a thin omelet and striped with D Hammond's favorite condiment, ketchup. The flavor of the veggies really comes through, this is actually a very light, nice summer dish.

O-Moo Rice


O-Moo Rice


We finished with Yuk-Gea-Jang (#24), a hearty beef soup, not really warm weather food, but very satisfying, especially to my soup loving wife.

Yuk-Gea-Jang


Lincoln Noodle House serves tasty, inexpensive home style Korean food in a modestly appointed spotless restaurant, with good, though non-bilingual, service.

Enjoy,
Gary

Lincoln Noodle House
5862 N Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL. 60659
773-275-8847

Hae Woon Dae
6240 N. California
Chicago, IL. 60659
773-764-8018

Kang Nam Galbi
4849 N. Kedzie
Chicago, IL
773-539-2524

G Wiv wrote:you've been asking for comparisons between Kang Nam/Hae Woon Dae and searching out the best Yook Hwe (Korean version of steak tartare)

Sorry Gary (and everyone), I'm late with my report from the raw meat tour.

But boy do those dumplings and fried rice with the hot sauce look great!

Hi,

I drove past Lincoln Noodle House last night to find a large sign tacked onto the facade. Yes, it is the future locations for yet another condominium development. There was a hand written note in Korean on the door, but I wasn't in a position to stop to investigate further.

Regards,

Can anybody confirm the demise of LNH?

It was closed on Tuesday, 7/26, when I attempted to go.

I ended up at Solga and had a meal (seafood chige, a beef soup of some type, and endless panchan) that hit the spot. The place was bustling and operating on all cylinders.

Solga
5828 N. Lincoln Ave
773/728-0802

Hi,

I just phoned LNH and their phone has been disconnected.

Hmmm, sign on facade, (likely good bye) hand written note on door and future condo sign on facade ... sounds pretty convincing to me they are no more.

Maybe someone in the area of LNH could take a picture of the note. There has to be someone on this board who reads Korean.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Maybe someone in the area of LNH could take a picture of the note. There has to be someone on this board who reads Korean.

Bummer, I liked the place.

Enjoy,
Gary

Sorry, no secret information here . It just says "Lincoln Park Noodle House Closed" .

oops meant "lincoln noodle house closed" (but i bet you got the point)

I signed up for this forum just to ask the question:
Where did Lincoln Noodle House go??? Anyone know??

The food there was awesome. And so cheap. I've ate at so many Korean places near my house but theirs was the best.

Anyone know if they moved somewhere?