Go Old School at Hite Kwangjang with Spicy Squid Anju and Beer, Skip Black Bean Noodles at Mandarin House

Sometimes my friends and I just want to go somewhere super old-school to have a good ol' pitcher of beer with some greasy and spicy anju, basically Korean bar food. So what better place than the trusty Hite Kwangjang to have some classic fried chicken, spicy squid with noodles to be washed down with some ice cold Hite beer?

You may recall my post on the equally old-school OB Bear where I reported not being blown away by the famed fried chicken there. The chicken didn't impress here either. But first, let's talk about what was good. The spicy squid stir fried with onions, scallions and green cabbage was a good accompaniment to the beer. The spice level was just right. In typical anju fashion, the squid was on the overcooked rubbery side but then again, it wouldn't be authentic if it weren't. The noodles helped to temper the heat of the squid, playing the role of white rice.

The purported pancake that we got on the house, aka "service" was anemic to say the least. I wasn't even sure what kind of pancake it was as all I saw were random tiny specks of zucchini in a sea of flour batter. Meh.

Behold the spicy squid smothered with the pearly white noodles. Great with beer. 

The fried chicken was highly disappointing. The skin was crispy but the meat was dry and didn't have much flavor. The side salad of shredded cabbage topped with a dollop of thousand island dressing did give me a flash of nostalgia for the old hofs lining the streets of Shinchon in Seoul but overall thumbs down.

The fried potato wedges we got was scorching hot but in the wrong way. They weren't crispy in the least. They were piping hot on the inside, as if they had just come out of a boiling pot. But they were too thick so just didn't work. I would not get the chicken next time. Just things like the squid and that ice-cold pitcher of Hite would suffice.

You may remember my rant about a lack of decent jjajangmyun, that perfect bowl of chewy Korean Chinese noodle concoctionpaired with a salty and slightly sweet black bean sauce, in LA. Well, the rant continues as famed Mandarin House (진흥각) in Koreatown Plaza disappoints in a big way. The problem with most Korean Chinese joints is that the noodles are overcooked and they pour the caramel in the sauce so it ends up tasting like candy, which is not a good thing. It should be a perfect balance between salty with a hint of sweet. How I miss those bowls of jjajangmyun delivered in a "steel suitcase," aka 철가방, usually by a prepubescent dude with dyed blond locks and an earring.

The sweet and sour pork, or tangsooyuk, was too fatty and the sauce was too sweet once again. It wasn't bad but hardly worth returning for. Where should I go for half-way decent jjajangmyun?