Joongmi Annandale

I usually go to one of the two other Korean-Chinese restaurants in Annandale when I'm craving that type of food, but a couple friends convinced me to give Joongmi a try. Joongmi is located in the basement of an older office building. The location feels a bit sketchy, especially in the evening since it was our first time there. We had to go down a flight of stairs before entering a cozy, very mom-and-pop style restaurant interior, filled with lots of delicious smells. I was here with two friends for dinner yesterday night. We enjoyed the food for the most part, and everything came out quickly after we ordered. 15. KAN POONG SHRIMP This is a plate of fried shrimp coated in a garlic & chili sauce, topped with a generous amount of spring onions. Each order came with a good amount of shrimp, at least 10 large pieces. The sauce had the perfect balance of sweetness and spice, with a strong garlic flavor. My only complaint was that the shrimp batter was a bit soggy and lacked the satisfying crunch I was looking for. 70. BOK JJA MYUN This is a combo meal with half fried rice and half jjajangmyun. The fried rice was bland and lacked seasoning, so I wouldn't get this again. The jjajangmyun was delicious, with a black bean sauce that was a perfect mix of sweet and savory. If I had more sauce, I would have poured it over fried rice to make it more flavorful. This combo meal also comes with a bowl of spicy soup (jjambong soup, maybe?) that was pretty delicious. It had a couple pieces of squid and some vegetables. Overall, I enjoyed my dining experience at Joongmi. We really enjoyed the KAN POONG SHRIMP and we'd definitely recommend it. A couple friends suggested trying the samsun options, which are made to order in a wok. I'll have to try it on my next visit.

As someone who grew up eating jjajangmyun, this is probably my favorite place to get it in the NoVa area. After venturing many different places in the Annandale area alone, Joongmi's black bean sauce has the right balance of savory and somewhat sweet, but not too sweet like other places. I also really like their jjambong which is a spicy seafood noodle soup. Thankfully, you can order a half and half or even order 3 different meals within a single but portioned out bowl! I also really like their sweet and sour pork (also known as tangsuyuk). The women who work here are very hardworking. Please give them some grace if it takes a little bit of time. I believe they might be understaffed, but they are really kind. I would definitely recommend everyone to come here and at least try their jjajangmyun!!

Just a little update: The food here remains as good as ever and my original review from 2022 still applies. Sometimes if we have more people in our group, we like to order: #36 or #38 Jang Ban Jjam Bbong (menu item number varies if looking at restaurant menu vs online): This is the stir-fry version of jjam bbong noodle soup. It's enormous and way too big for even two people to finish unless maybe you've been trapped in a room with nothing to eat for days and you feel like could eat an entire cow at once. It's delicious, filling, full of flavor, incredible comfort food, even intimidating for me to think about the quantity of food.

This place is pretty secluded at the basement of a building. The atmosphere really reminds me of a korean chinese restaurant in korea. The food is very good and authentic. Not too greasy and not too salty. Portion was more than enough. The noodles were chewy with a lot of flavor in the sauce. The soup had a kick and matched well with the black bean noodles. Service is what you would expect from a Korean restaurant. Glad I was able to find this hole in the wall. Definitely planning to go back.