Westpost Has a New Korean Soju Bar

In the spring, Arlington resident Scott Chung phased out Sparrow Room, the mahjong speakeasy behind his Westpost bao eatery, Bun’d Up, and in its place introduced Noonchi, a beer and soju bar featuring Korean street food. 

Noonchi (which literally translates as “eye measure” in Korean) means “reading the room”—something Chung had to do when Sparrow Room’s chef, Andrew Lo, moved to California. 

“He and a lot of people associated with Sparrow Room had Chinese backgrounds,” explains Chung, who is also a chef. “I took the opportunity to do something I’m more familiar with and focus on Korean street food.” 

Chung consulted his mother and other family members to develop the menu and recipes for the new concept. Sparrow Room’s dark, sexy decor remains, but he’s changed the seating to picnic tables that seat 40.

Appetizers ($7-$9) include roasted corn with gooey mozzarella cheese, and gimmari, a snack of deep-fried, nori-wrapped vermicelli served with gochujang mayo. Equally tempting are the sotteok sotteok—griddled skewers of chewy Korean rice cakes and cocktail sausages with gochujang barbecue dipping sauce. “Sotteok is totally a Korean dive bar food,” says the restaurateur. 

Mains ($13-$21) include Korean double-fried chicken and galbi—grilled short ribs marinated in soy, sesame and ginger, which are served with cucumber salad, rice and kimchi. Crispy, savory pancakes called jeon are stuffed with shrimp, veggies or kimchi and cut into wedges like pizza.

With colder weather upon us, check out the oxtail soup ($19) or the kimchi jjigae ($15), a hearty soup made with tofu, kimchi, bacon and daikon radish. Also satisfying to beat the chill is gamjatang ($16), a spicy pork neck and potato stew.