From Shandong to Seoul to Houston, three generations at the wok.

North China Restaurant was started in 1976 by my grandparents Pen Chung (grandpa) and Lan Fan Wu (grandma) and their kids, who immigrated from Seoul to Houston in 1974 for a fresh start.

It was within our original location behind Memorial Hermann Hospital that my family built their foundation in the USA: my grandpa cooking over a roaring wok in the back, my grandma running the front of house, and the kids floating to wherever they were needed once they got home from school. 15-hour days, 7 days a week, rinsed and repeated. The restaurant chugged on.

My grandparents were ready to get out of the game and sell the restaurant by the late ’90s, as their goals of sending their kids through college and securing their foothold in America were complete. In 2000, my dad Peter would step in — walking away from his cushy manager job at MetLife, opting to toil in a hot kitchen and juggle the chaos of restaurant life over a quietly air-conditioned desk job. Peter would eventually make the choice in 2007 to cash out his retirement, take out loans, and go all in on a move to bring the restaurant to its current location, all amidst a looming recession.

Now you’re sitting here, 50 years from the doors opening at our original spot, three generations of work to preserve our original flavors from Korea. It’s the closest thing we have to showing Pen Chung and Lan Fan Wu it all worked out. We hope our Jajangmyeon and Jjamppong taste close to how grandpa made them.