Peppercorn House Woburn

Peppercorn House in Woburn opened about six months ago in the space formerly occupied by Taipei Tokyo that I visited once. They have all the classics on the menu but also a fair amount of more interesting dishes in the Chinese section. No surprises in the Japanese section.

The parking can be scarce on the street here, but the big communal parking lot is nearby.

The inside is like what I remember, but everything was in good condition. Nice and bright with the big windows.

There is a small Sushi bar in a separate room.

The Chinese lunch specials include the usual soups and apps, and I went with the H&S soup. It was a big bowl of piping hot soup, but it was just hot, the sour part was missing. It was also very glutinous, and you could almost eat it with a fork. When I go to a Chinese restaurant and see a fork and knife my hopes sinks since they clearly aren't catering to Chinese people.

The menu said Malaysian Lamb (7.95) with wing (2). First, it was wing (1) and not (2). The chicken wing was crisp on the outside and the wingette was still moist. The drumette wasn't. I don't think this was lamb at all just your normal over tenderized beef that is so common in Chinese restaurants. It was still moist. I have no idea what would make this Malaysian, it was just your average beef stir fry with no special seasoning. I asked for it extra spicy but that didn't work at all, it was just barely spicy. They serve the lunch specials seven days a week.

I went back today to try the Japanese lunch section.

I went with the slightly pricier Bento Box B (12.95) and picked Black Pepper Chicken as my main dish. "Fried gyoza, sushi 2pcs, sashimi 3pcs". What's missing? Right, no rice! Well, there was enough to eat without the rice. It was a nice dressing on the salad and as usual, it was just on top of the lettuce. The gyoza was nice and crispy and had a tasty filling. The Black Pepper Chicken was fine and tender but could have done with some more pepper, a lot more. There was some crunchy asparagus in there and plenty of sauce. Next time I will ask for extra spicy. It was marked as spicy on the takeout menu, but on the laminated menu everything was written in red, so you have no idea what's spicy and what's not. The sushi (nigiri) was good with the rice at the proper temperature and seasoning. The shrimp was dry. The sashimi was three generously cut slices of very fresh fish. The service is very friendly, but they haven't exactly been busy when I visited.

Address 318 Main Street, Woburn MA 01801
Phone number (781) 933-6699