Peppercorn House Woburn

A friend recommended a dish at Peppercorn House in Woburn, and I realized that I hadn't been back since '18. I was pleased with the food then, so it was time to return. 

The excellent lunch Bento boxes are no more. They do serve lunch 7 days a week. You get paper napkins at lunch, but they are of excellent quality.

I like these guys, unlike the "other" new Chinese restaurant. Peppercorn House has interesting dishes and not just your generic American Chinese dishes. You also get soup with your lunches.

There is on-street parking but not much of it, and it's a busy area. However, regardless of the day, I have always found parking nearby.

The inside is nice and bright. The sushi counter and bar can be seen in the back.

The recommended dish was the Sichuan Spicy Beef Udon Noodle Soup ($12.95). Asking for it extra spicy gave me what I would call spicy. The broth was excellent, and it was mala. The beef was of good quality, not beef with icky bits that you get in Taiwanese places. The green stuff was cooked but still had texture. I'm a big fan of Udon noodles and really enjoyed these. It was a bit of a fight to eat them since they were really long. 03/27/22

Lunch Malaysian Shrimp with Green Beans (9.95). "Sauteed shrimp and green beans with a spicy Malaysian shrimp paste". For my app, I picked Wing (2), which is for once correctly described. "Wings" are not correct for this. The wing was perfectly cooked, juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside. A good amount of good-sized shrimp. Unfortunately, there were dry and had the tails left on. Is this finger food? Don't think so. Ask them to not cook the shrimp well done. The beans were excellent, nicely charred, and still crunchy. A tasty lunch! Forgot to take a picture of the H&S soup. It was decent sized and hot (hot) and hot (spicy). However, it completely lacked the sour part, even if it was tasty. I'll ask for some black vinegar the next time. 04/16/22

Lunch General Gau's Chicken (9.95). Wing again, and this time with brown rice (no upcharge). I saw this option on my last visit and still ordered white rice. Go figure! The wing pieces were extra crispy today. The brown rice is delicious. There was a good amount of chicken in a very sticky sauce. Extra spicy didn't work. Some pieces were chicken with a nice thin batter, and some were mostly batter with a hint of chicken. However, all of them were crispy to a fault and were even hard to cut with a knife. For this dish, I'll stick with Mandarin in Reading. 05/22/22

Seafood Udon Noodle Soup (13.95). "Japanese style or Tom Yum spicy". Tom Yum Spicy, of course. It had some heat but wasn't really spicy. It was, however, super tasty. Three perfectly cooked shrimp, plenty of scallops and squid. Unfortunately, all the squid was severely overcooked. I love udon noodles, and they were cooked perfectly. Despite the overcooked squid, I really enjoyed this. Using the default utensils, I cut the noodles into bite-size pieces, which made eating them so much easier. 06/23/22

Singapore Curry Rice Noodle (12.95). "Thin rice noodle stir fried with egg, vegetables, chicken, baby shrimp and roasted pork". This is one of my all-time favorite dishes, and I don't order it enough. It's always good but not really exciting, so I was happy to be able to include it here. Did it live up to my expectations? It sure did! Loaded with perfectly cooked shrimp and tender chicken. I like all the veggies that were included. Nothing was overcooked, and it was a very generous portion. 06/28/22

Sashimi Lunch (14.95). (9pcs) 3pcs tuna, 3pcs sake, 1pc yellowtail, 2pcs saba. That's all the menu said, so I was going to order a  small bowl of sushi rice on the side. It turns out that's included already. The rice was at the right temperature, and it was properly seasoned. The fish was super fresh, and the pickled ginger was tasty. I swapped the miso soup for the H&S soup, and this time I remembered to ask for black vinegar, which really improved the soup. This was a very nice light lunch. 07/05/22

Lunch Black Pepper Chicken/Beef (9.95). "Chicken or beef with onion, bell pepper, mushroom and asparagus in black pepper sauce". Black vinegar again transformed the H&S soup into a proper H&S soup. The chicken wing is always perfectly cooked. This was an excellent dish with plenty of tender chicken, and ordering it extra spicy worked. Importantly, there was plenty of sauce. Everything was fine, apart from a couple of woody asparagus pieces. The portion was soo big that I had trouble finishing it. I'm a big fan of brown rice. 

Another delightful lunch with impeccable service. 07/16/22

Address: 318 Main St, Woburn, MA 01801 Phone: (781) 933-6699

Champions keep playing until they get it right.

-- Billie Jean King