Tian Chinese & Korean Cuisine

3.5 stars. Decent Chinese-​Korean food in Ellicott City, since the options are pretty meager. I never had a dish here that really hit home; it almost feels like something’s always missing in terms of the flavors. When I get Jjamppong (spicy noodle soup), the broth is pretty decent, but the noodles don’t taste seasoned at all. When I get Jjajangmyun (black bean noodles), the noodles are sometimes overcooked and watery, while the sauce tastes okay but never amazing. But they have awesome combo deals, which I keep coming back for. You can mix and match half portion of different items (Jjamppong, Jjajangmyun, Tangsooyuk, Fried rice), and it’s around $ 10 for lunch hour, and around $ 12 for dinner. And the portions here are huge too, which is also a plus. This place is perfect when you are not eating with a group of people, but have cravings for two items.

I’ve tried both services to this place, dine in and carry out, and I have to say it’s pretty good.
Usually I have jajjangmyun and one of the meats, kanpoongi or tangsuyuk.
Meat always seems a little too greasy for me, like they didn’t wash it well enough. But the boneless kanpoongi is actually great, it’s my personal favorite. it’s not too greasy and it has all the meat!
Carry out — we always call a day in advance for events we have planned. the service is a little inconsistent. sometimes they would be great but sometimes they would be a little slow.
service– the ladies have always been friendly, so I like eating in!

Came here during early Saturday evening with a large group and we were all starving! They told us that if we order either the kkangpoongki (spicy fried chicken) and/​or tang soo Yook (pork in sweet tangy sauce) we get a free side bowl of jja Jang myun (black bean noodles) which is what our table ordered! Everything was pretty good plus it was a great deal.
They also have a lot of combo options that come in a bowl split between two different entrees!

Came in with the lunch crowd today with a group of three and we all left very satisfied. Portions are ginormous! We ordered the sam sun ggampoongi (basically spicy Korean fried chicken) which came with a side order of jjajang myun (noodles with black bean sauce) and then we ordered a regular sized jjampong (spicy seafood noodle soup) and all were pretty good. The chicken was the perfect amount of crunchy, although a little more spice would have been nice. They have a little shaker on the table if you want to take up the spice a notch. The jjampong had a nice depth of flavor because all the veggies and seafood had been grilled which gave everything a nice smoky flavor in the soup. The jjajang myun had a nice flavorful sauce but the noodles were slightly over cooked. I was also a little disappointed that they don’t give a lot of ban chan (side dishes) here but the pickled radishes/​onions and kimchi were both fresh and tasty.
Service was a little on the laggy side, but our server was really nice and friendly. I’m so Korean that I’m used to just raising my hand and calling out whatever I need. I guess that’s the advantage of being able to speak Korean. Also coming from a decade of working in the food industry I don’t mind waiting a little bit for my food or walking up to the server station and asking for an extra order of rice but that’s just me.
The food here is a little inconsistent so it’s either really good or meh but today was a solid four stars. I love how you can order a dish that is a combination of two different dishes in one. It’s great for indecisive people like me who might want a little bit of two different things. I would recommend stopping in to the Lotte Korean grocery before/​after your meal to snag a couple goodies while you’re in the area. Haven’t been there in a while but there is also a little Korean pastry and bread shop in the same shopping plaza across the street that has some pretty tasty baked goods! I like the ones with sweet red bean and my husband’s go-​to is the custard filled bread pastry.

A hair was in my food and they were avoiding us! We waited to get an explanation but the waitress never came back and the lady in the front kept running back and forth so we can’t stop her.
So we just left without paying a tip.
They never had good service and this happened so we are never going back.

The food is bad and the service is worse. I came here 2 times and the 2 times I was here, mhy family and I had to wait 2 hours to be served food and the other time, we were the only people at the restaurant but it took them an hour to serve us food. Never ever coming here agin.

Love the kimchi and the shrimp and tofu was great. Fried dumplings are huge and tasty. There are not enough descriptions for diners to know what is in each dish

The galbitang is really bad. The worst I have eaten. Stay away from this dish. The only side dish I got was really bad kimchi. Bad value all around. The dining area is also swarming with flies. Go eat there and tell me there aren’t flies.

This is a restaurant that serves Chinese and Korean fusion types of cuisines. The best way to explain this type of food is to think of it as Chinese food with Korean inspired flavors. My dad and mom used to tell me how when Chinese people immigrated to Korea, they began to infuse Korean flavors with their traditional Chinese dishes. The Chinese restaurant business owners wanted to appeal to their Korean customer demographics. Thus, the food tian serves is the byproduct of this business ventures. Tian is not the best place I have eaten these types of dishes from. But it surly does do its job of curbing my craving for Chinese Korean food.
At tian, if you order a gangpungee or a tangsuk, you get a free jangjang mun. It’s a great deal! So I suggest you get this food special.
Their jangjang mun has a great bean flavor with a sweet undertone.
They make their own noddles. The method they utilize to make their noddles is the old traditional Chinese dough splitting method. They start with one large dough and spilt it in half and then another half until the dough is spilt into tiny strands of fresh noddles. That is why there is a loud banging noise in the back of the kitchen.

This is a korean-​style chinese food restaurant. I had the spicy seafood noodle soup, the noodles in black bean sauce and fried shrimp. The noodles in black bean sauce came free with and order an entrée. All 3 dishes were very good, but my favorite was the soup.
If you like soju, they have really decently priced combos you can order that includes a bottle of soju. I will definitely go back!

I’ve only had a limited range of dishes for this place so my opinion and review may not be representative of all their food options. Tian — known for its Chinese & Korean cuisine — is popular for it’s jjajjangmyun (black bean noodles), jjampong (seafood noodle soup), tangsuyook (sweet & sour chicken/​pork), and gampoongi (fried chicken drumsticks with a sweet/​spicy tangy sauce). I’ve had the opportunity to try all of those and the donkatsu (pork cutlet).
JJajjangmyun — tasty and filling — the noodles have «strength» in them since they’re handmade in the shop and the sauce is pretty flavorful. Not too bad for the price!
JJampong — the broth is not too spicy and has plenty of seafood in it.
Tangsuyook — Not my favority tangsuyook that I’ve had at jjajjangmyun places. The pieces of meat were pretty chewy and not as soft and tender as Da Rae Won in CP.
Gampoongi — these little chicken drummettes were tasty and a great dish to share with the table. There was the right amount of sauce coating them and they were freshly made.
Donkatsu — this was a fairly large dish for a meal but the meat for the donkatsu was paper thing and it seemed like i was just eating really crispy fried goodness. I’d prefer my donkatsu if I could taste the meat and not just the fried part. There also wasn’t enough sauce on the donkatsu either to help you finish this dish. so maybe ask for sauce on the side if you order this.
A perk is that when you order a tangsuyook or gampoongi, they’ll give you a free jjajjangmyun! Score! I’d come back for the gampoongi and jjajjangmun/​jjampong only.
Bön Appetit ya’ll.

Wonderful customer service, chewy homemade noodles & quality/​freshness, flavors all there = my review as 4 stars.
The hubby and I fumbled our way through the menu. I had too many questions and he wasn’t up to experimenting. All he wanted were those chewy noodles, with some broth. Trying to explain this to someone to a new waiter and then another, with a language barrier, wasn’t an easy task. All the soups come with some sort of seafood and veggie, but to have nothing but broth and noodles — oh my!
Through all the comprises, everyone was patient, helpful and friendly. I ordered noodles with black bean sauce and meat. Chewy udon-​like noodles in my large bowl and accompanying them, in another bowl, was tender beef — glistening with onions, in a flavorful black bean sauce.
At first, we were both taken aback when the soup was brought to our table. Normally, we don’t eat seafood soup, unless it’s crab soup or lobster bisque, but not anything like this. My taste buds appeared scared at first. A huge bowl of broth, swimming with softly scrambled eggs, asian greens, clams, shrimp and assorted veggies, was placed in front of the hubby. Scooping out the broth and noodles into a separate bowl, he slurped up his noodles, complaining that the soup tasted like seafood. Well, duh; it’s got seafood in it. So at first, because I’m not used to eating something like this; I was hesitant and wasn’t quite sure if I would like it. But I did — surprising myself. I tasted garlic (and who doesn’t like garlic) and a subtle hint of seafood. It was light, yet flavorful, extremely filling and looked so appealing, with all those veggies, clams and shrimp.
We also order the dumplings, which were HUGE and homemade.
I was prepared to pay a fortune for this feast, but this was not the case. Seafood soup, black bean noodles, 5 dumplings and a coke, $ 27.00.
It’s right next to Lotte — so, eat first, then shop.

The food is made to serve and quick. It’s Korean-​Chinese food at its best. Ulmyeon is one of my favorite dishes in the world so I was thrilled to find this spot a month ago. I’ve been here 3 times, tried 3 different things, all ¹⁰⁄₁₀ delicious. Above all, I sincerely appreciate 2 ladies who serve here who are ALWAYS smiling, quick, and kind. Service is half of the dining experience! Their jjampong/​jjajjangmyeon combo is great. My fav is still the ulmyeon but the jjappong is awesome too. Super hot. So much seafood. Go here and try it!

This is a Chinese Korean restaurant… Its like Koreanized Chinese food… Haha the best way to explain it… I love eating Chinese Korean food because it reminds me of my childhood.
I like how they have a half and half dish because I like to eat lots of different types of food in a meal. They have theses really neat bowls that divide into two parts and you can order two separate dishes. You can choose from various entrees like jang boong (a spicy seafood soup with noodles and vegetables), ja jang myun (a black bean noodle), or tansooyook (fried pork in a sweet sauce).
The spicy seafood soup had lots of vegetables in it, so if you like vegetables you should get this. However, there wasn’t a lot of seafood in the half and half combination. My mom got the soup in a regular bowl and I could tell they gave her a lot more seafood in comparison to mine. She even got a shrimp in the regular bowl, but mine didn’t come with a shrimp:(hahaha but I guess I shouldn’t complain cause it was still refreshing and nice to eat.
The other half had the black bean noodles. This was such a perfect combination with the spicy seafood noodles because the black bean sauce neutralized the spiciness of the soup.
We also ordered a tansooyoke (fried chicken in a sweet sauce). This came with a really good cabbage salad. The chicken was coated in flour. There was actually a lot of flour on the chicken and the chicken was not crispy enough for me. The sauce was super salty… I’ve been drinking water nonstop after this meal…:/ but still a must get with your meal to complete the whole experience of eating at a Chinese Korean restaurant. People usually share this.
Oh and I almost forgot… If you order a tansooyoke you get a bowl of jajangmyun for freeeee! So why not order this?

We heard they changed to a new chef lately so we wanted to try that out.
Awesome:
–tangsooyuk (you can choose pork or beef, never had beef before – it was good!) NOTE: it comes with a order of a regular bowl of jajangmyun!
–spicy seafood jajangmyun (it came in a bigger portion and the sauce was on the side)
Good:
–their jajangmyun was pretty good but not unforgettable or anything. They are generous with the sauce, but I would’ve liked more cucumber. The handmade noodles are good though – I liked it. I was actually wanting more of the spicy seafood jajangmyun because THAT tasted like 5 stars. Next time I’m getting that.
They have a guest dining room to the left as you enter, and spacious round tables for groups. Service was a bit slow for some reason, and we weren’t offered takeout containers for our leftovers?

I think they must’ve changed owners everything taste different. Not what it used to be, quite disappointed. The jjajangmyum taste watery and too gingery; their champong soup noodle taste like pepper water.
I don’t think I’ll be returning.

Tian isn’t bad at all…
I walked in here on Saturday during the lunch hours and noticed that at literally every table, there was at least an order of jajangmyun and tangsooyook. So guess what? I figured those dishes must be really good, so I ordered the same dishes, plus fried mandu.
Here are my notes:
* This place is pretty busy
* The portions are ginormous
* The tangsooyook is a authentic as I’d imagine
* The janjangmyun (with seafood) comes with more seafood/​sauce than noodles, meaning they don’t skimp on the good stuff
* The mandu are jumbo sized

They have a chef here who freshly makes their noodles, SO good! The BEST part is how you can get HALF ORDER their noodle dishes here, plus any of their meat dishes. They split the bowl, and on one side, you can get a noodle dish, and the other, another noodle dish or a meat dish!
Their tangsooyook (fried pork in a sweet pineapple sauce) was really good, freshly fried, and very crispy with a light batter in a sweet sauce. Their dong katsu (fried pork cutlet) was pretty good too, freshly fried and crispy on a bed of shredded cabbage with Korean salad dressing (mayo and ketchup :)).
I ordered their kong guksu or cold soybean noodle soup and it was pretty good but not amazing. The soup was somewhat bland and a bit too thick.
We also got an order of chicken wings which was pretty good, thin skin and crispy, but not as good atsBonchon.
Definitely come here if you want a variety of Chinese/​Korean food! The half orders are seriously the best!!!

In America, Chinese food is generally associated with things like Orange Chicken, Lo Mein, etc… However, in Korea, Chinese food are dishes like Jajjangmyung (black bean noodles) or Jjampong (spicy seafood noodle soup).
Tian, along with Han Joong Kwan, are the two main Korean-​Chinese restaurants in Ellicott City. Tian has recently stepped up its game with two major developments.
First, Tian now makes its own noodles. While it may not seem like a big deal, it really does affect the flavor and texture of the dish (for the better). I think I still prefer Han Joong Kwan’s noodle dishes (more flavorful) but I won’t complain if I had to eat those dishes here either.
Secondly, I heard from Yaka that they had Korean-​style fried chicken here. I went and can confirm this to be true!!! There is now a Mad for Chicken menu. Mad for Chicken is a chain that specializes in Korean-​style fried chicken (some people refer to it as «KFC» haha). It’s really good! While it takes some time to cook, it is crispy (yet very juicy). I get the chicken with the spicy sauce. The pickled radishes (served alongside the chicken) counteracts the spiciness of the sauce really well. Then add a light beer or Hite (a Korean beer available at Tian) and you’ll have a great meal. While I’m not usually a big fan of light beers, it does complement the dish better than a full-​bodied one. It was around $ 8 for 5 wings and 2 drumsticks.
Great chicken here. Will definitely come back for that. As for the jajjangmyun, I’ll order it alongside the chicken if I’m craving it… but I think I’d rather go elsewhere for that. So… the chinese food here gets a solid 3 stars… but the chicken pushes up my rating to a 4 star.

Four stars for finally being able to get Korean-​style fried chicken in Ellicott City! yay! This chicken (apparently is organic chicken) has the light, crispy exterior that is distinct with Korean-​style fried chicken.
We tried 10 wings + 4 drumsticks ($ 16.95), half of it spicy and the other half of soy sauce garlic. It’s served in the typical cute little box with a side of cubed radish in vinegar. The sauce here forms a thicker, crispy lacquer compared to other Korean-​style fried chickens I’ve had, but overall, still quite enjoyable.
We also tried the jja jang myun noodles (black bean sauce, ground pork, and onions). They were nothing really special, so I might just skip it and just stick with the chicken.
See pictures for the Mad for Chicken Menu.