Noodle Journey Episode 115: Paldo Gompaghetti

Today, I’m trying Paldo Gompaghetti, a Korean–Italian mash-up that promises a white, peppercorn-forward creamy sauce over thick noodles. I stumble on it during a recent Asian market run – one of those curveballs that jumps into my shopping cart because I just have to know what it tastes like. I’ve covered Paldo’s Premium Gomtang before, so the idea of fusing that savory base with a peppery “white pasta” vibe has me curious and a little wary. Fusion products can be great or a total misfire, but I’m going in hoping for a creamy comfort bowl that still feels distinctly Korean.

Four-packs typically run about $7-10 in stores or online, though availability was a little limited at the time of this review. Sodium is 1,110 mg. Inside, we’ve got thick wheat flour/potato starch noodles, a powdered sauce base with artificial beef flavoring made from dextrin & yeast extract, plus garlic powder, corn powder, black pepper, and MSG, and there’s a vegetable flake packet with cabbage, carrot, bok choy, and soy-protein “beef” pieces. The directions say you can use either water or milk for the sauce, calling milk the better choice. So I used whole milk to cook this.

Noodles:
Chunky and satisfying. These are starchy, springy, and closer to spaghetti in thickness than typical ramyun. Excellent chew.
• 9/10

Spiciness:
While there’s no chili heat to speak of, this has a firm hit of black pepper that some people will register as spicy.
• 1/10

Overall:
I like the concept, the noodle texture, and even the idea of a creamy peppered sauce, but the flavor base leans way too hard into artificial for my liking. I found the aroma off-putting from the start, and once mixed, the sauce tended to sink instead of cling, making me think that a liquid pouch would really work better here like in the Premium Gomtang flavor. On my palate, I got lots of fake cheese notes mixed with garlic and lots of black pepper. For me, the yeast/corn combo dominated the sauce and buried the vegetable flavor, and the garlic that I usually enjoy in gomtang got lost. On the positive side, the soy-protein pieces add a nice contrasting bite, and using milk gives a decent body to the sauce. I think there are definitely people who will enjoy this, especially if artificial beef/cheese-style flavors don’t bother you like they do me, or if you plan to customize the hell out of this with bacon, mushrooms, or real cheese, but for me, the artificial flavor was a major dealbreaker here. There’s a great product idea buried in here with some great noodles, but I just didn’t feel like it was a worthy execution.
• 3.5/10

Notes since filming:

Another review where I seem to be in the minority opinion. Lots of people really love this one. I do not, but it’s solely because sometimes artificial meat flavor rubs me the wrong way due to excessive yeast flavor, and that was abundant here. If that doesn’t bother you, buy this and see if you like it more than I did.