At first glance, O Café’s jja jang myeon — a Chinese-derived, Korean-adopted noodle dish — looks a bit spooky.

Jja Jang Myeon at O Café Korean Restaurant, 1530 W. Sixth St., Suite E

After all, it’s not every day you see a pile of pristine white noodles drenched in a thick, black sauce made with soybean paste. Under the guise of the inky mixture, it’s hard to pick out just what else is floating around the bowl, making each bite a pleasant surprise. For the record, jja jang myeon also includes bits of pork, potatoes, onions and carrots. It’s a little spicy — and delicious.

Where to get it:O Café Korean Restaurant, 1530 W. Sixth St., Suite E

What you’ll pay: $8.95 plus tax

Try it with: For an additional $2, you can add two Korean beef patties, like we did. Or munch on the appetizers that come free with meals at O Café. They change up every so often, but on the day we visited, it was small plates of pickled radish, cabbage kimchi, fish cakes and savory potato bites.

Also on the menu: Korean specialties like bibimbap (a rice bowl with veggies, meat and a half-cooked egg on top) and the dduk bae gi bulgogi, which we sampled. The comforting soup is served in a bowling pot with beef, onion, mushroom and egg.

— Off The Beaten Plate highlights some of the more exotic, oddly named or inventively concocted dishes from local menus. Know of an offbeat item we should check out? Email reporter Joanna Hlavacek at jhlavacek@ljworld.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/hlavacekjoanna