Jeong Won Korean BBQ - A first look

When I first noticed the sign for Jeong Won a few weeks back, I was quite interested. After digging a bit, and finding out that: 1) The former Owner of Arirang was involved(actually, I heard that it is her son's place), who is fairly well known for her panchan in San Diego, since she produces the local panchan for Zion Market(more on this in an upcoming post). 2) After checking out the sample menu, and finding out Jeong Won that in addition to the standards, Jeong Won was doing AYCE(that would be All-You-Can-Eat) Korean BBQ a la Manna in LA. I became a bit more interested. Soon enough, I hot word through the local Seoul-underground that Jeong Won had opened. So having heard the news several FOYs(Friends of Yoso) - Candice, Howie(Who runs Foodieview), Josh, and I, descended upon Jeong Won. Only to find a cardboard sign saying that they would not be opened until May 15th. Talk about feeling like a loser. Cross one informant off my list! After that, I had decided to wait for a few weeks before checking Jeong Won out. The Missus however, had other plans. Earlier this evening, the Missus decided that She; "wanted some red meat. And isn't that new Korean place opening today?" And so we we arrived at Jeong Won on opening day:

As we entered the restaurant, we noticed how small the place really is. Only 5 tables alongside one of the walls is set up for BBQ. The first thing we were asked was if we "were going to do BBQ." To which we gave an affirmative response. The BBQ tables are pretty large and can sit up to 6 people. The table size was a good thing, because soon after placing our order, everything started arriving.

11 dishes of panchan in all. Nothing earth-shattering, just the standard variety....but 11 of them? What was provided ranged from ho-hum to quite good.

The Baechu Kimchi(standard Napa cabbage kimchi), the backbone of any assortment of panchan was my favorite. I enjoyed 2 servings of the stuff.

It is mildly umami(nice way of saying anchovy-ish) without going over the top. Nice and crisp, just as expected. Pretty good.

The Namul was also pretty good. Nice flavor, without being too bland or salty.

 

The rest of it was generic standard stuff. They do ask if you want more, though.

Also with the meal was a Pajun(pancake). This was mighty fine, but also filling (hmmmmm, I wonder if this is a way to get you to eat less meat?)).

Crisp and chewy......

We had ordered 1 Kalbi(beef short ribs) and 1 Bulgogi - $17.85 each. And it all arrived on 1 plate.

Along with the meat, came a plate of mixed greens, lightly dressed with sesame oil-asian pear-kochujang mixture. This stuff was really tough and stringy, and quite bitter. Also arriving a dish of halved garlic, sliced jalapenos, lettuce, bean paste, and standard issue salt-pepper-sesame oil. And of course, rice.

After having a few problems getting the grill started(probably for the first time for actual paying customers), we were on our way.

A concave metal grilling plate was placed over the gas flame, and unfortunately, our very nice Server, in her zeal to get us going placed the cold meat on the still cold grill. Not a big thing, but it made me notice for the first time that all kinds of congealing juices would gather at the deepest end of the grill. Still, once everything got going, things were fine.

The marinade tended toward the sweeter side, and the Bulgogi was a better carrier of  flavor on this evening. The Kalbi were little chopped chunks of deboned rib meat, and even though it was fairly tender, still didn't impress me much. Also, the garlic provided were halved cloves and should have been cut thinner - when eaten with the lettuce "bossam style" it almost blew your head off. Make no mistake  about it; the quality of the meat is not at the same level as any of the better Korean BBQ places. But, tell me, at how many those places will the Server come and ask you, "would you like more Kalbi and Bulgogi." We only had room for 1 more plate of Bulgogi, though we watched plate after plate of meat coming out of the kitchen (the brisket and pork belly looked good). Oh yes, free soft-serve, plum tea, cinnamon tea, "as much as you want" was what we were told.

So what were the key points on this maiden voyage:

1 - There is a 2 person minimum for AYCE table top grilled items. You can order BBQ from the kitchen ($12.85-$14.85) an order(not AYCE).

2 - The grade of meat is lower than the more expensive Korean BBQ's (i.e. Buga), and the marinade tends toward the sweeter side.

3 - You can stuff yourself silly.

4 - Because of the size of the restaurant, I have a feeling that this place has the potential to be pretty crowded.

5 - I found the published hours of 7am(?) - 10pm to be a bit strange. 7am???

The young ladies who served us were very nice, though they looked a bit confused at times. After all it was Grand Opening. They made sure to ask us if we were really sure had eaten enough! We were the only 2 non-Koreans in the place, which was almost full to capacity when we left. The group of Gentlemen having Soju, who were the only folks in the place when we arrived we working on at least their fourth or fifth plate of meat(pork belly and brisket). That's a lot of meat!

Jeong Won Korean BBQ
4690 Convoy St. #104
San Diego, CA 92111

Comments

[Ted]

Interesting Kirk.

Out of curiosity, do you think Korean BBQ done over charcoal makes any difference in the tastiness? What is your preference?

[clayfu]

which parts of this were AYCE? was it something else you order?

[Kirk]

Hi Ted - All thing being equal - charcoal is always better.

Hi Clayfu - In order to do table top BBQ you need to order AYCE - you have 10 choices. You place your order, and the meat arrives. At certain points during the meal, they'll ask you, or you can request more. Thus we ordered Bulgogi and Kalbi - got the plate of meat. While we were finishing up our meat, the Server came by and asked us if we wanted more. We said only Bulgogi. A few minutes later another plate of Bulgogi arrived at our table for grilling. This could have gone on for as long as we wanted. AYCE BBQ! But they also said we could have as much soft serve, cinnamon tea, etc. They also asked us if we wanted more panchan as well. But the menu says "All You Can Eat BBQ for Table Grill."

[kat]

after seeing this post, I may have to drag Satoshi to yakiniku or make a batch of bulgogi :)

[Rachel]

The plate of mixed greens looked nice until you mentioned the bitterness and stringyness of it. Apparently bitter is becoming a popular fifth flavour in dishes nowadays but it is one I definitely shy away from!
Would you go back again? Also was it charged per person or per dish of AYCE ? Over here the AYCE is much like a buffet where there is no panchan and a long table of raw marinated meats and veggies, rice and soup. It is usually around $25 pp.

[RONW]

a picture of "kim chee" never fails to stimulate the palate.

[Carol]

I can have Korean BBQ at 7am??? Heck, if that's true, I'd be there from breakfast to dinner. Surely I could get my fill by dinner (heehee).

[penny]

Hey Kirk! I've often thought about that too about the free pre-meal dishes-or at least tried to be less intense on the banchan/appetizers cause I tend to fill up on those instead of eating the "real" food. that being said, panjeon is one of my favorite parts of a K-BBQ meal. Next time you come up to SF you gotta go to the KFC (korean fried chicken place)

[foodhoe]

hmmm, I'm with Carol and think that korean bbq for breakfast sounds awesome! I loved the picture of the bulgogi, sliced pepper and garlic clove, that looks really good but yeah half a clove is pretty serious stuff...

[Kirk]

Hi Kat - mmmmm Yakiniku, mmmm Bulgogi...mmmmm

Hi Rachel - You order a type of meat, and it's $17.85 - you can get as much of that as you want. So, it's probably a nice thing to do with 4 or so.

Hi RONW - Ain't that the truth!

Hi Carol - Don't forget the folding cot! ;o)

Hi Penny - mmmm KFC....the good KFC! Kyochon....say no more!

Hi FH - You know, I may just drop by one morning and see if they'll do BBQ for breakfast.

[howie]

I'm glad you got a chance to go after all. Looks like a good place to strap on the feed bag and go crazy. Clever of them to feed you a yummy pancake so you don't overdo it on the meat. It's just as well since the panchan is often my favorite part.

[Mari]

Thanks for updating on this! I'd like to try it out soon.

In regards to AYCE, does each person have their own order? For example, if two people want bulgogi, then is it $17.85 for each person?

[Susan]

Wow, all you can eat korean bbq? You will never get that here on Guam. The one place that did have that closed down 2 years ago. Now we pay $18/$19 for a good plate of kalbi and if you're hungry it is not enough. You are very fortunate!

[Kirk]

Hi Howie - You can just keep grazing.....

Hi Mari - To answer you're question, yes. You'll need a minimum 2 orders to use the grill. I'm not sure what the policy is if you have 2 people doing AYCE, and another orders something off the menu like Bibimbap. That would be kinda shady anyway.

Hi Susan - Welcome, and thanks for commenting! Good Korean BBQ is expensive here as well - it can top $21 for an order of Kalbi, and it is served dduk/mi bossan style, so if you're a major meat eater you may think the porions are small. I'm thinking these AYCE places may get pretty popular.

[Chris]

I tried out Jeong Won, since I really like LA's Manna and have been waiting to find something similar in San Diego. Our experience differed somewhat from yours. We only received 6 banchan. We were not offered the soft serve or the cinnamon drink until I asked about it. The bulgogi and kalbi were both pretty good. I think that at least the kalbi is superior to Manna's.

[Kirk]

Hi Chris - That's strange - we're planning on going again so we'll see what happens. That's why I called it a first look. I'm not impressed with the Kalbi, but thought the Bulgogi was decent. Definitely #3 meat, not 8 up or 10 up...and the mainade on the sweeter side, but pretty good overall.

[Jeff c]

Kirk, love the writeup on this place. Looks pretty good.
The LA times did a write up on the new trend in Korean Fried chicken joints. Soy style or with the red chili paste. I believe there is a specialty restaurant called Kyochon that has an outpost in Rowland Hts on Colima Rd near the Korean end of the road. Maybe if you are making a run up there sometime, you can check it out or if you happen to have eaten this before to let us know your thoughts on it.
Cheers
Jeff

[Kirk]

Hi Jeffrey - Yes, last time we were up in Rowland Heights, there was a sign announcing that an outlet of Kyochon was opening in Yes Plaza. Haven't tried it yet. I've eatne, and made different versions of Korean Fried Chicken, so I'm anxious to check it out. To bad gas prices are so off the hook right now.

[Carol]

Oh Kirk, you'll have to share your recipe(s) for Korean chicken. The Mister will never forgive me if he knew I didn't ask for it. :-)

[Kirk]

Hi Carol - My favorite version is similar to the Chicken Alice recipe on the sidebar. I haven't tried making Kyochon yet though.