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:

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Jeongwon02 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.

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Jeongwon04 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.

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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.

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Jeongwon06_2 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?)).

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Crisp and chewy……

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

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Jeongwon10 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.

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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.

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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 mistakeJeongwon13  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