We've seemed to hit that "transition" period with regards to weather…….it's May Gray…or is it June Gloom in the mornings, sometimes a bit humid; the sun might peek out later in the day. Some days are hot-humid, on others we get a nice breeze, with a bit of overcast skies, JJ's kind of weather it seems. Speaking of JJ, we've been able to get some time free to shop and grab lunch these days, by giving him a morning full of walks, runs, and activities.
Which is what we did on this morning. Leaving our "pooped pup" in need of a break away from the "terrible" 70 degree sunshine! Upon which, the subject of lunch came up. For some reason, the Missus wanted to return to Yuk Dae Jang! Based on my last visit, we for sure weren't going to do takeout.
We arrived right at opening and the place was empty, but filled up quickly as the clock struck closer to noon. The same two really nice young ladies were working. One thing we noticed was that prices hasn't seemed to have changed since we first visited in October of 2023, which seemed to be quite an different from what we've noticed at other restaurants. With all the price increases over the last year, this seemed like quite a departure from the norm.
As I mentioned, the weather had been up and down. What we ordered kind of reflected this posture.
The Missus wanted some Seolleongtang and for some reason, so mandu as well. So we got the Ox Bone Soup with Mandu ($19.99). I also wanted to get the Bossam again, which we had enjoyed on a previous visit. So we also ordered the Premium Bossam in House Special Sauce ($39.99).
As I noticed with my takeout order, the baechu kimchi does not seem to be fermented, more like pickled, and not quite up to what we enjoy. I do like the eomuk bokkeum, the fishcake panchan, which has more spice and sour notes than other versions, but the Missus is not a fan of that type of panchan as a whole.
The Purple Rice (heukmi bap) was nicely cooked this time around.
The Ox Bone Soup with Mandu was better than expected.
The soup was nice and beefy. Unlike the usual Seolleongtang, this had a perfect amount of salt…usually you need to season to your taste. The Tteokguk, the flat rice cake like Nian Gao still had a nice chew to it.
Most surprising were the mandu. The wrapper while slightly on the brittle side was of nice thickness; the filling, pork and chive was much more tender than what we'd had before and nicely seasoned as well.
The standard accoutrements were provided. The radish bossam panchan was especially tasty; the pickled garlic quite astringently pungent.
As for the bossam, well…it delivered. We find the sweet-soy based sauce to be quite refreshing.
The generous amount of slightly porky, mildly chewy pork belly was pleasant to eat. For some reason, we really enjoy the onions in this dish. I'm certain they presoak the onions before serving as it is only mildly pungent, but quite sweet. You might say I enjoy the onions even more than the pork at times! Especially when having leftovers the next day.
Overall, an enjoyable meal. I'm sure we'll return soon. That bossam will be nice as the weather gets warmer.
Yuk Dae Jang
7307 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Wed – Mon 11am – 9pm
Closed on Tuesday
So, here's the score using the 
STUFFS: While eating, I noticed a gluey component under the eggs. Not a fun texture and quite bland. Looking over the menu; I guess they also include sausage gravy with this? Overkill in my opinion. 1.0
Not sure about the Pico de Gallo as a side….funny, at first glance I thought it was Lomi Salmon! Four rather slices of Port Sausage; based on the texture and taste, I'm thinking this seemed like Redondo's? I'm fully "team Purity", but this was fine. Two scoops rice and two easy over eggs completed the set. The scoops of rice seemed on the smallish side; but I can't put it away like I used to, so this was fine. The rice was perfectly cooked and the eggs nice and runny.
You notice the color of the fillings that you can see thru the wrappers? Well, I'm thinking there was some opening jitters here as I ordered the Cabbage, Shrimp, and Pork, but I basically got 4 of those and four Pork, Shrimp, and Chive! Which I would have ordered if I could have gotten four of each!
The wrappers were quite delicate, almost too delicate as I punctured three of the XLB while picking them up with the chopsticks. There was so much light-porky, not salty "soup" in these.
