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
This was a bit different than what we'd had before. The baechu kimchi didn't taster fermented this time around; though the Eomuk Bokkeum, the fishcake panchan had a bit of spice and sour tones and was much better. The heukmi bap was on the mushy side.
The cayenne did bring some decent heat to the dish, but I also did the "typical" loco moco move…..I added a touch of Tabasco; the acidity-spice bumped things up even more. Old "loco" habits die hard I guess?
The hamburger patty was quite lean and chewy, but the beefiness did come thru and completed the dish well.
The wings weren't overly sticky as before, though it was still more sweet, than savory and I really couldn't make out any garlic. The wings were again much more moist and tender than the drumettes which were on the tough and dry side. 
Now, I believe that you're going to think I'm strange, but for us, the meat was the weakest part of the meal. The beef belly was tough as was the short rib; the pork belly did well, but again wasn't anything special; the rib eye was supposedly prime, and was adequately tender, but nothing special. At a point in time, I took over the cooking duties as the wonderful young folks, whom I'm sure were doing their best and working on their experience with other customers…can you imagine; they were doing the cooking on all the tables! Well, things were turning out overcooked.
I'm glad I ordered my dish in this fashion as it was a heck of a lot of JaJang! While it still has a bit of that greasy mouthfeel, this wasn't overly sweet, had some decent umami tones, and some interesting pungency. It was definitely better than what I had experienced at Hong Kong BanJum in the Zion Food Court.
Ok, the beef in the meat jun was nicely marinated, if a bit on the chewier side; sweet-salty-hint of garlic, very bulgogi-ish, the batter was a bit thicker and gritty than I prefer and it had been over-fried a bit. But, the Missus enjoyed the mild eggy-ness and the combination of flavors. She liked the meat jun dipping sauce which also had a hint of vinegar, some spice, balanced sweetness.
Wasn't sure what to expect with the hash browns….there were three to an order, more than I could consume. This was typical Sysco quality, fast-foodish hash browns dusted with a truffle-Parmesan powder. It had a sweet tinge to it, I later found out that it is also dusted with black garlic. Not sure what hash browns are going for these days at your local fast-food joint, but I'm guessing that it's pretty reasonable for $4.50. Not that I would order it again though.
Just having the mix of cheddar-mozzarella which made things nice and gooey and the under-seasoned egg was not enough to overcome the brioche toast. There was a lack of savory flavors to me. I'm sure that some folks might really take to this, but it was just not my kind of thing.
This was a pretty messy sandwich. The bacon, which almost reminded me of "Canadian Bacon" hadn't been crisped up enough and was quite rubbery. Still, the savory-saltiness…it didn't seem smoky to me, really added balance to the sandwich.
I walked up to the counter, the place had just opened, but there seemed to be a couple of folks waiting for their orders already. The young man working was really nice, though he looked a bit overwhelmed. I took a look at the menu….even though the portions looked pretty large, I went and ordered the Mix Katsu Combo ($19.99), which included both pork and chicken katsu and curry. 
The katsu had not been fried evenly and there were some darkly colored spots, the texture of the panko was kind of mealy, at least the breading wasn't separating from the proteins, but it was easy to tell which was the pork and chicken. The pork was on the left; it was thicker, had a more spongy texture, but was fairly tender, if a bit on the dry side. The seasoning was one dimensional being quite salty. The chicken on the right side was thinner, dry, and chewy. It was also quite salty. I'd take the pork any day of the week.
I'm pretty sure the curry had been made with "cubes", it had a nice spice, but was barely lukewarm….and I was eating in the food court. It was quite gloppy and was also on the salty side. Dipping the katsu in this was just too much sodium for me.
