Jin Juu – Mayfair

My English friend had never tried Korean food, so I decided to take him to one. Jin Juu was an modernised Korean. I didn’t want him to be scared by the authentic Korean. Hopefully, this experience would allow him to accept Korean food, then, I could take him to other ones.

The restaurant was difficult to spot as the canopy covered the name of the restaurant.  The staff welcomed us and took us to the back which was quieter.

Cuisine type: Korean

Time of dinning: 1915, Saturday

Price: £££
Wifi: yes, need to ask the staff for password

Accessibility: they said yes but a step to the restaurant

I really liked the staff wearing uniform. They all wore braces. Impressive. I really liked braces myself. I didn’t think many people appreciate the convenience of wearing braces and its stylish value adding to your outfit.

 

I have to show you their toilet. I wasn’t sure whether you would see it again. It was pretty awesome. For a split second, I was frightened to go as it was like a Korean ghost looking at me! Love it!

Some strange music was playing which we didn’t like it much. It was quite dark. We had difficulty to read the menu, lol. As I didn’t what dishes my friend would like, we decided to have the set menu. The waiter was very patient and answered all questions asked by my friend. He was a bit excited because he didn’t know what to expect! It was so dark and I needed to use flash for the pictures.

Vegetable Chips & Dips – Freshly fried potato, lotus root, taro, and courgette chips with kimchi guacamole. Chips was a bit soft sitting in the guacamole and the kimchi flavour was too subtle to taste after a few dips.

Sae-Woo & Lobster Pops with gochujang mayo – sae-woo was prawn in Korean. and Gochujang was a spicy Korean paste. It basically was prawn and lobster balls deep fried in a stick. It was quite fun to eat. Lovely mayo but I wished it was spicier.

Korean Fried Chicken Sliders – Korean famous fried chicken and the Korean sauce. I was looking forward to this. A slider was a bite-size burger which wasn’t enough! Toasted bread, nicely fried chicken with a thin-layered crisp, the slightly spicy Korean sauce were divine. I might come back for this later.

Trio of JinJuu Mandoo – Korean dumpling in three ways. They were steamed beef & pork, steamed wild mushroom & crispy philly cheesesteak. I preferred the steamed dumplings as they were soft and warm. The fried one on the left wasn’t crispy at all but chewy. Nice flavour though and matched with the soy dipping sauce.

Wild Mushroom & Tofu Jap Chae – A traditional stir-fried sweet potato noodles. It was a lot of vegetables and oil, and not enough noodles. I would prefer it less greasy and more noodles. By the way, the noodles didn’t taste like sweet potato and it actually quite al dente. I reckoned the sweet potato gave the texture rather than the flavour.

Glazed English Short Ribs – The steak was very tender and juicy. The crispy garlic and vegetable on top added some texture to the dish. The JinJuu soy sauce enhanced the dish to another level.

Dessert Plate – There were four different bite-size desserts in Jin Juu. 1. A warm donut, peanut butter ice-cream and a chocolate mousse on the left, which was my favorite. 2. A triangle, warm chocolate brownie and an ice-cream with an unrecognisable flavour. 3. Yuzi and Green tea ice cream with mango. (my least favorite). 4. Coffee-flavoured cream, topped with chocolate cookie crumbs, coconut ice cream and a chocolate stick.

The meal was quite enjoyable packed with new flavours we never tried before. The food came relatively fast, definitely course by course. My friend loved the meal. He said he could eat Korean food every day! He should the less fancy Korean food, haha.

A set menu for two. It was not bad. We enjoyed. That’s all the matter. For some reason, I couldn’t find the JinJuu website for Mayfair, so I pulled out the one for Soho.

Menus: https://jinjuu.com/london-soho/menu/

Address: 15 Kingly Street London W1B5PS

Website: https://jinjuu.com/london-soho/

 

Do you find this restaurant impressive for you?

Let me know in the comment!