I remember lunch-ing at Ju Shin Jung (East Coast Parkway branch) many years back with my family. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Especially my brothers and I with the BBQ buffet. We were young and we sure did stuff ourselves well. Not that we are very old now lah. Haha.

So when we picked our Mom from the airport over the weekend (recently) and were brainstorming for a place to eat dinner at 9.30pm, I suggested Ju Shin Jung. Since it was en route to home, and they closed late at 11pm. The hungry us won’t be too happy to head up North only to find most restaurants closed.

And since I like to try substantial number of dishes before posting a review, a second trip was made back to the Guillemard branch for lunch (with my friend).

And from the menu (pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11), we ordered:-

1) Side dishes (above) – I like the wide variety of their side dishes. Especially the seaweed! However, I noticed I was given the same number of side dishes, irregardless of me dining with a friend or in a group of 5. One would think they would give us 2 sets of side dishes if there were more people. Hmm… And I’m not sure if we could ask for (complimentary) top-up cause when my family and I came for dinner, we did not know ‘last order’ included the side dishes. And thus, we did not get our top-up when we requested for some. I wanted more kimchi. Sob, sob.

3) Dolsot, $14 (above) – Mixed vegetable rice in stone bowl. With hot pepper paste served separately in a saucer.

4) Binaeng, $12 (above) – Spicy cold noodle. Unfortunately, we were not informed what to do with the cup of ‘icy liquid’. I am calling it ‘icy liquid’ cause I am not sure if it was a drink or additional soup. We ended up enjoying the noodle as it was served. Although I do suspect one could pour the ‘icy liquid’ to make the dish into the Korean cold noodle. Enlightenment, anyone?

5) Bossam, $30 (above) – Steamed pork & special kimchi. This was really good. If one doesn’t want to end up reeking (too much) of smoke, one should opt for this.

6) Buldak, $35 (above) – Spicy chicken with rice cake. And this was really good. The chicken was tender and juicy. However, we concluded it’s the sauce which gave the dish the ‘level up’. The sauce was finger-licking good. A must order.

7A) Hangjeong, $35 (200g) (above, topmost) – Pork jowl. My brothers and I wanted BBQ, but because it was 9.45pm by the time we reached the restaurant, we were told BBQ buffet was not available. And thus, we went a-la carte.

7B) Beoljip, $28 (200g) (above) – Honeycomb pork belly. And we chose ‘herb’ of the 3 flavours available; Herb, chilli and honey sweet.

8) Daenjang, $50 (above) – Soyabean paste & seafood.

10) Dessert, Complimentary (above)

So yes, Ju Shin Jung is still going strong as a formidable player in the (Korean) food industry with their delectable dishes at affordable prices. Guess that’s no surprise since they have since opened 3 more outlets (Yess Center, East Coast Parkway & Robertson Walk). Aad having dined at 3 of the 4 outlets, I really like how big and spacious the seating areas are. No need to speak hush hush. Keke. There’s also in-house playground for children to have fun in while the adults indulge in their food. Haha.

However, I just have a slight issue with their service, although I acknowledge it’s not entirely the restaurant’s fault since we came in pretty late for our dinner at Guillemard branch. When I was having lunch with my friend, service was pretty good. It wasn’t difficult to get the staff’s attention. However, when I was having (late) dinner with my family… I noticed they were concentrating (more) on clearing the tables. They could have at least appointed 1 or 2 staff to solely attend to customers.

I do know the staff helps with the BBQ-ing, but ours were left to burn on the grill (since they got busy with clearing up thereafter). Website stated last order was at 10pm, but at the restaurant, we were told last order was at 9.50pm. And when we tried to request for additional side dish of kimchi at 9.55pm (since we did not know last order included sides), the staff just went “Kitchen closed.” Well… The staff could at least have pretended to walk to the kitchen to check for us.

  

And for the wet towels, pour water onto the small white coins for them to expand. Of which, I was shocked to learn that we were charged at $1 per person for the towel, bottles of water and Korean tea. I don’t remember being charged for water at other Korean restaurants. Hmm…

And the extra selling point about dining at the Gullimard branch is that there’s a Korean dessert shop (Bing Go Jung Dessert House) just beside it. So yes, if one still has space, one could head over for some Korean ice kachang (bingsu). Do retain the Ju Shin Jung’s recipt as it entitles one to 10% discount!

Related posts:

Dinner @ Your Woul Korean // CLOSED Dinner @ 2D1N Soju Bang Dinner @ Kimchi Korean Lunch @ Han Kook Gwan Lunch @ 在起豬肉湯飯 재기 돼지국밥 (Busan, Korea)