Ju Shin Jung East Korean Charcoal BBQ

I love this place. We ate here countless times! Usually we eat at the Waraku restaurant right beside it, but their service when down so we tried Korean food instead.

Dad, bro and I came here on a Wednesday night. Not much people. Once we entered, we could smell the barbequed meat right away. We ordered marinated chicken and marinated beef. Sides came shortly after we ordered. ALOT of side dishes, and the best part? FREE FLOW! I love the white mashed potato thing, sweet and lovely. The waitress told us that the potato is mashed in a machine with butter and a bit of sugar. The rest were good. I am fine with all the veggies served. I can't understand why some people had veggies so much. They are TASTY N HEALTHY!

Marinated pork was cooked first. It was really aromatic. I wrapped the cooked slices in the lettuce served with some sauce. Yum yum!

Beef was good too. Like the pork, I wrapped it with lettuce and put some cucumber and/or carrot slices with sauce. Ooshi!

I WILL come back here again. But Dad doesn't want to; he says its 'fattening'!

Korean food appeals to me in many ways when done right. For starters, they have an inexhaustible side dish tradition that i wish every cuisine should follow. Secondly, their main items contain more greens then meat, perfect for the health conscious and finally, the food remains on the edge of spicy and sweet. Making it an appetising and healthy experience...when done right. So where else would we have this except for one opened and run by none other then a Korean boss? Ju Shin Jung is one such place i visited one lazy weekday night and here's how i think it fared.

The interior deserves a write up simply because its huge. I didn't expect it that way but when i entered the place, i had the same feeling Neo had in the movie 'The Matrix' when he looked at the buildings he had to jump. "Woah!" Its not that the place is lavish or anything, its just really spacious and really big. Even so, there were private function rooms available should you so require. There are about 4 to 5 tables in a row and each is serviced by one attendant. My observation is that most attendants are Chinese Nationals and apart from the usual hard sell attendant, the little lady servicing our table was very good at her job. Introducing the dishes and teaching us how best to enjoy the meal. The only complaint was the aforementioned order taker who definitely wasn't listening when we spoke and pushed the more expensive items for us to order, otherwise, service is generally excellent.

Yep, all these side dishes are totally and utterly free! It comes when you order 2 meats for your meal which is exactly what we did. Do not let anyone tell you that having 1 meat and side dishes are not enough for 2 people. They are just trying to coax you into buying more food....which is exactly what we did. For the dishes, there was lettuce with mayonnaise, kimchi, tofu, steamed eggs, more preserved vegetables and a whole lot of greens i can't quite name. And most of it was good. As told by our attendant, everything was air flown and hand picked by the boss and i have to say, it definitely shows here. We over ordered but i did not regret it one bit and thats saying alot.

Pork Ribs ($22)/Chicken ($20) - I'll just comment on both meats together. Eating them is a joy. Fresh, tender and sweet with a dash of spice, its just really easy to stomach. The trick to eating them is to ensure you use the greens provided above to wrap the meat before eating. The meat are also both barbecued right in front of you which means its kept hot and ready to eat when you are ready to eat. No complaints here, just good meat and good vegetables together for a winning combination. If i had to be picky, i'd say the meat can get overcooked sometimes and there serving isn't exactly big. Still, it did stuff 2 stomachs to the brim.

Bibimbap ($13) - Bibimbap beef. Yep, no visit would be complete without it. Actually, we tried to cancel the dish after seeing the side dishes but was told it was already made and couldn't be refunded. Despite the huge bowl it came in, after mixing, it only filled 2 small bowls. Upon tasting, i was pleasantly surprised yet again. The rice itself is interestingly 'full' tasting. You can taste the sweet and spicy sauce on each big grain of rice and the mixture of meat, egg, carrots, mushrooms, beansprouts and vegetables balances everything nicely. I could go for seconds of this anytime.

Korean Ginger Tea and watermelon - Complimentary dessert. You get a choice of watermelon juice or korean ginger tea. We got both. The ginger tea is the same one i remembered when i had Korean cuisine in Shanghai. Its exceedingly sweet but i was told that it had 'cooling' capabilities after our rather 'heaty' meal. Nevertheless, its not something i like at the moment but might be an acquired taste.

An over ordered yet very satisfying meal cost me only $67.09. I was pleasantly surprised actually because everything seemed so much more expensive on the menu.

With the exception of one lady i didn't quite like as she was trying to sucker us into ordering lots of items. Everything else in the restaurant was pretty well done. Good service, good food and good price, I don't see a reason not to return. Give it a try, judge for yourself. (Note: As the service staff are mostly Chinese Nationals, please take note that the preferred language is actually mandarin instead of English. I tried conversing in English but my message didn't quite get through, thus i switched to mandarin which yielded much better results.) -