It's the first weekend of 2025. Coming from a long holiday stay in my home province, I was excited to resume one of my favorite weekend activities in the city ⏤ trying out a new restaurant! Over the holidays, I had been binge-watching Korean drama series I hadn't been able to watch because of my work schedule for the past months. It wasn't a surprise that I ended up craving Korean cuisine, haha. I have always loved the savory flavor of their dishes and the lavish array of side dishes that could easily double as main entrées.
Since last year, I've also been intentionally eating the right proportion of macros for my diet. Even though it was the weekend and felt like the perfect time for that awaited cheat day, my ingrained habit had me sticking to my daily routine of getting enough protein in my meals. Hahaha, call me crazy, but I'm glad it's now second nature. With that in mind, I made sure to order enough meat for our sumptuous lunch meal.
We decided to eat at Jin Joo to satisfy our craving for Korean dishes. For years, unlimited Korean Grill restaurants have been flourishing in the Philippines. I've been an avid fan since they're a great place to meet friends and family, where you can catch up while grilling as much meat as you can. However, since I tried short orders of meat, I couldn't forget how much better quality was compared to the quantity. I’ve had delicious servings of unlimited Korean meat, but I always feel the pressure to maximize what I’m paying for. HAHA. That’s why I opted for Jin Joo, which serves short orders of Korean meat, alongside dishes like Bibimbap, a variety of jjigae, fried chicken in different flavors, appetizers like gimbap, sundae, and more.
We were served a variety of side dishes, including roasted peanuts, kimchi, sweet potato, mashed potato, lettuce and tomato salad, and fish cake, while waiting for our order. It would have been even better if we were dining with a bigger group so we could add more dishes, but despite being just a party of two, we still had to take some of the food home because we couldn’t finish it all.
For our main orders, we chose Samgyeopsal, a thick-cut seared pork belly, and Chadolbaegi, a USDA Prime beef brisket. We also added the classic kimchi jjigae for our soup, and, of course, rice to pair with the meat.
Now, it’s grilling time! The staff kindly offered to grill the meat for us, but we chose to do it ourselves. For me, grilling beef can be tricky because if you overcook it, it becomes tough to eat. We made sure to grill it for just a few minutes—enough to achieve a light brown color. The samgyeopsal was unexpectedly fattier than I preferred; I was hoping it would have more lean meat. Nonetheless, the flavor was satisfying—I could really taste the salt and pepper seasoning.
The side dishes were already enough to balance the greasiness of the meat, but ordering the kimchi jjigae and dalandan juice turned out to be an excellent decision. The tangy taste of the juice paired perfectly with the savory flavor of the meat. I also liked that the jjigae wasn’t too spicy. A typical kimchi jjigae includes aged kimchi, pork, mushrooms, and firm tofu as ingredients, making it both healthy and comforting at the same time.
It was definitely a fun and satisfying dining experience! While enjoying the grilled meat, I tried one of the sauces served—salt and pepper in oil—which further enhanced the flavor of the meat. I’m definitely sticking with short orders for Korean BBQ. Hopefully, in the coming months, I’ll crave this again and discover even more great Korean restaurants to try in the city.