Ever since I’ve come back from Seoul, I became sick of eating kimchi, all I was craving was the Western and diverse flavours in London. Two weeks of non-stop Korean food all day and night were a bit much for me, but it wasn’t long again that I wanted Korean food.
My friend has been out in New Malden for a while and I was due for a catch up with him. I’ve promised ages ago to visit him for dinner. So off on the train from Waterloo I went and arrived in New Malden on a rainy day. He picked me up from the station and drove to Jin Go Gae.
Jin Go Gae is a local favourite amongst the Koreans who live in the New Malden area. Dark furnishings with tables for the Korean BBQ or hot pots. It really reminded me of strolling into those 24 hr Korean BBQ joints in Seoul. Atmosphere is live and buzzing of people chatting, sizzling sounds of the BBQ and smokey steam from the pots boiling.
Before we even made our order, small side dishes of banchan is provided, this is standard in all Korean restaurants. The banchan we got were kimchi, sukjunamul and Oinaeng-guk.
To start we shared Par-Jeon seafood pancakes, although it wasn’t as crispy as Han’s restaurant one, the freshness of the seafood stood out.
Now for the meats for our BBQ we choose two different meats, wang kalbi, and Sam Gyup Sal. We also wanted some carbs to go with our BBQ meats, Jap-chae a firm favourite of mine and a bibimbap to share.
I like how the wang kalbi (short beef rib) has been pre-cut to be unrolled with the bone in the middle. Cut it up with scissors and chucked the bone on top, many people like to suck on it.
Sam gyup sai, pork belly are thick and streaky, the waitress cut up the meats for us and cooked it over the charcoal flame and iron casting griddle.
Both meats were superb, soft texture, nutty flavours crisp on the outer edges. Now the bibimbap is quite different here, filled with seafood. Again the seafood stood out beautifully, and rice had that lovely crunchy bite.
Jap Chae is soft with a good chew, a lovely light seasoning, with soft tender beef slices, loaded with tons of vegetables.
I think between the two of us, we became so stuffed and failed to finish all the food, portions are very big and filling. Jin Go Gae, is a real authentic experience close to eating out in Seoul. Prices is moderate and affordable.
272 Burlington Rd, New Malden KT3 4NL, United Kingdom
+44 20 8949 2506
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