Jin Go Gae

Finally made it here Jin Go Gae. Supposedly the best Korean place to eat in London. And what to have first to remind me of my time in Seoul? Oh you know… booze. More specifically Soju. That wonderfully mad spirit that will make you forget all of life’s problems and that ache in your feet after a long week. Preferably Soju bombs with some Korean beer. Down those beasts like no other. Yeah, Friday’s. Cheers.
With alcohol must come food. It’s the Korean way. To start. Some KFC (Korean Fried Chicken), seafood pancake and Kimchi that get me ready in time for the main event. Korean BBQ.
So it turns out I got mixed up. I thought I had to order two dishes to get the Korean BBQ, so I ordered the Beef short rib and the King Prawns. Turns out I had a DOUBLE portion helping of shortrib and the prawns for my Korean BBQ. Impressed that I polished the whole lot off. Inside is a fat person crying out for love I think.
Now in conclusion I must say the staff were very friendly, a lot of locals there was a good sign, especially since they have been on TV cooking shows. However, having been to Seoul and LA, London is no match for these two places to get Korean food.
It pains me that Korean places here do not give sides for free or unlimited like in those other cities. They must. You can’t call yourself authentic otherwise it appears you are after customers cash. I love Korean food. Probably my top 3 cuisine after going to visit there, so I know how it is. Cheap, tasty and vast in quantity without paying extra.

Very tasted. Definitely a Korean local taste restaurant. You can see most customers here are Koreaners. The only Korean restaurant I will visit again.

I’m surprised this place only gets 3.5 stars average at the moment, because it is one of the best Korean restaurants I’ve been to in London! Its located on a random stretch of road, across what must be the only Krispy Kreme drive-​through in London. But inside, its a packed full house on Saturday evening, full of Koreans, so you know the food is authentic.
Its a bit of a cramped restaurant, and very smoky due to all the Korean BBQ going on at each table. They use authentic coals to cook the food rather than gas, which is nice, and therefore produces one of the best Korean BBQs I’ve had in London. The non-​BBQ dishes are quite good too, but not spectacular.
Portions are huge, and prices are low, so this is a winning combo. There’s free parking (in the evenings) in front of the restaurant, and in the residential streets nearby. Otherwise might be tricky to get to by public transport.

We have just left Jin Go Gae without being served or asked if we would like a drink despite having waited for over 30 minutes for someone to take our order. The hostess was very genial but it doesn’t change the fact that the waiting staff don’t know what they’re doing.
They shouldn’t cover so many tables if they can’t handle it.
It was an extremely disappointing experience and won’t be repeated. I would give zero stars if possible no matter the quality of cuisine as I didn’t even get to sample. Oh, no one stopped us as we left the building either.

Having spent three weeks in Korea last year, I don’t quite consider myself an expert on Korean food but I have certainly gotten pickier. Ever since I returned, I’ve tried some Korean places here and there. There are decent ones, but Jin Go Gae is the first one that really managed to remind me of actual Korean restaurants!
I see complaints here and elsewhere about service. In my experience staff was friendly, only minor point is that it took a while (10m?) before someone came to take our order. I don’t care, I don’t go for restaurant food when I’m in a hurry!
Nice sides, proper BBQ (including lettuce and some extras), pretty tasty meat. Also, the noise level was pretty low considering the place was pretty full. It’s a bit of a trek to get to this place, but I will definitely be visiting it again!

Although not the best Korean BBQ I’ve had by any stretch of the imagination, the food is still decent. King prawns, pork belly, and beef were all on par. However, the bibimbap came much colder than it should have and so the contents weren’t cooking inside the bowl. This was easily rectified when we asked them to reheat the bowl.
Service was average at best. It must be said that it was quite a busy night, however re-​prompting for drinks, sides, etc. several times should not be the case.

Very nice food. Taste different from other Korean restaurant. Very big portion btw, we only had 3 dishes and were very full.

CAVEAT: i write this from the POV of an angry vegetarian
After doing over two hours of research on which korean restaurant to frequent in suburbia south of london, I was fairly convinced that I had chosen the right place in Jin Go Gae. There were numerous reports on the quality of its food and also of its service in assisting those who knew very little about Korean food, particularly in assisting with the bbq.
Upon being seated I asked the waitress for recommendations given that we were vegetarian eating Korean for the first time. Another waiter was called, who then proceeded to recommend a few dishes and two plates of mixed vegetables and mixed mushrooms for the BBQ. The veg pancake came with 4 complimentary side dishes, and really needed the sauce. The tofu and kimchee hotpot was a bit bland and we asked for lots of sauce to spice it up. Most disappointing was the BBQ. Although it was charcoal bbq (props apparently…) the veg and mushrooms to be grilled were literally just cut veg, without sauce, garnish or dressings. There was no assistance given in what to do or how, and when asked, the server put the veg onto the bbq grill which then proceeded to burn extremely quickly, given that the server gave no instructions in how to use the grill/​controls. Given that as novices we expected our food to be cooked by our server, this was extremely disappointing, not to mention EXTREMELY BLAND. No vegetarian cooks and eats BBQ raw veg without adding stuff to it like sauce, garnish marinade etc, actually WHO ON EARTH DOES THAT… I asked twice whether this was the way this was supposed to be consumed (i.e. where the sauce/​marinade) and was given short shrift. Suffice to say, I was not impressed.
As a vegetarian this type of restaurants vexes me. They make no effort for us, and expect us to suffice with substituting meat for veg, resulting in dishes which do not work. Maybe I am the idiot for expecting more from a korean bbq, but i have been to similar restaurants around the world where they have done marvellous things, and this being a restaurant in London, I demand more than what I expereinced yesterday.
Subsequent conversations with other servers and waiters confirmed that no one in their right mind would recommend those BBQ options that were given nor the manner in which the bbq was conducted. Also the bill was incorrect — a drink we ordered at the start of the meal and which never arrived was charged.
The hot sake was nice, which ironically probably wasnt Korean

The meat was good quality.
If you just want have KR bbq, but don’t want spend loz money and don’t care about the atmosphere, just come here.
You will get what you want.

I had really high expectations for this place and the service seemed a bit haphazard when we did eventually go.
10 of us rocked up here after a day out at Thorpe Park, and after the dizzying number of roller coasters we had already been on, we wanted some good food so I put on my Unilocal hat and suggested this place since it was 20 minutes away.
Anyways, this place boasts having charcoal barbeque on each table and since the party was about 70% guys, i figured meat + fire would be the best choice. MAN LIKE FIRE AND MEAT. We also ordered a main each and a bbq to share on top. We eat alot. Or the guys do. So we ordred a seafood bbq, and given the number of guys on the table, 4 orders of galbi beef. Plus mains each, like a number of dolsot bibimbap to try and some stews. We also got some complimentary side dishes for free with the bbq. The beef was really good, and although they do try to help you with the bbq, i re-​iterate, i went with 7 guys and they just took over the barbie. The waiter looked a bit powerless in the end. The seafood bbq was really fresh with HUGE scallops. I definitely recommend it. The Ddukboki we ordered was a miss, it was mainly onions, with very little rice cakes. I was so disappointed, but i guess since it’s made with glutinous flour, they didn’t want you to get full on ddukboki alone. we also ordered the pancakes, and tbh, it wasn’t the best pajeon I’ve ever eaten. Too wet due to big amount of spring onions.
Service wise, it was a bit slow, the dishes all came out at different times, with mains and the bbq but they gave it really good effort given the number of requests we had. The other thing was because it’s a charcoal bbq, they had to keep changing the plate and I think they changed it a half a dozen times which would have adjusted/​slowed the cooking time for food. And slowing down the cooking did not go down well with the guys. NO, it did not.
I also wish they did round tables for groups. Having square tables just didn’t have the same group atmosphere.
Overall, for 10 of us, we paid £22 each, which included service and our own tip. It’s a bit far for us to go usually, so I wouldn’t say I’d go again but I wouldn’t be against it.

The only Korean Barbeque I have been to in the UK with proper charcoal barbeque at each table. The restaurant looks a bit rough around the edges from outside, and it can feel a bit chaotic when you step in. But shout «Yogio!» for service and get stuck in. The food is fantastic, you can’t really go wrong with whatever your order.

I completely forgot about this slice of Korean perfection so it was a real treat to revisit it.
It’s always very busy in here, rather smokey from the BBQs, but it feels like home, if i was Korean. It’s THAT good!
We got 5 complimentary side dishes here, and also a free bowl of mussels. They told my friend it was because she was Japanese? I don’t like mussels, they don’t look edible to me, but my friend really enjoyed them!
Some delicious kimichi pancake, babimba, spicy fried chicken and dumplings were enjoyed! Finished off with some refreshing complimentary melon! Soo good!