Philip C.
Yelp
If youre wondering if Jin is still alive, or did it turn to a new place called Bon KBBQ? The answer is that Jin is Bon KBBQ. Not sure if they rebranded or have a new owner. However, upon asking the waiter, Bon is the new name for Jin and Jin is still Jin BBQ. As to why they changed the name, the waiter was not able to provide me with an answer. He said that because the owner wants to do that, so I assume same owner?
Since my review 4 years ago, things was changed drastically, and not in a good way. Although I've heard many bad reviews of Jin from my friends, my fiancee mom insisted to eat here. Here goes nothing!
1. The buffet bar
There's a buffet bar in the middle of Jin. The buffet bar consists of salad bar, hot food section, and raw meats. Salad bar, you can find edamame, kimchi, fruits, soup, and the little side dishes that typical Korean restaurant would serve you. The hot food section consist of fried rice, kimchi fried rice, Japchae, Korean Rice cake - Tteokbokki, beef bulgogi, etc... Lastly the raw meat section have raw fish, chicken, sausage, pork and a section for sauce... Since there's not many diners at the time we went (7pm-8pm should be peak hours), the salad bar seems like it has been sitting there for like hours, most of the hot food section were cold and tasteless, and the raw meat section looks super unappetizing.
2. The experience
While the buffet bar was not it, there's still the main attraction - the food in which you can order from the server. There's few items that many would order, but the to go order would be Galbi or Kalbi. We ordered the LA Galbi, beef belly, chadolbagi or beef brisket and the pinapple galbi steak. Hows the meat you would ask? The LA Galbi was filled with fat and it taste worst than the select grade beef meat. There was no flavor and did I mention that it was filled with fat? The beef belly tasted like the beef brisket, and the beef brisket tasted like a brick of meat. The grill on the other hand doesnt help with the quality of the meat either. With just one Galbi dish, the grill was sticky, burned and it needs to be changed. At one point the grill was burning from the bottom that the waiter had to change the grill again. One of the unique thing about this buffet is the dessert sweet rice ginger punch, Shikeh. Shikeh was supposed to be good in the past, but it was bland and water down.
Overall, this buffet does not have the quality, price point and the attraction for my taste. I would not recommend it - try at your own risk! What I do like about this place is that it has a light switch to call the waiter without screaming your lungs out.