Joon Ko Restaurant     純子餐廳  

The food at Joon Ko House is 'home style' - not fancy or fast. It is cooked up in a small noisy kitchen by a couple of Korean ladies, then served by Nepali waitresses.

In Korea this restaurant would not stand out from the crowd, it just isn't exceptional enough. However, the food is tasty, though not as cheap as you might think (especially if you compare prices with Korea). But in the end Wan Chai is not exactly packed with good Korean eateries at the moment, so this remains a haven for those who work in the area.

On this visit I had galbi dang (beef soup), which comes with rice and assorted banchan. The tasty is proper, though the beef is not great quality. The bibimbap is also worth a try. The kimchi gigae is OK but lacks depth and subtlety of flavours. The menu is extensive, probably too much so. I wonder how much of it can be delivered quickly to a high standard? I'd stick to the simple basic dishes.

i had jeonju dolsot bibimbap, sans the meat, and it was really yummy. it had shrimp in it which was a welcome surprise. i love seafood. i didn't take a picture because the lady insisted on mixing it for me. she seemed so surprised when i said she could definitely add more gochujang since i like my bibimbap spicy.

they had a lot of side dishes. i wasn't sure what two of them were, so i sort of had to stay away from them because if i don't know what something is, i assume it has wheat in it so i don't eat it. xD

the potato banchan was yummy. the spinach wasn't as good as the watercress that normally makes up the green stuff. the kimchi was okay. the beansprouts where pretty good as well, but still not as good as the place i used to go in NC.

also, the soup that came with it was okay but not at all like the soup that i would normally get with my bibimbap in NC.

i really shouldn't compare the two restaurants but i can't help it.

also, the woman who was serving me didn't seem to speak korean. she spoke english well enough and i think cantonese. but she didn't really seem to understand when i said things in korean. so i gave up and spoke in english. xD

but that definitely satisfied my bibimbap craving. NOM NOM.

Oh, and I loooooooved that they had KBS world on the television. I got to watch some of my favorite kpop idols while I ate. yayyy.

No. of persons: 2

Dishes:
i. Appetizers (7 dishes)
ii. Stone pot rice assortment
iii. Shabu Shabu hot pot (1 bowl of rice included)
iv. Fried dumplings

Comments:
Every kind of food is nice, not salty and not spicy (I like less seasoning), and most importantly, fresh. The stone pot, which has seafood, beef and vegetables, is really good - must try! The Shabu Shabu has some seafood (e.g. clams, cuttlefish, mussel) and vegetables (e.g. mushroom, Chinese lettuce) - healthy! The dumplings are fine but not as highly recommended as the other food. The dishes are hot enough.

Service:
Feels like family-operated. The waitresses are polite but sometimes forget to refill our tea (malt tea?) They speak English and a bit Cantonese. (The owner spoke Korean to a customer who sat next to us.)

Environment:
A small place, somewhat crowded and noisy if full house, but still comfortable.

I will be back for sure!

Cold weather makes me want to devour a hot bowl of rice, so the choice was either bibimbap or clay pot rice, and my friend wanted spicy food, so Korean it is.

This place is just so cozy, meaning the tables are quite close to each other and not enough room for banchan and the rest of everything, but there's a really nice homely feel to it. The waitresses needed some prompting to refill tea and reminding for the banchan, but I guess they were a little busy with a full house that night. The TV had Korean soap opera on, and since there was English subtitles, my friend and I actually found it quite entertaining.

Banchan of 6 dishes, all very good, and not overly spiced/salty which kinda ruins your palate for the other dishes. We had a bibimbap which was a little smaller than I thought the portion might be, and though it said seafood, I couldn't much of it there, but overall it tasted pretty good. The egg was fried, and I personally prefer a raw egg to be slowly cooked in the pot. The cold spicy noodles was very authentic and chockful of flavours. And we had fried dumplings which was done to perfection - crispy skin, juicy filling, dipped in a light sauce. And they have Sapporo biru which comes highly recommended.

I would have loved to get the fried vermicelli and beef wrapped in lettuce too, but gluttony is never a good thing. Some sweets came with the bill to round off the meal, perfect.

went here for my last lunch in HK of winter 2009.

if you read my other reviews I go to a lot of Korean restaurants.

this eatery gets points for its very well-kept environment, but then again it IS very new - it moved here last summer (2008) from great eagle center. the environment makes me feel like i'm in korea - the 2 plasmas on adjacent walls (1 LG and another Samsung) are both tuned in KBS channel. and my surrounding 3 tables are all korean speakers (i assume they are Koreans too)

however service is pretty bad because of the language barrier. I advise yyou to simply point what you want when you order.

the food was of good quality, but somehow i found it not very authentic - it had some japanese vibe to it. for instance my friend ordered the mixed noodle soup which served udon. and i ordered the daily lunch special which was prawn tempura and japanese stir-fried beef. when i asked the server what the special was she simply said 'shrimp with vegetables' and i did NOT expect shrimp tempura.

portion sizes are definitely above average, points for that. and they are generous with condiments.

banchans are of above avergae standard.

i would come back again - service isn't that bad - the waiters are friendly and attentive. prices are reasonable.

oh oh! interesting fact: they have squatting toilets. well it was in the female bathroom, not sure if it's the same for guys. but it's clean.

I like Korean cuisine a lot and naturally I like to try out new places every now and then. My latest "adventure" took me to this nice korean restaurant on Jaffe Road on a Sat afternoon for lunch. Despite being a very small joint (less than 10 tables in total), this place is interesting in the sense that it is very "korean" in style - as far as I could tell, almost all the staff employed are koreans, the tv programs they run are korean (KBS), and yes, you are right ... ... they do use a korean brand tv (samsung) as well ! Likewise, the food they serve is also nice and authentic. The meal started off well with 6 small dishes of tradional korean appetizers, all of which were quite nice. In particular, I like the kimchi (taste fresh with a sour and spicy korean sauce), potato and tiny marinated fishes. For main course, I tried the spicy pork belly bbq set which came with rice, vegetable soup (taste good), some green vegetables (very fresh and 爽口, for wrapping around the pork), and the pork itself arrived in a big sizzling plate (very tender pork meat, just like 五花腩 in texture; they also provided a special spicy sauce which went very well with the pork) The meal was simply gorgeous ! The portions were quite big, too, so at the end I got really full and could not even finish the bowl of rice. The complimentary ginger drink that came at the end of the meal was a real bonus - warms you inside and out . Service is polite and attentive (although I think most of the staff could only understand very simple cantonese or english). This is undoubtedly one of the best korean restaurants that I have tried recently. Will likely come again soon with friend to try some other stuff on their menu.