JeJu has been getting a ton of press lately mostly because the chef is a Per Se and Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare alum. Plus they been touting that they are one of the few Korean style ramen places in the city. I hadn't really hard of Korean style ramen before but I was eager to give it a shot on a gross rainy day with Borami.
My first impression of the place was that it was very sparely designed. It was kind of empty and soul-less feeling but I will say that the bar area was beautiful. The menu itself is also very sparse - there are only 3 types of ramen, none of which are vegetarian but one is fish based. There were more appetizers but the only one that was really calling our names of the ssam bun ($9), which at this point is kind of a must have for any ramen shop. Borami and I split the 2 non-fish based ramens: the Gochu ramen ($16) and the So-Ramyun ($17.50) and we both got an extra egg ($2). When the hell did ramen start to creep into the $20 range?!? The ssam bun was good but what irritated me was that they didn't give us extra plates so we had to hover one this one small dish. I give them props for trying something different with this bun by adding corn and jalapeno but I still much prefer the Ippudo one instead. Why fuck with the traditional version when it's so delicious? Next came the ramen bowls and the portions were fairly big. The gochu ramen is a spicy pork broth and probably closer to a traditional ramen version. It came with pork belly, kimchi, and charred scallion. It was ok - nothing about it really blew my mind away. Like many ramen dishes it was salty AF. I didn't really realize it until Borami mentioned that she was craving a cold beer and she was right, it hit the spot. The so-ramyun came in a veal broth instead of a pork broth but to be honest, it didn't taste all that different from the other ramen. Both were good but not anything that I felt warranted so much buzz.
By the time we left, it was pretty crowded so definitely make a reservation unless you wanted to eat at 6pm like we did. There are a ton of ramen places in the city and while this place wasn't the worst, it certainly wasn't the best either. Total bill: $38/pp with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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