Jumak 39 — Restaurant in London

Jumak39 has gone downhill noticeably since our revisits within a year. We tried both downstair grill buffet and upstair regular dishes the following day.

1.instead of showing up and waiting for 45min in rain, the app reservation should have worked. They never pick up the phone either. That long waiting is really not suitable for older customers.

See the ceiling fan dispersing the grease everywhere. They do not have the designated grease ducts on each table. The hygiene is the major issue to us, especially downstairs. Greasy tiled floor, sticky table and the gross ceiling ACs that were never cleaned and are disgusting. Also, the thick smoke was not exchanged to the fresh air. We were genuinely concerned of the grease fire if not lung cancer of the staff.

They surely skipped deep cleaning since their opening a couple of years ago. They really should.

The buffet meat quality downstairs are mediocre, and, I would say, other than Korean style table grill experience for non-koreans, the other food selections are better organized but still 2 or 3 star to Koreans at best. They did not have samgyupsal, pork belly, like a year ago.

*4. And they use wax paper on the of the grill this is not authentic Korean BBQ cooking.

See the picture. Some wax papers could add cancerous chemicals to the meat, in high heat (cooking).

The dinner we had upstairs following night was more disappointing.

The bulgogi mushroom jongol stew and garlic soy sauce fried chicken were just too sweet to be authentic Korean. The shitake mushrooms were sliced too thick and were not harmonious but they tasted raw.

little pieces of weird textured rice cake topping for the said bulgogi jongol were charged at £2.95 and it was absolutely overpriced and not the right taste or texture, either.

The seafood pancake was just a sizzled dough and without much flavor. And the accompanied dipping soy sauce was spoiled with heavy chemical liquor smell. I would not recommend pancakes.

We could not finish the meals from the overpowering taste with disappointment.

We had to ask if the kitchen staff were Koreans. They are. That was more disappointing.

I commented on the poor grease smoke ventilation hurting the staff's health who were forced to inhale the smoke for hours each night. The waiter downstairs said the reason they did not wear masks is the restaurant ran out of them. But it turned out to be a lie.The following evening the same waiter or the others did not wear masks either although the manager was there to provide them. Never mind the staff's health but think again of the grease smoke when you choose to have smokey grilled meat downstairs.

It is time to revisit how they operate the food business and they should bring A-game soon before others also notice the downhill operation without rebooting each night and lowered cooking quality. This is a sign of neglect and the lack...

We recently came here to try out the unlimited Korean BBQ buffet. I feel that overall this offered very good value for money at £27.50 per person. You have 90 minutes to eat as much as you like, and there is a good selection of meat/seafood to cook at your table as well as korean side dishes, sushi, steamed rice, banchan (kimchi etc.), lettuce, condiments etc. everything you expect at authentic k-bbq basically.

There was a good selection of meat and seafood on offer, beef ribeye and marinated short-rib (galbi), pork (shoulder, belly and bulgogi), chicken gizzards, prawns, baby octopus, calamari, as well as vegetables (asparagus, mushrooms). This was all high quality, particularly the marinated meats and the prawns which were nice and big, my only criticism is that there needs to be more seasonings on available as some of the items will be quite bland without (octopus, calamari, pork belly, chicken gizzards).

The side dishes included lots of Korean favourites - tteokbokki, mandu (dumplings), Korean fried chicken (sauced and unsauced), kimchi jigae, japchae (stir fried noodles) and more. The kimchi jigae and mandu in particular were really tasty and the Korean fried chicken was good, the tteokbokki was okay but not the best to be honest. We didn't try the sushi so I can't comment on that, however it is a fairly basic selection of nigiri and maki. I wouldn't advise going for the buffet if you are a vegetarian as there are few few dishes without meat or seafood, but the a la carte menu might cater to you better.

The staff were very friendly, however they didn't explain much about how to cook the meats which was fine for us because we have had k-bbq before, but if you haven't then you might struggle. They were also quite slow to remove plates which means we struggled for space a lot on the table, not particularly pleasant when there are plates which have had raw meat on them sitting on the table. There also needs to be more tongs and better labelling at the buffet because there were tongs shared between the raw seafood and vegetables - the self-service and plating system in general felt quite inefficient/unclear actually and good be improved. Finally, the buffet is in the basement of the restaurant with exposed AC units etc. meaning the atmosphere felt quite dingy.

A few people have commented about the £10 charge for food wastage, yes it is true that they have this but it was explained to us that it is for excessive wastage and particularly for the meat. That's completely fair in my opinion as these ingredients are expensive! Just don't be greedy, you can always go up for seconds if you need them.

Overal the food was high quality and very good value for money, however the speed and efficiency of service and the ambience let it down slightly which is why I am giving 4 stars. I would definitely come back...

(Sorry no pictures i went there to just eat and try it out) I went like Mid afternoon, the ambience was nice it was quiet like I would say 5 tables or so were taken so it was a calm atmosphere that I wanted to go into on a Sunday. The Menu did have variety but when it came to the hotpot options there wasn't that many add ons...BUT the bonus was it was unlimited when you ask they would bring more add ons as,they give out portions...

My best friend and I bought our separate meals she bought the bulgogi (beef) which was nice but didn't come with rice (we normally have it with rice in other resturants) so we got steamed rice on the side. We also ordered the kimchi pancake which yo me was really good! it was the right amount of spice, crunch and pancake, it was served with soy sauce. The Prawn tempura was also just as good...they were large as well not a small size there was 6 or 7 pieces,from what I remember.

I got the Tonkatsu which is a fried pork loin with tonkatsu sauce they served with rice and salad..it was a big portion so I was happy to see it!

for drinks my best friend got the Yuzu with tonic I tried some it was refreshing but delightful and I got plain Fanta lol which still was nice lol.

OH and we got stir fried chicken gizzards which was lovely the gizzards were tender and the vegetables were crunchy just how I like it 👌🏼

Overall our bill came up to £84 something for 3 starters and 2 meals and drinks for 2..its not bad I guess...I do regret not trying their fried chicken...

but it's not a place I'd return to, not in a negative way. For me, the food was nice but that's all it was...just nice nothing that made me excited or enjoy really...

hence for the...