KimJi Korean Restaurant — Restaurant in Preston

Short review: Umame galore! One of the best places in Preston. Excellent bulgogi & KFC (Korean Fried chicken) Serves samgyetang.

Detailed review: The best way to make safe choices with food is to ask friends what are their top 5 must eat places in a city. KimJi figured in quite a few top 5 lists in Preston and I am glad I tried it. I did notice a board on the high street stating Korean food on Winckley street, but did not pay much heed to it until now.

A steep flight of stairs greets one as soon as one opens the restaurant door. The kitchen and delivery service waiting area is on the ground floor, whereas the seating is up the stairway (to heaven?) We visited KimJi twice in the last month and must say, the ambience is pleasant and servers/waiters are warm, amicable, despite the multiple oscillations up and down the stairs. (Special shout out to Max, who was fantastic.)

The menu is simple and not crowded, so one is not baffled with the magnitude of options and I am hoping they keep it that way. The crispy, spicy squid was interestingly delightful. In comparison, the Korean Fried chicken was a burst of sweet-salt-strong umami - soy flavour which we did enjoy. The pork dumplings were simple, crispy but caution with the accompanying soy sauce, which has enough sodium to suffice a lifetime Recommended Dietary Allowance. A tiny drop is sufficient!

The Pork Bulgogi, which looked delectable, was my favourite meal and the star attraction were the accompanying sauces. It is a well balanced dish with powerful flavours. Again, strong umami-salt-sweet combination.

Samgyetang- Korean summer soup to fight fire with fire. This Ginseng chicken soup is an entire small 400gm stuffed chicken in clear broth. Needless to say, if one is not a fan of bones and poultry anatomy, one needs to steer clear of this meal. It can be cumbersome, but the protein is delicious and worth a try. The soup is in a way like a Captain Planet meal. Each element on it's own tastes bland, expecially the broth. But when the 5 elements combine (broth-chicken-ginseng-rice-salt&pepper sauce) they synchronise well to form a delectable soup which grows on you mid way during the meal, becomes enjoyable and you will be sad once its finished.

We have not tasted the noodle soup & the bibimbap yet, maybe when we visit next time. Overall, we recommend KimJi as we have always left the restaurant satisfied. Must explore, at least once.

Manchester and Preston are miles away, both geographically as well as with regards to the culinary scene. But KimJi is a step in the right direction and should be Prestons go to place for...

Disappointed.

We were excited to try some of our favourite Korean foods from this Korean restaurant.

The restaurant is on 2 levels. There is a small seating area downstairs with more upstairs. It is quite cosy.

We were greeted and shown to our table for 3.

Shortly after our drinks order were taken. This was followed by our food order.

Part of our order arrived. We thought nothing of it and assumed the rest would be there shortly. They were extremely busy.

The kimchi pancake was nice, but it was burnt on the edges and on the bottom. I've never experienced this before, but it still tasted okay.

The kimchi fried chicken was more batter than chicken, which was disappointing.

Time elapsed, we finished what was brought and waited patiently for the rest of our order. and we realised they had forgotten the rest of our order. I brought this to the attention of one of the staff members who let someone know.

We waited a further 45 minutes. We were contemplating settling the bill and leaving due to how long we waited.

Our missing items arrived. My japchae was very crunchy. The heat was too high, or it was forgotten, but it was almost burnt.

It was a disappointing experience. Having to wait 45 minutes because some of our food was not processed. And having burnt food.

Never had a K food experience like this. I'm really sad about it.

UPDATE 07 August 2025. Just Eat order.

I didn't even realise this was the same restaurant I’d previously dined at, as the menu options have changed. And not in a good way!

Who serves takeaway in a pizza box lined with foil, with sauces dripping everywhere? It arrived soggy and messy before I’d even opened it properly.

The noodles? Just plain noodles, no flavour, no seasoning, no spring onions as pictured, not exciting. The "4 types of chicken" all tasted exactly the same; overwhelmingly salty. It was all a far cry from what you'd expect from proper Korean food. This felt like a low effort, fast food attempt, and sadly, it showed.

The only saving grace? The free delivery. But honestly, I'd rather pay for delivery than eat this again.

Big let down. I won’t be...

What an absolutely woeful experience. Hate to echo the sentiments from previous reviews but they still hold true. Four of us visited today for the “all you can eat” Sunday offer, tl;dr the food is good but the service was poor and extremely slow.

Every order came with something wrong or missing, used plates were left on the table until we asked for them to be removed, the food itself came incredible slowly (three orders over two hours), we had to ask for more drinks, even after highlighting the issues we were having, nothing improved. Finally we were charged for things on the menu that were either mistakes the staff made or items that were included as part of the set menu.

Even after the restaurant quietened down (it was relatively busy when we arrived) the service we got from the wait staff didn’t improve and we saw them leaning around a number of times. (Old adage from my McD’s/Subway days, if there’s time to lean, there’s time to clean). Also had excuses of some of the staff being new, but didn’t witness anyone trying to train up the newbies. Felt a bit sorry for the new American/Canadian girl (picked up an accent but not sure where from) who seemed to know what she was doing but was unfortunately on her break for most of our visit.

After we’d raised our issues management offered us a free round of drinks, but once we replied that none of our party drinks we weren’t offered any other recompense (e.g. slight reduction on the bill, money off next time).

The food itself was really good - the fried chicken remains a stand out - but with the service we received I honestly cannot advocate visiting and will not be...