Chon Ju Jip — Restaurant in San Diego

It was a most enjoyable experience considering I have not been overseas in in Korea for more than 50 years. It was very delightful as it states that it is family owned and it tastes like family owned food I was greatly impressed with everything that was put before us and it was a pleasure to know this place as an original Korean restaurant. To me you have to know somebody who makes Korean food or you have to been in Korea a long time ago to appreciate what we just had today. It was worth the 80 Mile drive. In this case I believe that pictures will speak louder than my words but I also state that you should try to find this place I do give you this advantage you should show up exactly at 10:00 a.m. . We went on a Saturday. After that 10:00 a.m. Mark you have to go back in the combat mode to try to find you a parking spot. It was very very hard to find a parking spot especially when people are waiting for you to leave and they will park anyway they can to get into a parking spot even with fake handicap decals to get the handicap space. But I would say this is worth the wait and the drive and the time spent everyone was extremely satisfied with the time speed and efficiency of the food when it came out. It has six tables and one giant all the family can come down table. I should have went to that table first because of all the food that I ordered and how it spread out. Again I can't say enough about this place please try and see what you think. I think you will be...

I consider my opinion on cuisine worthwhile, having trained at the best Schools in the world (Ecole Ferrandi in Paris to name one) and worked and lived around the world: tasting, testing, trying experimenting. . . Chon Ju Jip is cooking up some of the best flavors on the West Coast United States. Period.

The sauces were superb, the chili flavors smoky and unctuous, the people smiling and gracious.

Octopus velvety and sumptuous loosely hidden throughout the "pancake" dish, with large cuts of green onion. . . flaked off and dipped in some dark garlicky sauce activated my pituitary gland - off the charts sweet and savory.

A noodle dish, also with octopus, this time tentacly and a bit chewey - worked suprisingly perfecr with the again perfect noodles and vegetables, loosely coated in a sumptuous and slightly smoky chili flavor.

And of course all of the "sides." The accompanyments are all stars among themselves - marinated firm tofu seared and sauced, kimchee, sprouted beans fish cake and more. The star amongst stars for me was the cucumber and seared tofu (and of course kimchee). There was a little spinach thing that didn't quite work: it was a little stringy and hard to chew, but overall tasted very pleasing. With that being the only point missing from a totally perfect score, I give Chon Ju Jip 5 stars....

I had the lunch special Gimchi Jjigae soup which came with 8 banchan and a woody flavored cold tea (no ice). This place is very old school. The service was good, prompt. They also open at 10:30am which is earlier than most restaurants in the area. The soup served in a hot pot was piping hot and mostly consisted of kimchi, though there was quite a few cubes of tofu (some tucked into the bottom of the soup). It’s supposed to come with pork, but I found little if any. The tea was excellent (offered a refill once, and requested a refill towards the end of my meal). Banchan was quite good. There was one cabbage banchan without any spices or flavor but the rest of the 7 out of 8 were delicious. Rice also came with the soup which blended in well and fortified the meal. The patrons were mostly Korean and spoke Korean and seemed to be regulars but my server was quite fluent in English. The cost was $13.95 (tea included) which really was a bargain for such great food. Would reduce 0.5 star for the lack of pork but given the price, service and atmosphere, I give it a solid 5 stars. I had no trouble parking but arrived at 10:45am. Other reviewers have noted the somewhat small parking lot given the number of businesses there. Would like to try the spicy squid entree next time, a favorite of mine when I spent time in...