Jeju has been so hyped on social media since its opening in Vancouver, and reservations at a decent dinner hour are difficult to get even months after. You basically have to log in at 10 am on the first of the month, in order to secure a reservation for the following month. It's pretty much a fight to click faster than other people, with Friday nights and weekends almost impossible to secure unless you really lock in. I ended up getting a 5 pm reservation on a Thursday.
Due to the hype, I admit I had high expectations. For our party of 4, we decided to order the octopus, eggplant, short rib, and seafood soup. I heard good things about the seafood soup and of course the short rib.
The octopus was ok, but not worth the $32 price tag. It had about 8-10 thin slices dressed with oil. The eggplant ($19) was intriguing to look at, but unfortunately the pieces themselves had almost no flavour. These are essentially pieces of eggplant with shrimp paste on top, coated in a black tempura-like batter then deep fried. The flavour came from the mayo sauce on the side. The seafood soup had a decent amount of soft tofu as well as a lot of seafood, including a wide variety like fish, abalone, squid, prawn, and scallop. The soup also had a decent seafood flavour. However, for $33, I think a traditional Korean restaurant's soup would be better and at a lower price.
Finally, the showstopper dish of the night was the short rib. Everyone says this is a must order. The quality of the beef was really good and marbled, and the portion is quite good for 4 to share. There are 3 layers of meat on the plate. It comes with a spicy arugula salad, kimchi bok choy, pickled radish, rice, lettuce and perilla leaf wraps, and a really nice sauce for the meat. Note that all the side dishes that come with it are also refillable (which I did not notice was mentioned on the menu or anywhere). However, I noticed that the table next to us was offered the option to have it torched immediately upon serving, for extra flavour, while we were not offered the same. Anyway, I am glad I tried it, and I would get it again if feeling splurgey but I'm not sure if I would come just for this.
Their dessert menu is limited to one item - a deconstructed bingsoo. We did not order it.
There is free street parking in the surrounding neighbourhood.
I don't think I would come again. For the price tag, I'd expect better service and more dishes to be standout rather than just okay. The dinner felt rushed and the server seemed a bit inexperienced. At the end, the server even dropped a bowl which cracked everywhere. I think it is a try once kind of restaurant, only if you are curious about it. read more