Jee Cee Neh

BACKGROUND — So Korean cuisine is one of those cuisines where I usually buy the ingredients at a Korean supermarket and recreate pretty darn good dishes at home if I follow an authentic recipe. However when you are craving for Korean food and don’t have the ingredients readily available, you go explore!
PROS — They were open on a Sunday — that’s great since there are a handful of Korean restaurants in New Malden (where they all are) that do not open on Sundays (In the States, the Koreans don’t open on Mondays — just an FYI). Another pro is that they have an amazing seafood pancake — good sized (bigger than Assa, see pic) and flavourful batter.
CONS — Dude, I don’t know how to put this but their kimchee stew (on the menu it says it comes with tofu&pork) really sucked. Really disappointed. I was promised «pork» but all I found was a 2 cm x 1 cm thin slice of pork (I’m not exaggerating) — that’s worse than NOT finding any at all because that would mean they just forgot to add pork in. But finding a 2 cm x 1 cm piece of pork meant they either ran out of pork and didn’t want to tell the customer or they simply don’t put a lot of pork into their kimchee tofu&pork stew. The stew itself was bland and you can tell straight away they used an instant soup base flavouring (I know this based on being guilty of the same thing and also know this based on knowing what a kimchee stew tastes like when it’s made the proper way — FROM SCRATCH). The most *telling* trait of the stew was there was absolutely no sesame oil in it. It was all in all a lazy, instant soup from a packet with a lot of kimchee thrown in, 2 medium (3cm x 3cm) firm tofu blocks and that mischievous 2 cm x 1 cm slice of pork.
Another CON — They don’t serve you the authentic Korean rice here and no refills on banchan. We only got 3 banchans compared the the average 5 – 6 banchans offered at other Korean restaurant establishments.
POINTERS — With You Me down the same block, I will probably not come back to Jee Cee Neh.

I came here from Central London to see whether there are any decent Korean food in London. Sadly, disappointed.
Indeed there was the tilted hot plate for Kalbi as mentioned. Unfortunately, the beef tastes more like Bulgogi as the heat is not high enough for a BBQ effect.
Only recommended if you crave for Korean food and home sick (from Korea or North American Korean cuisine, this would be a two star in Toronto),

Well, I’m new to London so I really wanted to check out Korean food in K-​town aka New Malden.
Food.
Marinated (Wang) Galbi was quite good. But I expected it to be more «traditional» on top of a charcoal grill. Instead it was a slightly tilted portable hot stone grill. Haven’t seen that for quite a while but it’s usually fine as well. Taste was good and I really enjoyed it with some lettuce and the usual Korean BBQ sauce (Ssamjang).
Gyeran jjim (steamed egg soup) was ok, nothing I can get too exited about but Doenjang jjigae was great.
Atmosphere.
For a Saturday night I expected a lot more people. It wasn’t packed nor were there many free tables. Most of the visitors are either Korean or of Korean descent which makes it quite fun when they get drunk later the evening ;-) … and don’t expect fancy Korean interior… decoration is rather scarce and «modern industrial».
Staff
Helpful and friendly… Typical family-​run business with a reputation to lose in particular among the regulars.
In the end we shared a 35 GBP bill. Not bad for the amount and quality of food. So definitely worth a second visit. It’s just quite far away form NW1 so going there takes quite while.

Following Tom E.‘s recommendation, we ordered the crab stew, despite the staff’s best attempts to dissuade us, on the grounds it is too enormous. It is enormous, but we ate it all, plus a truly delicious seafood pancake.
Out of the side dishes, I particularly loved the beansprouts — delicately and perfectly seasoned.
I liked the atmosphere too, modern décor and plenty of people who seemed to be regulars dwelling happily over their food & beers.

Cold this winter? I know exactly what can warm you up — a trip to real Korea… and when I say real Korea I obviously mean New Malden, where every other shop and restaurant is Korean and you can go to amazing places like Jee Cee Neh and be the only non-​Korean in the room.
Jee Cee Neh was a wonderful find. Bustling busy on a Sunday night with Korean families digging into stews and tofu platters and Korean men sharing bottles of Hite and flipping pork chops on their table-​top BBQs. It’s all about the food here. There’s no décor to report, the staff don’t fuss over you too much and the menu doesn’t scream out to Westerners in anyway. They don’t even accept credit and debit cards so bring some cash.
We were there for the unsung hero of Asian food — the Korean Stew. Also known as ‘Tang’. Jee Cee Neh are clearly the best place in the UK for Tangs. They do about 10 different versions — chicken, seafood, fish and many more. Our option was the chef special beef and vegetable Tang. It comes on a hot plate, costs £20+ and could easily fill 4 people. It’s boiling hot, rich and very spicy — clearing out my cold and filling my stomach with every mouthful. And speaking of stomach, the beef was a mix of quality brisket and the best tripe slices I’ve had in years — perfectly bleached and juicy like beef-​flavoured noodles. If you don’t like tripe, you need to try this seriously good version.
Our Tang was enough for us to deem this a five star alone and having it as a doggy-​bag lunch the next day was just further approval. Add to this one of the best seafood pancakes I’ve ever had and the fact that as we left EVERY single other plate in Jee Cee Neh screamed to us ‘I WANT THAT!‘
We’ll be back in the cold depths of winter to recharge with lots more.

Korean is my current favourite food. So a trip to Jee cee neh is always something to get excited about.
Luckily for me, New Malden is just down the road, and it is saturated with Korean restaurants and supermarkets! Yum yum!
We always order too much, because what do you sacrifice? I love them all equally:
Kimchi pancake…
Chap chae…
Spicy fried chicken…
Bibimbap…
You get 4 complimentary side dishes, including spicy potato, kimchi and beansprouts. These seem to change every time i come here. One time we got an amazing potato salad, but im still waiting for it to come around again!
Staff are great too!
I only went last night, but i cant wait for my next visit.