Jin Ju

Jin Ju’s speciality is marinated pork ribs: hefty KBBQ slabs marinated in a slick, glossy sauce sweetened with pear juice (it’s a family recipe that’s been passed down through three generations). The owner’s parents opened the first Jin Ju in South Korea and now you can find the same homey dishes in a Koreatown strip mall. The interior here is cute: cartoon farm animals frolic in pearls on the restaurant’s signage and drive a getaway car in the dining room. For something unique, try the “Special,” an $89.99 meal that comes with juicy sirloin steak, a big curl of kielbasa, and chopped vegetables, all cooked tableside and followed by a kimchi fried rice finish. It’s quite a show. The two sisters who run the place take turns at the grill, carefully dicing and slicing the steak, then sautéing the bell peppers and mushrooms and onions and potatoes until the whole room smells like sizzling fajitas at a Mexican restaurant.