I love Jin Go Gae! I’ve only been twice, and must admit the last time I tried other Korean places in New Malden was a long time ago so it’s hard to make a fair comparison, but we loved it so much one Saturday that I dragged 3 other friends along a week later. Trains to Motspur Park run quite frequently from Waterloo, and if you go for dinner you most definitely have to make a reservation because there’s almost no comfortable place to wait.
One of my favourite dishes there is the raw chilli crab. (Still looking for a Korean restaurant that does soy-marinated raw crab, if anyone has any tips!) The chilli paste is SUPER spicy and makes a right mess when you’re trying to eat it, but if you’re faster than your dining companions you can go straight for the best part which is the shell with all the roe and clean it out with some white rice. The rest of the crab meat is a pain in the arse to extract, but it’s worth sucking it out of the legs because even the chilli paste takes on the sweetness of the crab meat.
I particularly like the fact that they grill over real charcoal. For some reason even the cuts of meat are fattier and tastier, or more well-marinated than many of the central London restaurants (Koba, Asadal, Arang to name a few). The first time we went to Jin Go Gae, there were two of us and we ordered a ridiculous amount: kimchi + namul, soondae, raw spicy crab, and four plates of meat for the BBQ (their pork ribs ALMOST exceed the beef ribs!!). Need to go back to Jin Go Gae to try their lunch menu!
