I think I may have found a place doing the cod just as well or better than Jun Won. Had a wonderful version at Jeon Ju. Less bones, same general sweet flavor profile. Comes with some really nice tofu and ddukbokki too.
As someone who has had both; Jun Wonâs eundaegu jorim is a little watery and practically vaporized, which is authentic and true to the dish. It breaks up much more easily and the flesh melts and fragments into little crumbs, which is par the course, since that dish is built to be broken up and eaten stirred with some white rice. Changâs spicy cod is meant to be eaten with noodles has a bit more bite to it, and has a more substantive flake, not unlike a bacalao.
Finally tried the ribs last night with some great company. It was a pleasure meeting you @CiaoBob, @J_L, @paranoidgarliclover, and @DTLAeater. The ribs were excellent, perfectly tender, fatty and juicy. and damn the rice that they make with the leftover meat just topped yazawaâs garlic wagyu rice in my book. iâll be back #worthit.
I also wanted to thank @Ns1 for the reservation and being so generous to allow us to charge the dinner to his credit card they had on file.
I second all of that. @ns1, I will have to email you the video where we toasted to you with some bottles of Cristal that were ordered off the list.
Nice report @PorkyBelly, sounded like you all had a great FTC meetup! 
But⌠@Ns1 treated all of you?! 
Here we thought only @J_L @Porthos @ipsedixit and you were the ballers on FTC. But who knew @Ns1 was a baller as well, and so generous! 
Itâs basically a rounding error on my bank account.
What a guy!!!
Since I am totally gulliable and earnest, I must reveal that they are joking. @ns1 gave his his reservation.
Agree that it was wonderful meeting so many FTCâers and also agree that the ribs were pretty f*cking amazing. They also give you the gigantic bones to gnaw on (thereâs actually a decent amount of meat on them), so if you think of it as 3 dishes, the price makes more sense.
Also loved the potatoes, jumeokbap, and the warm bing. The interior is also gorgeous, and the service was excellent.
Misses were the broccoli (not bad, just not anything particularly interesting) and the the cabbage (which I enjoyed, but, again, didnât find particularly compelling).
Maybe we went on an unusually âonâ night, but, overall, I thought place was pretty good.
Oh you were all joking? 
Glad you liked the rice balls. They were our favorite as well.
Let it not be left unsaid that navigating menus at these restaurants is something of an art in and of itself.
⌠And a wonderful, convivial and experienced dining crew (such was our table) will go a long ways to maximize the âhits-to-misses ratioâ on our dinner selections.
It was a blast to supp with you all, @DTLAeater, @PorkyBelly +1, @paranoidgarliclover +1, and @CiaoBob. Echoing gratitude to @Ns1 as well for the support!
Jealous of the hangout/meal.
Do the ribs indeed serve 6 people?
Not sure how the rest of the table felt, but I recall us discussing it and having split opinions. We were a table of 7, and we had maybe 5 other dishes (many of which were apps, so on the small side) + the ribs. Some at the table were stuffed, and 3 of us could have eaten more (and specifically more of the ribs). And the 3 of us who couldâve eaten more thought we could probably polish off the short ribs as a smaller group pretty easily. But I would also say that the 3 of us who could eat more are also probably REALLY big eaters. So YMMV.
It is a decent hunk of meat (sliced and arrayed to fill the bottom of a fairly large braiser), a smallish (for my taste) bowl of rice served w/ some of the meat leftover, and 3 (I think) large bones w/ a good amount of meat. The dishes (esp the rice) are VERY rich.
He does get beat up a little by FTCers (myself included) and always takes it in stride.
Did you not hit up the cocktail bar next to it ?
Funny story about the volume of food.
When the waiter first came over (before we were ready to put in the whole shebang) he reminded us about the APL short-rib pre-order and we asked him if there was any chance of running out of the chicken dish and should we reserve one of those. He said they never run out of chicken. So we ordered it later, and, of course, - after bringing the order to the kitchen - he returned, quite sheepishly, and informed us the chickens were gone. Instead of replacing we decided we had ordered enough. Which, I agree, we did.
The Cod is really good but not enough cod - Iâll take Jun Wonâs version over DCâs for that dish.
reservations wonât be getting any easier anytime soon
I donât think the ribs would be enough for 6 people if thatâs the ONLY thing that you ordered, but it was worth the cost and there are plenty of small to medium dishes on the menu to suit all appetite sizes if more food is needed. With 6 people and whatever else you need to become full, I think the bill will be reasonable for the quality of food, just MHO. On the flip side, I wouldnât order the dish with less than 4 people. Itâs a very rich dish and itâs nice to get some smaller dishes. So the restaurant recommendation of 4-6 people is accurate.
After some reflection, I think my favorite dish might have been the stuffed peppers.
there were four of us when we went and we ordered 3 bings (the butter & honey, the eggs and smoked roe, and Bentonâs ham), the stuffed peppers, the rock crab, the bounty bowl, the sugar snaps, the vermicelli, and the whole plate short ribs, and a side of onion rings.
we had the vermicelli and some of the whole plate short ribs as leftovers.
we ordered too much food, everything was great but will probably not order the crab or the vermicelli again. the crab was kinda bland and the vermicelli didnât particularly strike me as tasty (we got the vermicelli the same time as the whole plate short ribs , so that probably didnât help either)
one thing that is great about the vermicelli is that the shrimp in the dish is peeled but they leave the head and the tail on. Do they do this at other restaurants? i loved getting the shrimp and being able to suck the brains outâŚ
