YAN JI Review

Korean barbecue has received quite the buzz this year and in this hot weather, barbecued food with a a glass of pimms in hand is all I can thing about… 

YAN JI specialises in authentic Korean barbecue situated on Bethnal Green road. The first thing we noticed when we sat down was the built-in charcoal grills in the middle of the table, we sat in a comfy booth and received a friendly welcome from our waitress, who kindly went through the menu with us. We were very keen to cook our own food on the grill and so she advised us to pick from the BBQ skewers section. 

We choose the King prawn, chicken soft bone, and the okra. When it arrived it was delicately placed on a groove above the burning coals, which rotates the skewers. We were advised to keep an eye on it, giving it about ten minutes or so to cook. I was just thankful the skewers rotated, I’ve been at another restaurant before cooking small pieces of food, only to accidentally burn one side… Chatting away with your dining partner is always the biggest distraction.

The soft bone chicken was a little crunchy, so I left that to my dinning partner, however I happily tucked into the okra and king prawn which were big and juicy. 

While the skewers were cooking they delivered the small plates of aubergine, crab sticks and chicken and vegetable dumplings. These small plates were quite generous in size and I must say we certainly did fight over the dumplings and crab sticks (those being our favourites) The crab sticks, were soft and delicate but packed in a lot of flavour and the dumplings were cooked to perfection. If you want to be a lot more adventurous than we were, you can opt for the chicken heart, pig intestine or lamb kidney (these guys don’t mess about when it comes to catering for the more advanced palates). 

The dessert selection was limited, offering only marshmallows, which were lightly toasted. We got a plate each and to be honest I wasn’t expecting much from the dessert, but these big fluffy marshmallows were delicious! Yes they are very sweet and sugary, but that’s just how I like it, in fact, the sweeter the better… 

We had a great time at YAN JI and I definitely recommend it to those who are interested in a dinning experience which involves cooking up your own grub. 

Website: http://www.yanjirestaurant.com 

Address: Yin Ji, 153 Bethnal Green road, London, E2 7DG