Jubo, 17th August

I had somewhere I needed to be at 9 so I was keen on getting to Jubo fairly early. Not quite as early as we were, as we managed to get there literally as it opened and were the first to arrive, which kind of buggered up our ordering. We wanted to try the pork buns but as they'd only just opened the kitchen, they would have been a half an hour wait so we didn't get them - we got more chicken instead. This may have been a blessing in disguise.

So, we had a seat while they finished properly opening up and ordered a drink. Stephen got a Korean beer (£3.50) and I had a glass of Merlot (£5). We looked over the menu and eventually made our choices to get a variety of what was on offer.

We ordered 4 chicken wings - two soy garlic, two hot and sour, the bulgogi sandwich, some kimchi slaw and two pork buns. When we decided not to wait for those, we swapped them out for three hot and sour chicken strips and some chips. The steak buns weren't available that night as they didn't have the steak for them (though, weirdly, this didn't affect the bulgogi rolls). 

The chips came out first and they were not a good opening salvo. They were clearly some form of frozen 'steak fries' not made on the premises. I mean, yeah, they tasted ok, but you don't go out to eat oven chips you could have made at home. They were also way too salty. Coming soon after were the kimchi slaw and the wings.

The wings were gargantuan. And not split into their composite parts, which was a shame, as I'm a bit squeamish about pulling bones apart. I got Stephen to do it for me. They had a very crispy batter, glazed with the different flavours, and the hot and sour ones came with sesame seeds. A nice touch. These were both really tasty, I preferred the hot and sour versions, as the soy garlic ones were a smidgen too sweet to eat a lot of. Happily, when we ordered the chicken strips, we'd chosen the hot and sour version. These were by far the best dish to come out - such huge strips of chicken we thought they must be on a bone. But they weren't! Inside was juicy breast and/or thigh meat, with the crispy skin all over the outside. Fantastic.

The coleslaw was nice, it did have a different taste to it that had to be attributed to the kimchi, but this could have been stronger. The bulgogi was also fine to eat - I liked the roll it came in, it was just what I picture when thinking about 'subs' but it could have done with a bit more filling  On the other hand, the steak inside wasn't fantastic so maybe there was enough of it! It either was overcooked, or of not great quality (or both) as it was quite chewy. Stephen would like it known that he thought this was worse than a Subway steak 'n' cheese sandwich but I don't think anything is worse than that.

The chicken they do very well and I would go back for that, the rest left us dissatisfied. Of course, they have only just opened, so there is plenty of room and time for improvement and perhaps this is the peril you face when you go to a soft opening. Speaking of which, the bill was quite a good consolation as they have 28% off until Thursday so we only paid £15 each including service. Even without the discount the prices were very reasonable, with the most expensive thing being the rolls which were £6.50.