Lunch with Lincoln: Jun Won Dak
A Delicious Korean Chicken Soup from a Mom-and-Pop Place in Koreatown
Welcome to Lunch with Lincoln
Welcome to a new series in which I will post about a place I ate lunch at and give you my thoughts, opinions, recommendations, and reflections on the lunch. Lunch is actually my favorite word, and I’ve been trying to diversify the content I serve up on Eclectic Takes. I’ll probably post more of these once my finals exams are over.
Lunch Details
Name of Restaurant: Jun Won Dak
Items ordered: Samgyetang (Korean chicken soup)
Neighborhood: Koreatown
Price: $$
Address of Restaurant: 4254 1/2 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90020
Lunch Review
I was craving Korean chicken soup (samgyetang or 삼계탕) on Tuesday, so I visited Jun Won Dak in Koreatown for some takeout. I had read online that this place was pretty good. When I entered the place, I knew things would be good. This place was a real mom-and-pop1 Koreatown joint: 4 menu items and run by a family. This is how more restaurants should be. Nothing trendy or flashy. No menu with seven pages that takes five minutes to read. Four items and four pictures of those items.
I called ahead for takeout and waited a minute or two after arriving before I was handed my order. Jun Won Dak is takeout-centric, and they had things down. The soup was hot but had a piece of cardboard (perfectly cut to fit in the takeout bag) under it so it wasn’t too hot to keep your hand on the bottom while you carried it. They also put some of the herbs in little plastic containers—along with some kimchi—in the bag (but outside the soup container) to keep those from getting too soggy from sitting in the hot soup.
The soup stayed hot for my entire 20-minute drive back to my apartment. I was skeptical about ordering soup and whether it would remain hot for the drive home, but this soup did not disappoint. I opened up the ingredients, put them in the soup, and stirred it a little. I had to be careful because, as you can see from this picture, the container was filled to the brim.
The samgyetang was balanced. It was not too salty, not too oily, not too acidic, not too fatty, etc. It lived in the Goldilocks zone of flavors. It was a rich, hearty soup in which an entire bird (a whole young chicken) was stuffed (with garlic, ginseng, jujubes, and rice) and then dropped into a tasty, hearty broth. The green onion and other herbs complement the soup well. The broth and chicken are just what you want on a cool autumn day.2 The bird is well prepared, and no part of the chicken is wasted3. The jujubes are a great addition as well because they’ve been getting to know the other flavors in the soup as it cooks. When you bite into it, you get a burst of the jujube flavor and the different flavors it has gotten to know in the cooking process.
However, the highlight of the dish for me was getting a spoonful of the rice and garlic that had been stuffed into the bird. The way the garlic melts into the rice alongside that savory broth . . . 맛있어요!
I have a pretty big appetite but couldn’t eat this all in one sitting, so I had leftover soup to heat up on the stove later—I heated it up with some extra rice. The samgyetang re-heats well. Therefore, I think you’re getting a better deal than the initial price would lead you to believe because you’re really getting two meals out of this.
I highly recommend Jun Won Dak and its samgyetang and love what they’re all about. They keep a tight menu and execute the dishes they make to perfection. I plan to visit this place for another meal in the near future.
Rating (out of 5 stars):
★★★★★
I received no payment, endorsement, solicitation, or any other consideration in exchange for this review.
The restaurant is run by Jeff Jun and his mother Jung Ye Jun, so it’s actually a mom-and-son operation; but mom-and-pop sounded better.
I am aware that Koreans typically eat this on hot summer days. However, I think it also pairs well with crisp, cool autumn days. I will reserve judgment on whether it is good on hot days for when I eat it on a hot day.
The chicken is bone-in—as it should be.