Jin Ga
By Phyllis C. Richman
Washington Post Restaurant Critic
From The Washington Post Dining Guide, November 1996
Formerly a Japanese restaurant priced sky-high, this Korean restaurant inherited beautiful furnishings, added more and staffed the dining room with waitresses in ethereal embroidered silk gowns. They don't necessarily understand the fine points of English, but they are gracious and try hard.
This restaurant has the only under-$10 soup-and-entree lunch in town that comes with a curved banquette and oversized table in a hushed and handsome dining room. Lunch specials are served on lacquered trays with chopsticks, but forks are available.
The cooking is very good, and even if you are doing it yourself on a tabletop grill, the waitresses guide you toward delicious results. The mainstays are kalbi (beef ribs) and bulgogi (thinly sliced beef), both of which arrive raw for you to grill (or already sizzling on metal platters at lunch). The menu goes on to grilled fish or fish stews, noodle soups and rice tossed with meat and vegetables. Most important, meals are accompanied by a tableful of condiments, including explosively peppery kim chee, lightly vinegared cucumbers and bean sprouts, tiny dried fish, and various peppered and vinegared vegetables.
This is a meal to nibble slowly, tasting a bit of this and a smidgen of that. The process is relaxing and sociable. The meal ends with a shallow cup of refreshingly cold, sweet, cinnamon-scented buckwheat tea with pine nuts floating in it. Dessert is superfluous.
