Jae Bu Do

came here with the fam for some seafood bbq since my brother was in town for a wedding. the atmosphere was casual and there was a small patio-​ish area on the side that was covered. seafood wise, you could order a few things a-​la-​carte, but i’d recommend getting one of the set menu items (A, B, C). My fam and I got the Set C and it was definitely a lot of seafood, but easily finished among 5 people.
While this place is nice for a very casual family dinner, it’s more of a drinking with a few buddies while having some seafood anju kind of spot. They even give you some heat resistant gloves to help you handle the hot shells of the clams and shellfish, which i’d definitely recommend… you don’t want to be using your bare hands or risk getting burned.
overall, i’d consider coming back a few more times, but the surrounding area can be quite sketchy… so unless you adore seafood, i’d reconsider if you’re feeling iffy.

PARADISE FOR SEAFOOD LOVERS!!!
My friend & I waited about 30 – 40 minutes tonight (New Years Day) to be seated, but it really wasn’t too bad of a wait given that it takes so long to cook your food…
So we ordered COMBO A $ 54.99 which comes with manila clams, mosi clams, mussels, shrimp, «pink» scallops?, sweet potatoes, gigantic clams, octopus, grilled Cheese Corn, steamed egg, korean pancake, gigantic pot of noodles, cold shrimp salad soup, as well as the typical kimchee and raw veggies with bean paste.
It was A LOT of food for two girls. the amount was really enough to feed 3 – 4 girls… BUT WE FINISHED ALMOST EVERYTHING: D
The seafood was fresh and meant to be eaten with the gardening gloves… make sure the clams don’t get overcooked! From time to time, the workers help put more seafood on the grill, but for the most part, we were left to figure things out ourselves.
Seafood Cold Soup: unique and tasty! Imagine strips of cabbage and cocktail shrimp/​sashimi in a sweet and sour cold broth…
Korean pancake: VERY moist! Loved it!!!
Cheese Corn: meh… I’ve had better… wasn’t feeling the big chunks of onion inside…
Kalguksoo: deliciously slimy! The noodles were soft and chewy… warmed my stomach for sure but too bad they don’t have containers to take home…
Steamed egg: Can’t go wrong here… it was very juicy, juicy, juicy!
The workers did forget to offer us water as well as our pancake, steamed egg, and cheese corn so we reminded them ;)
The whole experience was very fun and interactive, but we were wayyyy overstuffed at the end. I can’t wait to bring more people and try the biggest combo!

What can I say? Hello Cholesterol lol it’s worth the experience. It’s a different Korean BBQ style but good stuff. The seafood was fresh, at least it wasn’t frozen. The corn & the tofu they give you as part of the package is to die for. It’s so good that you want to keep eating it. It’s super addicting. The restaurant is kinda small. The staff is very small, maybe like 4 waitresses but still they manage to help everyone. They have a nice size parking lot behind the restaurant.

WOW! This place is bomb. I have been here 3 times, and all three of them were great experiences. To start off, the food tastes awesome. It is just the best. Don’t go anywhere else for bbq seafood.
Also, the workers are usually nice, and they try to make you feel welcomed as much as possible. They are busy for the most part, so they can’t devote too much time serving you. But you will notice that they will try to keep you engaged by talking to you first.
The only downside will be that they are VERY popular. So you will end up having to wait outside for at least 30 – 40 minutes if you come here during dinner time. I’m not sure if they accept reservations (probably not…). But I think it will be a good idea for you to check with them first before making your dinner plans.

The food is always good here.
One bad thing about this place is their valet guys. They drive the car recklessly. I don’t know what they were doing in my car or how he was trying to drive it that it make this weird noise. NOT COOL DUDE. Then I saw them drive anther car, drove off like a maniac. WTH?
Don’t bring your car here. If they have parking space in the parking lot, they will park your car on the street. Pretty far too. What would happen if something happen to the car?
Not cool.

Overrated place. Overpriced… Too hot too dirty. I won’t go unless someone ask me to!
$ 45 for eel is a little overpriced… But they have charcoals!

Overall experience is 3 stars
It’s way too hot inside the restaurant and space are very limited so need to be crazy walking inside the restaurant.
We ordered the combo C which is the biggest combo on the menu 99.99 with cash (different from the picture of the menu posted）
I liked the oysters, clams and scallops
Shrimps are too hard to take off the shells and abalones are too rigid (pardon my poor vocab I can’t think of a better word)
But oh boy don’t look up what hag fish is… I lost my appetite after… So I can’t say I love this place and be back for sure but it’s definitely a good experience to try something new!

Very small, cramped restaurant when you enter and when we went right at opening, there were a few other parties there already. I can only imagine how packed this small tiny place can get around dinner rush hours so just heads up!
Three different sets of seafood (A, B, and C sets). Difference in terms of quantity mostly depending on how many mouths you want to feed! C set is about $ 100.
Big seafood platter! Super self explanatory! Clams, oysters, shrimp, abalone (can watch it moving around alive while it’s being cooked on your coal grill), HAGFISH, etc.
also comes with Korean sides, including Korean seafood ceviche, pancake, and noodle soup at the end! (Soup was pretty good, thick and salty with a kick from black pepper)
The cheese corn is my favorite. So good. And various small soups stored in steel foiled bowls to be heated on your grill
Tip: FREE refills on cheese corn and steamed egg!!!
Pros:
–pay in cash and get $ 5 off (cc has extra charge)
–yummy fresh and LIVE seafood
–attentive workers who come to your table regularly to help you cook, cut, and open the stuff wrapped in the steel wrappers
–call button at the restaurant if you need! But the place is so small, it’s easy to flag someone down
–gloves so your hand doesn’t heat up and to hold the hot shells!
Cons:
–small restaurant (super cramped)
–poor ventilation (gets really hot!)
–be careful of crossing your legs under the table girlies! They have the steel pipes or whatever under the table that connects to the coal fire in your table. I touched it once accidentally by crossing my legs and it hurts! (Please I’m not fat but it’s pretty cramped under the table for leg space haha)

This was my first time trying seafood bbq style kind of dealio. I came with a group of 5 around 7 – 8 and got seated promptly. This place is kinda small.
I think we ordered the Set C, roughly $ 100 bucks. Just to let you know, paying in cash is better. I think there’s an extra charge for card. Not too sure.
There was a large variety of seafood. Clams, muscles, scallops, abalone, oysters, shrimp, and noodles. And it’s nice that they help with some of the cooking and cutting of the shelled items. I really enjoyed the scallops; they had a subtle sweetness to them. The clams and oysters were delicious and juicy. Just when I thought my meal was over, more food came in, which is one of the best feelings ever.
Overall, if you were looking for something filling, this might not stuff you up. You’ll probably want to eat more. It’s a cool experience, but ventilation is bad (stuffy and hard to breathe) and I was sweating badly as I ate, which is not a comfortable feeling.

REally friggin good. For $ 100 (pay in cash, if not, add $ 5) you get a huge platter of seafood– predominantly shellfish, a platter of octopus and some kind of fish (leans more towards eel), and a noodle broth. Really cool because they bring out coals and you grill your food on top of it: D
There are manila clams, scallops (of many friggin sizes, some are so itttttttty bitty that its cute. it’s made into a soup though), shrimp, oyster, yam/​sweet potato, noodles, and mussel. Appetizers were also unlimited.
We were so full we couldn’t even finish the yam. hooray for food coma! I think I would’ve liked to eat more seafood though. We shared it with 4 people so didn’t get the satisfying seafood fill, did get super full though!
The waiters come and help you open /​serve some of the food which was cool. Pretty attentive with your needs though at times you have to flag them down.
Def will be back! :D My fav def was the large clams and oysters. mmm so derlicious.

2.5 stars
Seafood + Korean BBQ = awesome idea!
Execution = just alright…
The presentation when they bring a giant tray of various seafood is impressive. It was fairly tasty with the scallop soup being the standout for me. However, I am knocking down a couple stars for slow service and hygiene. The tables and chairs were oily and not wiped down completely. There were buckets of dirty plates strewn everywhere, and while I understand their staff may not get to it right away, it was still odd standing in line for the bathroom uncomfortably cramped up next to those dirty plates. I don’t know if it’s because it was later at night, but even after the table behind us left, they didn’t bus it for at least a good half hour. Practices like that make me feel a bit iffy about their commitment to cleanliness…
While I can’t say I’ll never come back, I probably wouldn’t drive from SD specifically to eat here.

I have no idea why I’ve seen people check in this place in facebook.
Pros
— fresh seafood
Cons
— very very small
— hot
— lobster was crossed off the menu even though i saw a couple in the tank so we didn’t get lobster
— food was mediocre
— I didn’t like the side dishes like the large bowl of soup or that one long fish
I will not be coming back and after leaving this place, I didn’t eat seafood for a week.

A different take on Korean BBQ, no meat, all seafood! I arrived at the restaurant with a party of 3 around 8:30pm on a Friday hoping to avoid some of the wait. There was a large party of 8 and 4 small parties of 4 or less so we ended up waiting about 35 minutes. We were squeezed into a table for 4 with a big family at the table right next to us. We ordered Set B ($ 79.99 if you pay cash/​debit, and $ 84.99 if you pay with credit card). It came with a bunch of different clams (my favorite!) in varying sizes, shrimp, abalone, mussel, scallop, oysters, as well as a bunch of sides like cheese corn, steamed egg, kimchi pancake, kimchi, potato, sweet potato, different soups with pieces of seafood, and a very large bowl of a cold ceviche dish. By the time every thing came out, there was barely any room to put everything! We ordered a few bottles of soju to accompany the food.
The ventilation isn’t great and I was def sweating shortly after starting the meal. They tell you to take the clams off as the shells open or it might burn, but these little suckers cook so fast, it was stressful to get them off all the grill in time! They give you a glove so you can pick the seafood directly off the grill, but it didn’t prevent me from getting burned! 5 minutes in, I ditched the glove altogether. The restaurant is rather small but they do have a call button at each table if you need to get the attention of the waiter. We offered our waiter a soju shot so there was never a need for us to use the button :)
The cheese corn is one of the best I’ve had and they will give refills on it, as well as on the steamed egg! They also bring out a large bowl of soup noodles at the end, but we were stuffed by then and it tasted too plain for me to waste my stomach space on it. They keep the sweet potato cooking under the grill and you have to request they lift the grill and take that out for you. Nice little sweetness at the end :)
Overall, FANTASTIC meal! It ended up costing $ 46 each, which I think is a great deal!

First time having seafood KBBQ and I was impressed! The wait for our giant table was over an hour, but it only made us hungrier for the food! The four of us got the Combo B (there’s three combos), which came with scallops, octopus, shrimp, clams, giant clams, conch, abalone, mussels, soup, potato, sweet potato, oysters, spicy scallops, and more.
Before our food arrived, the really nice server dropped off water sashimi (cold lettuce, sashimi, shrimp in a red saue), corn cheese, and steamed egg to our table. We also had banchan, salad, and two different types of spicy sauce.
When our platter came out, we were super impressed. The seafood was basically still alive! The abalone was moving when the server put it on the grill. The server basically did everything for us and told us when everything was good to eat. She helped us throughout the different types of seafood and even told us tips on how to cook the food. We got special gloves to grab the seafood and protect your hands from the heat. Everything was super fresh and delicious.
My personal favorite was the conch salad because of the light and yummy soup base it had. In terms of the seafood, I really enjoyed the abalone, scallops, mussels, and the clams. We accidentally left our octopus on the grill for too long, so it was burnt when we ate it. The tricky part of the meal was knowing when the seafood was ready to eat.
After finishing our seafood, we got an udon soup at the end. The broth was so flavorful! Definitely a great finish to a fresh and delicious meal. I was really surprised at how much was included, and the quality of it. This restaurant really left a great impression on my first seafood KBBQ, and I can’t wait to be back!

I love that this place closes at 2am! I had this place bookmarked for awhile and finally made time to stop by after work. The restaurant is a lot smaller than I imagined and is a little bit on the dirty side. We decided on ordering Combo B (consisted of clams, jumbo clams, muscles, oysters, marinated scallops, octopus, abalone, shrimp, ceviche, Korean pancake, kimchi, carrots and celery, corn cheese, egg soup, sweet potato, regular potato, and a noodle soup at the end) for a party of four people. The portion was perfect! It can even satiate five stomachs if it came down to it.
I really liked the ceviche, Korean pancake, and marinated scallop the most. The ceviche was sweet and was complimented with the jalapeño and greens inside. The Korean pancake here had a nice texture to it. The corn cheese had a little too much mayo in my opinion
Be careful not to overcook any of the seafood, or else it will get dry or chewy. For the clams, once they open, they are good to eat. Use the gloves provided to prevent yourself from getting burnt.
When you are done with the seafood, you get a noodle soup at the end. After that, your «dessert finish» is a potato and sweet potato that has been sitting in the coal since the beginning of your meal. I liked ending my meal with the sweet potato.
**Bring cash because you’d have to pay a little extra ($ 5) on credit card!
The server was very helpful in grilling the seafood for us and I think it’s not bad for the price you pay. I recommend trying this place out if you’re in the area! It’s a good experience!

5 stars for food and the amount of food provided. Got Combo C, which was way more than enough for 4 people. The meal started off with a Korean style ceviche, with cabbage and sashimi in a cold, vinegar-​y soup, and a steamed egg. There was an abalone soup, spicy and super flavorful. All the shellfish that were placed on the grill were super juicy and fresh (oysters, scallops, clams, mussels, shrimp and abalone). And there are two different spicy sauces and a bean paste to dip the meat in. The eel didn’t look appetizing when it was raw and cooked on the grill, but when sauced up with the special marinade, I had forgotten all about how gross it looked. And then the meal ended with kalgooksoo, noodles in a clear spicy broth, also full of flavor. $ 100 for 4 people and the amount of fresh seafood were worth it!
2 stars for service though. We weren’t cooking the seafood the way it was meant to be cooked. Every time a server came, they made comments about the right way. If they were more attentive I could imagine the food tasting way better.
And no stars for the baby roach that crossed the wall as I was eating dinner. Not the most pleasant dinner guest that I wanted to join me. YUCK!

Never been to a Korean seafood grill and as for my first experience I thought this little hole in the wall did a great job portraying the authentic experience!!!
In terms of service, although they were pretty busy, I thought the service was accommodating enough where even if they weren’t as attentive, it was forgivable due to the full house.
Food wise, we ordered the B meal which comes with enough food to feed four people. From what I remember, B comes with a seafood sashimi cold soup, four oysters, giant clams, bunch of little clams, pot of noodles, handful of shrimp, a lot of scallop, abalone, sweet potato, regular potato, and mussels.
I think this place is definitely worth the try and people should come earlier to avoid waiting.
**Try to come before 6:30 pm because at 6:30 pm they open up the patio area and your wait time will be shorten!!!

Want to get smelly, potentially burn your hand/​tongue, and eat really really good seafood? Jae Boo Do is the place for you!
The menu is simple because there are basically only 3 sets to order from (A, B, or C — — depending on the number of people in your group). A C set generally feeds a group of 5 – 6 when I go.
The C set has a fantastic variety, including clams, oysters, eel, giant clams, sweet potato, ceviche, and a giant pot of udon. The wait can get long because this is a small shop. However, it is a great place to have a sit down lunch with a few friends. The soju is also inexpensive at $ 6 a bottle (if i remember correctly).
Dinners are Jae Boo Do are almost a guarantee for a good time, so definitely swing by this place and check it out if you are looking for some seafood!

It’s not something that is extraordinarily delicious but it’s a great combination of a unique experience and decent food. There isn’t much to say about how «deliciously» cooked the food is because… you basically cook it yourself and all they really do is .put some butter and spice in your bowl of scallops heehee :)
I’ve always enjoyed coming to this location because it’s been here for the longest time and they are very consistent with their seafood. Sometimes you have to wait for hours to get in but if you get lucky you avoid the horrendous wait and get seated right away.
Of course over the years the prices have changed with the cost of food rising by a little I still think it’s worth it for all the food that comes out and the service they offer. When I went the last time they offer discounts of approximately $ 5 if you pay in cash, thought it was smart idea haha.
I usually choose the B combo because it gives you a variety of seafood as to A combo gives you too little and C combo just goes above and beyond. You’re most likely going to be getting massive amounts of clams. WARNING! don’t let it sit on the grill for too long after they opened up … they turn into ashes and will start flying EVERYWHERE and make your life miserable hahha!
B combo makes me want to regret ordering it because I usually go in a small group and get so full I don’t want to eat any more … *sigh*
The fresh abalone, when it starts to cook it moves and squirms… which is my least favorite part but it’s still delicious! hahaha
Their bowl of baby scallops that come with butter, onions, and jalapenos are delicious and it also has conch inside. The conch doesn’t come out fresh so you can grill it’s in the gold in bowl… so let your search begin! haha
The side dishes that come out before all the seafood is equally amazing. The mool hweh (cold spicy rawfish soup) is always fresh with vegetables, their vegetable pancake never disappoints but their corn is disappointing many times… wish it had more cheese. not mayo hahhaa
The service isn’t bad. You can’t really complain that their service is bad because they open and cut the seafood for you when it’s 2000 degrees and risk getting burnt by the grill ALL THE TIME. so DON’T COMPLAIN haha I always feel bad… when they start opening up the oysters… hahaha
At the end of the meal they give you kalgooksoo (…noodles) and even if i’m so full to the point of throwing up I’d still eat the noodles. HAHAHA
For a different experience and decent quality grilled seafood I’d definitely recommend this place! Just remember that you’ll smell like you’ve been next to a campfire … for hours once you leave the place and .it’s one of those bbq smells that aren’t so «pleasant» its might stink a little bit because you were grilling SEAFOOD. hahaha!

Jae Boo Do (or Jae Bu Do) is a grilled seafood Korean restaurant. It is one of the more popular restaurants in Los Angeles… so naturally, when I moved to the West Coast, my college friends dragged me to this place.
Food: 4 stars
Atmosphere: Hot & Sweaty & Smoky (don’t wear your nice clothes here!)
Parking: Horrible (you’re better off with street parking)
Amongst my favorites are grilled raw oysters, grill clams, and bay scallops. YUM! As with any Korean restaurant, a large variety of appetizers (banchan) were provided. My favorite was the steamed egg and the creamed corn with onions.
Definitely an experience. Wear your comfy clothes, make sure your pants stretch at the waistband, roll up your sleeves, and get ready to grill and eat! ENJOY!