Jinzen

"Jinxed was so delicious! I loved the sea dumplings are everything! So much flavor and really taste like a food pillow! So soft and so delicious! You have to give them a try! The volcano fried rice was so yummy! I love the ambiance and enjoyed the food! The server was amazing as well!"

"First of all, the Atmosphere and food presentation are the strong points. It really was what drew my wife and I to visit here. Beautifully decorated with cherry blossoms and wooden booths. Food - surprisingly not that good... Seeing the pictures online got us excited but we were super disappointed in the quality of the food. We ordered the Steak Bites and Pork Donkatsu as an appetizer. It turns out the fire for the steak bites is just for show... They lit it after they put it on our table and it lasted for about 5 minutes. It didn't even really make the meat hot. and for 20 bucks, it wasn't that much steak. Steak Bites - it has to be coated with baking soda or a chemical tenderizer. The steak was so tender it actually tasted like a meatball. Just imagine that for a second... you take a bite of steak, but the texure is like a meatball... super weird. Flavor was garlicky, but definitely reminded my wife and I both of spaghetti and meatballs. Pork Donkatsu - At first, I was surprised on how crunchy the outside was and how SUPER tender the inside was. And then... I realized that they probably used baking soda or chemical tenderizer because it was TOO tender. So I was a bit grossed out again. But if we were to pick a favorite, this was probably the best thing we tried. Volcano Fried Rice - This was the WORST choice. We were told it was super popular, and we weren't sure if we wanted to order, but since our waiter recommended it, we thought, "What the heck, we're here to try this new restaurant, so we'll get it!" BAD CHOICE. It literally tasted like KETCHUP with rice. It was so bad, we took two bites and could not eat it. There were about 7 or 8 chunks of chicken, and AGAIN, they were SUPER tender... tasted more like chicken meatballs. Weird. We told our waiter that it really didn't taste like Kung Pao chicken and was super sweet so it wasn't what we expected (trying to imply we wanted a refund...) but she just said sorry and offered to make it more spicy. But can you make ketchup rice taste better? I don't think so... I really don't like Panda Express, but would eat their fried rice over this terrible dish. Tonkatsu Ramen - My wife ordered this and the texture of the ramen was great, but the soup was nothing special. There was actually barely any broth so we actually requested more after it came out, which our waiter was happy to give. It tasted similar to home-made package ramen pack. The soft boiled egg was very salty and the meat tasted like it was frozen. We have had much better ramen at other restaurants like G-San in the Loop. Service - The waitress was super kind, but didn't offer a different plate when we said we didn't like the Volcano Fried Rice. We did not eat it and left it there. We also complained to the hostess/(manager?) but she just told us to tell them next time to make it more spicy for us. We wanted to escalate because we were so disappointed and couldn't even eat the Volcano Fried Rice... but alas.. we just wanted to get out of there... If you want good Asian food (coming from a Korean native and Korean American who are foodies and have traveled across many countries in SE Asia), this is not the place to go. Go to Tai Ke (Taiwanese), G-San (Japanese Ramen), Corner17 (handpulled noodles), Mai Le (Vietnamese), Wonton King (Chinese/Dim Sum), ChiliSpot (Szechuan Spicy), Thai Sawadee, and Cafe Ganadara (Korean and Korean Fried Chicken)."

"This place was beautiful on the inside. Every staff member we came across greeted us and were very friendly! The food we got was delicious! I will say though, the ramen broth was different than I have ever had as it was a hint of seafood flavor. It wasn’t bad just unexpected as it was my first time there. Overall great experience!"

"We had such a wonderful dinner at Jinzen!!!I love how cozy and lovely the restaurant is. All of the dishes were delicious. My favorite were the black garlic beef, dumpling and the mango orange tea. It was immediately such a good vibe the moment I walked into the door and the hostess welcomed us with a warm smile. My server Bella was amazing. Jinzen was recently opened like a week ago but soon enough it will become a hot spot. Highly recommended to try before it gets too busy."