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Cheap Eats: Jin Joo Korean Restaurant

with Lyle Galdeira and Russell Yamanoha

PEARL CITY (KHNL) - The Waimalu Shopping Center is a virtual line-up of places to eat. In fact, there are restaurants from one end all the way down to the other. And we've come to one of the best. This week, Cheap Eats is at the Jin Joo Korean Restaurant in Waimalu.

It's been a fixture in Pearl City for some 30 years, attracting patrons from far and wide, and I do mean far. Take for example, Sharon Bartlett, taking a leap of faith at Jin Joo some 4,000 miles from home.

"What's on the plate in front of you?"

" I don't have any idea. They said they'd fix me up, I've been fixed up" said Bartlett, visiting from Lebanon, Missouri.

"We've never had Korean food before and she said I'm gonna fix you up, but if a man comes in from TV, you tell him you eat here every day. So that's the story we're going with, that's the story we're going with."

Well, she may have been tipped off that the Cheap Eats crew was paying a visit, but that didn't change anything back in kitchen. Lyle's back there finding out that Jin Joo does it old school, especially with their signature kal-bi.

"The big bone Kal-Bi, that means it comes from the market and what we have to do is filet the meat from the bone. It's the traditional way of making kal-bi. This is the way you would find it in Korea" said Myron Nakamoto.

"My favorite is the kal-bi. Very tasty, has a lot of meat, they no shame, they give plenty" said Jesse Aglipay of Kunia.

The prices?  

"Great. You guys should come down here if you want to taste some good kal-bi, come to Jin Joo's" said Aglipay.

The Jin Joo special and the kal-bi plate will run you a little over nine dollars. Most menu items are less than eight dollars.

So sometimes on Cheap Eats, we just go hearty. If you're meat lover, this is the place for you.   We got chicken, kal-bi, teri beef, meat jun, the whole thing.

"And I got the kal-bi, big boned baby, that's what it's all about. It's gotta be big boned here at Jin Joo" said Russ. 

Bottom line, at Jin Joo, the portions are big, the prices are small.

Jin Joo Korean Restaurant
Waimalu Shopping Center
488-3355