The Meat Jun Mayhem took place on August 23, 2008. (Mahalos to Club Queen Bee for use of their facilities.) 9 of the "best" meat juns, from some of the "best" places, faced off in a WOW Grinds blind taste test. The top 3 competitors finished neck and neck and neck, leaving the rest of the pack in the dust. Click "read more" to see the results.

Click on a Judge to see their profile. Hover over each Judge's score to see their comment explaining that score and a score breakdown. A complete list of judge's comments is located below the results table. We did weighted scoring again with Taste=50%, Texture=30% and Presentation=20%.

Judge's Comments

#1 Young's Kalbee

Judge 1 - Taste 6...Texture 7...Presentation 8. Kind of greasy but tasty and not too battered. Sauce a little too sweet.

Judge 2 - Taste 2...Texture 2...Presentation 9. Oily, cold, chewy.

Judge 3 - Taste 7...Texture 6...Presentation 5. Meaty, tender, tasty.

Judge 4 - Taste 8...Texture 8...Presentation 7.

Judge 5 - Taste 9...Texture 9...Presentation 7. Golden brown. Excellent a cut above others.

Judge 6 - Taste 5...Texture 5...Presentation 3. Oily, although meat was very flavorful.

Judge 7 - Taste 8...Texture 8...Presentation 10. Better with sauce. Slightly mushy. Overall has the best package.

Judge 1 - Taste 9...Texture 9...Presentation 8. The WINNAH! Taste, texture and sauce all good!

Judge 2 - Taste 9...Texture 10...Presentation 4. Meaty marinated meat, but not bland which caused dark color. Not burned, dark brown.

Judge 3 - Taste 8...Texture 8...Presentation 6. Thick pieces of meat, tender, tasty. Sauce was good.

Judge 4 - Taste 10...Texture 9...Presentation 6. Nice flavor combination of sauce and meat jun.

Judge 5 - Taste 7...Texture 6...Presentation 7. Bite size pieces of thicker meat. Significant amount of hard stuff in meat. Golden brown.

Judge 6 - Taste 7...Texture 7...Presentation 1. Taste better than it looks. Looks burnt and oily.

Judge 7 - Taste 5...Texture 7...Presentation 3. Looks like mochiko chicken. Not much taste, but good balance of meat and outside.

Judge 1 - Taste 5...Texture 4...Presentation 4. Kinda tender meat but kinda chewy. Sauce has alcoholy flavor (not good).

Judge 2 - Taste 8...Texture 7...Presentation 9. Taste good. Lots of meat, soft, ono, still warm, mmm. Cabbage underneath nice touch. Nice, kinda crispy.

Judge 3 - Taste 4...Texture 4...Presentation 4. Chewy, pretty tasty.

Judge 4 - Taste 4...Texture 4...Presentation 6.

Judge 5 - Taste 6...Texture 6...Presentation 7. Gooey.

Judge 6 - Taste 10...Texture 10...Presentation 10. Don't need the sauce. Meat well marinated.

Judge 7 - Taste 8...Texture 8...Presentation 7. Looked eggy, but has the highest quality meat.

Judge 1 - Taste 1...Texture 2...Presentation 3. Too sweet and sauce is like dressing, but meat is tender.

Judge 2 - Taste 7...Texture 7...Presentation 6. Little bit oily, but soft and tasty. Not bad. Looks dry, but good meat to batter ratio.

Judge 3 - Taste 1...Texture 3...Presentation 4. Too sweet. Sauce tasted like oriental dressing.

Judge 4 - Taste 4...Texture 4...Presentation 7.

Judge 5 - Taste 6...Texture 5...Presentation 6. Back bone of strong cabbage taste..

Judge 6 - Taste 9...Texture 9...Presentation 7. Meat is very tender. The sauce is really flavorful.

Judge 7 - Taste 7...Texture 7...Presentation 5. Not bad. Crust is slightly mushy. Looks sloppy.
Judge 8 - Taste 7...Texture 7...Presentation 3. Sweet sour sauce. Mushy. Thick. Very different. Bbq taste.
Judge 9 - Taste 8...Texture 8...Presentation 7. Sauce tastes like a little somen sauce. A better sauce would have made the meat jun better.
Judge 10 - Taste 8...Texture 8...Presentation 7.

#5 Yummy's Korean Bbq

Judge 1 - Taste 4...Texture 5...Presentation 3. A little eggy but tender and meat has flavor and sauce is salty.

Judge 2 - Taste 2...Texture 3...Presentation 9. Flour batter, no taste, all shoyu sauce, oily. Neatly stacked, eggy yellow.

Judge 3 - Taste 3...Texture 3...Presentation 3. Batter tasted like pancake.

Judge 4 - Taste 5...Texture 5...Presentation 6.

Judge 5 - Taste 6...Texture 6...Presentation 6.

Judge 6 - Taste 3...Texture 2...Presentation 2. Looks burnt and the egg over powers the meat.

Judge 7 - Taste 7...Texture 9...Presentation 7. Pretty good, but sauce is just kikoman shoyu. What's up with that?? Probably has the best texture though.
Judge 8 - Taste 6...Texture 8...Presentation 5. Sauce too strong shoyu. Eggy.
Judge 9 - Taste 8...Texture 8...Presentation 8. Tasted ok. Sauce doesn't add too much at all.
Judge 10 - Taste 6...Texture 6...Presentation 6.

#6 Soon's Kal Bi Drive In

Judge 1 - Taste 2...Texture 1...Presentation 2. Texture is too tough. Not enough meat. Looks like katsu too heavy breading. Sauce too sweet.

Judge 2 - Taste 4...Texture 5...Presentation 7. Could taste flour in batter. Looks like katsu. Piled high.

Judge 3 - Taste 3...Texture 3...Presentation 4. Looks katsu like. Tasted too eggy.

Judge 4 - Taste 5...Texture 3...Presentation 5. Too tough.

Judge 5 - Taste 7...Texture 6...Presentation 6. Thin meat. Good batter.

Judge 6 - Taste 7...Texture 8...Presentation 7. Meat is too thin.

Judge 7 - Taste 3...Texture 3...Presentation 3. Dry. Too much crust. Looks like won ton.

Judge 8 - Taste 5...Texture 7...Presentation 1. Sweet sauce. Tough meat. Dry, not moist.
Judge 9 - Taste 8...Texture 7...Presentation 7. Texture is pretty rough, but taste is good.
Judge 10 - Taste 6...Texture 6...Presentation 7. Batter too chewy.

#7 Sam's Delicatessen

Judge 1 - Taste 2...Texture 2...Presentation 1. Too eggy. But sauce was actually ok.

Judge 2 - Taste 1...Texture 1...Presentation 2. Texture, feel, taste boring.

Judge 3 - Taste 1...Texture 1...Presentation 1.

Judge 4 - Taste 9...Texture 9...Presentation 9. Nicest presentation.

Judge 5 - Taste 7...Texture 7...Presentation 6.

Judge 6 - Taste 5...Texture 6...Presentation 4. Egg looks really yellow.

Judge 7 - Taste 3...Texture 3...Presentation 3. Too eggy. Little taste.

Judge 8 - Taste 5...Texture 3...Presentation 6. Very eggy. Good spicy sauce.
Judge 9 - Taste 8...Texture 8...Presentation 7. A little less meat, but tastes pretty good.
Judge 10 - Taste 7...Texture 8...Presentation 7.

#8 Marukai Korean Bento (Control Entry)

Judge 1 - Taste 1...Texture 1...Presentation 1.

Judge 2 - Taste 5...Texture 4...Presentation 2. Cold, no sauce, but meat was marinated. Not much.

Judge 3 - Taste 2...Texture 2...Presentation 2. Edible. Meat separated from batter.

Judge 4 - Taste 7...Texture 7...Presentation 4. No sauce, but meat jun was tasty.

Judge 5 - Taste 5...Texture 5...Presentation 5.

Judge 6 - Taste 3...Texture 6...Presentation 6. Although it doesn't look good, but the meat tasted very good. No sauce? What's up with dat?

Judge 7 - Taste 6...Texture 7...Presentation 6. Not bad. No sauce. Good balance between crust and meat. Looks sloppy.

Judge 8 - Taste 3...Texture 2...Presentation 2. No sauce. Eggy. Mushy.
Judge 9 - Taste 5...Texture 6...Presentation 7. No sauce, kind of strange after taste.
Judge 10 - Taste 7...Texture 8...Presentation 6.

#9 J's Bbq (Soon's Decoy)

Judge 1 - Taste 0...Texture 0...Presentation 1.

Judge 2 - Taste 1...Texture 1...Presentation 1. Chewy hard. Ginger sauce. Looks oily.

Judge 3 - Taste 1...Texture 1...Presentation 0. Thin meat pieces, separated from batter, dry.

Judge 4 - Taste 5...Texture 5...Presentation 5.

Judge 5 - Taste 2...Texture 2...Presentation 6. Thin eggy batter. Yellow in color. Thin meat.

Judge 6 - Taste 6...Texture 5...Presentation 6. Egg and meat doesn't mesh together and the meat is really thin.

Judge 7 - Taste 3...Texture 2...Presentation 3. Looks dried out. Too much crust not enough meat.
Judge 8 - Taste 2...Texture 2...Presentation 5. Dry tasting. Oily.
Judge 9 - Taste 7...Texture 7...Presentation 7. Sauce is very strong! Kind of spicy!
Judge 10 - Taste 7...Texture 7...Presentation 5.

Comments

Add New

Sauce or no sauce? kamenrida 2008-09-22 17:30:20 I attended the Mayhem but didn't judge. The most shocking thing I discovered was that some people use meat jun sauce while others don't. I believe that Soon's would of ranked higher if everyone used the sauce. When I eat a Soon's bento I pour the sauce over my rice, mandoo, meat jun and BBQ meat. I think there should be a rematch and only allow people that use meat jun sauce judge. You can have a second group that don't use sauce but that'll be a waste of time in my humble opinion. Reply

Presentation is 20% ... in a blind taste test? what (72.253.217.xxx) 2008-12-06 11:53:23 How does that figure? Also, I totally agree with the previous commenter--meat jun goes with sauce (if not the whole banchan). Would you eat sashimi without any sort of shoyu-wasabi? Reply

20% presentation ilikegrind 2008-12-07 03:36:01 Hi What. Thanks for the question. Blind means that the judges don't know where the meat juns are from. They can see what they're eating, but they don't know who made each one. So the judge's can't go, "ooh this is from Soon's, so I going give em high scores." The meat jun sauce debate is heated. I agree with you guys, gotta use the sauce. Reply

ttoos_bum (168.215.231.xxx) 2009-01-18 14:03:53 eh, you guy's missed the bestest meat jun. kim chee III, by mckinley hs. on young street. sam. Reply

ilikegrind 2009-01-26 05:57:58 thanks ttoos_bum for the tip. i almost forgot about kim chee III until u mentioned it. i used to eat there plenty before time. i think one person mentioned this place when we was choosing the meat jun competitors. if we do round 2 of meat jun mayhem, we include em. ooh, you made me like eat there again soon. Reply

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