In the Jin - Sunnybank

As the hot pot trend continues in Brisbane, yet another restaurant opened in Sunnybank. Hailing from Sydney, In the Jin has been a fairly popular hot pot restaurant down south. Opening behind KFC near Sunny Park, I've noted the crowds outside every night since they opened in December. Having waited in excess of two months to try, I managed to convince Adam to go with me and we went for our after work date night.

The restaurant was absolutely packed. Arriving at 6pm on the dot, a group of four lined up ahead of us and was told that there would be a two and a half hour wait for a table. Luckily for us, groups of two only required a half hour wait before we were seated.

 

Since their opening, I've been trying my hardest to source a copy of their menu online to compare pricing to other local hot pot restaurants. Despite all my efforts, I was unsuccessful. Finally being able to sit down and look at it, pricing is similar to David's and YX.

Sauces are available on a DIY basis for a flat fee of $3 per person. Whilst I stuck to my usual concoction of soy, garlic, spring onion and sesame oil, Adam has evolved to making his own mixture of creamy sesame paste with crunchy peanuts. 

What really made In the Jin stand out for me as a hot pot place was the availability of a four soup pot, which is obviously what we got. The four soups included mushroom, tomato, pork bone and spicy. We opted for mild spice with mild numbness, but this was already too much for us to handle. It also concerned me a little when they emptied a take away container size of chilli oil into the spicy quarter, so we didn't really eat much from that side that night. Adam's favourite was the stock soup for its clear basic flavours that didn't overwhelm the original taste of the food. My preference was the mushroom stock, which was also fairly light in taste. Food came extremely quickly and the spread was fairly impressive.

(More gratuitous shots of our spread)

Of the three meats we ordered, this was pork. It looked a lot like lamb, but staff insisted that this was pork. Fat content was fairly high, and the meats were frozen solid and not overly fresh. 

This was the standard beef slices (we didn't get the barbie option cos we both agreed that it was a little creepy). Fat content was definitely lower, but again the meat was extremely frozen to a fairly solid state and took a lot of cooking to even heat it, leaving the outside overcooked. We definitely prefer the meat at YX.

Tender beef was the best meat that night. Already thawed, it was thick cut and a lot smoother, but ultimately it wasn't all that fresh.

We had an assortment of hand made noodles. Coming out in neat little bundles, these were fairly bunched up in the centre which meant that it was very difficult to cook through in the pot without breaking it up, which meant that it was very difficult to gather up when it came to eat.

As a fan of tofu, no hot pot can be complete without it. Having said that, I often prefer buffet options as you can decide how much you want. This portion, whilst generous, was a little too much for the two of us that evening. I wish we had the option of a smaller amount.

New on the menu we had some deep fried gluten balls. Soaked in soup, they were delicious parcels of flavoursome goodness.

We also got some veggies to share. They were reasonably fresh and the portion was good.

We also had a combination mushroom box. Going in as a couple only, it allowed us to have a good opportunity to sample all the different types. These were fresh and delicious.

Of course, we had some potato noodles. These were soft and squishy without disintegrating into the soup.

Our last dish was the wantons. Like the meat, this was frozen solid, as a result of this the dumpling skin had disintegrated long before the fillings had been cooked through, which was fairly disappointing.

Price Range: $50 - $70pp

Taste: 6.5/10
Value: 5/10
Service: 7/10
Environment: 7/10