Date Visited: January 4, 2025
Starting the New Year off right with JŪN. In their own words: “JŪN is a celebration of differences and funky flavors coming together through the lens of ‘New American’ food.” In our opinion, they hit it out of the park. Chefs Evelyn Garcia and Henry Lu combined their backrounds to come up with a warm and welcoming restaurant with amazing food.
As usual, we started with cocktails – Jeff with the Friendly Jack, and Pam with the Scarlet Letter. The Scarlet Letter is a well-balanced drink consisting of Nigori Sake, elderflower, egg white, beet, lychee and marigold. A beautiful drink that was truly enjoyed. Jeff’s Friendly Jack had cold brew sabe rum, sweet vermouth, caramel and bitters. Slightly sweet but you could still taste the rum. The caramel was up front on this one. JŪN has a good cocktail list with several other concoctions we want to try during our next visit. For those doing a dry start to the year, there are also mocktails to enjoy.
As we perused the menu to determine our dining plan, we ordered the Shishito Peppers. They are served with a yellow bean aioli and a squeeze of lemon over the top. Well caramelized, the peppers were sweet with a bit of crispness in the bite. A touch of salt on top with the lemon was nice, but the aioli was the star. Pam is not the biggest fan of peppers but she loved these. Feel free to use your hands and be as messy as you want since they provide a warm, moist napkin to clean up when finished with the dish.
Since it was our first time dining at JŪN, we opted for the tasting menu. It is seven courses, but we chose to add two more dishes to it since there were a couple of items we wanted to check out.
Course 1 was Gulf Shrimp Aquachile, avocado, toro and shrimp oil. This was an out of the gate flavor bomb. Sweet shrimp in a well-seasoned base with a good amount of spice. If spice isn’t your thing, be warned, but it was delicious.
Course 2 was Roasted Cauliflower with an eggplant mouse, black garlic yogurt and hazelnut vinaigrette. This was tasty with the boldness of both the black garlic and eggplant. An excellent combination of textures.
For our first departure from the tasting menu, we enjoyed the Beef Tartare. Jeff has a hard time passing up tartare, and the staff said it was not to be missed. Very glad we made the addition. It includes toasted rice for texture, egg yolk for creaminess, a citronette and is topped with a sesame bunuelo. The crispy bunuelo with its toasted sesame flavors against the rich beef was superb. It was another grand play of different textures.
Back on track, we dove into Course 3 which was a Salvadorian Tamal. The “deconstructed” dish is topped with crispy chicken skin and parmesan. Not the flavor bomb of some of the other dishes, but very good in its own right. The crispy chicken skin was the hero for us.
Course 4 was an interesting bite. Lap Cheong is a traditional Chinese style sausage with a slight twist. The flavors of the sausage are brought out with a spicy aioli. A nice one or two bite course.
From there we moved to our second addition – Morcilla. This is presented similar to how you might get fried eggrolls. It is served with sambal honey, Thai chili criolla and lettuce. Wrap the herbs and sausage in lettuce, dip in the honey and you are off to the races. The rustic richness of the Morcilla with the brightness of fresh criolla and herbs made this Jeff’s favorite of the night.
Course 5 was Carrots. This simple dish is light and packed with deliciousness. The creamy quail egg and Salvadorian cheese that I believe is from Chef’s family are perfect accompaniments to the roasted carrots which have just the right amount of crunch.
Now we came to Course 6, the last dish before dessert, and JŪN finished strong. Brisket in a peanut curry, complemented with sesame oil and topped with fermented mustard greens. It is served with steamed rice to soak up the sauce. The curry broth is flavorful, and brisket tender.
To finish the evening, Course 7 was a dual dessert. First was a Tapioca with passionfruit, sesame and coconut. Second was a Nuegados with a syrup of piloncillo, orange and star anise. The Tapioca was light and the Nuegados was delicious. There was a small scoop of lemon ice to cleanse the palate.
Our compliments to the team at JŪN. Everyone we interacted with was exceptionally nice but most importantly, very knowledgeable. Both Chefs are actively involved in the restaurant. We sat at the bar for the evening, and it is a great place to watch people – both guests and employees. They have a good selection of wines, and a team that can help you around the list if you need it. Overall, the flavors are outstanding, and we can’t wait to return. The Tasting Menu is a wonderful way to get an introduction to their flavors, but we look forward to trying their other dishes upon our return.
JŪN – 420 East 20th Street, Suite A, Houston, TX 77008
HOURS
Wednesday – Monday: 5:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Sunday Brunch: 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Pam & Jeff Rate the Chef 