Jazz Cat Restaurant

No reservations so for a table of 6 on a Wednesday night - showed up at 8:05 p.m. & got seated at 9:40 p.m. That's over a 1-1/2 hour wait. BLAH!



Service is decent - friendly. Not outstanding. But at least they aren't mean, rude or ignore you.



Seating is weird - not like before with private tables. We sat in our own group 'cos we had 6 people. Last time I came w/ just one other person & they sat us next to each other - facing a completely random strange couple. Why strange? 'Cos none of us could look up - didn't want to seem like we're staring at each other - I had to crane my neck to the right & down only...right to talk to boy toy...down to see my food. And we were sitting at the same large table - almost like those small Chinese restaurants that don't have enough seating & they ask you if you're willing to share a table w/ strangers - except here - they don't ask you. You don't have a choice if you wanna get seated as soon as possible.



I used to go the original Jazz Cat location on Valley b/w Garfield & Atlantic by the bakery a lot! So I decide to retry some of my favorite broths. Broths I've retried so far are the kimchee spicy & the spicy miso. Both are just not as flavorful as the old restaurant. It's watered down - by the middle of the meal, the broth gets reduced by the heat so becomes more flavorful but then the helpful waiter comes by & dumps in more standard broth - bland again. Great. Thanks.



Meat is fatty - they don't give as much veggies as before (4 bok choy, 6 cabbage, 6 slices of onion in wedge shape, 2 baby corn, 2 pumpkin squash slices) - 3 tofu cubes - 1 squid ball - 1 fake crab piece - 1 shrimp - 1 small clump of vermicelli clear noodles. They got rid of the fish paste 1/2 a year ago for whatever reason. They also stopped giving the yellow fish ball w/ the masago (smelt eggs) inside. Why are they getting rid of the good stuff on the plate???



Comes with a side of rice & a dipping sauce. All this for $14 before tip + tax.



I think I prefer to go to Kushi Shabu or the Shabu Shabu House in The Village @ Little Tokyo. For the flavored broth like here, I'd rather hit up Ktown 'cos the Koreans do a spicy broth (w/o the milk or miso).