Chung Jin Dong Crab House

My boyfriend & I ate at this restaurant around 7:30PM on a Wed nite, and we were the only customers the entire time we were there. I wanted to try it out because of all of the great reviews. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.
We had to seat ourselves, but our server was very attentive. She was the best part of the experience because she made recommendations as to what we should order. We were going to order the clams, but she said that it was better in the winter, so we ordered the Spicy squid & pork instead. It was pretty good, but my boyfriend and I like the spicy squid w/​noodles at Lighthouse Tofu better. There’s also a minimum order of 2 for the grilled items.
Our server also recommended we try the grilled shrimp, which came out on a bed of rock salt; head and all. She had alerted me that it was one of the more expensive items on the menu at $ 18.99, but said that it was worth it. The shrimp were good, but there wasn’t any juice in the heads. We only got kimchi for ban chan, which had too much anchovy powder and cucumbers with soybean paste. In fact, the best part of the meal was the fresh cucumbers and soybean paste.
Also, an FYI to all of you, don’t order any of the «American» items on the menu! The server told us that those items are purchased already made in a bag and just reheated.

Chung Jin Dong, with it’s separate outside seating a.k.a. ya weh po cha in Korea, was our usual Friday night «light drinking» hangout spot during the summer.
Atmosphere:
It’s an outside po jang ma cha. Which means, they specialize mainly in alcohol and Korean bar food items. It’s fun because it’s like the po jang ma chas in Korea and no other place in Annandale offers such a place.
Food:
So, I know it says «crab house» on their front sign but why anyone would get anything crab related there boggles my mind. As many times as I’ve been there, I’ve NEVER seen any other table order crabs (maybe because most of the tables are with Koreans). They offer a good variety of Korean bar food items, which would be your best bet on ordering to go to pair with either your soju (rice wine similar to vodka) or mak gul lee (again, rice wine but similar to sake).
I’d recommend the «oh jing uh oh dang tang» a Korean soup made of octopus broth and fish cakes. It comes with udon noodles with a touch of spice –a perfect pair with soju.
They also offer other Korean po jang ma cha favorites such as dak dong jim (chicken gizzard), dak bal (chicken feet marinated), kim chi jun (kim chi pancake), and su yook (pork belly steamed with a side of spicy marinated radish).
As always, if you order soju, it’ll come with a side dish of Korean cucumbers and carrots (unlimited), along with cho jang (Korean spicy pepper paste) to dip in.
The price might be a little high and the portions small but then again you can’t find some of these food offerings in other Annandale bars.
Service:
There’s usually only one waitress working all the tables. She doesn’t speak too much English but is very polite and attentive. We frequent so much, we usually take care of ourselves so she can work the other tables.
Overall:
Go if you’re looking for an outside Korean bar experience NOT because you’re in the mood for crabs. Also, keep in mind because it’s still Virginia and it’s outdoors (even with the shielding) smoking is allowed… and there’s A LOT of smoking going on.

We had an interesting experience here. I was really in the mood for soft shell crab and when I saw from the reviews here that they had a soft shell crab sandwich I couldn’t wait to try it. So we show up Saturday night and we were the only people there. Probably because it was a cold, rainy night.
Anyway, I see on the menu crab cake sandwich and soft crab sandwich. I figured this must be the soft shell crab sandwich. The waitress brings me a crab cake sandwich but calls it a «soft crab sandwich» when she sets it in front of me. Now I’m confused. Is this really a «soft crab sandwhich» and something different than the crab cake sandwich or did I get a crab cake sandwich by mistake? Not wanting to make a fuss, I ate the crab cake sandwich. Our server never came back but she had left some sort of buzzer to press if we needed anything. When we finished eating I pressed it, and another lady came back. I purposefully left part of the sandwich and asked her what the difference between this and the crabcake sandwich was. She didn’t speak English well, but confirmed that I had the crab cake sandwich. She apologized, but I was still disappointed.
But both servers were nice and it was an honest mistake. I’ll probably go back and try the real soft shell crab sandwich.
I also had some crab legs and tried some of my girlfriend’s spicy squid soup. Both were pretty good. A 3 overall. If the soft shell crab sandwich is any good, maybe it’ll get bumped up to 4.

I’m surprised at how this little place is not busier. The outdoor patio is very cute and creates a great vibe that you could sit there for hours eating and drinking. Our server was wonderful, she’s very personable, and poor thing, she was running the whole patio herself! We made plans to have crabs here, but for some reason didn’t. I think because we didn’t to smell at the bar after =) Definatly will be coming back for the crabs very soon. We grilled the clams table top till they opened. they were very juicy, clean, and simply good. We also tried the Korean pancake. not very flavorful, but full of onions, squid, and kim chi. I had to dip it in the sauce for some flavor. My Korean friend ordered this noodle dish with clams and it was great. I love spice. but this was way too spicy for me!
The menu wasn’t full of items I knew, so luckily my Korean friend was there to help! I kind of like how its not overly crowded. it could be just the night we went (Friday) but it makes it more quaint and just makes for a nice chill evening. I’ll update when I try out the crabs.

I love the atmosphere. It’s a great casual place to hang out on a cool, breezy night with some of your friends over some soju.
We ordered octopus/​clam stew. It was basically clams cooked in water to release its juices and the octopus was added. The finish, the server added some zucchini and green onions. It’s a good dish to have with soju but not so great if it were just your meal.
I also had some steamed pork belly with kimchi and tofu. Pork belly, to me, is one of the most perfect foods in the world, so I can’t complain.
The service was spectuacular. I believe on lady was serving the entire patio area, but she was super attentive.
So sum up, ok food if you are having something to drink and spectacular service (for a Korean restaurant).

If you’ve ever been to Korea or seen a Korean TV drama or mini-​series then you’ll know what a po-​jang-​ma-​cha (essentially a street vendor with a tent or tarp with cheap barrel tables and seats), and is a place where people go to eat and drink… or rather I should say drink and eat. Although a few places in Annandale claim to be Po-jang-ma-cha’s (or for short term = Po-​cha), Chung Jin Dong is the only one that I know of that fits the bill.
Lily Z. mentioned to me that when she visited there was really no Korean food on the menu. My guess is that after a couple months they decided to change their menu, and even between my own visits, there were slight changes to the menu (most notably the absence of the combination menu). Every time I’ve visited, it’s mostly a Korean crowd, with Korean food, and Korean employees… but I was surprised to see a few non-​Asian faces. Some how they had discovered that this place offers all you can eat blue crabs for $ 30/​$ 40 (for female/​male crabs respectively)…and I don’t think they even advertise except through Korean newspapers. Anyway why you pay $ 10 more for males I’m not sure… but judging from the piles of discarded shells you would have thought you were at a crab factory.
We didn’t try the crabs, but we did enjoy grilling whole clams over the fire and waiting for them to pop open so you can scoop up the meaty morsels. The first time we went, they had combination menus, but the second time we went we didn’t see it anymore.
So the next time you are struggling to live life because of the love of your life is in love with your brother and only has a couple of months to live because of full blown cancer, and just lost your job, your house, and suddenly found out in the last episode that she’s actually your long lost sister separated at birth… then I can’t think of a better place to visit than this po-​jang-​ma-​cha. Cheers!!!
— — — — 8÷07÷09 update — — — —
This restaurant seems to be making adjustments to their menu and restaurant. We’ve came here several times already. Since our first visit…
— the menu has changed each time we’ve been there
— the interior floor plan changed a little (I’m not sure how but it looked different)
— addition of a bar in the outside area in the back
— replaced part of the awning with clear awning
Still continues to be a place we enjoy coming to… and hopefully business will continue to improve, although it’s not a great location at all.

This two story shack looking place used to be Chicken Village and now they threw out the chicken and brought in the seafood. I didn’t actually eat any crabs there, but the price seemed good ($ 25 for a dozen large females). I don’t remember the price for the males, since they are not worth eating anyways.
The steamed shrimp was generously seasoned with Old Bay and cooked till it was just done. They were plump and spicy. The crabcake sandwich and the calamari, although served hot, were obviously not made from scratch. There’s nothing Korean about the place except for the name and the soju on the menu. Based on the food I had, it was a 2 star, but I will have to try their crab in another visit to get a more fair review since afterall this is a crab house.