Jae’s Cafe

See my review of Shun’s

I use to like this place several years ago but it has declined tremendously. Save your money. Go somewhere else. It is not worth paying above average price for a mediocre meal.

We have Jae’s cater for lunch at work once in a while. We only get their sushi, but it is quite good. I particularly like their salmon sashimi. I’ve also ordered from here before and gotten their hot stone bibimbap with beef, and it also quite tasty.

We ordered both sushi and Korean dishes when we dined in at Jae’s Café on a Sunday evening and all of the food was delicious! The service was prompt and attentive throughout the meal. The décor and the setup makes this location great for a date, dinner with a friend, and small groups as well! Jae’s Café is my favorite Asian restaurant to eat at in the South End so if you are in the area, I highly recommend you stop by!

I LOVE this place. Great prices, great food, and quick service. I’ve been there twice and everyone I go with loves it too. Great for a quick date or meet up if that is what you’re looking for. I just really love it definitely give it a go if you’ve never eaten there and you like Korean food or sushi!

LOVE the food, amazing rolls and appetizers. Huge portions, really beautiful presentation. Awesome server, super friendly, loved him! The prices and the menu kicks Douzo’s ass and Jae’s is my new go-​to. The downstairs bar is fantastic, such a surprise, cool space.

We order sushi catering from Jae’ quite often and it is always outstanding. Primarily stick to traditional sushi so can’t comment on cream cheese sushi LOL. Their Pad Thai has a very good texture and makes a great side dish to keep the sushi costs down. Tried the Chicken Satay once but it was dry and that is just unacceptable.

My dinner group of 8 ate here on a Friday night in December.
RATINGS (1 – 5)
Food 3.5
Service 3.5
Décor 2.5
Overall 3
SUMMARY
Mixed reviews for the food ranging from «outstanding“bibim bap and «the best General Gao’s I have ever eaten» to «average to disappointing» sushi, and drinks from «icy cold, refreshing and well-​balanced» grapefruit martini a «barely drinkable» mai tai. Service ratings also ranged from «responsive», «attentive and friendly» to «a little lacking». There was general agreement that the décor was «old and not [stylish]» and «frigid air blowing right on us and the wonky lights» detracted even more. Still, most say most say they’d «go back for the Chinese food» standards
DINER COMMENTS
I thought the service was great attentive and friendly, the space is nice and cozy, and the food was great — my bibim bap was outstanding, and the sushi was exactly as expected. The only issues was the frigid air blowing right on us and the wonky lights.
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I had the vegetable tempura, which was delicious, but way too big to be an appetizer. The batter was light, the veggies still crispy, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had the General Gao’s chicken for my main, which was by far the best General Gao’s I have ever eaten. The breading was light, the sauce was spicy, but not overpowering. Ultimately my Mai Tai prevented me from giving the food a 4.25 or 4.5. The Mai Tai was barely drinkable, which was in stark contrast to the rest of the meal. I found the service fine, it was as expected. The décor took some hits for the gigantic vent spewing cold then hot then cold air on everyone, and the track lighting deciding to flicker every so often. A great spot to get some chinese food in my opinion, and worth checking out the rest of the menu.
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The spicy fried calamari was tasty, crispy, and thankfully not soggy with oil. The General Gau chicken was good; well prepared but nothing spectacular about it. The portion was quite substantial, and this fat boy didn’t even finish it all. Service was a little lacking; it seemed like a half hour went by from getting our drinks and placing dinner order… but no major missteps as I recall. The décor… what décor? Forgettable, and the snoozy soundtrack brought me right back to 1997 when I worked at a «smooth jazz» radio station. It’s been years since I’ve been to Jae’s, but all in all I’d probably go back again.
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Jaes is consistently consistent. My sushi roll was good but the shrimp tempura base was a bit mushy and wasn’t prepared fresh for the roll. It was rolled loosely and came apart at the first dunk in soy sauce. Tasty but not rising above merely ok. My soup was just what I needed with a cold. The broth was good, the noodles well prepared and the ingredients fresh. It was a little heavy on noodles and light on all else. The iron kettle in which it was served failed to keep it warm long enough to finish and made it impossible to drink the broth directly. The décor is old and not particularly stylish. I like the bar-​side cave but it is the wrong place for a cold air register.
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Jae’s is an interesting mix and I think trying to do a little too much instead of doing a few things well. When we did get service it was friendly and responsive. And yes the A/​C was frigid and tempermental. My Korean dumpling soup was good — the broth was delicious but the dumplings themselves were uninspired and bland. I could have sworn the appetizer portion was a mistake it was so huge. Sushi was average to disappointing. The rice was dry and as one diner pointed out, quickly disintegrated with an obligatory soy sauce dunk. The cucumber roll and rainbow roll were decent and tasted fresh enough but a specialty roll with an outer wrapping of torched-​yet-​raw salmon was confusing and off-​putting. I did however, try others’ dishes (the General Gao’s was outstanding!) and my grapefruit martini was icy cold, refreshing and well-​balanced. I would come back for drinks and appetizers (which apparently stand in for entrée sizes). Next time, I’ll skip the sushi and go straight to classic Chinese take-​out and fun new Korean dishes.

Came on a slow Wednesday night
Pros: Employees were very nice, Sushi presentation was good
Cons: Sushi flavor was not exciting and pricey. The tuna was not as fresh as I would like I ordered The Spicy Tuna Red Dragon Roll and had to drench in my wasabi mixture to get a spicy kick. The waiter recommended the Christmas Roll when I ask for something with eel sauce and Tempura. This roll lacked in flavor but it looked pretty!
My friends ordered the orange Chicken, Pad Thai and Udon. They all seemed pleased with their meals.
Atmosphere was typical small café style with super weird music that made me giggle because it was so weird. I felt like I was in a crazy massage parlor.
If I ever come back I will order a Noodle dish

Pretty good sushi! Sunday night half– priced sushi is a steal! Would definitely recommend.

I’m so torn about Jae’s. Jae’s is great, but some of their clients are terrible people.
Everything that Jae’s provides is great… great location, great food, great atmosphere. We love sitting at the bar downstairs, which is a great getaway from the city. The sushi is quality, the dumplings are awesome, and the other apps are pretty solid. Most importantly, the service is very attentive.
Can I write a review about the clientele at the downstairs bar? Well, that’s what knocks Jae’s down a star or two, because the clientele in question let everyone know they are regulars. Thank you for the warning, but I didn’t think I would care. Speaking very loudly, they were not shy to talk about their coworkers of different ethnicities who obviously were not as good of an employee as they were. Interesting, because the ethnicity they were speaking about was a more general version of the ethnicity of the people who typically work at Jae’s. They were somewhat uncomfortable to have to listen to. Additionally, when another client entered the bar area, these people yelled to that new person «it’s good to have another (person of their color), (person of their sex) down here» (fyi, we are a different color than the color they were happy that was the same as them). It’s one thing when someone thinks those thoughts, but it’s another when they broadcast them loudly for everyone to know how bigoted they are.
Sorry Jae’s, but you have vocal bigots coming to your bar, who are apparently regulars. None of the bigotry was directed at us, but it made us uncomfortable enough that we won’t be going to your establishment as often. Too bad, because everything else is great!

I went here with a friend to grab a bite to eat on a Saturday night. We started with some edamame and ordered a couple of rolls to go with it.
The sushi was decently sized and tasted good, but was nothing out of the ordinary.
However, the great thing about this place is that it is 50% off on Sunday nights. That means that for our entire meal, it only cost $ 20. That’s pretty unbeatable in the sushi world in boston.
Overall, the space and atmosphere is good and the service is friendly. Worth checking out on a Sunday night for that special.

This is our favorite neighborhood haunt. It has a bunch of Asian options so if you aren’t into sushi never fear! The fresh fish is excellent and they have my personal favorite age dashi tofu (freshly fried tofu in dashi broth) and it is ridiculously good! I strongly recommend having it here because it is the best I have had in Boston.
The drinks are very good, I like to get a lycheetini and my husband always get a Sapporo. You can also enjoy outdoor dining in the summertime which is a big plus for us!

Great sushi… different styles of asian food: pad thai, korean, noodle dishes
Bartender makes awesome drinks!

This has been one of my favorite places for the past 5 years. I think the food is great, and they deserve 4 stars! While I love this place, most recently I’ve had some concerns. I’ll get to that after all of the good stuff. The appetizers and entrées are where it’s at! They have the best shrimp shumai I’ve ever had! The crab and lobster cakes are good. I’m a huge fan of their general gao’s chicken and bibimbap! Delish! The szechuan chicken wings are AMAZING!!! Trust me on this, it’s a must have! The drinks are okay, but I definitely love the food.
Now, most recently I noticed a gentlemen who makes the sushi taking smoke breaks with the delivery driver. He goes outside, smokes a cigarette, comes back in and makes sushi. I don’t know about anyone else, but where is the hand washing? While I admit I’m a germophobe, there are all kinds of things that can be transmitted via the mouth and not to mention the touching of doors. He may have used some sanitation wipes, but overall it just doesn’t look good to be in the middle of preparing food and taking public smoke breaks.
Secondly, my waiter went into the bathroom with deodorant and a toiletry bag in the middle of serving us dinner… it didn’t make me feel comfy. Hopefully hands were washed in the process of whatever he was doing.
I’m sure I will go back at some point soon, but I hope I won’t continue to see those kinds of things.

Always held a degree of hate for these guys for their 2011 – 2012 practice of placing flyers on car windshields, which would quickly perma-​tattoo their print onto the glass. Just wanted to get that off my chest.
Advertising bad; sushi was pretty good.
Ordered the $ 40 sushi party platter, and definitely got money’s worth. While not the most skillfully constructed sushi (granted, came in a baking pan), flavors were solid, and had fair fish-​to-​rice ratios. Purpose-​ordered fish-​only maki fared better, as it was clear they were using fresh, fatty salmon.

I’m surprised this is in the sushi/​japanese category, because I think it’s much better for the Korean! The sushi is alright, nothing special, but the Korean food here is pretty good. I usually get the bibimbap. It’s so good!

Jae’s is okay. If it weren’t for the fact that I lived across the street and went there for convenience then it would probably only have one star. The sushi is mediocre at best and overpriced. The two best rolls are probably their Idaho (sweet potato) and Crazy maki — and together cost close to $ 15 for 12 pieces of sushi.
If you’re looking for great sushi in the South End then head over to Douzo at Back Bay station. It’s a little more expensive but you will notice the dramatic difference in the quality of product.

Mostly I remember weird music (more on that in a second) and a beautiful medium-​sized saltwater fish tank with three bright fish in it.
But also, we didn’t even know this place existed. We had intended to hit Five Horses down the street, but it was crazy full of yupster parents — you know, 35 year old Cool Dads with beards who work as Architects or Business Analysts and Progressive Moms with bones in their hair two weeks away from their annual trip to Peru to renew their wedding vows.
We were looking for somewhere quiet, and I honestly thought Jae’s was a French café when we walked by, did a double take, and ducked in looking to have a glass of wine and some conversation. Told the hostess that we were just looking to have a couple drinks and she directed us to the basement bar.
At the bottom of the stairs was that crystal clear saltwater tank with three striking fish swimming around. A semi-​private booth behind the fish tank, a small bar with about eight seats, a few more tables for two, and lots of dark wood everywhere. It was very quiet around 10:00 on a Saturday night, which was fine by us. There’s also a small outdoor patio that looks like it would be nice in the summer.
We worked our way through a couple drinks each and were really getting a kick out of the music. It sounded like the soundtrack to a late-​night softcore porn movie on HBO: synthesizers, strange percussion, bells, and I swear, a xylophone. For each song, we imagined the pairing in HBO movie. I’ll spare you the details.

Stopped here for a quick snack and drink… I LOVED my cosmo. Me and Belvedere are tight. I ate a snow mountain sushi roll and it was divine, also tried the steamed shu mai which was tasty as well. The menu looked great and I already know what I want to eat when I return. The atmosphere of the place is casual and inviting. We went downstairs to the bar area to eat and drink, but you can eat upstairs or outside. I will go back for sure.