Jilli

Cuisine	Korean
Price	$$$$ (51-100)
Rating	5/10
Last Visit	June 25, 2025
Location	SFBA: San Francisco: South

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General Notes

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Jilli is a new "Korean tapas" restaurant that opened in SF recently. Apparently, it's an import from LA -- it's really popular down there; one of the key ingredients in their success was their "Chimmelier Popcorn KFC". The food is very good but it's definitely also quite expensive, definitely overpriced for what you get. I'd be interested in coming back to try their lunch menu though for their fried chicken sandwiches, which are much more reasonably priced. Our reservation got kind of botched in their system and the service was pretty chaotic, but the servers were very nice.

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Negatives

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> Their "makgeolli flight" is a scam. They offer a flight of 4 different kinds of makgeolli for $40. It turns out that you basically just get 4 small cups of the makgeolli that you can buy at hmart for $4 per huge bottle.

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Dishes Tasted

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• ★★☆☆ Rigatoni alla Kimchi Vodka -- rigatoni vodka with washed kimchi, bacon, and cheese, +burrata. Great combination, hard to go wrong, kimchi flavor is quite muted, overall good.
• ★★★★ Pork Jowl Jeyuk -- pork jowl, gochujang, salsa verde. Cooked to perfection; super tender and juicy, with an excellent charred exterior.
• ★★★☆ Wagyu Yukhoe -- gim mayo, fried scallion, parm, potato chip. The seaweed was excellent. The wagyu felt like it needed a bit more kick (maybe a little more sauce / acidity) but overall good dish.
• ★★☆☆ Chimmelier Popcorn KFC -- world famous kfc with yang'yum' sauce & soy vin pickles. The sauce is delicious, the breading on the chicken was a little too thick for my taste though.
• ★☆☆☆ Cucumber Salad -- cucumber, house vinaigrette. Not quite what I was expecting from "house vinaigrette" it was more like a gochujang based sauce. Decent, not particularly noteworthy though.