One of the most unusual trends in recent years has been new restaurants serving both Korean barbecue and Chinese hot pot—two distinct styles of eating combined into one dining experience. That phenomenon may be showing signs of abating, as one of Long Island’s biggest players has rebranded its newest location.
JBBQ & Shabu Shabu opened its first concept in Bay Shore in 2020 and subsequently opened large restaurants in Smithtown and Commack. But three months ago, the Commack location closed for renovation and has now reopened as JBBQ Wok & Dumpling, replacing the barbecue and hot pot with Chinese fare.
Commack manager Daniel Chen said the Smithtown and Commack locations are too close together, which spreads customers between the two. Another problem is that the all-you-can-eat concept can be expensive and wasteful in terms of food, making it difficult to sustain with a smaller customer base. To adapt, he brought in his cousin Tom Lin from a dim sum restaurant in Flushing, Queens, to implement a similar concept here.
Chen said the concept change drew some negative reactions when it was announced on Instagram in May, but she said it was a good move because Smithtown has been busier since the Commack location closed.
“Imagine you have to run a restaurant, but the overhead is killing the business. And you tell them, ‘No, you can’t close it.’ That doesn’t make sense,” he says. “We can’t open the restaurant just for two people. This is a huge place. You have to look at the numbers.”
JBBQ Wok & Dumpling looks similar to its predecessor JBBQ Hot Pot & BBQ in Commack. Newsday / Andi Berlin Photo credit: Newsday/Andi Berlin
At the new location in Commack, a small stream of customers trickled in during a recent weekday lunch. The dining room still had bright yellow warehouse walls with the old name, but the grills and stew pots were gone. Servers handed out folded paper menus that looked like they belonged in a Chinese takeout joint. The large picture menu of fruity cocktails, soju and other alcoholic beverages was still there, though.
Soup dumplings and dim sum are the most popular dishes, with more than a dozen varieties including crab soup dumplings and chicken feet. The Dim Sum Sampler is a budget-friendly way to try five dumplings for $12 – the dim sum classics shumai and har gow have a slight edge over the soup dumplings, which cracked and collapsed under pressure.
The rest of the menu is all about greatest hits from the wok, with Thai and Japanese classics alongside dishes like beef with black pepper sauce ($20) and pineapple fried rice served in a pineapple ($14). The XO seafood with lobster tail, scallops and king prawns is the absolute stunner here at $29, but the portion isn’t as decadent as it seems. However, the stir-fry is served decorated with a large orange flower that makes it look a touch more graceful.
Despite the setback, Chen said Korean all-you-can-eat barbecue and hot pot will continue to be popular in the future as it appeals to the younger generation who love Asian food.
“It’s still strong, it’s just a question of how many restaurants you open and how much competition there is,” he said. “If you open a lot of restaurants with the same concept, they’re all going to go under.”
JBBQ Wok & Dumpling, 200 Jericho Tpke., Commack, 631-343-7252, jbbqrestaurant.com/commack.html. Open Monday through Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., Sunday from noon to 9 p.m.
Andi Berlin is from Arizona and doesn’t know where she’s going. But when she gets there, she’ll find something beautiful and delicious that the world needs to taste.
