J Wok

How in the world does this place have 4 out of 5 stars!!! I spent $ 40 last night on food for myself & my husband, and we couldn’t eat any of the four items because they were all SALTY as HELL !!! NOthing was edible !! It was the only bad meal we had on our entire trip to San Diego (thank goodness).
The servers weren’t that pleasant either. We arrived 45 mins before close and they made it a point to tell us we had to order to go, before even properly greeting us.
If you want great Thai food, drive to LA, Hollywood, or the Valley (Burbank Area) !!!

Cool little spot on the corner, went there tonight for dinner. Staff was super cool and friendly, music just right, and nice overall vibe. The staff wasn’t suffocating us and were there whenever we needed anything, perfect for a chill night.
Thai Tea was a little strong for my taste. The Korean BBQ sandwich was good, nicely seared meat inside a warm flakey roll. The potato salad was tasty, as were the BBQ pork buns (so soft and fresh). The dessert was just okay, reminded me of a grilled flour tortilla covered in sweetened condensed milk and ice cream. The big star of the night was definitely the Pad See Ew!!! I just kept thinking, «Why the heck are these thick noodles soooo freakin’ good???» Thanks to fellow Unilocalers, and their beautiful pictures, I now have a new favorite dish! Thank you, we will DEFINITELY be back.

This place has good food. I had the orange chicken and the chow main. One was ultra sweet and the other super salty but overall quite tasty. The service was slow, really slow.

The food was pretty decent but the customer service… Let’s just say I won’t miss this place. I came in with 4 other friends and the lady at the front looked like she hated her life. She didn’t check on us once during our meal and she had to ask for napkins and utensils. She was only nice when we were leaving.
I actually thought the chicken wings and spicy noodles were pretty good. I even told myself I’d come back to try the crispy rolls (before ordering). that probably won’t happen and if it does, I’ll order delivery instead.

I had high hopes for this place because of all the great reviews. It was just okay. I had the pad Thai and my husband the pad see ew. The pad Thai was too sweet. I tried my husband’s dish and thought it was too salty. We gave this place a try and have to say that I’ve had better Thai food and service elsewhere. I don’t think I’ll come back. There are better places to eat in downtown.

Service here was pretty bad on a Friday night, and the restaurant wasn’t packed. Unfortunately, it looked like they had 1 server for the entire place and we had a group of about 8 people. They have a limited alcohol menu but a vast food menu with some interesting options (curry burritos!) I ordered the spicy noodles which looked good but ended up being bland. Only upside is that prices are very reasonable. There are definitely better asian food places in San Diego, so I won’t be back.

I wish I could give this place a better review. Food was good, service terrible. Our server seemed a little clueless. Our food came out in a super weird order, and we had to remind them a few times what we were waiting on. Our check took about 20 minutes to come and once it did it did, it was completely wrong. I wouldn’t come back.

Service here was awful. Our waitress forgot about us for like an hour. The last plate never came out so our waitress came over and asked what is it that my friend ordered and went to the kitchen. You can tell that they forgot to make the plate entirely because when it finally came out it was literally piping smoking hot. The only good thing about service was that they allowed us to split the check by individual and passed around iPads so we could pay.
The food here was mediocre. My rice was a little bit al dente and the curry was salty. Im not sure how everyone else’s meal went. If the service was better I might come again, their curry burritos seemed interesting.

J-​wok is a nice, dimly lit spot great for a nice dinner for two. The restaurant has a rustic, but modern feel to it with upbeat music to match the Asian fusion theme it boasts. The menu is simple, yet has a nice variety of Asian cuisine to choose from– including Thai and Korean. My girlfriend and I each ordered classic Thai dishes: pad see ew and pad Thai. Both of us agreed that the quality of the noodles was great. My girlfriend described the pad Thai as rich in flavor. I concurred as my pad see ew noodles had an excellent taste of garlic. We both agreed that the meat could have been more tender in both of our dishes; but, it didn’t completely break either dish. Honestly, with the quality of the food, the place could have easily been a 4-​star for me; however, service was not as great as I was hoping. My girlfriend and I asked for water multiple times during our meal but we really didn’t get it until we got our bill. Our sever didn’t check on us during our whole stay. If the service improves, this place would be an excellent destination in the Gaslamp area. Come for the great food, but don’t expect the fastest or the most attentive service.

Good service, good pad thai, mediocre fried rice and a very strong anise flavor in chow mein made it inedible. Very strong unnatural scent being pumped in (heavy floral candy) gave me a severe headache. Even though my daughter did not touch her dish and we told them, we were still charged full price for them to throw our dish away. My tip was lighter than my standard 20% due to the lack of interest in our thrown away food.

I hate to do this as I like’d’ this place. However, I can’t think of a better way to communicate my poor experience with the owners.
Ordered takeout @ 7:50pm on a Friday. Was told it’d take 30 to 35 mins. Arrived for pickup @ 8:20pm. Was told it’ll be another 15 mins. Finally picked up food @ 9pm. 1 hr after the order was placed!
I don’t fault them for being busy, just a lack of transparency with the communications. Let me know that you’re busy when I placed my order and give me the opportunity to pick another place instead of holding me hostage for an hour!

Service was so-​so on a Monday night BUT–
I ordered the crunch wrap and it was really really good. I had the side salad with peanut dressing and I was literally using my finger to lick the remaining dressing off of the bowl.
Idea of the crunch wrap is amazing. As the server said, «Like an Asian Chimi-​Changa.» It’s like an eggroll with delicious fried rice and meat. It was really good – but as you got closer toward the end, it was all rice and some of it wasn’t seasoned. VERY filling though.

I try Thai food in every city I go to and compare. And J Wok in San Diego just didn’t impress me. The service Was ok. They served local beers which we enjoyed.
My meal was made out of spaghetti noodles (j wok spicy noodles) not the usually wide rice noodles Thai restaurants use. So that really threw my meal off. If you are looking for a more authentic or even close to Thai food this is not the place to go.
The appetizer wings were good and the beers which save it to a 3 stars.

Solid Asian fusion restaurant with some Thai, Chinese and Korean dish options. The interior is basic and fine, on warm days sit outside to take in the vibe.
I like the short ribs, pad Thai and curry dishes.

As a local, living in downtown, I always noted while walking to find dinner that J wok is super empty. I never really thought about it and usually would hit up a more lively spot. During the week I try to keep most nights chill so I thought what the heck and walked down to J Wok to see what it was all about.
The inside is pretty nice. We shared the restaurant with another table but it was otherwise empty. The food was ok, and not priced too high. But if you order a beer beware because they will charge you as much as your meal (or more) for a warm beer with no glass. When you ask for a menu or even look to find a menu with prices you will find that they don’t have it. Likely because they want to surprise you with the price. The service itself wasn’t great and that was surprising given how empty it was.
I did notice that most people who came in got take out. So if you are not a tourist then maybe you should choose that option.
Me? I will just choose a better Thai place.

J Wok has so many menu items that sound delicious. I love that they have vegetarian options (tofu) for many of the dishes. I had the Pad Thai with tofu, and T had the Thai Style Pork Barbeque. Both dishes had really good flavor. It was fast, and we got large portions for a great price — plenty of leftovers. We were also seated right away.
I was looking for that chopstick tree but there were none in sight.

Big fan of the curry burritos
Pad See Ew chicken was pretty good too

This place was easy to find considering how congested the Gaslamp Quarter feels. I got pretty lucky with a metered parking spot right in front of the restaurant, on a Sunday when the meters are off. Anyways, on to the stuff that really matters
The servers were good and friendly although the first person to help us didn’t seem to know the menu very well, what she did inform me of was that they were out of several things. For example, we got our Pad See Ew with Pad Thai noodles, not a big deal but still not as expected.
The rest of our meal was really pleasant. My wife got the short rib plate which was very tasty and tender. I got the tasty pork sandwich, which as stated was very tasty and piled high. Their cucumber salad was really good too. Instead of small chunks they were slices of cucumber. Most of the menu items were from different regions of Asia. The Pad See Ew was from Thailand, BBQ Short Ribs resembled a Korean dish, and my Tasty Pork Sandwich was a lot like a Vietnamese Bánh mì sandwich.
I docked this place one star because they were out of quite a few items, and the place had a cool ambience but there was loud top 40s pop music blasting the whole time.

J Wok… I love you…
I love your vegetarian options and your fresh, healthy (–ish) Asian fusion. I love your cute restaurant with the modern, minimalist vibe. I love your big windows open to the street.
I love your egg rolls, spring rolls (minus chicken), your mixed green salad with peanut sauce, your Kung Pow tofu and your yummy fried rice. I love your reasonable prices and your fast service.
Thank you for the delicious meal in Gaslamp.

Red curry with tofu and a side of fried rice! Delish!
The service here was absolutely amazing. My friend got the pad Thai but it was really sweet and weird so when he brought it up, our waitress Alexi was understanding and let us get red curry for him instead. So accommodating!
Other friend got the salmon fried rice and requested a bunch of garlic be added. Do. It. It was soooooooo good!!!

What you need to know: it has all types of Asian food, from Thai curry to Chow Mein. They also have «little plates» to try things for $ 4 to add to your noodle or rice dishes. The J-​OMG dessert is a must try at least once. A nice little gem right near Gaslamp and Petco Park and there is parking right across the street
Definitely try the Fried Chicken Wings appetizer and all the little plates because they are all good to share, try, and eat with your noodle and rice dishes.
Don’t worry about what kind of Asian your dish is, none of the cuisines are going to be weak in taste. I also recommend the fried rice because it’s super flavorful and not dry but not greasy.
MUST GET the J-​OMG dessert. It’s a surprise because they don’t tell you what it is, but it’s amazing, trust me.
The place is nicely decorated right on the corner of Market Street. It has a huge beautiful tiger mural on the wall and the inside feels hip and cool.

Restaurant was pretty empty on a Saturday night — calm atmosphere.
I had the pad thai with shrimp. I was a bit disappointed that there weren’t any peanuts sprinkled on top or cilantro. It was good but a bit bland and VERY oily. I wanted to have something healthy, I guess I picked wrong. The portion size was normal to big.
My husband said his curry was very creamy and bland as well — you couldn’t really taste the spices.
The price was pretty cheap. The staff was friendly. It was just missing a few flavors.

Short and sweet… this is a review for their Pad Thai. This place has a smallish menu which is appropriate for the size of restaurant. But because you have a smaller menu I expect you to totally nail the few dishes you have on there… and unfortunately your Pad Thai falls terribly short of that.
Aesthetically this dish looks alot better then it taste… it was one note of flavor… It was just sweet and bland. There was no complexity to this dish at all. I love a good Pad Thai and this is one of the worst ones I’ve had in a long time. Hard pass.

This review is for their food ordered for delivery.
A solid 4 stars. Food arrived hot and within 35 minutes of ordering! Pad thai was excellent, and will order again. Chopped basil chicken was good, but I’ll be ordering something else next time. They inadvertently left of the side salad to my chicken, which they said they’d provide on my next order. …no problem. The main spring salad mix with veggies was also excellent. .fresh salads and crunchy veggies.
We will order for delivery again, and perhaps we’ll make it in to dine in their restaurant one day.

Really torn with this place. It wasn’t horrible by any means, but it also wasn’t that great as far as «fusion goes.» Let me explain.
We started off with the BBQ pork buns. I was expecting something more unique than the traditional Cantonese style. They were very standard as far as flavor goes, and could have used more meat. (If you’re in National City, I highly recommend Chinese Canton Bakery for you bao needs.)
Moving on, the spicy basil with chicken wasn’t anything to brag about as far as flavor and spice goes. It was tasty, but didn’t «wow» my taste buds. I was hoping that they would ask me how spicy they should make it on a scale from 1 – 10, with 10 being the spiciest, but sadly they didn’t. It would probably be a level 2 spice.
All in all, just an okay experience.

J Wok definitely has a nice personality. It also has very nice qualities such as patio seating, decent location just a few blocks away from Petco Field and a variety of dishes on their menu. Sadly, I didn’t fall in love at first bite, much like I don’t fall in love at first sight with great personalities.
That’s a bit shallow but the food here wasn’t amazing or life changing. I asked our waiter what were the most popular items on the menu. We ordered all three; the garlic pepper chicken, pad thai and red curry. The chicken was a little undercooked IMO but I get that people eat chicken differently and don’t prefer it as well done as I do. I say this because there were still speckles of red towards the bone area of the chicken and that’s not my flavor. Curry was average but good. Nice and spicy, just like I requested and they had brown rice as well. My friend barely touched her pad thai because she wasn’t as hungry but it looked delicious and there was tons of it.
Service was good, only little slow because the place was starting to pick up and there was only one person working lunch. Yet, I think J Wok is only middle of the pack in terms of all the thai restaurants I’ve tried. There wasn’t an authentic feel to the food, which I’m sure isn’t exactly the vision for the place so I won’t knock them for it. I would lean towards 2.5 stars but can live with rounding up to A-​OK.