Restaurant Review: JUJU, an Orlando Izakaya

At a Glance:

Restaurant: JUJU

Address: 700 Maguire Blvd, Orlando, FL 32803

Parking: Free parking. JUJU shares a parking lot with a Target and a shopping plaza.

Summary: JUJU is a Japanese Izakaya bar that serves small dishes, grilled skewers, noodle and rice dishes and more, to go along with tasty cocktails.

Vibe: Casual and trendy Japanese Showa-themed bar.

Reservations: Reservations are not needed for the Izakaya room. JUJU also has a reservation-only omakase experience at their Kappo bar.

Our Favorite Items: Tokyo Iced Tea, Wagyu Gyoza, Mentaiko Udon from the Izayaka menu. Click the link below to get our inspired recipes!

Click here for our JUJU Inspired Recipes

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Grilled Chicken Yakitori

Mentaiko Udon

Hamachi Kama

Beef Tenderloin

Susuru Chashu Gohan

Wagyu Gyoza

Tokyo Iced Tea and menu

Hamachi Crudo

Hokkaido ice cream

What We Ordered at our Most Recent Visit:

Drinks: 

• Tokyo Iced Tea (Craft Cocktail: Roku Gin, Haku Vodka, Pueblo Viejo Blanco, Flor De Cana Silver, Midori, Lime, Yuzu, Sprite)

Appetizers: 

• Hamachi Kama (Snacks: Grilled Yellowtail Collar, Ponzu Sauce, Lemon)

• Wagyu Gyoza (4pc) (Snacks: Wagyu ground beef, black garlic sauce, truffle butter)

• Hamachi Crudo (Raw menu: Hamachi with red pepper vinaigrette, miso crumble, garlic chips, pomegranate, and basil)

Grilled Menu:

• Yakitori:

  • Momo (Thigh) (2pcs each)

  • Negima (Skinless thigh w/ negi (green onion)) (3 pcs each)

• Kushiyaki:

  • Beef tenderloin (3 pcs each)

Entrees:

• Susuru Chashu Gohan (Rice Bowl: braised pork belly, sweet aged soy, kewpie mayonnaise, scallions, beni shoga, steamed rice)

• Mentaiko Udon: (Noodle Bowl: spicy cod roe, ikura, sake, butter, marinated egg)

Dessert:

• Soft serve ice-cream. Flavor of the day: Hokkaido milk tea

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REVIEW:

We started off our night with delicious Tokyo Iced Teas. This cocktail is a great choice for someone who likes a strong drink but without the overwhelming taste of alcohol. We have ordered this drink every time we've come to JUJU because of how good it is.

We followed the drinks with some skewers, and a round of mouthwatering appetizers: wagyu gyoza, hamachi kama, and hamachi crudo. Our party did not like the beef tenderloin skewer, finding it dry and flavorless, but we enjoyed the other appetizers.

We loved the wagyu beef gyoza, which was juicy and flavorful. Beef is not a typical filling for gyoza, so we were pleasantly surprised by how good it tasted.

The grilled chicken skewers we ordered for the table: the negima (skinless thigh meat with green onion) , momo (thigh), and tsukune (meatball), which we highly recommend.

Moving on to our entrees for the night, we ordered the mentaiko udon and chashu gohan. The mentaiko udon was very creamy, and even the members of our party who were skeptical about the soy marinated egg yolk ended up enjoying the dish because the egg yolk flavor was not overwhelming.

We decided to end the night with dessert. Although they have multiple dessert options listed on the menu, on the night of our visit, JUJU only had ice cream for dessert. The server indicated the flavor changes daily. The flavor of the day was Hokkaido Milk which was unanimously disliked. The brown sugar flavoring was too sweet for all of us. 

In Closing: If you’re looking for a casual place for delicious drinks and shareable food, we would recommend coming here. But perhaps skip the dessert if their only offering of the night is the Hokkaido milk ice cream. 

Afterwards, we tried our hands at making our favorite drink and dishes from JUJU. Check out our inspired recipes from JUJU by clicking the button below!

JUJU Inspired Recipes

SIDEBAR:

We also decided to give JUJU's Kappo Bar a chance because we heard a lot of good things about it. After our night out at the Kappo Bar, we unanimously preferred the JUJU's Izakaya dining room. JUJU's dining room provides a much more enjoyable experience, accepts walk-ins, and significantly cheaper. In comparison to other omakases in the area, the Kappo Bar's chefs were not as interactive, which made the experience less entertaining. For its price, we did not feel our Kappo Bar tasting menu was impressive enough.  Bearing in mind that JUJU's Kappo Bar's menu changes frequently, perhaps the problem lies with the tasting menu that was offered during our visit. The menu during our visit contained a lot of bamboo dishes, in addition to dried aged nigiri, chawanmushi (steamed egg dish), soup, donabe rice, and their seasonal dessert (watermelon snow ice). We found some of their dishes were inspiring, especially the donabe rice, which was an interesting combination of flavors and textures of freshly grilled corn, grilled sea bass, and clay pot rice. With the Kappo bar, you are taking a chance with their menu that night and you may not like everything that is offered. However, at the time of booking there is an option to include any food allergies or dietary restrictions members of your party may have. Because JUJU changes their Kappo Bar menus seasonally, your experience may be different from ours. They also offer special kappo nights, wagyu omakases, dry aged nigiri-kases, local chef collaborations and more. You can find JUJU's latest offerings from their Instagram here.