New Wonjo Restaurant

“The grill is charcoal and wood chips, not gas which adds an additional smoky flavor to the meat.”

“Its also one of, if not the only, place in Koreatown that grills their meat over hot coals and not gas.”

“You must visit this place if you ever find yourself in the awesome KTown. :)”

New Wonjo Restaurant

Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes

Price range.

$$ Price range $11-30

8 reviews

  1. Found the Korean BBQ here to be underwhelming.

    Had the Meat Mania for two ($82.95) with my boyfriend and was not impressed. Galbi was good, however I thought the rest of the meats tasted just dry and bland (Prime Rib Eye, Chicken, and Spicy pork). It was a lot of food for the both of us – we had to pack half of it to go. But honestly, I didn't really want the leftovers because the meat was tasteless.  For the price tag I expected more. The server cooked the meat for us, which was nice.

    I've been here for lunch also and enjoyed the soondobu – broth is light and not too salty. However, I would say that I like BCD Tofu House's soondubu a lot better because it is packed with flavor. Here, it doesn't come with an egg as you would normally expect from BCD. Wouldn't necessary go out of my way to dine here out of 50 other Korean restaurants in the neighborhood.

  2. Solid 4.5* in my opinion. So they use charcoal to grill meats but unluckily, it was broken since last night and they asked us if we wanted to cancel our reservations. Nonetheless, we stuck it out and they used a portable grill but the meats still turned out superb. Their service was really good even though we came at prime time and they were super busy! They are VERY strict with seating you though. All members must be present to be seated and they give away your table if you are late for 15 mins so show up on time for your reservation and pls let your whole party know this as well.

    Seafood pancake – really good, cripsy on outside, soft on inside
    Budae jjigae – wasn't the best I've had, but pretty good. Wasn't too spicy, didn't have enough ramen so we ordered extra ramen to add in.
    Galbi – umm, AMAZING! Sooo flavorful! We ordered 4, but we had 8 people
    Pork belly – one of my favorites, esp when you dip it in the salt + sesame oil and roll it up in the lettuce. One word = BOMBS
    Bulgogi – very tasty, good if you like it. Personally, I'm not a big bulgogi fan though.
    Seafood sundubu (wrong spelling) – was good, comparable to other restaurants, nothing spectacular tho.
    Jap chae – was okay, not the best I've had. Felt like the noodles were a little too soft

    Overall though, I would come back just for their meats…esp their galbi and pork belly

  3. Nom. Nom. Nom.

    Arguably one of the better Korean restaurants on this street. (Folks, I said restaurant not KBBQ)

    I've been a regular here for the past 3 years, coming in for lunch to get hwaejanggook (hangover soup), dinner to get yukaejang (beef stew) and for late nights when my friends wanted budagejigae, dukboki and soju.

    Different times of the day, expect a different variety of banchan (side dishes.) The best time to get banchan is either lunch or late night when they serve mashed potatoes with vegetables and steamed eggs.

    Service here is efficient as long as you know what to order.

    My favorite dishes here?

    Yukaejang, Budaejigae, Kimchi jun (kimchi pancake) and galbi tang (beef soup).

  4. My friend brought me here for my first experience with Korean BBQ. I'm officially a convert. I loved all of the side dishes we were brought, the daikon and eggplant being my favorite. The fried dumplings were good, if a little lacking in salt. The kimchi pancake was amazing and the bulgogi beef was incredible — definitely one of my favorite things I've ever eaten. The only miss for me was the seafood soup with tofu. I'm not a huge tofu fan to begin with, and when I do eat it I like it to be firm. This was really soft and slimy. All in all, I would definitely pay another visit to New Wonjo.

  5. I have been here about 4x and each time, I have been quite happy with my dish with the exception of my recent lunch. I have only been there for dinner prior to my lunch last week so maybe this is why. I found my Bipembop to be subpar. Each time I've had it, it's been an ocean of flavor, rich throughout and delicious to the last bite. This past time at Wonju, it was a lunch special that I orders and was less then. Such a bummer. Perhaps the time to go is only for dinner or maybe Bipembop is not their speciality at that time of day?
    Either way, I'd recommend this place for dinner only based on my experience. The amount of food that came with the lunch special was pretty decent though.

  6. Good place for Korean Charcoal BBQ. The service is fantastic because they grill everything for the table! The short ribs were the best. More suitable for a group of five or six so that you can try more things.

  7. 4.5/5 stars

    Knocked off 1/2 a star because they carry around an open box of hot coals throughout the restaurant & someone could very easily get hurt. I don't want to feel unsafe of my surrounding when I eat! The Bibimbap bowl was also a scorching hot cast iron bowl. Traditional? Yes. Unsafe? Also yes.

    Will come back because the food was epic!

  8. The food is delicious – did not have ANY complaints about it…..b/w the method that they use to cook the meat and the marinate….its actually quite excellent. Service leaves a lot to be desired, you kind of feel like you're on a production line….you feel rushed and like they're just waiting for you to finish so the next herd of cattle can be brought it. Like I said, I still loved the food…..but perhaps come in with an adjusted expectation of the service you will receive. As far as I understand, there are only grills upstairs. Also, they won't seat you unless your whole party is there…..and do yourself a favor and don't bring balloons to dinner.

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