So Moon Nan Jib

Eight of us went there for lunch. We made reservation and got seat pretty quick. One of the Korean server was pretty rude and throw bad attitude to us but soon they change a Chinese server and she is pretty nice.
There are a lot of good Korean restaurants in NY/​NJ area and we do know what good Korean food should taste like. The food here was better than we expected. I like the cold noodles, pork neck soup, black goat soup, the iron dish-​cod and sticky rice one. Seafood pancake is also good. I kind of disappointed for the BBQ part. Kali is 35? But not that much. The beef tough tastes blend and a little well done. But overall it is a place worth visiting.

Awesome place and very reasonable price, with large serving! We ordered a family meal for 2 and an order of steamed mandoo (Korean dumplings)…and wow… we had a feast eating and had enough leftover to feed us for 2 more meals!
Whether you are an adventurous eater who likes to try something new or just another person who craves legit Korean food, So Moon Nan Jib is here for you! The $ 40 2 – 3 people family meal that we ordered came with rice (go for the red rather than the typical white rice!), steamed egg (my SO loved this!!), sizzling beef with onions, stir fried spicy squid (my favorite!!), raw crab in spicy sauce, fried flounder and kimchee soup… It was such a pleasure for both of us to feast on many different Korean dish, as we have been wanting to eat diff korean food and there just aren’t many legit Korean restaurants in Seattle as we would have liked!
+1 for awesome banchan (they gave us 10 things of banchan!) and aromatic hot barley tea! Too bad the place is a little too far away, but we wouldn’t hesitate to stop by there again the next time we are in Federal Way! :)

You have to go. If you like Korean food, this is the place. So authentic. And the people working there are so great! If you are new to Korean food, this is your place too. The staff are so friendly and have no problem telling you what is what and how to eat it. :)

I’ve been here so many times already and am never disappointed with the food and service. I love the seafood hotpot, seafood pancake and all of their hot soup, especially kimchi jigae. Food always come in big portion, perfect for a big group. I used to eat there 2 times a week during the winter. The women working there are funny and super sweet. Love them. This place is my favorite restaurant, ever.

Food was good, always great Service.
One of my favorite korean restaurant!
I will definitely come back!

Great service. At 3pm on a Sunday you can still get nice servers I am impressed
The food was yummy — 9 side dishes, wide variety to choose from.
They also let you pick between white and purple rice ! The purple rice was special as it had beans :) delicious
I want to go back to try out the cold noodle dishes but the classic bibimbop is yummy and so is the beef rib soup!

Welp. I just verified all the hype about this place is warranted. I can say that about their BBQ at the very least. I haven’t even fully recovered from the food coma I ate myself into a few hours ago, and I’m already thinking about my next So Moon Nan Jib trip.
First of all, my tummy usually reacts negatively — and fast — to Korean BBQ. I’m talking within minutes of finishing off my meal, or even during mealtime sometimes. It’s been hours since I left So Moon Nan Jib, and my stomach feels fine. It’s not because they season their meats less or put less spice on stuff. Absolutely not. I think it’s the higher quality of their meats.
Okay, what did we order? My girlfriend and I had the KBBQ combo for 3 – 4 persons at $ 69.99, a seafood pancake, and spicy rice cakes and fish cakes. (Even the server was like, «That’s a lot of food for you girls.»).
The Korean BBQ combo consisted of marinated beef ribs, tender beef, pork neck meat, spicy pork, chicken, steamed egg, tofu soup, white rice, and a salad. Apart from the bowl of steamed egg, which really didn’t entice me in any way, everything was freaking delicious. All the meats were marinated beautifully, and the salted sesame oil as dipping sauce added another dimension to each bite. My favorites were the marinated beef ribs and the spicy pork. Mmmm! The beef wasn’t too fatty but very tender. The spicy pork was a lot fattier but still tasted clean and had a nice balance of sweet, salty, and spicy. So good. Sadly, this was the last item that made it onto the grill, and we were too full by then. (But no worries, we got to take leftovers home!) The entire time, we had a server attending to our grill, which was a bit new to me, as I was used to being left to cook on my own. Here, when they see you touch cooking utensils after they leave your table, they hurry back!
The tofu soup was good. It had a lot of that fermented soybean flavor. The salad was surprisingly flavorful. The dressing they put in it was more soy sauce-​y than most salads I’ve tried at KBBQ joints, but not in a bad way at all. This one just popped better.
The seafood pancake was huge and thick, but it was just okay. Not the best I’ve had. Too much pancake, not enough seafood, and BLAND.
My friend loved the spicy rice cakes and fish cakes, but I wasn’t super-​excited about it. I thought the rice cakes had a weird texture, and the flavor wasn’t all that memorable for me.
We got 8 different banchan items, plus the tofu soup and the steamed egg. I thought that was really generous. Honestly, I didn’t touch most of it because I wanted to eat as much of the main items as I could, but I really enjoyed the acorn jelly! It had a bit of a subtle flavor — a little salty and a little sesame-​y. Interesting texture, too, for sure, because yes, it was jello!
As I’ve started to describe earlier, service was excellent. Everyone was quick, friendly, and attentive! They all smiled when asked a question, and we got everything we ordered within a short time period. No waiting for more water or rice at any point during our meal. We were taken care of really nicely!
For all of the food we had, our total was just a little over $ 100. Yes, our table could’ve easily fed four people. We thought it was a good deal.
So yeah. I think this is easily my new favorite KBBQ joint. Not too close to where I live, but it’s worth the drive!

Came here with my family for some KBBQ, and drove down all the way Bellevue. We got the combo for 3 – 4 people for my family of 4 and my dad ordered an extra seafood bibimbap.
Food: 4.6÷5
Delicious. The side dishes were very tasty and authentic, and the seafood bibimbap was great. For the combo, we got a gigantic plate with a lot of assorted meats as well as a egg hot pot and spicy tofu stew. The taste of the food was great.
Ambience: ⁴⁄₅
This isn’t a super fancy place but there is enough privacy and space in the place. It is fairly cleanly kept and does the job.
Service: ⁴⁄₅
The waitress was very involved in cooking our us. Sometimes it came off a little aggressively. They did a decent job checking to make sure our tea was filled, etc.
Hygiene: ³⁄₅
This is where I get a little iffy. Usually places give you two tongs – one for cooked meat and one for raw meat. This place did not. I was slightly horrified to see that the waitress used the tongs to grab a chunk of raw meat then next grabbed some cooked meat to serve to my younger brother. We put the meat back to cook before using chopsticks to pick it up again.
Overall our meal came out to about $ 100 which is quite a bit pricey, but KBBQ isn’t cheap and we did get a lot of food.

I’ve come to really like So Moon Nan Jib! It’s a little more expensive than the average Korean restaurant in Federal Way, but the quality of the food is great and the service is really good. Plus, the assortment of ban chan is better than most places as well.
I haven’t tried a dish that I didn’t like — soon dobu (tofu soup), bibim naeng myung (spicy cold noodles), Korean BBQ, steamed dumplings, and fish. They’ve all been delicious and every time I bring a friend, they’ve enjoyed the experience. Plus, they top off your meal with a sweet rice drink which I haven’t had since I was a child. Love it!
It’s in a strip mall in an area of primarily Korean-​speaking business owners and the restaurant may be difficult to find but don’t be deterred! It’s definitely worth it.

I’ve been here for dinner a few times. Decent place for Korean dishes and a-​la-​carte BBQ.

My favorite Korean restaurant, ever! My coworkers and I come here for a lunch on a regular basis.
The service is quick and friendly, which is rare at Korean restaurants. But this one is definitely an exception. I haven’t had the kBBQ, so I can’t speak on that. However, the Combo meals are A1. Reasonably priced and they give you a TON of food. I highly recommend this place to everyone in the area. :)

Well this is like my second home for Korean food. I am a regular here.
It’s hard to find Korean restaurants with good service. I measure this by seeing how they treat customers who ARENT with their first-​gen Korean parents and akso by how they treat non-​Korean customers. And Somoon nan jib has passed both my tests with flying colors.
They are always on top of it service wise whether or not I come in w my parents, or my mom-​Korean friends. My non-​Korean friends feel comfortable going there to eat without me (or without a Korean in general).
They got popular really fast due to their cold nengmyun. But really, i haven’t had a dish yet that’s let me down. Their KBBQ is also great, their gamja tang, soondooboo, pa-​Jun, mandoo, black goat tang, dwaenjang jjigae, Etcetc all great and tasty.
Easily the best overall Korean restaurant in Federal Way’

Fantastic dining experience, highly recommend! Well worth the 25 mile drive from Seattle. If you can’t make it to Korea, this seems to be a close substitute!
My wife and I chose to eat here for my birthday and were so happy that we chose this instead of a fancy restaurant downtown. We filled ourselves with delicious, authentic Korean BBQ and enjoyed great service from the staff. It was a very unique dining experience for us (as non Koreans).
For $ 57 (including tax), we enjoyed the following:
— pork belly
— beef brisket
— banchan that included 8 vegetable dishes with an array of different flavors
— bean paste soup (dont let the name fool you, this is delicious!)
— egg soup
— green veggies to pair with the BBQ’ed meat
— spicy cold noodles
— a pint of Korean beer
— table side service to assist with cooking the meat on the tabletop
Everything except for the spicy cold noodles came with the BBQ meat dishes as a set. This was more than enough food to feed 2 people and in fact we had to take the spicy cold noodles home.
Highly recommend!

We went on a Sunday before noon and there already were many people in the restaurant. The waitress was very friendly and allowed us to sit where we wanted. We were the provided with menus and hot tea. We placed our order and decided on the dolsat bibimbop with meat and kimchi jigae.
I believe any Korean restaurant should have a wide assortment of banchan and So Moon Nan Jib did not disappoint! With our meal they brought out nine different types of banchan and all of them were delicious. Of course there was the traditional Napa cabbage kimchi and there were also side dishes made from mushrooms, onions, spinach, cucumbers, bean sprouts, seaweed, fish cake and a Korean pancake! I felt the best were the fish cake, seaweed and cucumbers.
The bibimbop was one of the best I have had. They did not skimp on the vegetables or the meat. I also liked that the bowl was hot enough to brown some of my rice. The kimchi jigae was very good and was comparable to what you can get in the ROK.
Eating here reminded me of my time in Korea and the food was as good as I have had while living there. I felt the service was good and I like having a bell to ring to get the attention of the serving staff.
I had to wait a bit when paying my bill due to problems with a large party who were having problems understanding their bill and then dividing it amongst themselves. It took them almost ten minutes to settle everything. The woman at the register remained calm and was very patient and never appeared flustered. When it came my turn to pay she acted as if nothing ever happened and was all smiles.
I would definitely come back.

When in Federal Way, you’d be missing out if you didn’t get some Korean food, and So Moon Nan Jib is a solid option.
My wife and I came for lunch on a weekday, and it wasn’t busy, so we were served quickly.
I ordered Spicy Bulgoki with rice while my wife got their Bibimbap.
I’ll start by saying the bon chon was good and varied. It included seafood pancake, which I rarely see as part of the bon chon offerings. I also liked their bean curd strips.
My Spicy Bulgoki was on point in terms of flavor and spice level. Portion size was very generous, and I was very satisfied after the meal.
My wife’s Bibimbap was only ok. I had never tried cold Bibimbap, but that’s what she was served. It was also in a metal bowl instead of a stone bowl, so she didn’t get the crispy rice at the bottom that is always so bomb. The portion size was good and the veggies were varied, but the coldness and lack of crispy rice threw me off.
Some of the workers seemed to only speak Korean, which is good because then you know the place is legit, but it made it difficult to ask for things or communicate when we needed to. But I’m OK with that as long as the food is good and reasonably priced.
Definitely worth a try.

We stopped by So Moon Nan Jib on a late afternoon, and the restaurant was still half-​full. We wanted BBQ, so we were seated at a table with a grill. The place isn’t the fanciest, but the food is why you come here (leave your jackets in your car of course).
Unfortunately, there was only two of us, so we couldn’t order one of the combos since they feed at least three. We ended up ordering two BBQ items so we could get the soup and steamed egg:
Kalbi ribs: really good, definitely a must-​order at KBBQ.
BBQ chicken: I was surprised that I liked this dish: it had good flavor (chicken thighs).
As I mentioned earlier, you get tofu soup (just ok), steamed egg (I really liked this dish), salad and 8 dishes of banchan. Overall, everything tasted really good. Too bad it is so far away from Issaquah for me. Next time, I am bringing some more friends so that we can try the combo meals.

After having lost all hope in Federal Way’s selection of Korean food, I was passed onto So Moon Nan Jib by a friend and my faith has been restored.
On my first visit, I ordered the pork soondubu and kalbi combination. The soondubu was good, but nothing to write home about. It wasn’t as spicy as I had expected, but it may just be a personal preference. The kalbi was delicious: tender, juicy and bursting with flavor.
During my second visit, I ordered the namul dolsot bibimbap which is one of my new go-​to Korean dishes. Served in a stone pot, bibimbap is served as a bowl of rice topped with meat, fresh vegetables, a raw egg and soybean paste. My favorite part of the dolsot bibimbap was the crunchy rice on the bottom of the pot. Once mixed together with its other counterparts, it simply can’t be beat.
There’s a wide assortment of authentic banchan, including sukju namul (soy sprouts), muk (acorn jelly) and jeon (pancake). They happily offer to refill any finished dishes, as well. I’m always impressed with the service here — they’re attentive, friendly and helpful!
My final rating will be made once I try the BBQ — the ultimate factor!

I heard from a Korean friend who grew up in Federal Way that So Moon Nan Jib is her all-​time favorite Korean restaurant. Although it seemed heavy to order for lunch, we decided to grill Korean barbeque to see how this place measured up against our favorite Korean restaurant in Lynnwood (suburb north of Seattle).
Off the bat, let me say that So Moon Nan Jib is very spacious, clean and a nicely decorated space. The booths with grill tables are very large, giving our family of five plenty of room. The dining room was packed with almost all Korean people. Even though they were busy, the staff hustled to bring us water and menus.
So, my husband and I like to order sseng kalbi (unmarinated short rib) whenever we grill Korean barbeque. This is because they have to serve you the freshest cut of beef, since there is no hiding poor quality or old meat behind a marinade. If you get a well marbleized piece of sseng kalbi, it will melt in your mouth. The sseng kalbi here was pretty good — HUGE serving, marbleized well enough and the quality seemed good. Was it better than what we can find in Lynnwood? Nah.
We also ordered a non-​spicy soft tofu stew for the kids to share, and they seemed to enjoy it fine. Dweng jang jigae and steamed egg in a stoneware pot were complimentary with our meal. We also ordered the homemade mandoo, which were good, but unnecessary to add to our large meal. We did see a lot of other tables ordering it, so I’m sure it’s very popular. If you are in the Federal Way area, I would highly recommend coming here for a Korean meal.

Definitely one of the best Korean BBQ place I’ve been.
When we follow the driving instruction to this BBQ restaurant, we found us inside a plaza with all the store names in Korean. It took us a little while to find the right store, but we were all in good mood because this means the food must be authentic.
And when we noticed we were the only people in the restaurant that not speaking Korean, we know it could not be more authentic than this.
The complimentary appetizer was fantastic with about 10 small plates. All very delicious and great with BBQ meat.
We have 4 adults and once child, so we ordered $ 69 combo (3 – 4 person), and an extra pork belly ($ 18). From our experience in some other Korean BBQ places, we need extra portion. It turned out that we were deadly wrong, the portion in this place is huge. At the end, we had lots of left over to pack and were all impressed by the generous portion.
And the meat quality was very impressive, too. All were fresh, tender, came from good parts and well-​seasoned. Our waitress helped us with the first load of beef, and the food was absolutely delicious. The meat was juicy with well balance flavors of sweet, salty and spicy. Definitely one of the best Korean BBQ I’ve ever had.
The only minor complain I have, is that their spicy beef was way too hot for us. Usually we could handle spicy food pretty well, but that spicy beef was way out of beyond our range. Meanwhile, I noticed that it was not a problem for other customers, so maybe we were not that good at hot food.
After stuffed with a delicious BBQ, I’m sure we will be here again.

FINALLY A PLACE WITH AMAZING MUL NENG MYUN!!! aka cold noodles. It’s been a long and disappointing search for a place that has the best broth and noodles and this is it. The first requirement is that the broth takes beefy. Check. The noodles are a good consistency. The side dishes? Good. I went with my mom and usually I can’t finish a whole bowl of noodles by myself but I was able to.
Got the cold noodles in broth w/​kalib and my mom got the spicy mixed noodles. Both great. We split everything. With the spicy noodles it comes with a cup of hot beef broth by itself and from there you can judge how good this place is. It was awesome.
Now I know exactly where to go during the summer for a nice bowl of cold noodles. Yay!