Jongro Kimbap

MmmMm. Love this place. Always have and always will (unless they change something).
I can’t come here as often as I’d like because I’m no longer that close to the area, but I really miss those random weekday nights of wanting some good SIMPLE filling food and being fulfilled by this place and this place only.
I always get the ramen + kimbap combo. People think it’s odd that you would pay $ 5 for a bowl of shin ramen that you can cook at home for less than a dollar, but I don’t know about you but when I cook ramen, I’m too lazy to put in all the side vegetables, imitation crab meat, and top it off with a slice of cheese. It’s too much work to imitate what they give you. And I don’t know what it is, but it just taste different when they make it! I know it’s shin ramen (I’ve seen their boxes in the back before), but it really doesn’t phase me. To top it off, their kimbap is so good! Everything from the beef roll to the tuna roll (ooh can’t forget the cheese roll). This place would probably be considered a «fast food» restaurant, but it’s as comforting as it gets for me. Was out of the country where Korean food was not attainable for a week or so, and the moment I came back, this was my first stop.
They also sell all sorts of things. We’re in cold weather December, where most restaurants will stop offering their cold noodle dishes. Came here yesterday, and my friend was still able to order cold noodles during this season.
They give you 2 sides of banchan (side dishes) — kimchi and radish. The radish here taste better than most. I don’t know what it is, but I haven’t been able to buy the type of radish they serve at the market. There are about 8 tables inside this small restaurant, and a lot of times, its pretty much filled. People eat fast and leave fast (not a chit-​chatting type of place), so no worries in regards to getting seated promptly. There are a lot of parking as its located in a plaza.
The servers are all very friendly and attentive, and you always see the owner in his apron cooking in the back.

Great little mom and pop shop with great tasting comfort food. Portions are huge! The staff is friendly and very attentive. Huge plus was that they didn’t rush my boyfriend and I, even though it was getting close to closing and I felt terrible for staying so late! We had the deal where you could order three things for $ 20! I ordered rabokki (spicy rice cakes with ramen) and my serving plate was huge. Boyfriend got yummy udon and we split the kimbap, which came out on a cute little wooden board. They gave us complimentary soup and kimchi!
Don’t let the exterior of this place fool you, the food definitely hit the spot and satiates the craving. Lots of parking bc it’s located in the same plaza as a supermarket.

Convenient, casual Korean «snack» place. These are more of the informal fare of Korean cuisine. This is the place to go to satisfy your craving for spicy tokbokki or jolmyeon, or the hearty pork cutlet or king-​size steamed dumplings, or the standard gimbop and ramyeon. Ordering three dishes between two people is not unusual here especially if you can get a deal for $ 21 for 3 dishes!

affordable price, good food, i would go here any day for korean fast food/​street food. rolls (kimbap) and imitation fish cake soup with udon is good. small place.

my favorite kimbap place after homemade kimbap

I love this place. They are located in a plaza with a huge korean market, and it’s probably hard to find. They have lots of cheap & quick eateries, and they are really good. I usually get the ramen + kimbap combo for myself. They take orders online, and they can always prepare it really fast.

Yumms. Their food is delicious!
Great for a quick and cheap meal. I used to come here after school with my friends and get the kim bap and noodles in soup.
It’s a small restaurant. They had great customer service.

Great Korean fast food type quality meals. Prices are not too bad, especially the 3 for $ 20 deal.

Love this place! Owners are friendly and food is always delicious. Their sweet and spicy chicken is the best!

Great little spot for soup/​noodles and kimbap (Korean version of sushi). My mom and I were both feeling a little under the weather and were going to have soup next door but decided to give this place a try since we’d already had the other place recently. Great decision! We ordered a noodle soup and fish cake soup, along with an order of combo kimbap (comes with beef, tuna, and kimchi). Very decently priced and quite a large portion. I’m glad we have another go-​to cold weather /​sick day place to add to our list.

Customer service: First customer in, 3 customers came in after I.
All ordered after I did and they all got their Kim bap before I did, which is odd because I ordered the kimchi roll (this requires no cooking). It took them 26 min for my food to be given to me. I’m not reviewing their customer service this is just on the Kim bap.
Kimchi Kim bap was good, roll didn’t fall apart. Rice had the correct texture and crab, cucumber, spinach, and egg was perfectly portioned to taste all three and not one flavor overpowering the other.

I happened to chance upon Jongro Kimbap when visiting Jangmo Jip a it is almost next door so decided to give it a try. This is as ethnic as it gets with the menu written in Korean and you basically need to ask for descriptions of dishes as you just have a name and a picture without any explanation of what’s inside. The first time I was there I asked about their lunch special ($ 5.99) and I was told it was a combination of a kimbap (basically a Korean roll) and some standard dishes like udon, seafood noodle soup etc. I went with the beef kimbap and the udon combo. The ladies working here are very sweet and answered all my questions patiently so that was very helpful specially in this type of restaurant. They provide a limited amount of banchan, only two dishes namely kimchee and another sliced potato dish, but both are of high quality. The food came out fast in under ten minutes. Taste wise I felt that the kimbap overall did not have a fresh feel. I’m not sure that if that is the way it’s supposed to taste or it was just bad as I had never had kimbap before, but I did not like what I ate here. The udon was on the other end of the spectrum — excellent broth, great bit to thick udon noodles, so I liked it very much and it served to balance off the meal.
The next time that I was there, I decided to try the spicy rice cake with fish cakes, egg and noodles dish ($ 7.99) as it looked very good. Thankfully its taste lived up to its looks and I enjoyed what I ate. when it was time to pay, to my surprise they took cards without any restrictions of minimums so that was another plus. I will be back to try a couple of more dishes off their menu.

Had the Kimchi Kimbap, Wang Mandu, and Jjolmyun. Kimbap was O.K., but after eating the Jjolmyun, tasted bland. The mandu was really bland; and the texture was a bit weird. The jjolmyun was the best tasting dish. I’ve had better, but can’t really complain about it.
Definitely a hole-​in-​the-​wall type restaurant. Service was acceptable for the type of restaurant. Environment was a bit humid, but clean.
Overall, can’t complain about this place. However, will I be back, probably not.

A satisfied lunch. Decent service. I had the donkatsu. Portions were good for lunch. Fried just right.
Def hit the spot.

I’ve been coming here since it is close to home. This place is last result resturant if we don’t want to drive far, dont’ want to choose what we want to eat.
Almost like second home cook meal. But their menu haven’t changed last 6~7 years I been here. Just like home cook meal.

I’ve been craving kimbap for awhile now. So, after checking out the Bodies Exhibit, a friend and I came here for lunch.
I think there were 4 types of kimbap: beef, kimchi, tuna, and cheese. I went with the beef. We were also given soup and 2 banchan, kimchi and radishes. I thought the kimbap was just okay. They were skimpy on the beef and the kimbap was quite bland overall. The soup was tasty though and I enjoyed the kimchi and radishes. They also had other dishes beside kimbap.
Service was good. They refilled our water and gave us gum at the end. Shop was kind of small, but the prices were good.
Overall, a good place for a cheap meal, but my kimbap craving was not satisfied. Why is it so hard to find good kimbap around here?! The search continues.

I only tried this place so I can compare it against Awoolim. I’ve been here twice and tried their beef kimbap and was not impressed. It’s little bit cheaper at $ 5.00 and you get a cup of soup, but you only get 10 pieces of kimbap and they don’t put much meat in them. The beef was also somewhat bland.

In a rush and need something fast and on the go? Kimbap is perfect for those instances you have to run. Its quick to make so you’re in and out of the restaurant in less than 6 minutes and you can eat them with your hands.
If you’re not familiar with kimbap, its kind of like a Korean style sushi roll, except everything is cooked. They have a beef kimbap that is made with marinated beef (bulgogi), carrots, cucumber, egg, rice, seaweed, etc. Hits the spot every time and for under $ 6.

Try pronouncing this place, it almost rhymes with BBoy Hiphop.
No? Now try telling your folks you’re at this place, which is IRONICALLY, the closest strip eatery to my house. No one will seem to find it. But if you just say the Korean bank next door, they will know where it is.
Yes, I don’t frequently visit my nearby eateries. This was a rare occasion. So when my sister and brother came to visit, we just went to the nearest place. As always, Unilocal guides us the way and 3.5 stars is pretty much on par.
We saw the 3 for $ 20 items option since we were getting it to go. I believe you cannot eat in with that price now. We did order the kimbap, a few versions. I wouldn’t recommend the beef because it tastes like it has an identity crisis. Beef mixed in along with vegetable and rice? That’s like a cow lost in veggy grille located close by the beach.
We did $ 40 worth and it did come with some Mu and Kimchi as well. We got some soup noodles too and even some Mandoo. The mandoo is my favorite out of all the items we got. It was huge, not the tastiest, but it was really good on a cold day if you put in inside one of the soup noodle dishes we had. Oh, the soup tasted a little plain, almost like it was packet made, and not your cook all night type of soups.
A lot of younger crowds here in their 20s. They know good prices and decent food. That’s the best I can describe this place. So next time I find couch money on a cold day, I guess I would come back and support the local economy.

This was a great deal for lunch — $ 6.50 and I couldn’t even finish my food.
I ordered a combination — on the menu they’re written only in Korean so you have to either read Korean or ask specifically for the two items you want! I chose udon with tofu and fishcakes plus the tuna kimbap.
The udon was fine — warming and mild with nice chewy noodles and unassuming fish cakes — but if you’re going to make the trek you should make the trek for the kimbap! (It is in the title, so this is not surprising.) Even though the tuna in it looked like the tuna in a tuna salad sandwich, there was a delicious leaf in there that really offset the fishiness. Sesame leaf, perhaps? The proportions of the fish and vegetables were perfect. I didn’t overdose on radish like I do from the pre-​packaged ones at H-​Mart.
Even more shockingly, I SAW imitation crab in there but it did not wrap itself stickily and pervasively around my tastebuds like imitation crab usually does. So in this instance, me and imitation crab came to a tentative armistice. Any restaurant that can broker this unlikely peace agreement deserves an honorable mention.