Samwon Garden Restaurant

If you have an aunt who is a good cook and an uncle who keeps his place spotlessly clean, you would be happy to to be invited to their house to eat. If you don’t, then come here and pay a reasonable fee to eat good home cooked meals.
Nothing fancy, just well executed comfort food meals. I’ve had their «lunch time» specials and traditional Korean meals.
The lunch special menu in English caters to those not used to authentic Korea food. They are Americanized Asian items. Not badly done.
Their Korean dishes are my meals of choice. I really like their spicy beef soup.
Solid consistently well prepared meals at a good price.

Amazing food The gentleman at the counter was very friendly, patient, & helpful with deciding amongst the vast amount of choices of entrees. He kindly, suggested what he thought we’d really like and we were happily impressed. I will definitely be back and recommend this restaurant to my family & friends

You wouldn’t to think very much of this place when you just walk in. It’s small and seem to have a small menu. But if you enjoy authentic Sul Lung Tang and SoonDae. I would rate it as one of the best that I have had. Service is great if it’s not too busy. If it’s busy be patient it’s well worth it.

I am a korean myself and i have tried many different places in south tacoma way. But this place is the most authentic korean restaurant i have been to in tacoma area. Highly recommend their soondae!

In my opinion, I think my first experience deserves 3 stars, it was just «A-​OK» but because I am hoping to come back and have better experiences here, I am going to go ahead with the 4 stars. I don’t want to bring down the reputation with the already existing reviews to lower the rating.
3 stars would only be given if I wanted to be super strict about every detail that went wrong with my dining experience here.
My friend and I ordered the larger plate of «soondae» A.K.A. blood sausage (I still dislike how it is called that… quite disturbing but so yummy). That’s the main reason we came but we wanted something else on the side so we ordered the Mongolian Beef. I was a huge fan of Mongolian Beef [at teriyaki shops] when I used to work at one for awhile. Not too long ago, I ordered Mongolian Beef elsewhere and it was horrible. I did not think I could find another place that makes Mongolian Beef the way my tastebuds desire.
The Mongolian Beef was a tad bit too salty but it was good! The meat wasn’t extra chewy and hard to swallow nor tasteless. The meat was mostly on the tender side except for minor bites where I had to spit out. The onions definitely compliment well with the meat [I always hated onions but I started eating it with Mongolian Beef]. The noodles that are underneath are okay, nothing special.
The soondae [I used to go to the one in Federal Way but they closed a few years ago] was alright. I had high hopes for this place since they sell soondae and it’s in Tacoma but … it would be rated 2 ½ stars under my radar. There was an odd taste when I chewed it and I had to mask the taste with the special salt that comes with it. I tried eating it with the «kakduki» cubed radish and even with the Mongolian Beef… Sriracha… couldn’t mask it. As for the texture, it was more on the dry pasty side but not too harshly. It was just in the middle of good and bad.
I think I might try the soondae bokkeum [stir-​fried] or the one in the soup later if I crave soondae but I definitely plan on coming back to try the other dishes. Oh, the restaurant is also a small little shop run by a family– which makes it better. I love small familiy restaurants.

We had a little bit of everything on the menu and it was all mediocre at best. Had I been equipped with several pounds of garlic and a bottle of oyster sauce, I feel that I could have made the garlic chicken myself. Not only was no ones craving satiated but it was a real culinary disappointment.
However, my major complaint is that THERE IS NO ACCESSIBLE BATHROOM!!! I was told by the staff to go outside to the back of the building and it would be there. Unfortunately I was met with a screen door to the kitchen and a padlocked door. Instead of going back into the restaurant for further unintelligible directions to the bathroom, I booked it to the nearest Starbucks. Which worked out ok since I was able to rinse the taste of disappointing food out of my mouth.

The service is great and the food is awesome! Can’t believe I found this restaurant out! The korean small plate taste great, but it might be a little spicy for people who don’t usually eat spicy like me. I had to drink several cups of water while eating their rice small plate. Overall, I think this is a great restaurant. I give it four stars because I don’t think it is perfect based on my own expectations.

Possibly Tacoma’s Best Kept Secret for Korean «Soul» Food !
My parents brought me here via recommendation of their Korean 1^st-​generation posse friends. Now, I pass by this place at least 3 – 4 times daily on my general commute to work-home-gym-parental’s-etc but it never occurred to me to check it out because the outside looks like another generic teriyaki restaurant. Yes, this place does offer your standard teriyaki and Chinese food BUT they offer authentic homeland Korean home cooking and the freshest street food I’ve ever had. Better than the original street food in Korea.
My favorite Korean comfort food is dduk bokggi (spicy rice cakes) and soondae. The later is difficult to find. I’ve tried a few places in Federal Way and it wasn’t enough to satisfy a craving for decent soondae. This place is FRESH soondae aka it couldn’t have been frozen previously. And for soondae to still be fresh for Saturday dinner — that’s impressive.
My father got the soondae soup — which is bone marrow soup with soondae. We both simultaneously commented that this was better than the competition across the street that solely sells bone marrow soup with assorted meats (kinda like a korean-​style phở). AKA: Good soup for a hangover :)
I’m blown away that a place can make my Korean comfort food better than Korea; I’ve never even fathomed that that was possible. Honestly, the generic on the outside. But it’s the food that counts for me. And I’m okay with that since we’re not paying for ambiance in the price tag.
P. S. The cucumber side dish with soy sauce is not salty at all and it goes perfect with the soondae :)