Wonjo

I dunno why I was so harsh on Wonjo the first time around, but recent multiple visits* have convinced me that this place is actually kind of enjoyable. The food is pretty par for the course on the 32^nd Street strip (this is not a bad thing, as I enjoy most of the restaurants there), but the standout was the service. None of that schlepping crap from Kunjip, who caters to a younger crowd, but attentive servers who willingly split all our dishes into 7 even portions so that everyone could try more food without us having to go through the trouble of divvying it up ourselves. They were also great about refreshing our banchan (little dishes) when we ran out. Then of course, the kicker is the cold ginger cinnamon tea they serve after your meal — refreshing and delish. My clothes still reek of food when I leave this place, but I’m willing to bear that cost of being happy in da belly. (3.5 stars)
*OK, admittedly, one of these included a post-​afterparty stop here after my own wedding, so Wonjo now has some sentimental value too.

CLOSED
it is now called new wonjo restaurant.

They totally revamp their menu and not to mention space. I no longer saw the Won Jo Special Kal bi but now they changed it to Gal Bi.
I asked the waitress which one is the Won Jo Special and she pointed to the one that was priced the highest out of the Gal Bi.
It doesn’t taste the same anymore and it definitely not the same thing!

The company was great. I was hungry enough. It was the perfect time for dinner (330am) and the perfect time for breakfast (330 am). Sul Long Tang was the right thing to eat. The service was nice and attentive. Won Jip is clean and it was occupied for some other people, not crowded but enough to make you forget that is actually sleeping time. The gyeran-​tang (egg soup) was a pleasant surprise as it use to be when it comes as part of the banchan. I always heard egg soup is very frequent but it has been presented to me only at Kun Jip and now here at Won Jip. And I loved this one so much in particular.
But the banchan reached no other than mediocrity. With just a few marinated vegetables, not only in variety but also in amount and that was far away of being tasty. At least gyeran-​tang saved this part of the meal.
Then our Sul Long Tang and Yook Gae Jang arrived. or in a language that I can easily understand, slowly boiled bone beef soup and beef stew with vegetables in spicy soup. The Sul Long Tail didn’t impress me too much. The broth was a bit more watery than the one at Gahm Mi Oak which is just 2 min away walking. I had to add a lot of salt and pepper to eat it and the noodles having a nice texture was too much amount to me. This could be personal. Our other soup didn’t taste good It was even a bit sour and it wasn’t spicy enough. I wasn’t too enthusiastic eating it so it got cold. surprisingly fast. ?. So it ended up tasting pretty bad. Of course, it must be eaten hot. But is a fact that if my food is Korean. and its good. it will never get cold. My tongue can talk about pain many times. To me, that mean.
The whole experience was good, at least late at night, since the restaurant itself creates a nice and relaxing ambiance where you can take your time. They will not rush you as at Kun Jip and you will not have to wait long line and being surrounded by loud customers. Also tables creates somehow some privacy and to be seated upstairs close to the window seeing how the sun comes up is a plus. But they are certainly unlucky. A few months back I could probably rate them a bit better, but being experienced so many already. many that are around and where you also can enjoy the luxury to eat a complete meal at a time than in the rest of the world is just insane… and where I can get the same ambiance: Gahm Mi Oak or Kum Gang San for instance. But where the food is better. Not to mention my experience at Ham Ji Bak that sadly is located at Flushing but that also close at 11pm and so doesn’t give me the trouble to decide if I should get crazy and travel all my way there during this insane meals. But anyways, all is relative and if you have to compete at Korean town you must do it better. Many options to choose

I love how lively 32^nd street is for eats late night. Sat down for an 11pm midweek dinner and it was hoppin. I was with a few chefs so I threw in my .02 cents and let them do the ordering. It’s worth noting they use real charcoal, not the hot plate thingy. They also do most of the cooking for you, so you can just pick at the hot food or take it off the grill when you want.
We ordered the Kalbi, Rib eye, Spicy pork, and a Squid dish that was prepared in the kitchen and brought to us. The squid was perfectly cooked and well seasoned. Spicy but not over the top. We made our own little lettuce rolled sandwiches and used the many condiments on the table. Also ate a scallion pancake that was the best I’d ever had, and also this custardy egg concoction that came out in a very hot pot so it was still cooking and congealing before our eyes.
I didn’t see the bill so I can’t comment on what the damage was but I’d certainly suggest this place to anyone looking for a more mellow, not so date oriented K-​Town suggestion. I’d send couples to the darker more intimate Don Bogrom’s. After being to a few of these spots and their Japanese equivalents in the E. Village, I can say I much prefer the Korean preparations, marinades, and flavor over the Japanese approach. Not that it’s a contest or anything. Or is it? Battle to the death!

Frequent hot spot for «after hours» dinner when above 14^th street plus one-​of-​top-​ten reasons I live in New York = 24 hour charcoal grills!
Won Jo completely fulfills my desire for a Korean mother at 6 in the morning. K-​mama cook my food! K-​mama more sides! K-​mama O.B. now (yes, beer at 6am)!
Overpriced? This place isn’t powered by wind mills crazies… they probably have to blow up a mountain every year for charcoal. Plus maintaining and cleaning the grills? This 24 hour double decker Korean joint is worth every American dollar.

I came here last Sat. night with a fairly large crowd, everything they serve here is pretty much what I expect of a Korean restaurant. Though the panchan is not as good/​generous as the bay area smaller shops.
– Only thing that shocked me was the price, an 8 way divide on what I thought was a normal amount of food came out to $ 30+ pp… that’s your NYC prices!

I was looking for a Korean place near Herald Square (obviously, there’s quite a few) that served raw crab as one of the side dishes. Walked into this place because it smelled delicious and there was a line. Unilocalers do not disappoint. The three stars are exactly what I would give. Galbi was tasty enough. Dak Gui was a little dry. Options of side dishes were somewhat limited. I expect about 7 or 8. I am a glutton. However, it did have the raw crab in spicy sauce as a side dish. Perfect from that aspect
Pros: decent galbi, korean bbq smell staying on your clothes was not as usually bad, really good soju
Cons: pricey, long line, overall just adequate but not spectacular

I think from now on I’ll leave all Korean themed meals to the kind people of Flushing. Sorry but this place pretty much killed K-​Town for me.
I ventured in here one afternoon with a group of friends recently. We were starved and pretty much went into the first place we saw that didn’t seem all too shady. We saw the sign for Korean BBQ and our stomachs growled in agreement. Upon walking in we were quickly ushered to the 2^nd floor for the Korean BBQ. We ordered the Kalbi and Jaeyook Gui for bbq and also Kimchi Chige (kimchi soup) and a Bibim Bap.
The first thing to show up was the banchan which we found passable. The flavors were a bit bland for korean food. Nothing had even the slightest hint of spice. We even speculated that they probably used some food coloring because some of the dishes were blood red and yet they weren’t spicy. I’m no korean food connoisseur so again it was simply speculation.
What really annoyed me was the waitress who took our order. We clearly stated we’d like one order of kalbi and one order of Jaeyook Gui for bbq. She then asked us how many people. We didn’t understand what that was supposed to mean. We had 4 people and we were going to share it. She then says ok 4 kalbi and 4 jaeyook gui. What the hell? I just said 1 order each. I’ll save you Unilocalers the trouble of reading the details. Just know this went on about 3 more times for a few minutes and finally the waitress says ok 1 order each. FINALLY.
The first thing to come was the kimchi chige followed closely by the bibim bap. The bibim bap was quite bland. I’ve had bibim bap before and I know it happens sometimes but the sauce usually fixes that right up. No amount of sauce seemed to help this dish though. Just had to suck it up and down the hatch I guess. The kimchi chige sort of helped the experience. The flavors really melded together to create one tasty soup.
Next came the much anticipated korean bbq. To my disappointment however, rather than setting up the pit in the middle of the table they brought out one of those hotpot burners and put a griddle on top. In my opinion it just doesn’t taste the same that way. It just doesn’t get the nice smokey flavor. All in all we were a quite disappointed but food is food I guess. The entire time I was thinking «wow I should have just went to Picnic Garden.» And at a final price of over $ 20 per person on the bill for lunch. I REALLY SHOULD HAVE JUST WENT TO PICNIC GARDEN!
Trust me, leave korean cuisine to Queens, particularly Flushing. It’s going to take a whole lot to get K-​Town back in my books again.

This place is really nothing special. If you are wanting Korean BBQ and want to grill it yourself, then don’t come here for lunch. They will not let you grill, and they will charge you dinner prices, ranging from $ 20.00−30.00 for 12 ounces. Therefore, eating upstairs is pretty much pointless. The atmosphere is the same as most of the other BBQ houses on the same street.
The mandoo are handmade and not pre-​frozen at least. You only get six banchan and they are extremely weak. The kimchi is not fermented at all, and has barely any sauce. I have yet to have anything here that is actually spicy, and will not be returning.

This place is the worst! The first time was okay, but the last time will definitely be my last. I’m never coming back here again.
I came here with two other diners, and we asked to get two bbq orders — one combination meat platter and one combination seafood platter. The really snooty waitress gives us this scary look and tells us, ‘oh, but the orders are very, VERY small! It won’t be enough food!” We’re positive that this will be enough food to keep us full with the banchan, and we insist that we don’t want to order anything else. She insists that we should get an appetizer, but I insist again and tell her we want nothing else.
In the end, the three of us were quite full from the food and thought we had enough. Yes, the seafood platter was a complete and total rip off (what do you think of 1 ½ scallops in your combo seafood order?). But of course, every now and then the stupid waitress comes by and asks if we have enough food. One of the people I am eating with doesn’t know much about Korean food, so he does something that she finds inappropriate. So the waitress starts laughing in this mocking attitude of hers and starts aggressively showing him how to eat everything — taking her tongs, pushing stuff aside here and there and throwing stuff into his bowl. The entire time, you could tell she was making fun of him. Um, sure. If she went to a restaurant that had food of a culture she wasn’t familiar with, would she be aware of how to properly eat everything? Probably… not.
With an attitude and mockingly snobbish tone like that, she is lucky she got any tip from us because I refuse to tolerate that type of condescending attitude, especially if I am footing the bill.

I’ve been to Won Jo a few times over the years and have left stuffed and happy every time. The non-​meat dishes are not very impressive — ddukbokki lacks flavor, naeng-​myuns are sub-​par — but the meat is great. The $ 25 combo may not be AYCE but it’s just about all I can. There’s plenty of galbi, tongue, samgyupsal, chadulbaegi, along with an assortment of mushrooms. Add never-​ending kimchi, ddukbossam, and lettuce, with daenjang and garlic and plenty of other banchan and you have quite the spread.
I’ve found the service to be consistently good as well. The upstairs of Won Jo holds the barbecue area, and it’s all do-​it-​yourself charcoal grills, but the wait staff comes by often to make sure you’re not burning your meat. They’re also fast with the refills on both water and kimchi, and generally friendly, whether or not I’ve had Koreans or non-​Koreans in tow.
I’m aware that there are other Korean barbecue joints on 32^nd that I have yet to try, but Won Jo is not half bad. Sure, the ddukbokki was a little tragic, but go for the straight meat and you’ll do alright.

This is another Korean restaurant you should avoid even if you are famished and don’t want to wait (there! this again, if there are 30+ people waiting for a table at Keun-​Jip and none at Won Jo, that should tell you something).
Yeah yeah yeah, I am a moron not following my own advice. Yes, we went here because we were starving and didn’t want to wait for a table at Keun-​Jip. And what a mistake.
Both mool-​naeng-​myun and bibim-​naeng-​myun proved my theory. Never go to a place where there are nobody waiting or reservation is readily available.

Wandered in here with high hopes since there was a line to be seated. it was definitely busy on a Friday night. Was it good? I would say no. The service was so rushed. if you stop to talk to your friends, they swoop by and try to take everything off your table so you will leave. And if you go for the bbq grill, watch out for your coats. the Mexicans that work here don’t really watch where they swing those hot charcoals. Rubbed it against my friend’s coat .
The food. not horrible. but definitely not worth the money. The seafood pancake had nearly NO seafood. Why did I pay $ 15?! And then the food. it was okay. I wish there was more meat and some green onions to marinate it. The side dishes are good. Still though. not worth the money. Blegh.

The Good:
+ The use of wood charcoals brings out the flavor of the meat and is superior to gas and electric grills
+ Service was efficient.
The Bad:
— ban chan to me seemed boring (I was hungry, but didn’t touch much)
— dessert? Fruit? Well this is a problem with all Korean BBQ restaurants.
The Ugly:
– One problem with this business is the inability to accommodate large groups. I called a few days before and made a reservation for 20. The hostess required for my whole party to be on time (she was surly too). On ²⁄₁₉ I brought my group but yet we waited another 20 minutes to get seated. There was no room and they tried to cut my group up into 3 tables. Are you kidding me? We ended up waiting for one table to leave in order to be seated in two tables (to the two ladies who left so I could sit — thank you). In a nutshell my reservation for 20 wasn’t kept. It reminded me of a Seinfeld episode when Jerry tries to get a car rental.

Won Jo knows how to take a reservation, but doesn’t know how to hold one.
– Poor ventilation. I asked the server if she could turn on the vents and she regrettably told me that they were broken. My eyes were burning throughout dinner. The best part was being sniffed on the subway like I was a piece of meat. Thanks Won Jo!
Overall, I will not return with a group bigger than 4. And if I want BBQ I will go to either Madangsui [
or Chung Moo Ro [
.
IFHTP 3+

I am going to have to say that although my friends liked the food here, I (little to my knowledge) was dealing with a nasty bout of the stomach flu, which would incapacitate me for the next couple of days. So I took one bite of my Bokeum Bap and my esophagus shut down. The one bite was OK.
But that has nothing to do with this place… I think.
The potato starch noodles were very tasty, as was the Salmon Teriyaki (my one friend isn’t very adventurous) and the Bokeum Bab was pretty good as well (per my other friend’s plate and my brother’s gobbling the leftovers that I kindly left for them).
I drank the miso soup, which was alright.
Why am I not giving it more stars? I’ve had less greasy potato starch noodles, and their electricity cut out for a couple of minutes towards the end of our service. Not a good sign. I liked that they gave us oranges at the end of our meal (something most places do), but why the hunks? And why semi-​frozen? I think someone needs to check the electrical in this place.

Hard to rate.
Very cool that it’s open 24 – 7;
They don’t let you bbq at the table unless you get the meat for two, which is sort of lame. So they cooked it for me in the kitchen.
The cut of beef (special kalbi), though flavorful, was fatty and chewy.
The service was inattentive.
No scallion sauce.
Korean is just good, but this place falls short… Relatively speaking!
Next time — to Flushing…

It’s the only place I know of in K-​town where I can get budae jigae as a 1-​person order.
All of the other Korean places I’ve been to around here either don’t have this comely casserole on their menu or opt to serve it as a 2-​person portion.
Budae jigae can be loosely translated to «(military) base stew.» Supposedly born from the Korean Wars when troops had to scavenge for scraps to re-​create a spot of stew to fill their stomachs. So canned meats like spam and hot dogs were used; those would be key ingredients in budae jigae, along with ramen. These days, you would also find rice cakes, pork etc added to bulk up the stew for us folks in the land of overabundance.
The budae jigae at Wonjo comes bubbling hot with a few pieces of spam, a few slices of hot dogs, some sliced fatty pork, some pieces of tendony beef, some slices of Korean rice cake, some vermicelli, cubes of tofu and plenty of kimchi in a spicy broth served on a stone pot atop a little burner. I like budae jigae because of the spam and hot dogs… and I feel that there isn’t enough of those items in the budae jigae at Wonjo. But otherwise, the broth is spicy, sour and quite tasty.

AUCTION DATE: Steve M. & Joolie T.
we had drinks on the rooftop of La Quinta. i decided it would be fun if we made this date a group outing… some of our buddies were Korean BBQ virgins. so we decided to pop their cherries that night. haha!
i made a reservation for 8. we were all dressed nicely and lookin’ haute. Steve recently cut off his long pony tail. «oh my, was that for me?» i asked. «why yes… Joolz, indeed» answered Steve M. as we were seated… we realized something. either everyone was sweating from the horrid humidity outside or sweating from checking each other out… we were smokin’. Ok, ok… it was the extreme humidity and the heat from the BBQ’s.
from 10 bottles of liquor and tons of beer to boot– we all had a wonderful time stuffing our faces with bbq. it was fun placing the meat on all the newbies’ plates. i felt like a mommy. haha! Adrian P. wrapped his lettuce up like a champ, Steve M. and were feeding each other alcohol, Julie K. ordered more and more food, Audrey J. giggled with glee as she sipped on her Bok Boon Ja (raspberry wine), Roderick A. gulped and challenged himself in the crazy world of Korean spiciness (he succeeded!), and Javier M. sipped on his puny little bowl of Seaweed Soup. how he resisted on the Duk Bok Kki (spicy rice cake) and BBQ is beyond me. he must be feverish. =)
their service lacked quite a bit that night. Julie K. and i got furious a few times at the servers. then at the end of our date– they charged us $ 400 for alcohol. what the!!! are we at Maru right now? FUCKS, NO! they corrected our tab and it was a $ 50 a head. still pricey, but hey… we ate like piglets.
then we met up with the fabulous Lynn F., Yosh H., and Rob L. too bad they didn’t get to BBQ with us!

I’ve stumbled here about half a dozen times to find myself the subject of sketchy service, expensive prices, and subpar food at best. Obviously 24 hours is an incentive as is their use of real hot coals for BBQ but beyond that its really about it. The food is not any better than other places in KTown I’ve been, the service about as good as KunJip (so-​so), and like any BBQ place the prices begin to add up but what makes it worse is the lack of a good ventilation system to keep the smoke from your clothes. With other restaurants in the area that are also 24 hours, Won Jo is falling more and more behind with their questionable service, subpar décor, and bland food.
Try coming here if the other places are too full during the late night craze.