Iron Age

My husband and I love Korean BBQ! We like the high energy environment, service is great, and food is yummy! We come here like once a month.

I haven’t been here since last October, but this place has gone down hill. They have dropped their option A and B by around $ 5. The quality of meat has gone down. Staff is less friendly and attentive. You have to ask multiple times for banchan, water and side refills. Many of the staff had this attitude where it seems they were doing you favor and didn’t want to help you. Meat would be flipped flinging all over your table and the grill was changed way after meat has already been burnt. Banchan had kimchi and the potato salad missing. They also do not serve Doenjang Jjigae anymore. I do not know why they don’t serve these staple Korean sides and dishes. I usually come on the busier nights, but Fathers Day dinner was rather quiet. Not sure why service and food took a plunge today. This is still the best AYCE Korean bbq restaurant in this area. But, if your in the mood for quality AYCE head to Annandale instead. It seems this location is cutting costs and their menu is showing it.

This place was fantastic. Food was amazing and service was on point. Our server Ashim was outstanding! Everything we asked of him he did in a timely fashion with a big smile, he even joked around with us. He made our first time very memorable. We will most definitely be coming back for sure. Thanks so much Ashim and Jonathan. :)

ALL YOU CAN EAT KOREAN BBQ FOR $ 20/​$ 25 DOLLARS
…okay so maybe I have a meating disorder
They give you all the normal Korean BBQ side dishes. I highly recommend the steam egg, potato salad, and pancakes. I’m drooling as I’m writing this.
They come out with two meats at a time and you eat until you hate yourself. But in a good way, not in a McDonalds sort of full.
Lines can get long. I’ve waited two hours before on a Friday but if you download this app they use, you can see where you stand. I should take away a star for the wait but honestly I can’t do it out of principal.
5 STARS IRON AGE. BRAVO

I have to admit, I was kind of worried about this place after seeing how polarized the reviews are, particularly those denouncing the service. But in my experience last night, I found the service unobjectionable, if not fantastic — our servers were quick and attentive and I respected their efficiency in such a packed restaurant. Besides, if the food is good I’m not going to be heartbroken if my server doesn’t completely coddle me. And the food was very good.
The restaurant was about 80% full on a Tuesday evening at around 7:40 PM. My party (3 people including myself) was told there was a 30 minute wait, which confused me only a little since there were clearly empty tables. So wait we did. It actually took almost exactly 30 minutes. We all ordered the less expensive ($ 20/​pp) menu.
Crazy about the:
— Spicy pork belly. UNNNNGH
— Regular bulgogi. Great marinade!
— Kimchi. Theirs has a particularly acidic bite and isn’t overpoweringly spicy.
I’ll take the:
— Japchae. Good-​to-​average.
— Steamed egg. Not much to mess up there!
— Banchan. Not as important as the main event, IMO, but it was satisfactory.
— Regular pork belly. Still pork belly, so it’s good — just not as good as the spicy kind.
— Pineapple bulgogi. Came with a couple of canned pineapple slices, but otherwise didn’t taste very different from the regular bulgogi.
Kinda disappointed by the:
— Pancake, which is basically a disc of grease. Is grease a flavor?
— Brisket. Just kind of flavorless. My boyfriend called it a «filler» meat. On the bright side, it cooks really quickly.
— Ice cream. Maybe it was the time of day, but it seemed almost watery. Skip it and go to one of the nearby bubble tea places on Rockville Pike if you’re really hankering for something sweet.
Overall, I was impressed! You’ll get your money’s worth and leave full and happy. We’ll be back!

Iron Age is one of my favorite restaurants hands down. The food and concept is great and most of the time the service is good. We’ve always been sat in the main dining area but this time we were sat in the room to the left (after waiting for almost an hour and a half, granted it was 9:30 on a Friday night).
Our service started out good, the first set of meat was grilled up quickly and the next round was brought soon after. They must have turned the heat down so low I could barely tell that the grill was on. The meat took 20 minutes to cook and so did every other round of meat there after. It was like they had forgotten about us. We ended up only getting about 5 rounds of meat in for 3 people. I chalked it up to the fact that there was a large party in the same room and they were ridiculously loud and taking up about 99% of the servers’ attention. We sat around for what seemed like forever to pay. This is because the large party witnessed a car outside get tapped by another car that had just left and all 20 of them decided to go outside and make a huge scene about it and start yelling and dancing around in a Rockville parking lot on a Friday night like there was nothing better to do. The cherry on top was that the car didn’t belong to any of them. This also seemed to take up our server’s attention as well and it took forever to get our payment processed. We still tipped 20% because the server was a nice guy and I figure they all pool tips.
We finally left shortly after 1am, the whole meal took 2 hours (30 minutes of which we had to watch this whole parking lot fiasco go down while we were trying to pay and leave). Not to mention the hour and a half wait, which brings it to a total of 3 and a half hours for a dinner– effing ridiculous.
Word to the wise, go earlier and ask to be seated in the main room. I don’t think they take reservations unfortunately. Food is great though, so I’ll be back.

This place was wonderful! I really liked it a lot. I’m not sure what people are talking about when they say the service is non-​existent. I had really good service. The waiters were super nice as well as the host. I came with friends on Tuesday night around 6 and they were pretty busy but they took my name and # and use this wait app kind of thing? That was nice. Took about 20 minutes to get a table for three. We had the option B and it was great. The steamed egg and jappchae was good as well (you have to ask for the side dishes) The beef bulgoggi was probably my favorite tbh and the garlic pork nelly was the worst. Either way it was worth the $ 20 per a person. Quality food and service!

I’m rating this two stars only because of the service. From the moment you walk in, the staff looks at you like you just ruined their day. I love the food here, but the service is so terrible it makes you not want to go back there. Any time you ask a server for something they walk away fast and pretend they don’t hear you then if you ask again they roll their eyes and bring it with anger. The sauce trays were barely with sauce so I asked if I can have more and the server rolled her eyes and poured a little bit again. It’s annoying when your service staff does not want to service at all!!!

Is it family owned? If it’s not family owned and they are hiring random people, Are they trained to be rude to customers? Is that the goal of the Restaurant, to be assholes to all customers? Their staff sucks!!! They’re lucky we still tipped!!! They suck at customer service!!! Hire people who know how to be in customer service!!!

If your looking for a nearby Korean bbq restaurant this is your spot! No need to drive all the way to Honey Pig when Iron Age is just around the corner.
Iron Age is located on Rockville Pike, but don’t worry you can’t miss their bright and unique sign on the top of the restaurant.
The exterior looks kind of mysterious due to the one way windows. As you enter the restaurant the host stand is directly in front of you. And when I say directly I mean like 3 feet from the entrance/​exit. It gets extremely crammed when multiple parties are trying to be sat. I actually had to wait in the doorway holding the door while waiting to be sat.
They offer booths along the wall or tables lined up in the middle of the restaurant. Each table is equipped with grill tops in the middle.
Flat screen Tvs are located all around the restaurant. Iron Age puts on music videos to Korean music which can be kind of loud when trying to converse at your table.
You have three options when ordering. Your choices are between $ 20 or $ 25 unlimited meats. The $ 25 option offers a few more meats on that menu. OR you can simply order whatever meat you’d like for that set price. But honestly the unlimited is obviously the way to go.
Once your decision is made, your server brings out the raw meat to your table. They give you a set of tongs and scissors to thoroughly cook/​cut your meat the way you would like.
Around the grill tops, your server provides you with small side portions to go with your meat. To be honest I’m not sure what exactly any of the sides are but damn are they good. They also bring you a decent size bowl of salad, and four different sauces to dip your meat into. Once again, not sure exactly what they are but just know there good!
If this is your first experience definitely attempt to try all the meats on the menu. BUT beware, any uneaten/​leftover meat they WILL charge you for. There are no leftovers or to go boxes for the unlimited menus.
Another positive outlook is that they are open late passed midnight!

AYCE kbbq is value.
Good service, good food. Love that they’re open late. My boyfriend and I love coming here!

This review is only service wise. For the food part, hands down, nothing more than a big thumb. However, the service is horrible, horrible, horrible.
My girlfriend and I came around 2:30p, Wed, May 11. We were neglected for about 10 mins at the door when the restaurant was not even busy.
We went for option B and our servers seemed quite irritated every time we asked to order something. Their facial expressions made us feel as if we owed them money the entire time we were there.
Everytime the meat order came, they just dumped the meat onto the plate and left quickly without instructions or any explanations. Sure, we are Asians, so we figured ourselves flipping the meat so they don’t get burned.
I ordered a rice cake dish and steamed egg towards the end and it took literally more than 30mins to get ready when there were only about 6 tables at the restaurant.
I should have left no tip for this trip since there’s no service at all.
Well done Iron Age. You guys did a really good job pushing customers away.

Short and sweet: solid ⁴⁄₅ stars. They do a lot of things right (the AYCE covers In my opinion, the ideal trip would be to come with 2 – 4 people, get a booth, order the cheaper set B dinner (or lunch if your afternoon activities allow you to be sedentary and to smell like Korean BBQ), gorging on brisket, beef bulgogi, spare ribs, and the various side dishes. Ice cream soft serve to go, because why not. Long review below if you want details.
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I went with some friends for dinner and we had reservations (minimum number to make a reservation is eight, FYI). We, and all large groups, were seated in the middle tables while smaller groups (2 – 4) were seated in the side booths. The booths have the more traditional built-​in grills and large overhead fans, whereas the middle tables have the portable grill without an overhead fan. Food quality-​wise I think it’s completely fine, but the lack of a fan in the middle tables means that people get waves of grill smoke in their face in the middle of cooking. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good meal and my friends and I had a great time watching the Korean music videos on the screens and chatting. That being said, having eaten my fair share of Korean BBQ in LA and in Korea among a few other places, Iron Age didn’t blow me away. Their beef has a better taste and texture than their pork as an overall, almost to the point that I would recommend them looking into finding a different pork provider.
Quick two bits of advice if you haven’t eaten Korean BBQ before.
1. Eat your meats from unmarinated to marinated so that you can appreciate the flavor of the unmarinated meats.
2. Watch your grill, even if the server is helping you cook. When the meat is done cooking (easiest rule of thumb is when there is no pink), push it to the sides of the grill which are not as hot. If the meat is overcooked, it gets dry and chewy and you have no one to blame except yourself. So sad.
— Banchan (small starting side dishes): Not too shabby. Decent number of them, though you do have to ask a server for kimchi which surprised me a bit.
— Brisket: Pretty tasty, a standard thin-​sliced unmarinated beef brisket.
— Beef stomach: Haven’t had it before, super chewy and unmarinated. A little too chewy for my cooking and kind of redundant with pork belly, so I wouldn’t recommend getting both of them.
— Pork belly: I normally love pork belly but I wasn’t a huge fan of theirs. The cooked texture didn’t have the springiness to it that I know and love about pork belly, but the flavor was decent. Both the stomach and the belly are high-​fat cuts with a chewier texture and you are supposed to eat the fat, which does not appeal to everyone. If you haven’t had it before, I would ask your server for one strip of pork belly to try it before committing to a whole serving.
— Beef bulgogi: The table favorite, a sweet soy sauce marinated meat. Marinating it gave it a nice tender texture to it and I definitely could have eaten more of this.
— Spicy pork bulgogi: Not bad, but not great. The meat wasn’t that tender and the spicy marinade that they used seemed more caked on than a nice smooth marinade like the beef bulgogi one (pretty sure it’s just gochujang, or red pepper paste, soy sauce, and garlic because I made this at home once and it tasted pretty much the same).
— Beef spare ribs: My personal favorite and i think it would have been the table favorite if my friends hadn’t gotten full before we got to it. Everything about these just rocked from the texture to the flavor (lighter but similar mariande to the beef bulgogi) and when I make my way back to Iron Age, I will probably prime myself with a bit of brisket and bulgogi and then pretty much just eat spare ribs until I couldn’t move.
— Steamed egg: Not your average scrambled egg. Very light flavor and texture, I thought it was a good steamed egg but some of my friends were more confused than anything by the watery residue, which for a steamed egg is normal.
— Pancake (pajeon): It’s a fried carb, so naturally everyone likes it. Comparing it to other pajeon that I’ve eaten before, it wasn’t as crisp around the edges as I would have liked it to be.
— Spicy rice cake: They didn’t make the legit Korean spicy rice cake dish (dukbokki). Theirs was essentially rice cakes with gochujang on top, but if you weren’t expecting dukbokki it was a pretty good rice cake.
Tell your server if you haven’t been to a Korean BBQ restaurant before and they will help you cook your meats. Grab their attention as they walk by you to order more things (servers are designated to whole areas, not to singular tables, so it’s normal to have to flag a server down). They bring stuff out pretty quickly and are all quite friendly. They won’t change your grill for you unless you ask them to but if you ask them to, they’re happy to do so.

The food here is amazing, but the service is the only reason why I’m giving it 3 stars. My party came on a Saturday night. We had a reservation at 9:30pm and were seated around 10:15pm. They were very busy and we had to keep reminding the host about our reservation. We also did not get a full table for our party of 12. They split our party into 2 tables that were close to each other. One table wanted to order set A and the other wanted set B, but because we were still technically one party, we had to decide on one set for both tables. None of us were really upset since it was Saturday night and they were clearly very busy, but just heads up to any large parties in the future that this may happen to you too.
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If you come for the unlimited, go with set B. Set A is $ 5 more expensive and has some additional options like octopus, intestine and stomach… not really worth it especially if you’d rather just have more plates of bulgogi and galbi.
All the meats are marinated nicely and taste really fresh. The sides were delicious too. I was a little disappointed that they didn’t give out lettuce, but I loved the radish slices so much that it didn’t really matter.
Unfortunately, there was no more japchae left by the time we ordered :(The pancake was also more doughy than crispy.
The flavored sojus are yummy too but you can barely taste any soju in them so just get a bottle of soju instead if you want something harder.
PRO TIP: Dress appropriately before you come here because those skinny jeans are surely not going to fit the same way they did before you walked into the restaurant. With that said, you will also hate everything and everyone if you don’t know your limits here. Pace yourself and take breaks. It won’t end until you say so!

I had not been here in awhile.
My friend was craving Korean bbq and wanted to come. So after working out, my friend, wife, and I headed to Iron Age to load up.
I forgot how much I love this place. Service was fast and friendly. The items on both categories seemed to have extended. We went for lunch which was only $ 20 per person instead of $ 23. We tried the spicy pork belly, garlic pork belly, pork steak, pork ribs, and the beef brisket. The pork steak and ribs were new items for me at Iron Age. They were very delicious. The pon chon was good as always.
Definitely recommend coming here when you are really hungry especially if you want to replace your protein. Just be wary that you will smell like Korean bbq after you leave. And if you don’t like k-​pop you might night like it here since it is playing on all the plethora of tvs here.

The menu here has evolved a bit over the last few years I’ve been here. Which isn’t a bad thing.
I was here most recently on a weeknight with some old coworkers.
There’s AYCE option A or B. I can’t remember which one we got but we pretty much ate everything. Well, except for the chicken. You don’t get chicken at Korean BBQ. That’s just weird.
The Iron Age steak was definitely a standout; that along with the spicy pork belly was ordered a few times.
Skip the scallion pancake — it’s very greasy and dense. It’s not light and flaky at all. Order a million of the steamed egg — gah my favorite. And ask for tons of refills of the potato salad. It’s ultimately «filler» but it’s so damn good, it’s impossible to stop taking spoonfuls of it over and over again.
You will of course, leave smelling like soy and garlic and fermented things, but you know it’s worth it, even if you have to shower before bed.

This was my second dining experience at a Korean BBQ joint and I have to say it is definitely 2 steps above Honey Pig. I came around 5:30 on a weeknight and was sat immediately with 2 friends, and hardly anyone was in the restaurant. About 30 – 40 minutes later there were groups waiting up front to be seated and more servers magically appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.
This place seems to run like a well-​oiled machine, and in the past two times I have been here, we’ve always had at least 3 different people come by and move the meat and veggies around, grab or refill drinks, bring plates, etc. The most recent time I came, I was with two newbies, and one female server took the time to explain the whole process to them, which was awesome. New favorite!

I’m a big fan of Korean barbecue so when I first heard about this place I was really excited. It gets really busy and the parking lot can get pretty full. If you have a party of 8 or more, you can make a reservation. I’ve never had an issue being seated, I think the longest I’ve waited is about 2 minutes. As soon as you enter, the you are surrounded by the delicious smell of meat. My mouth always starts watering immediately.
When you sit down, you might notice that the grill is offset to one side of the table a bit. I think this is to make it easy for the staff to cook for you, but it makes it hard for people on the far end of the table. We usually just take meat off and put it on a separate plate for the farther people. There are two menus A and B. I forget which is which, but one is a bit more expensive with a few more meats on it. I’ve always opted for the more expensive one. Everyone at the table has to pick the same one. There’s plenty of choices… bulgogi, soy chicken, three kinds of pork belly, brisket, jap chae etc. Also the delicious Iron Age steak. I really wish they had galbi though. They have alcohol, but I try to stick with water here.
The food comes out pretty quick, and the staff is always there to prepare for you. They have a pretty good sense of humor. I remember seeing a few reviews mentioning unfriendly staff, but I’ve never had that issue. They always talk to us, and are really cool. Fun fact I learned is that Server #26 is on their shirts because Iron is 26 on the periodic table! So clever! The food is pretty good. My favorite is the bulgogi and the Iron Age steak. The meat isn’t top quality, but still pretty good. The plain pork belly is kind of meh. I didn’t realize it wasn’t marinated and I forget every time. The japchae is pretty good. For the price and fun environment you can’t beat it. You will leave smelling like barbecue, so don’t wear anything you don’t want to smell like delicious meat

So, who doesn’t love Korean BBQ? For what this place is, cheap meat and lots of it, it’s definitely ok for what you get. I’ve read most of the reviews on Unilocal and everyone seems to focus on quantity rather than quality.
This is «all-​you-​can-​eat». Meaning, you pay $ 20 – 25 per person to eat off either a Menu A or a Menu B. The difference mainly being a few of the higher end skirt steak options. After you choose, you can ask for them to keep bringing out the most expensive options there are on the specified menus. If that’s the goal and only goal, then this place is a 5-​Star Restaurant.
With that said, as a Korean, I look for a bit more, mainly taste. I will say this, although the idea of constant meat in an all-​you-​can-​eat fashion, in a Korean BBQ market that is ever increasing in price, is tempting, taste is an aspect that cannot fall short. I understand that places like Honey Pig and Shin Chon are more expensive, but you do get what you pay for.
The meat at Iron Age can be extremely bland and/​or extremely over-​marinated. While I understand the challenges of making marinated meat in large portions, as they must have to, salt/​pepper and other such simple ingredients should not suffer. Also, garlic is an extremely important ingredient in most, if not all, Korean marinades. Here, it’s completely lacking in taste.
The «sides» they offer are actually pretty bad. They taste nothing like their supposed to. You would be better off just sticking with the meat and not ordering any sides, although they are all included in the price of the menu.
Also, the ventilation hoods are pretty high up, therefore, expect to smell, expect to be smoky after your meals and when you exit. I wouldn’t wear anything super expensive, just an FYI. It’s a casual, loud place that blares korean music videos to create an artificial korean atmosphere however, it is completely 100% geared for the non-​koreans.
Also, the staff hates it if you start cooking your own food, speak to them in Korean, and/​or order in Korean. They gave me a look as if I was speaking a completely different language and/​or shocked that I ordered in Korean like I broke a cardinal rule.
Overall, as I said, this place is what it is. A cheap, TONS of meat in your face, restaurant. If you’re looking for really tasty meat, you’re not going to get it here. If you’re looking for a meal that will challenge your pants like a Thanksgiving meal does, then this is the place for you. The food’s ok, the service is ok, the atmosphere is loud but ok. Therefore, my rating is just «ok».

All you can eat Korean BBQ. Seriously what more can you ask for? My friends and I had meats from the B menu, $ 20 each is really good given the amount we had. We literally had about 80 $ of the menu, we just couldn’t get to the chicken. It was a struggle. Everything else that we had was fantastic, except for the garlic pork belly, it tasted just like regular pork belly. So sad, we were looking forward to that too! But out of all that we had I personally loved the brisket and the iron age steak. Those two were my favorite.
I would pass on the bean soup and the pancake though. The pancake was straight up just fried flour with one or two pieces of green onion, um what? The japchae was standard.
Service was pretty good given that place was packed! I’m not too sure the etiquette for places like these but I usually take charge of the grilling, except with the pork belly… I don’t have the skills to speed cut the strips of belly. Now if only they could do that to the belly I had when we left the place…

So here’s the thing… Korean BBQ has been around the DMV for a long time. But here in MoCo we were used to paying an arm and a leg for it. The other option was to drive to Annandale where prices were more reasonable. Some years ago, Iron Age opened up in Rockville and it’s like that heavenly «ahhhh» could be heard (and said) by all!
IMHO the prices are really reasonable! There are two options: A or B, with one having more meat options. It used to run like $ ²⁵⁄₃₀ but in the last year or two they actually lowered the price (who does that?!) to $ ²⁰⁄₂₅ (don’t quote me on the higher priced option). I usually go for the lower option because everything that I love about Korean BBQ is available with it. My favorites: pork belly, bulgogi and brisket. I also love joomulluk but I believe that’s on the higher priced option now.
The pork belly is my favorite… the slices are nice and thick… Very flavorful. They have three kinds: regular, garlic and spicy. The servers are prone to bringing you one flavor at a time even if you ask for multiple. I go for the garlic and spicy. Mmmm. I love mixing the flavors — if you do too, then my tip is to ask them to bring two of them at the same time. The oils from the spicy then mixes with the garlic and is just… «Ahhhh». So. Good.
Mind you, Korean BBQ meats aren’t known to be LEAN so expect that there will be plenty of fatty bits. But wtf ever because we don’t go to a buffet wanting to be healthy, am I right?!
The wait can be kinda long but it’s definitely worth it. They don’t take reservations but if you stop in to put your name down, you can track your place in line with this app called «NoWait». This makes it easier for us to venture off without fear that we’ll miss our names being called! And they’ll text you when your table is ready. They’ve only been doing this for a short while and it’s definitely helpful.