Woo Lae Oak

Service was great and food is ok. They do have really good quality meat. Fresh and good food. Galbi is sweet and pork belly is good. Bathroom is dirty. They have stains in the bathroom which is old from not cleaning right. Food cost more then normal Korean restaurant but they are good quality. I will give them three stars since bathroom and cleanses. Other then that everything was good.

The Kalbi here used to be the best in DMV area uo until about 2 years ago. I live in the neighborhood and I really really wish the food and sevice improves like the way it used to be! Oh and I think their cold noodle (nyeng myun) is the worst in DMV. Please bring the food taste back so I can love you again!!!

Dined here last night with my grandparents. They are from Korea and this is their favorite Korean BBQ restaurant in the area. Their only complaint is that they still use paper napkins for dinner. For the high price they would prefer to have cloth napkins.

This restaurant is super classy and clean inside. The food was pretty good. Everyone complains about the expensive BBQ, but I got a bibimbap which wasn’t that expensive for the amount and quality. The soup that came with it was especially good, maybe better than the bibimbap itself. The kimchi was nice, too. Their dessert was delicious. The tropical sunrise sorbet had a great flavor, but the texture was a bit off. Service was great, everyone super nice and friendly

We came for a baby’s birthday party and were upstairs in the banquet room.
The banquet room on the second floor was quite spacious! Held 60 adults and around 40 kids. They had the food buffet on two ends.
The spread was decent. I’m sure there were different food packages you could pick from. The spread they selected for the party didn’t have any meat except for the sweet and sour pork and spicy squid platter. The squid plate was really soggy. The squid was cooked too much. All the fried dishes were cold. I’m sure that’s because the food was sitting for awhile because not all the guests were present to eat.
For a Korean buffet, it wasn’t that good. Flavoring was okay, but most of the food was overcooked, hard and cold. Some of the dishes didn’t have enough sauces to go with it.
Service was bad. The wait staff was hard to flag down. Again, I know it’s a buffet with mass produced food, but I’ve had better. Maybe it’s better in the restaurant itself but I’m not that eager to try it out again.
Also… It was so HOT upstairs. Not only because there were a lot of people but bc the ac was set at 82 with fans running instead… Seriously? It’s August …
And… The place smells bad. Like a dirty bathroom…

If I could give this place zero stars I would. This is the worst Kbbq place I’ve ever been to. I came from California to visit the east coast and came here right from the airport with my family. In Southern California there’s a lot of really cheap ayce kbbq places with horrible quality but i was more okay with it since it’s so cheap. BUT this place looks like an upscale restaurant with meat that isn’t even properly marinated (tasted like teriyaki sauce) and it was such HORRIBLE quality even worse than the $ 10 ayce I’ve tried in SoCal. The meat was dry and really hard. And it cost me more than $ 60 for 2 orders of meat. It was so bad I ordered their nangmyun thinking it’d be better but it just did not taste good at all. I don’t know if it’s just the east coast but the food didn’t taste Korean at all.

Woo Lae Oak is an upscale, classy Korean restaurant catered toward special occasions (read: banquets, parties, Obama’s visits). I would bring important guests or family friends who have never tried Korean food here as well — much more American-​friendly than authentic hole-​in-​the-​walls in Annandale. I think it’s unfair to compare this place to restaurants in Annandale and complain that it’s not economical to dine here. You wouldn’t come here to eat endless amounts of KBBQ, for example, you’d go to Honey Pig!
With that being said, I’ve dined here regularly for 8 – 9 years now and definitely have favorites on the menu. I think their doenjang jjigae (soybean stew) is possibly the best in town, and their yukgaejang (spicy beef soup) is absolutely delicious. Their lunch specials are great, and their non-​entrée items such as gujeolmali and combination jeon (pan-​fried fillets) are our regular orders as well. Their dessert selection is always a
!

This has to be one of the worst KBBQ place I visited. Once an upper tier Korean restaurant has fallen a long way in quality of food, service and overall presentation.
Ordered a few soup dishes and kalbi. Kalbi had no flavor and even tasted stale. Lady did her best to grill but fell short of the level of quality you can find in a generic Korean BBQ place. Bonchans were mediocre and below par. Look else where because the old glory days are over for WLO.

Very disappointed with their Kalbi. It costed over $ 30.00 and was not tender at all. Frankly, I was confused because the world famous Korean short rib with bone looked very beautiful (see the photos I uploaded) and yet it was so tough that I had to chew it for many minutes and still find it hard to swallow. I had many kalbi in my lifetime in many places, including South Korea, so I know a good one when I eat them. One time at this place is enough for me.

Good Korean Restaurant, but may need to work on their exterior…

Recently I came here twice for weekday lunch and at both times I had DolSot Bibimbap. First time with beef and second time with squid. At both times, my DolSot Bibimbap came to the table sizzling as it should. (Please watch my video of it.)
I like their Lunch Menu. It is available every day of the week with price ranging from $ 10.99.
This is a very good Korean restaurant with classier interior and classier taste (= less salty than average Korean restaurants.) and the service is excellent.

HORRIBLE. There is pretty much nothing good I have to say about this place as a restaurant. I took my mother here for an early lunch on a Thursday right around 11 am. First there was nobody at the hostess stand when we arrived so I had to look around for about 5 minutes to ask somebody if they were even open though the hours of operation said 9 am-10:30 pm. We were seated & there was only one other table in the restaurant. We took a look at the menu & almost walked out because EVERYTHING was horribly overpriced especially when you compare prices to Annandale restaurants (at least $ 5+ more for every menu item).
We ordered Naeng Myon & Yukgae Jung, both were awful. The Naeng Myon broth had absolutely no flavor & the noodles were so hard, I could barely chew them. I will say the portion I got was generous & presentation was okay, but $ 16 was definitely NOT WORTH IT. My mother had the Yukgae Jang, which she said was flavorless & awful too. The banchan was sad, they only gave us four dishes (two types of kimchi, squid & a vegetable… That’s just sad).
The service was terrible & non-​existent. After we got our food, no one came back to check on us & my mother had to physically get up & basically walk into their kitchen to ask for scissors to cut my Naeng Myon because none of the staff was accessible. We saw the other guests at the one other table get up & do the same to ask for their check. They did however pack my mother’s leftovers for her but pretty much refused to give her a bag even though she asked twice to two different staff members (I almost went off on one of the ladies while I was leaving because she had the nerve to ask my mother why she’s isn’t taking the leftovers they packed for her).
Overall, my experience is was horrendous. I could not describe it in any other way. I’ve been ever one other time before with my father a while ago & it was not bad, but this experience has summed up my reason for NEVER wanting to come back here again. I have & will also rely this advice to ALL my friends. DO NOT come here, ever.

Food has improved quite a bit from the last time I was there as well as the service. Very friendly service to non Koreans and Koreans alike.
Their haemul pajun is rather on the small side but thick and perfectly cooked. Their soups are quite good. Really like their various galbi tang offerings as well as their dol sot bibam baps. Their kalbi is tasty but so expensive compare to other korean restaurants.
However, they give you small amount of banchan compare to most all other Korean restaurants though. They give you just four with no steamed egg or doen jang jigae, when you do barbq.
Probably the nicest décor for Korean restaurant. No big fans on ceiling. Fans are built into the grill. Every table has a gas grill. They also have three private dining rooms, perfect for large parties and tastefully decorated. Big banquet hall on the second floor which my brother used for first dol party.

My friend invited me & my bf for lunch here. She told me this place is really popular. We went & got seated fast. Ambiance is good. Food is fast. We ordered 3 different type of meat & it has no taste. Its like a meat you ordered from the market & just grilled it without putting anything on it. Its dissapointing because its kinda pricy. I ordered a seafood tofu soup, medium spicy. My soup came out totally white color. If you put spicy stuff on it the color should be a little red. So I ask the server. He took it back & bring it to the kitchen. When my food came its redish color & has tofu but no seafood so I end up calling the waiter again & he took it again and it has seafood with tofu & medium spice. Good! After twice that I complain finally they got it.

Good lunch. Had the Yuk Gae Jang soup but… Of course they forgot the vermicelli noodles. Doh!!!

Woo Lae Oak is ok. There are more economical options if you head over to Annandale, and the food is no better here for the price. With that said, our server was spectacularly sweet and attentive, so at least we had good service to make up some of that ticket price. If you’re in the area and for some reason can’t make it out of the area, then it’s a fine option for some Korean food.

This is my favorite Korean BBQ spot in the NOVA/​DC area. Food is delicious, and the experience of having things cooked in front of you is awesome. This restaurant is definitely more upscale and on the pricier side, but definitely worth visiting if you’re in the Tysons Corner/​Route 7 area.
Best things to order in my opinion are as follows:
1) Fried dumplings
2) Bulgogi
3) Pork Belly
4) Galbi

This place is super expensive. The only thing cheap on the menu is tofu. I went with two of my friends, we tried the barbecue and that was amazing.
But the rest of the food was good but not great for the price. I was trying Korean food for the first time and asked the waitress to recommend a speciality and she wasn’t able to do that. In fact she wasn’t able to communicate very well and hence, my first taste of Korean food was below average.
Don’t think i’ll be going again.

3.5 stars for the food, 1 star for their terrible, terrible happy hour specials.
We came here for happy hour based on old Unilocal reviews of how good their happy hour is. The first time, we got there at about 6:25, under the believe that happy hour lasted until 7. The person seating us said happy hour ends at 6:30 and that we were too late, so we left. The next time, we got there much earlier and told the hostess we were there for happy hour. She seated us at a booth and gave us regular menus. We asked our server for a happy hour menu, and he said they didn’t have one, but their happy hour specials included discounted beer and 15% off food if you pay cash.
Like many others have said, this place is extremely formal for a Korean restaurant, compared to those in Annandale, but then they completely cheapened the experience with this tacky «cash only» happy hour. Are they really expecting to draw the Tysons area business-​type clientele into a cash-​only happy hour? We were extremely annoyed, because it was the first Friday of the month, which gives us extra credit card points for dining out, and we ended up paying cash. Also, this is Tysons, and there are so many other restaurants in more convenient areas nearby that have better happy hour specials and don’t require cash.
Still, the food was good and had reasonable portions, to where each entrée is a decent amount of food for one person. Alan K. got the bebimbop, and I had the pork and kimchi soup. I’m not going to complain about the prices, because it’s clearly more upscale than the places in Annandale.
If I’m craving Korean food and do not want to drive to Annandale or H-​Mart, I would come back to Woo Lae Oak, but I wouldn’t come for happy hour, because their «specials» would fill me with rage.

Definitely recommend WLO for lunch. For under $ 15, you can get a solid main (such as dolsot bibimbap or a tang), some banchan, and a small finisher (not quite a dessert, but something refreshing after the meal).
In my case, went with a friend on a Friday during the 12:30 peak. Got a table right away, service was relatively prompt and straightforward. Banchan came out, dishes came out shortly after that, and a small cup of fresh fruit salad rounded out the meal. All told, done in about 30 – 40 minutes. Easy.
I ordered dolsot bibimbap, and it was an awesome change-​up to my normal lunch game. The bottom rice layer actually gets crispy! Good flavors and satisfying.
We did have a slight hiccup with being charged dinner prices for our lunch items, but that was quickly resolved when we pointed it out to our server.
Will definitely work WLO into the lunch rotation.