Woo Chon

This was a great spot, one of my favorite places to go in the city. However, going by there last weekend we were so bummed to find that it’s closed. So as good as it was, don’t bother stopping by. I’m hoping we’ll be able to find another spot just as good.

A friend recommended that we grab a casual dinner at Woo Chon, a Korean place that he frequented for lunch. Though I had been to Koreatown many times, I had yet to sample this destination. As we approached the entrance, I was reassured by the discovery that the restaurant had been around for several years.
We walked inside and received an extremely friendly greeting. We were the only non-​Koreans in the restaurant, but we felt completely at home, Our waitress was also very helpful in guiding us through the menu.
Unfortunately, I did not find the food as rewarding as the service. Our starting dishes were only decent, except for the warm, marinated potatoes, which I found sweet and incredibly delicious. I should have known how the rest of the meal would play out based on the fact that my companion mentioned that he had never had Japchae, which was something that I considered an introductory dish in the cuisine. I insisted that we order the appetizer portion, so that he could try it. He put a forkful of the slimy sweet potato noodles into his mouth and exclaimed, «MMM, this tastes like Lo Mein!» I agreed that it had this flavor, but it was not a pleasant one, nor was it reminiscent of traditional japchae. The Bibimbop with Bulgogi was served in a hot stone pot was actually rather tasty. The beef was lean, yet truly absorbed the flavorful sauce. Lastly, we sampled the Yukhwe, a dish that was new to me as well. Raw flank steak had been julienned and marinated in soy sauce. The tender meat was incorporated with slices of crisp Asian pear for a refreshing bite. The supposed egg yolk topping was undetectable, though.
All in all, my Woo Chon experience was simply mediocre at best. Maybe next time I should rely on recommendations from more seasoned Korean fans…

one of the shadiest places I’ve been to. Don’t let the décor and korean bbq smell fool you. Went here with a bunch of friends for their all you can eat bbq meats for $ 27. Ok, I thought 27 for K-​town is not bad. It’s off k-​town first of all-​only restaurant on the block pretty much. They offer like the shittiest cuts of meat for the deal like tripe that doesn’t look like tripe and bulgogi was the best. It had no kalbi my fave! :(
Ok, anyways, we ordered one of each meat to try it out. The waitress comes in with a large tray of their worse meat. fill us up. THen we had to ask again in order to get spicy pork, chicken and bulgogi. She came back w/​the smallest portions and it didn’t even taste good!
Don’t be fooled by the Free appetizer they offer either by mentioning Unilocal or whatever because the waiters don’t know what you’re talking about! they don’t speak english very well and disappears for a long time while you wait and wait for bad food to come to you!

Ummm where do I start? Should I start with the horrible service, or the tiny portions? Or how about the bait and switch? Giving us the wrong order? The list goes on…
We were halfway done with our meal before we received ANY water, and we had to ask 5 times. That’s a record. Then the water glasses emptied and we never saw another glass of water after that.
We ordered the king kalbi which is the large sized portion and it was TINY. Like, a regular portion or smaller. So pathetic. We also ordered the lamb and one taste told me it was beef. Lamb has such an unmistakeable flavor and I love my lamb so I definitely know lamb when I taste it. I asked the server if it was lamb because it tasted like beef! She said it was definitely lamb and I really couldn’t argue after that or it would’ve turned into a he said she said arguement and on a Friday night out with friends that’s the last thing you want to do. She gave us beef and passed it off as lamb since they were already on such crappy customer service streak they probably didn’t want to admit to their fault and add to it.
On top of that they also screwed up our order when I dinstinctly heard my friend say large order of dumplings (which the waitress repeated), then gave us a small order and told us we ordered a small so we politely asked if we could add to it to make it a large, and he insisted we order two smalls. We don’t know if there was a price difference but at this point we stopped caring because of the horrible customer service. The place was also EMPTY!!! I have no idea why the service was soooooo horrible.
The cherry on top… it took them FOREVER to give us the check. We asked 5 times (AGAIN) and after I don’t know how long we told half the table to leave to see if they would get the point (hellooooo we want our check, we’re leaving) and they STILLLLL didn’t give us the check! Then the remainder of the table stood up to put our coats on ready to walk out without the check because they were THAT horrible. We finalllllly get the check as we’re on our way downstairs. UNREAL!!!
On a Friday all you want to do to spend time with friends and eat something yummy after a long week. They totally ruined my Friday night. I will NEVER come back. No wonder they have no business…

2 nyt stars? while dated (not from sifton or bruni), the 2 stars are spot on.
what it lacks in ambiance and service it makes up in delicous korean cuisine that rivals the restaurants way out in flushing. this is probably the best korean restaurant in manhattan and is a stones throw away from k town.
stick to the barbeque items and you cannot go wrong. we left stuffed and boy, the food here sure is delicious.

Lately I’ve been depending on Unilocal for great Korean restaurants to have lunch at, since K-​town is right by my job and there isn’t a whole lot of good places in my neck of the woods.
I came here with the intent to try a lunch special. So when I was looking at the lunch specials on the menu, the second the lady gave me the menu she asked if I was ready. I asked her what she recommends, and she flips my menu over and points to some $ 18 specials. I ask about the BBQ pit they have at the table and if we can order something they can cook in front of you, and so she gets a different menu and tells us we need to order from there and its two main course minimums to fire up the grill. Those dishes are now $ 25 and up and she wants me to order two of them.
I must have flipped my menu over three times to the lunch special side and she must have flipped my menu in my hands over four times to the $ 18 lunch special side not letting me look for what was on my side. She flustered me so much I agreed to try what she was pointing out, a chicken and a beef dish.
On to the food.
I enjoyed all the appetizers and first courses. Everything I expected they had, and it was all tasty. The Kim chee was very spicy, and that was good at first, but bad later on.
The Kalbi came out but it was not hot at all and there was a huge inedible bone filling up the plate.
The chicken dish was absolutely pitiful, it wasn’t even cooked through.
it was skin less fillets with very little character.
I will not return here, and I don’t recommend it to anyone. Ive only had Koren a couple times and I know this place sucks.

Going against my diet, my best friend and I stumbled in here on a very late Saturday night, and I’m glad we did.
Forgive me that I didn’t memorize the names of the dishes that my bestie and I shared, it was late, and all we wanted to do was chow down.
We ordered the spicy thinly sliced-​pork BBQ, it is extremely spicy, so beware. It was tasty, came with sliced mushrooms, and scallions.
We also ordered a spicy seafood soup which came with silky tofu, it was excellent, so tasty and it definitely warmed us up.
All the entrees were served with complimentary appetizers, such as kimchi, steamed spinach, rice cake, warm bean sprouts, and dried sweet seaweed, but because we were little piggies, it wasn’t enough.
We also ordered a small bowl of steamed eggs, made with peas, carrots, and straw mushrooms, it was delicious and very filling.
The service was great, our waiter smiled a lot, and was very attentive.
The décor was clean, simple, and definitely old– school. You can tell that this place has been around for a while and wil be around for a long time.
Great food, good service, and affordable. Our tummies were extremely happy and full.

SOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOD!!!
A friend took me as a going away present. He’s Korean and ordered everything for us. I don’t know half of what I ate. All I know is that I almost ate the table and grill on the way out even though I was stuffed to the gills. It was that good! I especially heart them for exposing me to the awesomeness of cuddle fish and plum and rose wines!
My friend wouldn’t let me see the bill. But I could tell the place was expensive. But well worth the moolah! Some of the side dishes I didn’t like. But we were two happy campers!

We used to like this place OK, so we thought, to take our out-​of-​town friends for some classic Korean food here would be a great idea.
We ordered some basic and common dishes so that our friends, who had never tasted Korean food, could try: mandoo, jap chae, pajun, galbi, bulgogi & dolsot bimbimbap. A good spectrum of taste, I think. Very usual and basic. (Oh, maybe that’s the problem here.)
So we ordered, started drinking our sho chu and chatting away. The jap chae came, but there was no ban chan. I had been eying on one guy who sat down after us and was munching his ban chan away. Where were ours? By the way, it was a late Sunday evening, and there were only 3 tables with more than 3 staff on the floor.
I had to ask not once, but twice to get the ban chan. Are they trying to skimp on us because our whole table looked like tourists?
And what about the rice and the lettuce for the BBQs? The waitress finished with the BBQ and started serving the meat to everyone, but the rice and lettuce were nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, the meat was getting cold while we were waiting for the rice and lettuce. And I had to asked for them, again, twice. I also saw the raw bone pieces from the galbi, but they were not BBQ’ed. Forgot the ask, I guess they took the privilege to not serving them to us.
Fine, they were friendly to us, but please don’t try to trick us. 3 stars for the food because our friends loved everything they tasted which made them really happy, but I’m definitely shaving off 2, not just 1, for the lousy and suspectful skimping service.
After I told my Korean buddy about this, he said that he would not go back to Woo Chon because of this.

MEAT!
My friend and I had a hankerin’ for some KBBQ and ended up at Woo Chon for no other reason other than that we didn’t want to go to Kum Gang San. Don’t get me wrong, I love the overstated-​waterfally-​white grand piano-​giant echoing charm of KGS, and it’s terrific for groups, but we just wanted some MEAT.
We really liked Woo Chon! It was really quiet on a Wednesday (and after two bottles of soju we were the loudest thing around, which was a little embarassing) but we felt the portions were fine and the meat was delicious and tender. Granted, it’s possible we thought the portions were fine because we ordered enough food for four people, but whatever.
We ordered the bulgogi, some spicy thin-​sliced pork and a kimchee pancake. Between that and all the little plates of yummy small stuff we were more than sated. Crunchy-​sweet seaweedy bits, spicy ricecakes, silky tofu, pickled radish, hunks of kimchee, savory dipping sauces, boozejuice… we were damn happy.
The service was delightful, everyone was veryveryvery nice. A gift certificate/​coupon was presented with the check to entice us to return. I know we would go back, discount or no discount.
Woo Chon is my new official KBBQ, no question.
MEAT!

I’m Korean so I had high standards for this place. Nothing Special. Ordered Kalbi and Naeng Myun (Noodles with Iced Soup mix). I would’ve gave this place 1 star but the Naen Myun wasn’t that bad.
Kalbi seemed old and the service wasn’t that great. I felt like the place was very stingy with the side dishes and rice. I’m just used to Kalbi places not charging for rice and constantly giving you extra side dishes.
Overpriced and Stingy!

Woo Chon = Beef Town
Woo Chon in hanja (Chinese characters) means Beef Village. Korean BBQ beef is undoubtedly the specialty for Woo Chon.
When I first dined here with Dice K. many moons ago (maybe back in 2004?), I was amazed by our Jinro-​enhanced meal.
I then returned with my then Japanese co-​workers and was underwhelmed. The BBQ experience wasn’t as tasty.
Woo Chon is a hallmark establishment of K-​town (it’s not on 32^nd St, but it is part of K-​town), and has been around before there even was a Koreatown in NYC. It, along with New York Kom Tang, have been around since my infancy.

to Start I Had the squid pancake, it was decent but I’ve had better.
I enjoyed the little appetizer bowls they give you, standard stuff, except the apples covered in some type of cream and these other rice logs with a orange slightly sweet sauce. The Kim Chi tasted a bit off.
Main dish was hot pot with pork, spinach, rice and a long thing yellow mushroom. It was really good.
The servers all served me so it was good I could just flag down any one of them that walked by, this seemed a bit odd to me, it’s unique, but I don’t mind.
The price was a bit high I think with tip this was $ 32 and I only had water to drink.

Mmmmm Korean!
Came here with a small group. One of our group members happened to be Korean so we let her do all the ordering. We had Woo Chon’s Premium Galbi — Thick cuts of boneless Black Angus Rib in our marinade. So delicious! My friend noticed they were not bringing out all the traditional sides and asked the hostess why. I guess because a few of us were Caucasian they thought the flavors would be a bit too strong for us. Bring it on! The hostess brought out all the remaining sides. The meat was so tender it melted in your mouth and the Kim Chi was heavenly.
Great service and possibly the best quality beef I’ve had at Korean BBQ!

So far, this is my favorite Korean restaurant in Manhattan. The kimchi jigae, yukgae jang, and sulong tang are all fabulous. They also serve quite a bit of banchan to round out the meal and are overall pretty good, though the kimchi they serve on the side is not the best — usually not ripe enough (common in most restaurants).
Service is consistently good, and while the restaurant interior is not as «nice» or upscale as say Woo Lae Oak in Soho, it’s a great traditional spot for classic Korean dishes and BBQ.

So for our first dinner in NYC, I really wanted to have some authentic Korean food to keep it light and not ruin the early night. After walking around a bit, we Unilocaled this place and thought we’d give it a shot. Luckily, we were not disappointed.
Our waitress was extremely helpful and friendly and guided a couple of noobs through the menu. Selina liked the japchae (I’m not a fan), the Dak Gui was really good, and the Junju Gopdol bibimbop completed the meal quite nicely. We also got a kimchi pajun on the house but it was rubbery and reheated and seemed as though it had been sitting around for a while.
The food was probably a little too expensive but the service more than made up for it. 3.5−4 stars.

We got the upstairs again w/​14ppl. This place is optimal for large private parties, as all you’ll be hearing is your own echo. The resty is usually empty but I made a resy anyway. It’s been awhile since I’ve gone, but either my palate has gotten more refined or the food has deteriorated. Got 2 orders of the premium kalbi ($ 28/​ea). You only get 6 chunks of beef per order, but very tasty. At least the don’t give you the short rib kalbi or the kalbi where they unroll the meat off a big bone. We also ordered the skirt steak, bulgogi, seafood pancakes, and jae yuk bokum w/​tofu. Sesame oil & salt w/​the skirt steak is a heavenly match. Some left hungry and were ready for a 2^nd dinner. Not sure if I’ll be back, esp with so many restys to choose from in the immediate area. Prices have risen since the last time i went. I’m taking back one star, as you can hit Luger’s for $ 60.
Total came out to $ 57/​pp after everything
I took my foodie meetup here:
Pics to follow…

Korean food can be expensive so I generally stick to Woorijip, but after reading the good reviews here I decided to check Woo Chon out. I was impressed with the menu and the number of lunch options under $ 10. The banchan was excellent. Mmm. Banchan. I noticed a gentleman dining alone at a table nearby and it was nice to see that he got ample banchan as well. We didn’t have a chance to try a ton of stuff, but what we did try was delicious. The Sun Dubu Jigae was warming and filling. The perfect combo for a cold fall day.
We had a little trouble getting the Unilocal coupon for a free appetizer to work. Our waiter wasn’t familiar with the deal and he told us it was only for dinner. Looking at the terms the coupon does say that it’s for all day long if you order an entrée. My friend brought this up with him in Korean, he spoke to his boss and then relented. Ain’t nothin wrong with a free appetizer, so give it a shot.

Thoroughly enjoyed dinner here. I’m afraid we went in with a friend who was so hungry that we ordered way too much food, but c’est la vie.
We had Bulgogi BBQ Rib Eye and then another kind of BBQ Squid (something beginning with an «O») that were cooked on the little stove in our table. We also had amazing shitake dumplings that I will remember for a long time. The cold tofu with lemon soy — not so fab. Cooking the squid… that was wild. The top part of the squid is stuffed with the tentacles and spices and vegetables, then the whole thing is grilled. The waitstaff comes by with scissors & cuts it up, stirs it around. Very interesting.
We ordered rice, too, but that didn’t come. I forgot to check if we were charged for it.
Hite beer doesn’t taste much different than Bud.
Service is outstanding. The owner/​manager is passionate about her business and the waitstaff try to accommodate every need, although the language differences can be difficult, they still have a smile and a positive attitude that is infectious.

Update 11÷10÷07: I went today with my mom for lunch and it was the best. We ordered the mandoo soup and it was great! What’s more, the waitress kept on coming to our table with new banchan and we we asked for refills, they were so gracious. I’m so full that I can’t even think about dinner right now.
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This place is sort of removed from K-​town since it’s on 36^th Street but don’t let that prevent you from coming here. They have great service and their food is pretty good, I think better than the restaurants on 32^nd Street. Their mandoo soup is really, really good. I got another friend hooked on it.
It’s also not as crowded which I like so you should definitely give this place a try.