Iron Age - Rockville, MD

Hi Everyone! Recently, the bf, my cousin and I went to eat a super late lunch at Iron Age. We figured since we had another boy around, it would be worth getting All-You-Can-Eat Korean BBQ.

The place is bigger than it appears from the outside. Sticking to its name, the interior is clad in metal/iron, not wood like many Korean restaurants have. Lots of TVs and a huge projector screen play Kpop music videos. They are open until 2am on the weekends, so I'm sure it's pretty popping at night.

The menu is very easy - pick Gogi A ($18) for 3 meats, or Option Gogi B ($22) for 5 meats and sodas. Each of us selected option B because it was more meats and drinks for $4 more per person.

We were given 3 meats, 1 skewer of veggies, 3 frozen triangles of rice, a pancake, egg soufflé, 4 ban chan sides, a soup and salad. The meats we were given were the first 3 on the menu. They weren't marinated, so they were bland, and tough. Both my cousin and I broke our chopsticks! The rice took 30 minutes to warm up thoroughly on the grill. The ban chan didn't include kim chi! The egg soufflé and soup were bland too. Thankfully the pancake wasn't too bad, so we had a few.

They also provided 4 dipping sauces: chili sauce, soybean paste sauce, sesame oil with salt/pepper, sweet sauce. I didn't think they were too special, but the bf liked the sweet sauce the best.

On our table had a call button, which we used at least 5 times because the service was poor. There were about 4 tables in the restaurant and it took them 10 minutes to take our order. They only gave us 3 out of 5 meats, and we thought they were bringing out the others later, but it never happened. We ended up cooking our own food, and using the call button for refills/requests because we weren't checked on. Towards the end of our meal, a server even blew out our grill before we were done cooking all of the meat!

I have a bunch of friends that will probably disagree with me, but lunch took forever, and it wasn't even good. I'd rather drive to VA or even buy marinated meat at H Mart and cook it myself for cheaper. My cousin who hasn't had Korean BBQ before thought it was fine. The Korean bf of mine liked the amount of meat, but not the taste. As a girl, I don't eat that much, so paying $22 for mediocre food and poor service isn't worth it.

1054 Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD 20852
(301) 424-1474
http://www.yelp.com/biz/iron-age-rockville

MOA - Rockville, MD

A large group of my girl friends and I had dinner at MOA, which is a Korean restaurant hidden in a more industrial part of Rockville. I actually used to work across the street years ago before they opened! The parking lot is small, but there is plenty of street parking.

The interior is bright with wooden tables and benches. They do not have tables with grills built into the center. They bring a portable grill if you order BBQ. They have a wide range of items from soups, BBQ and other traditional Korean dishes.

I've listed the dishes that everyone got, just as a reference.

1. Seol Leong Tang ($7.99) - This is what I ordered. A milky-looking noodle soup with beef. The milkiness come from the bone marrow in the broth. It was my first time trying this dish, and I wish it was spicy.

2. Mul Naeng Myun ($9.99) - Cold soup with beef and vegetables. Has a tangy taste, which makes it a popular dish among my friends. I personally do not like cold, noodle soups.

3. Pork Tang Su Yook ($14.99) - The Korean version of Sweet and Sour pork. I thought it was yummy!

4. Bulgogi Jungol ($29.99) - The plate that the meat is grilled on has a moat (is that the right term?) to hold vegetables, noodles and broth. The beef drippings also help add flavor. This was nice because there was extra stuff other than just meat.

5. Son Wang Mandu ($8.99) - These dumplings are the size of my palm! The biggest ones I've ever seen before. I enjoyed them.

6. Yukgaejang ($8.99) - Spicy, shredded beef soup.

I like that they give yogurt drinks at the end with the bill. Another good dish is their Spicy Octopus, which I've had on a different visit. Small staff, but very helpful! The kim chi is homemade and really good.

MOA Korean Restaurant
12300 Wilkins Ave
Rockville, MD 20852
(301) 881-8880
www.yelp.com/biz/moa-korean-restaurant-rockville

Joung Kak - Baltimore, MD

Cold, rainy nights are remedied with delicious Korean food. Rarely am I ever in Baltimore, but the bf and I were visiting his sister, so she took us to Joung Kak in the Charles North area. There are a few metered spots in front.

Sorry guys, we were so focused on the food, I didn't take any pictures of the interior! I will say, it's kinda run down. Lots of wood, and random missing tiles, hair dryers...

They did give a wide variety of ban chan, which we liked.

This was the 1st time I've seen a charcoal tabletop grill, which I might add, was a huge fire hazard during our meal. The metal grate wasn't ever changed throughout the night and the char stuck to it caught on fire. Thankfully the bf's sister saved the day, otherwise it could have been bad.

The seafood pajoon (pancake) for $15ish was so crispy and flavorful, I loved it! This picture doesn't show how large it was, but it was huge.

This is one of the complimentary hot pots we received. Pictured was the egg-souffle-thingy (?) and the other was a pork-based soup.

We shared a BBQ combo that had bulgogi (beef), pork and chicken for $55ish.

There was a ton of meat for 3 people!

OMG they gave out Korean Yogurt Drink! I love these little tart drinks. I haven't seen them served at the end of a meal before.

The service was super lacking. We weren't checked on at all, so we were thirsty and almost caught the table on fire. They were nice though, and there were a lot of free items. I found the meat to be mediocre, but the bf and his sister liked it. The pajoon was my favorite part of the meal, and would be the only reason why I'd come back.

18 W 20th St
Baltimore, MD 21218
(410) 837-5231

Honey Pig - Annandale, VA

Finally a VA post! Getting Korean BBQ at 24-hour Honey Pig has been on my list for a while, but I actually had an opportunity to go this time! Relatives from Vietnam were in town, so our family figured it would be a fun place take them. Located in Annandale among so many other Korean restaurants, it is a bit hard to see from the road, but there is free parking in front and around the building. The closest metro is East Falls Church on the orange line.

They make it easy to order with huge posters of their menu items on the walls. Very industrial feel with metal and pipes decorating the interior. It doesn't feel stale, but more like an "underground" club.

Along with the posters are TVs, and Korean pop music BLASTING throughout the restaurant. It makes you feel young, happy and like a popular Korean high school kid out with their friends. The place was packed on a Saturday night for dinner. Thankfully, we made reservations for our group of 7.

Looking at their menu, this was the 1st time I had seen food "on sale", but my cousin who has been numerous times said it's always "on sale". This is actually the cheapest Korean BBQ I've ever seen. Compared to some places, it's like 50% cheaper. They do encourage 2 orders per meat, but at these prices it's no big deal.

Surprisingly this was the only ban chan (complementary side dishes) we received. I'm usually used to a larger variety, but that's fine considering the BBQ prices. Some of the items included salad, kim chi and acorn jelly.

While waiting for the rest of our group to arrive, we started off with 'Mando (dumplings)' for $7.99. I believe they were pork-filled, and fried to perfection. I would definitely order these again.

We also ordered a 'Seafood Pancake' (sorry forgot the price), and it was SO good. It was the right amount of crispiness and flatness that I like. I was impressed.

Onto the BBQ! Remember that all pics shown are 2 orders of each meat. We ordered 3 different kinds, and this time the table-top grill wasn't "in" the table, but on top. The 'Bulgogi (sliced marinated beef)' for $12.99 looked and smelled great as it was cooking, however the taste wasn't spectacular. It was a bit bland, and not as tender.

Is this beautiful or what? They had 2 types of 'Galbi (marinated beef short ribs)' but we ordered the cheaper one for $16.99 called 'L.A. Beef'. I don't know what the difference is between the two, but this was fine and my favorite cut of Korean BBQ. My favorite galbi is still at Woomi Garden, but this was 1/2 the price for much more food.

We also ordered some 'Spicy Pork' for $12.99. It looks spicier than it really was, so I actually could enjoy it! There is kim chi mixed in with the pork to give additional flavor. It actually wasn't what I expected when we ordered it, but it was ok.

Happy and full relatives! It was a lot of fun having visitors in town.

For dessert we went down the street to Shilla Bakery and got 2 'bingsoos (shaved ice)'. They had red beans, green tea ice cream, fruit, mochi and condensed milk drizzled on top. So good, but so filling and cold. I had gone to the one in Rockville, and I did enjoy this location better.

My favorite part of the meal was the environment. I loved the music, the food-loving crowd, and pop star posters. The dumplings and pancake were really good, but I found the BBQ to be closer to average in taste. I'd still go back because of the affordable price. The servers aren't the friendliest people, but they attend to your food and table. It's a great place to go with friends and I'm sure it's even more insane when the late-night bar scene gets hungry at 3am.

7220-C Columbia Pike
Annandale, VA 22003
(703) 256-5229
Yelp


Open 24 hours

Japanese/Korean Curry

I haven't cooked in so long! (wifey material? ha...) The bf's mom gave me 2 potatoes and a packet of curry, so I decided to make a huge pot of it to last the week. If you haven't had Japanese/Korean curry, it's so good. It's smells amazing, and it's not too spicy. The sauce is thick and tastes very warm and comforting. I'm not sure what makes it either Japanese or Korean, because they look exactly the same to me.

It's one of the easiest things to make! These are the ingredients I used, you can mix it up and add whatever you'd like. A Little Bit Of Evrything likes to put garlic and jalapenos in hers, so it's all your preference.

Ingredients:
1 Box of Golden Curry Sauce Mix (hot)
2 Idaho potatoes
2 Onions
5 Carrots
1 lb of beef chunks

Start by boiling 6 cups of water because it can take a while.

Chop the onions, potatoes and carrots. You want all of the ingredients to be around the same size. That helps them cook more evenly. So I cut them around the size of the beef chunks.

Cook the beef in a pan until they are cooked through. The box said to cook the onions and beef together, but my pan isn't large enough.

Then I cooked the onions until they were slightly transparent.

Throw the cooked beef, cooked onions, potatoes and carrots into the pot of boiling water!

The curry packet comes in a pack of 2.

I like my curry flavorful, so I threw the entire box in (2 packets). You can choose to use less and just refrigerate the unused portions.

Stir so the curry block melts, then simmer with a lid for about 15 minutes. Look how much it makes!

Serve over short grain rice, and chow down!

Shilla Bakery - Rockville, MD

After dinner at Temari, the bf and I headed to Shilla Bakery to grab dessert. After having shaved ice for the 1st time on our LA trip, I wanted to grab some in the area at this Korean bakery. They are located in a shopping center so there is plenty of parking in front.
FYI: All pics taken on the bf's new HTC Incredible phone.


This place is adorable! I liked all of the cute colors. They have a good number of tables for you to eat with your friends. It was packed in there, and it was a Sunday night!

They had a really long cake display. My family loves to get Korean cakes for special occasions because they're not overly sweet.

On the other side are their baked goods. Nicely packaged and displayed. A lot of the time the labels didn't help describe what the items were.

This is what we came here for. Shaved ice! They call it Bingsoo. We ordered the 'Fruit Bingsoo (Vanilla ice cream, mixed fruit, milk, condensed milk, rice cake and shaved ice)' for $6.50. Sad to say, we didn't like it that much. The ice was too course. I was hoping for snow-like ice. The rice crackers in it tasted like multi-grain cherrios. The fruit was normal and the ice cream was the best part.

I bought one pastry, 'Cream Cheese Muffin' for around $2. It was moist, but not very flavorful.

Do you like my budget photoshoot using car headlights? The bf ordered a 'Thai tea bubble tea smoothie' for $4.95. It literally took 20 minutes to get, and it didn't taste good. It wasn't sweet, or blended well. The bubbles were thick and hard. Wasn't worth the long wait.

I was hoping our experience would have been better, but the food and drinks we had were either mediocre or bad. The service was mediocre too. They also serve frozen yogurt, teas, ice cream, breakfast, coffee, and sandwiches. I've heard the Annandale location is better.

2098 Veirs Mill Rd
Rockville, MD 20851
(301) 217-0003
www.shillabakeryusa.com

Lighthouse Tofu- Rockville, MD

Last night I met up with two friends for some Korean food. I suggested eating at Lighthouse Tofu because one of my awesome readers (Sup Mark!) reminded me this place existed. I used to work right around there and always thought they only served Soon Dubu Jigae (Spicy Tofu Stew), so I never went. They restaurant has their own private lot with the closest metro being Twinbrook on the red line.

It's pretty big on the inside and wooden. I didn't see any tables with the personal grills or table vents either.

Their menu is pretty small. It's actually just a small menu inside of a plastic cover that is already standing on your table. They offer maybe 15 items, with a lot of it being the soon dubu jigae and Korean pancakes. They do offer BBQ too.

There wasn't a huge assortment of pan chan (appetizer/side dishes). About 6 different kinds. The kim chi wasn't spicy to me because of the bean paste in it.

I've never seen this before, but apparently its common. It's rice with tea. You wait for the rice to get soft and you scrape it off of the sides and eat/drink it. It's very mild, but quite refreshing and strangely addictive.

I ordered a 'Kim Chi Pancake (large) for $13.99". OMG, it was so good! I loved it, and a large is a good size to share with others if you plan on sharing other foods. I was actually able to finish all but one slice myself. The flavor is great, very thin, and just crispy enough. The dipping sauce is to die for.

My friends both ordered Soon Dubu Jigae. You can specify the spicy level, and they both got the most spicy broth. I tried the seafood one and was coughing. Good flavor though, and they give you an egg to crack into the broth.
Left: Seafood Tofu Pot (Clam, Shrimp, Oyster) for $9.99
Right: Beef, Pork (she omitted the pork) Tofu Pot for $9.99

Look how HOTTTTTT the stew comes out! I was like "holy crap"...

The service was nice and the women wore traditional outfits (han bok), so cute! The food came out fairly quickly. I'd say its good for faster dinners since you're not BBQing the food yourself, and the menu is pretty small. I think Korean restaurants are overall pricey, so this one wasn't any different.

12710 Twinbrook Prky
Rockville, MD 20847
301-881-1178
Website