Wonjo Korean Cuisine — Restaurant in Alaska

We saw the “new owner” announcement and cautiously decided to give our former favorite Korean restaurant a shot.

We ordered our usual favorites to go: Fried dumplings, bulgogi and beef fried rice.

The beef fried rice was a disaster. The rice was overcooked and mushy, with only a few burned rice pieces hinting at an attempt of frying it. The beef pieces were sparse and smaller than a dime. This is a drastic decrease in quality compared to the last owner, whose beef fried rice had a good serving of beef.

You may wonder why the first item I am reviewing is something something as basic as the beef fried rice? Simple: If a basic dish can’t be served properly, I have little hope for the more complex dishes.

This proved to be true, sadly.

The Bulgogi was overcooked. It was packaged poorly so that it spilled its sauces all over the take away bag. The taste was passable.

The Banchan (side dishes) were all lumped together. Gone are the days of lovingly individually wrapped servings of Banchan, preventing the sauces and flavors from mixing before being consumed.

The quality of the Banchan took a dive as well. Other than having a slight flavor deviation from the previous owners, the vegetables were sliced much wider and the vegetables were overcooked. Gone is the pleasant crunchiness and strong flavor in every bite (because smaller slices = bigger surface area). The vegetables are soggy and sad. The only plus is that there was more variety in the provided Banchan, but since I care more about the taste and overall quality of food, this was not comforting.

The fried dumplings were passable.

We are sad to say that we will not be returning. We can only recommend that the new owners adapt their processes and recipes more to the previous owners’ or they may lose other regulars.

We wish them and the previous...

Mediocre food, dishonest business practices, wish I could give 1.5 stars instead of 2.

We tried wonjo Korean “cuisine” for the first time on Sunday 9/15/24 based on the google reviews. We deeply regret this decision. My partner woke up Monday morning with a severe belly ache that had to be treated with pepto bismol. The food was a solid “meh” when I was expecting spectacular for the price.

Speaking of price, based on the online menu accessed on 9/15 to order and 9/16/24 to write this review, our order of 1 doenjangjigae (18.99) 1 dolsot bibimbap (22.99) and 1 pork bulgogi (24.99) should have been $67. Plus a 20% tip would have brought the total to $80.40. Please see the last photo where we were charged $81.97 WITHOUT tip!

After I called in our to-go order the lady (owner) said please give us 20min. Fine, reasonable, and sounded quick. I arrive 25min later, and not only was there no parking (so I had to park at brown jug next door), I had to wait 10min to even be acknowledged. The other tables stared at me like I was a nuisance while I waited. Then when I was told my total, I asked “wait, I was expecting it to be $67” she smirked and said “online prices are from 15 years ago, this is the price today. We have to scan your card NOW, it’s [the credit card machine] beeping at me.” Please note that the online menu was updated in September 2021 NOT 15 years ago. I do not appreciate the dishonesty, lies, shady business practices, and mediocre food that causes GI distress. There was nothing crispy about the hot-bibimbap but that’s my fault, you can’t exactly to-go a dolsot. But I sure was charged for it.

In summary, not glad I tried this place and won’t be going back. They were busy enough without my patronage. If anyone has a better Korean place to suggest, I’m all ears/eyes. Thanks for reading about my...

It's insanely expensive. My daughter wanted the $40 hot but thats really expensive for two people and we were already going to get Tteokbokki and bulgogi which was a pretty penny, and we don't usually splurge THAT much when we go out. But she really wanted to try all the different ingredients and we've never seen it offered anywhere else. And then I saw it had enoki mushrooms in it. We asked if the ingredients on the poster were all in it and the waitress said it didn't come out looking the same as the poster, but everything in the picture is it. I only have in and agreed to order it because I have wanted to taste Korean prepared enoki mushrooms for literally 6 years lol.

It came out steaming hot and we told her we didn't need it to be boiled further at our table but she said it needed to cook more. After a few minutes I asked if we could turn it off and she said it needed to cook longer because it won't be flavorful yet. So after another few minutes, I just turned it off myself but everything was quite soft and mushy by then. And there were no enoki mushrooms.

I asked a guy working there and he said they were out of stock. That makes me mad. I told them that was the only reason I ordered it and he just said sorry, they had other mushrooms in it though. Which was pointless for me. So I ended spending $40 on soggy soup without the main ingredients I ordered it for, and they made no offer to make it better, just said sorry. For that experience alone, I definitely won't be going back, nor would I recommend it to others.

However, the bulgogi and Tteokbokki were both pretty good. But that's meaningless when I can't trust their word and they make no...