Jong Kak — Restaurant in Baltimore

An excellent Korean restaurant with atmosphere and ambiance of what one would find in Busan (as I did while in Korea on Navy deployment.) It has both regular seating and BBQ at your table seating. We sat in regular seating today for lunch, but just so you know, the exhaust system for each BBQ table seemed more than adequate and worked well for the one that was in use while we were here at Jong Kak. An extensive menu of traditional Korean dishes awaits the diner. We were able to select from dishes with beef, pork, chicken, seafood, and those that would be great for vegan and vegetarian diners as well. Our waiter was happy to answer questions about any of the particular items on the menu. Today, our party had three wonderful dishes (well, actually hot pots) of skillfully prepared Korean food. To begin the waiter brought a table full of small dishes containing an assortment of cold vegetables and egg in a variety of sauces to accompany just about anything on the menu. The Bulgogi (beef) Bim Bap comes in a blazing hot stone pot with rice topped with vegetables, beef bulgogi, a fried egg, and if you want, red pepper paste. The effect of the stone pot on the rice can't be matched at home! It becomes a crisp and crunchy accompaniment to the toppings with great flavor. The dish was perfectly seasoned and small bits of the cold dishes added nuances to every bite. The Kim Chi Jji Gar (Kim chi soup Kim-chee-gee-gay) was terrific! It contains thin sliced pork, tofu, and kimchi in a spicy soup. The spice lover amongst us really enjoyed this dish! And served in a hot pot it came to the table still bibbling around the edges. It had the real traditional red pepper paste, garlic, and cabbage combination that makes kimchi such a popular dish. The vegetarian Tofu Bi Bim Bap was also served in the hot stone pot and was a great lunch selection for the vegetarian in the group. It had the same wonderful crispness to the rice offered by the pot and the flavors were delectable. Our party of three dined for under $45. The restaurant was not too busy for dining in and had several to go orders ready for pickup at the front table. All restaurant staff wore facemasks and tables were cleaned and cleared after each party. Complimentary hand sanitizer was available at the cash register. When we were there, W 20th Street was closed in that block but parking was still available nearby. This restaurant is definitely worth seeking out if you are looking for great Korean food while in Baltimore. We would definitely return to enjoy this fine...

I knew the food was going to be authentic when all the customers were Koreans. The lady asked me if we wanted BBQ (yes) and took us to that section. We ordered all-beef course for 2-3 people, and as it turns out, that was satisfying portion for 3 people. The air around our table got hot after they bought out the charcoal grill because the grill pit has exposed bottom under the table that radiates charcoal heat. The room is not particularly cool (beginning of June), and after eating spicy food it was downright uncomfortable. Ceiling fans would have been appropriate. The food: The lady brought out many small dishes of condiments, side dishes, kimchi, soup, cooked egg. One dish, the cellophane noodles, tasted bad like it was set outside too long and started growing bacteria... that was the first food safety concern. The server brought out the meat slices on a plate. They were well-marinated, different cuts. The server was constantly attending us and cooking the meat slices on the grill for us. She would go between out table and another table. When we got to the beef intestines, (yes people eat that stuff in many cultures, very good texture) it was nice when she explained to us with broken English that the intestines were already washed and cooked in boiling water before bringing out. I know beef can be eaten pretty rare, pink and running blood and all, but I was peeved when the server used tongs back and forth between the raw and cooked meats, especially when she put cold meat from the plate and then pinched some cooked meat pieces from the grill into my plate. Those meat pieces are beef, but who knows what other meats they were marinated together with? Whenever the server catched us trying to do the grilling, she felt obliged to take the tongs from us and flip the stuff for us. They get 4 stars (above average) for the yummness and the effort on BBQ, but with a warning for uncertain food safety practice. I did not get sick, but then I also ate a clove worth of raw garlic that they...

It's always a shame when a place that has been so good for so long starts falling off the wagon in various ways, but my last few visits here (especially the last one) have been getting worse. In general, the food is still good, which will keep most people coming back since there aren't any other charcoal-grilled bbq places in Baltimore. The service, however, has fallen off a cliff.

I was last here on a weekend right after they opened at 11AM when there was only one other non-bbq table seated and two servers. The service was painfully slow, continued to forget things we ordered (like when we asked for a bowl of rice twice and never ended up receiving it) or were negligent, like ordering 2 bbq items but only getting 5 pieces of lettuce and no sliced garlic+chili pepper until we asked for it, much to our server's annoyance.

Even though we were the only bbq table there, the server almost never came to stir our grilled food and even though the charcoal heat was weak, it took them a solid 40 minutes before they decided to address it with a hairdryer. The most annoying thing was that when we asked for something, our server would walk to the sink area, started messing with her phone and then engaged the other server in long conversation, completely ignoring/forgetting what we asked for. It then took 30 minutes after finishing our meal to flag someone down for our check. Our stay lasted about 2 hours for just 3 people. There was also no yogurt drink with our checks which was another disappointing cherry on top.

The banchan spread has gotten much worse over the years as they've not included some of my favorite items like oi muchim (spicy cucumber) among other things that used to be available. As a Korean, it's rare finding a great K-BBQ restaurant and I really used to cherish this place, but our friends and I have decided that we'll have to start trying other places a bit further out. I can't really recommend Jong...