Mo Ran Gak Restaurant - Garden Grove — Restaurant in Garden Grove

We usually visit Mo Ran Gak once a year to eat with an elderly great aunt. She loves this place and so do we. We had 2 hours before boarding our flight after they open at 11 am on Sunday morning, so we came here at 10:30 am to make sure we maximized our BBQ eating time. It was a chilly morning so they offered excellent free Korean sweet cream coffee and black bean latte out of their vending machine. (It closed after they opened their doors)

We signed up on their Yelp waitlist stand and sat on their wooden bench outside their entrance. We browsed through their website menu on our phone while waiting.

Once our name was called, we were sat down into a booth. They promptly got us plates, utensils, water and a small tray of dipping sauces (salt with sesame oil and hot sauce) Between the four of us, we got Marinated Combo meat B for 2 that comes with a small tofu soup (soon dubu) and soft jiggly tasty steamed eggs. We also ordered the delicious marinated short ribs (Kalbi) bone-in (since we like to gnaw on the cooked ligaments on the bone afterwards) and mul naengmyeon (long al dente cold buckwheat noodles in a refreshing cold lightly sweet beef broth with small thin slices of beef, cucumbers, and pickled white Korean radish, and a half boiled egg.) You have to add the vinegar and mustard to the broth to your taste. The star of this dish is the al dente noodles and cold broth. It is quite addictive if the broth is made right.) They were generous in refilling the side dishes (banchan). Our favorites remain the well marinated softened torn dry squid, fragrant chapchae noodles and vegetables, and crunchy napa kimchi). They were giving us bonus treats like miniature bindae-tteok (delicious crispy mung bean pancake with soft beanny (?sp) insides eaten with a dipping sauce.) That was soo good! We enjoyed rolling the grilled piece of meats on our square steamed rice pasta. I added some kimchi, garlic in the roll and popped it into my mouth. The service was excellent. Alex was our major to-go staff. He was always checking on us and getting what we needed. But there were four more staff who came to cook and flip the grilling meats, getting us more iced water, banchans, and the tray of sliced garlic, jalapeños, and samjang bean sauce, and more. Together, they made a seamless eating experience of pure enjoyment. We finished eating in 48 minutes and paid by 11:55 am and out the door to SNA airport. We were satisfied and happy. May your days...

If you're here, your in the thick of it as far as good Korean BBQ. Surrounded on all sides for miles with some of the best Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, Thai and Japanese food this place stands out. The more popular and more famous Cham Sut Gol is just down the road from here and though it's been around longer it is overall appeal to me is fading. Both upper tier and the best in their own respects I have to give it to Mo Ran in that their brisket is gossamer thin and cooks super fast, and the rest of their meats are well balanced in marinade. Some places load on the MSG or overdo the sauces, but here it's a clean bright flavoring. I actually use the brisket dipping sauce, hot sauce and the sesame sauce for everything because it's that good. Chunks of garlic is what I like to see. The hotsauce I found to me mild. Once again super thin daikon and the banchi(appetizers/sides) were quite unique. A sweet and creamy potato salad, marinated smelt (tastes like fish jerky). I wish the kim chi had more depth of flavor, seemed superficial and the pieces were huge. You don't seem to be overwhelmed here. I usually go AYCE, but didn't want to overdo it like usual.

Our waiter did most of the cooking for us, which is unusual as we prefer to do it ourselves because we like to eat the meats in a particular order. We actually liked it this way for a smaller group. Usually AYCE KBBQ we roll 10-20, but for 4 it's much less hectic and ravenous, less gorging. The tongs were a little on the weak and inaccurate side. 2 pieces of mushroom 1 asparagus and1 slice of onion was all we got with our 3 person special. Well-cooked sticky rice I can tell it was well cleaned due to the minimal residue on the bowl. The overhead hoods are pretty quiet here versus most places. The only real con and this is true with all KBBQ's is the cleaning of the table. You end up with so much grease residue from the meat and sauce that simply wiping with a cleaning rag doesn't suffice, a heavy duty degreaser is needed. They do a loyalty card, after 4 BBQ visits you get 20% off the 5th and after 9 you get 30% off the 10th visit. Standalone building with not enough parking on a busy night I can see people crossing GG Blvd to ge here.

Cham Sut Gol has a great set up, good service most of the time, long lines and waits, but the product is very good. Mo ran Gak puts out a comparable product with none of the cons, so it me it's a...

Mo Ran Gak Korean BBQ restaurant is probably the busiest Korean BBQ place on the entire Garden Grove Boulevard. It's always so packed with a long queue outside the restaurant.

I arrived at 11:50am on Tuesday for lunch and literally no parking space already. I drove around and around and finally I got a spot. ( if you really cannot find a spot to park, just park at the Arirang Market plaza across the street and walk over to avoid the hassle.

This restaurant doesn’t accept reservations, but you can join the waitlist on-site by keying in your name , seat preference, how many of your party and phone number and once you are done, you will see the live table preparing status. There were 21 groups ahead of us and we ended up waiting for almost an hour. The entire waiting process was efficient and staff speak good English.

Our group of four ordered the following: ▶️ Seafood Pancake $23.95 ▶️ Spicy Pork $18.95 (not spicy at all) ▶️ Dolpan Bibimbap $19.95 (beef) ▶️ Seafood Tofu Soup $19.95

Considering the prices, the portions were generous and the taste was authentic. We were all so full that we needed to get the to-go boxes for leftovers!

I chose to sit indoors but also worrying that we might get BBQ smell all over if other tables were grilling. Luckily, no one ordered BBQ due to the hot weather. In hindsight, we should have opted to sit outside, as it was less waiting needed and more quiet.

There is a coffee machine right at entrance and you can enjoy classic Korean instant coffee or black bean tea. They are free of charge.

Most of the customers here speak Korean, so I think if you see a lot of Korean ajjushi and ajjuma outside the restaurant waiting, it’s a good sign that the place is authentic. That’s what I always follow them for a great meal.

📍 Mo Ran Gak Korean BBQ Restaurant 9651 Garden Grove Blvd, Garden...