Puzukan Tan Korean Grill — Restaurant in Merrifield

TLDR: Some of the best KBBQ in NOVA. The hybrid charcoal/gas table grills make the difference in taste. Come for the Chadol brisket, jjampong and pork jowl.

Vibe: 5/5. The inside of the restaurant is very well thought out, with around a dozen KBBQ tables that are perfectly placed in order to accommodate groups both small and large. We must take a moment to appreciate these awesome grills that Puzukan Tan utilizes, as it really elevates the dining experience. They are using charcoal/gas hybrid tabletop grills which have slow burning charcoal in the center, and a high heat gas ring burner surrounding the briquettes. This allows the grills to infuse meats with the wonderful smokiness of charcoal as well as hitting it with high heat for quicker cooking and perfect searing.

Service: 5/5. The staff at Puzukan Tan was excellent from start to finish. We called a few days in advance to make a reservation for our table of 4 for a Friday night around 8pm and had no problems doing so. When we arrived at the restaurant, it was crowded, but not not enough to make walk-in dining impossible (a 20-30 minute wait). Servers are both fluent in English and Korean, so ordering with our Korean/English speaking table was a breeze. Once our orders were in, meat and drinks started hitting the table almost immediately. Puzukan Tan is full service KBBQ, so the staff will tend to and grill the meats at your table on your behalf. This is definitely a must, as the hybrid grills cook the meats differently compared to your standard gas KBBQ burners.

Food: 5/5. The menu at Puzukan is simple but well thought out. It consists of beef and pork cuts a la carte, from the kitchen dishes, and several prix fixe BBQ packages and their omakase experience. From their beef selections, we ordered the Chadol (brisket), giant rib kalbi, jumolok (marinated rib meat) and waygu flap meat. Some of the beef offered is dry aged on site which can be seen by the large red illuminated dry age coolers in the back of the restaurant. The thinner cuts such as Chadol are freshly sliced to order and never frozen which makes a world of difference in the texture. From the pork section, we ordered the smoked thick cut pork belly as well as the pork jowl. In addition to the barrage of meats, we ordered from the kitchen the bulgogi sushi, jjampong Chadol, corn cheese and the steamed egg. Overall fan favorites of the dinner were the Chadol, giant rib kalbi and the pork jowl. The Chadol was cut perfectly paper thin with lots of marbling that melted in you mouth on first bite. The pork jowl surprised the table with its savory porky flavor and crispy texture that somehow managed to outshine the smoked pork belly. The giant rib kalbi was one of the most expensive cuts on the menu, but well worth the splurge with its perfectly marinated flavors and oh so tender consistency. On the non grilled meats front, the bulgogi sushi was tasty take on boxed sushi with a fun presentation. The Chadol jjampong also impressed our table with its perfectly seasoned broth that paired well with the chewy ramen noodles, brisket meat and kimchi. The only thing we felt that could be improved is the banchan selection. Puzukan Tan offers a banchan consisting of japchae, shredded radish kimchi, soy pickled radish and cucumber kimchi. During dinner, we asked if they had any regular cabbage kimchi for the table and surprisingly they did not. The cucumber and radish kimchi were both tasty in their own regards, but the taste of traditional cabbage kimchi just hits different with KBBQ. We also were left yearning for other popular banchan staples such as the thin sliced circular pickled pink radish, stir fried fish cake as well as lettuce for ssam (lettuce wrapped meat). These are small nit picks in the overall grand scheme of things, as everyone at our table thoroughly enjoyed their dining experience at...

Update 3/2024 First time back since they added AYCE. At $55/person, it's an incredible value considering each person gets a 1x premium cut. These are good portion sizes too. However, these aren't ayce, and you can't take leftovers. They don't do very many banchan side dishes but they do have unlimited steamed eggs, beef soup, and corn cheese. I was very disappointed that they were out of Tan Beef Steak. The Jumulok was also replaced with something else, so there weren't any AYCE marinated beef options besides bulgogi.

Two complaints:

1. You really need to take reservations or allow Yelp or call ahead waitlist. It's really insane to expect guests to go in person to put a name in and then wait 90 minutes to dine. We were told "1 hour or more" which is very ambiguous. This makes going to dinner a minimum 3 hour project out of the day. If you are really afraid of no-shows, hold a credit card with cancelation fee. You don't even have enough space inside for people to wait.

2. The table ventilation system must need cleaned or serviced because it was very very smoky inside. I don't recall it being smoky at all last year.

Original Review 3/2023

Might be my favorite place in the area for KBBQ. There's so so many places now, and few impress me anymore.

We got the Signature Cut combo, regular size. It was just right or maybe a little more for 2 people. Also, I'd say $99 for the combo is a great value.

The meats were all melt in your mouth good.

The side dishes were all great, and the beef soup was great and a nice change from the typical soybean soup. We had to ask for bean paste and garlic which they gladly brought out.

The server never left our table once she started grilling a cut of meat, so they were all perfectly cooked.

Likely my only gripe is that the wait was around 90 minutes, and while I called ahead to be told this, they required us to come in just to put a name on a clipboard. This is a huge inconvenience, and unnecessary. Consider that while we have to arrive early to put a name in, people are either waiting in their cars or inside the building consuming parking spots and space. Just allow call ahead or...

I used to love this place.

Over the past year, I’ve probably come here at least five times — it used to be one of my favorite Korean BBQ spots in town. But my recent visit was honestly shocking. The quality has gone way downhill, and I left feeling more frustrated than full.

We were told there was a one-hour time limit, which was already tight, but then a server came over to check if we were done eating — before the hour was even up. It felt like we were being rushed out.

The cold noodles didn’t even have broth, just a pile of dry noodles in a metal bowl. The server burned the meat on the grill and didn’t bother changing the pan, so the next few rounds tasted bitter and charred. When we asked to pack up our leftovers, they took away the steamed egg (which we barely touched) without asking and never brought it back. On top of that, they gave us takeout containers but no plastic bag, so we had to carry everything in our hands.

The final straw? The beef soup had a weird, gamey smell. Not appetizing at all.

I really hate writing bad reviews, especially for a place I used to like so much. But this experience was disappointing on so many levels — food, service, and hospitality. I hope they seriously rethink how they’re running things, because right now, it’s just...