Iron Age - Baltimore — Restaurant in Woodlawn

I came to visit with my boyfriend recently and my experience was so bad I thought about it after a couple days and decided to write this review.

We arrived on the later side of the evening, around 10:30-45. They didn’t close until 12, so we didn’t think there would be an issue and weren’t planning to stay long. We were sat by a bartender who notified us we wouldn’t be receiving the full 90-min experience and that the kitchen was closing at 11:30. We understood. Once we were sat, our service went downhill quickly. First, our table’s grill wasn’t working and it took several attempts by our server to get it lit. I was shocked that they didn’t simply offer to move us to a functional table. The server seemed clueless to anything going on. We were offered nothing. The menu was smaller than other locations and the server admitted they don’t carry many items compared to the other locations. We asked for water and ordered our first few meats. The server returned with our water and asked us what meats we wanted again? We repeated ourselves, asked for straws, and ordered 2 cocktails. They told my boyfriend they don’t offer long islands here. Bf switched to rail vodka. Server leaves, 10 mins go by. Returns, still no straws by the way. “We don’t have rail, do you want grey goose, absolut, xyz?” Bf makes selection and server asks me to repeat my drink order. We ask for straws again. Server returns with straws and asks me a 3rd time to repeat my drink order. It was a Malibu pineapple, nothing complicated. Believe it or not, another 10 mins go by, and a 4th time the server comes around asking me again what my drink was supposed to be. Seriously? Write it down at this point! Bf asks what juices they carry? The server was clueless. Just stuttered and stared back at us until ultimately shrugging his shoulders. We gave up. We order our second round of food and bf orders a soju. And you guessed it! The soju never came. Matter of fact, the server just disappeared. A different server shows up and starts cutting up and cooking our food as if to rush us. We ordered 3 different steaks and the guy cut them all up and mixed them together so we didn’t even know which of the 3 we were eating. It’s now 11:20 and bf asks the new server for the soju. New server says “the bar is closed.” What?? What bar closes 40 mins before the restaurant closes, and 10 mins before the kitchen? What server doesn’t offer their guests a final drink before last call? You’re telling me you can’t just grab the bottle out of the fridge? Be real. Bf tries his luck asking what juices they have. “We don’t have any juices.” Okay… so you pulled the pineapple juice for my drink out of the sky? Isn’t the purpose of a restaurant to upsell and continue service with the goal of driving sales?? It’s not like we were asking for a lot. The original server returned to drop the check before we had even gotten halfway through the meal. As we left the manager was standing at the host stand with a handful of server checkouts/shift reports. The atmosphere was anything but welcoming. We both work in the service industry so we are understanding of the ins and outs of the business. If my staff gave my customers this experience, I would be mortified. Honestly I would be so embarrassed to have represented my company in such a way. I honestly don’t plan to ever return. I have better experiences at all the kpot locations, with better tasting food, better menu options, and more than one stovetop per table (that always works.) I was shocked to see this place has 4 stars. It makes you wonder what on earth went wrong to receive...

First Korean BBQ experience! Extreme Sesame Allergy KUDOS a the bottom

We pulled up to a JAM packed parking lot. Highly encouraged to pull in and park to the right. Okay, now... where is this place? It's not the cleanest or easily visible place from the outside. Honestly, this place would be CRAZY busy if it had it's own stand alone space but it does have one of those back alley feels. The feeling of "you don't know what you're about to experience and can't see it from the windows until you go in" kind of feeling. Which was pretty cool.

On a Friday night or Saturday night, there is a typical 30 - 45 minute wait time (or so I'm told by the friends who I visited with who have been there multiple times).

The ambience inside is WOW different than outside. I'll leave you to your own experience when you visit but it's definitely different. Tons of one-on-one spots throughout as well as large group tables. Very wide-open space filled with loud music, dim lighting, and giant projector screens playing K-Pop videos. Loads of fun with the ambiance of the place.

Sit down - There is already a pickled salad awaiting you with some dipping sides on the table. From there, you order your meat off the menu. They have a pretty big selection. We had a variety of meats. We started with the seasoned steak, went to the Hawaiian bulgogi, spicy pork bulgogi, lemon chicken, and brisket then had to stop ourselves.

As a first timer to this style of eating experience (except places like The Melting Pot), I didn't know what to do right away. Out server brought out rice for the table as well as waters and whatever drink orders there were but I was confused with what to do when the steak was laid on the grill and our server just left. Of course, I'm the griller of the group, and I started seeing one side would have been done and asked the group where the server was and if he knew it was time to flip the steak. HA! They all started laughing at me and told me to take the tongs and flip it myself. Alrighty! Off we go.

So, as we got into the rhythm of everything, and I continued my love for flipping meat on a grill, the experience was pretty good. The server seemed to be rushed and didn't really explain too much but I think that's because friends in our group have been there before. If not, I think they would have been much more attentive.

For the amount of meat you get for the dollar figure, definitely want to return and try more!

I absolutely had a waddle leaving from the amount of meat eaten. Because I was driving, I was watered up the whole adventure but next visit, I plan to enjoy some SoJu or a special beverage while there. Will return for more!

*One of our friends we were adventuring to this location with has a deadly sesame allergy. Of course, as most know, most Korean food have sesame included in some way. Through a marinade, the glaze, or the seasoning. We warned the server immediately when we sat down of this allergy. They were very attentive to this and informed us right away what was already seated on the table that had sesame in it. Throughout the cooking process, the server would swap out grilling grates and utensils as needed that had touched sesame. Thank you for being focused on the allergies and needs of...

We went to Iron Age for my friend’s birthday yesterday. Our wait time wasn’t too bad considering we were a large group (9 people). However, as soon as we got to the table, our server immediately started acting like we were an inconvenience. We’d ask for food and he’d immediately disappear while we were in the middle of asking for food or drinks. We asked him for a grill change and he told us “for future reference, you can’t leave it sitting empty or else the grill will get like this.” Sir, we know. That’s why we were flagging you down. We didn’t have any other meats to cook and wanted a grill change so we could cook our meats when we got them. He asked us to have a designated person to speak to him because we were all asking for too many things when he literally came over like 3 times when we were eating. Each time we’d ask for something, he’d act like we were being such an inconvenience for asking for food or drinks. When he came to change our grill, i started asking for a steamed egg and he turned around and walked away. Truly one of the worst servers I’ve ever met. We had another server while he went on a break who was AMAZING. I’m pretty sure his name was Taylor but he was joking around with us and checking in with us. We got all of the food and drinks we asked for immediately. We wanted to have him back as our server because he wasn’t treating us like an inconvenience and being so respectful to us. Towards the end of the dinner, we honestly didn’t feel comfortable asking for anything else. My friend didn’t even want to ask for WATER because of the way the server treated us. Our friend felt so bad that we came here for her birthday because of the service. We told the server it was her birthday and they didn’t do the birthday celebration thing they always do. I have had great experiences at Iron Age in the past but this truly ruined the way I see Iron Age. I don’t know the server’s name but he was a white guy who worked last night. Thank you Taylor for being a great server during the 15 minutes you covered the other guy. I hope you got part of the tip bc you actually worked for it. If you want korean bbq, maybe try another place. There are a couple korean bbq places nearby. Or go...