School Zone

I happened to stumble by this place by chance. From the outside it looked like a child daycare center with the school bus pic on the outside of the building. You go inside and its a self service cafeteria style Korean eatery. My first impression of this place is that its a showcase of what Korean schoolchildren would be eating at lunchtime. They have a large selection of kimbaps (Korean oversized sushi rolls), including spicy beef, kimchi, tuna, eel, squid, and even spam of all things. There is also a decent selection of different fried rices and noodle/​rice cake soups. There are children lunch boxes too (called Dosirak-​look up the videos on YouTube). I was craving a cutlet that day and went for the pork don katsu. It was a large serving for $ 12. The honey mustard dipping sauce they gave on the side was money. I wanted to try a kimbap for lunch this past Saturday (4÷16÷2016) and to my disappointment it was closed. Not sure if they are renovating or just went out of business. There was no sign outside saying either way. There are many other Korean eateries around Fort Lee (I just started breaking the surface in this town). The food choices you will see driving down on Broad Ave south of Leonia in nearby Palisades Park (K-​Town #2) will blow your mind away.

To fight off the cold weather of New York, I stopped by here with a craving for fish cakes. The combo D is $ 9 which is expensive for fish cake, but they gave you more than enough, plus it came with a small bowl of spicy rice cakes. The spicy rice cakes were chewy and the sauce was the perfect amount of spice for someone as intolerable of spicy foods as I am. The fish cakes were served in a pot which made me very excited (I’m weak to good presentation). I suggest stopping by here to try the many other shops, it’s a really fun place to eat!

I went to School Zone for the last time on February 9, 2016.

Upon paying for my $ 50 take-​out order, I presented the owner with my School Zone gimbap loyalty card (For every 10 gimbaps, you get 1 free). My loyalty card already had 8 stamps and I ordered 2 gimbaps in my current take-​out order which should have made me eligible for a free gimbap. Instead, the owner stated my loyalty card was «over a year old.» Mind you the card had no expiration date on it nor any printed restrictions, so it was obvious she just made up the rule to avoid having to give me my rightfully earned free gimbap. She took my card, discarded it and gave me a new card with no stamps to start from scratch again.

On another occasion, I went to School Zone and did not have my gimbap card with me. The owner did not start a new gimbap card for me, so I brought in my paid receipt with my gimbap card for her to stamp the next time and she refused to do it. I used to be a regular customer, but the owner has turned me off for life. She is so busy pinching pennies that she doesn’t realize a smile and good customer service would have earned her a customer for life. I am boycotting purely on principle as I have money to spend and don’t need to spend it here. I feel bad for her children as her teenage son that helps out seemed embarrassed by her actions and was extremely nice in saying «thank you, please come again» to compensate for her. The younger son was doing homework in the back. I understand that you have a family business, but you simply cannot change rules left and right to suit your own needs as you will have no customers. It won’t be long before you close. Your establishment deserves no stars, but due to Unilocal’s rating system, I needed to give you one just to be able to post my note. Truly buyer beware!

Cute, laid back cafeteria style restaurant where you can serve yourself some side dishes while you wait for your order to be ready. The woman at the front is super friendly and offered my boyfriend and I two free bowls of fish cake soup. Yum! The food is decent. Sort of like the kind you might get at a cafeteria in Korea. Large portions. Clean up after yourself. Order takes a bit of time to be ready.

Best kimbob. It was the best for following reason
Just enough rice and great ingredients that was seasoned well and rolled well. On top of that she was friendly and very polite which is another amazement where it appears were losing that part of customer service.

Free seafood soup! Also, the kimbap is reasonabily priced, however there arent many selections. probably about 4 of 5 to choose from, but the portions are huge! Ive been here three times and im always stuffed to the max after eating here. The fried dumpling dish was unique. a bit too greasy for me but i liked the glass noodles that were inside of it. Two pluses about eating here – free water and many appetizers to go along with your dish, and extras to throw on.

Worst place ever. Such a disgrace to bunsik. I ordered a fried rice and waited while sitting at a table. About 20 minutes passed and my order was not coming out. I asked the cashier if my order was coming out soon and she went to go check in the kitchen. I heard them talking about how they forgot and made a mistake. She comes back out and tells me there was a mixup in the kitchen and that it would be out soon. (There was noone else in the store) She gave us complimentary fish cake soup as an apology. However, the soup was spoiled and the fish cake was clearly rotten. We notified the workers that their soup was rotten. They then offered us complimentary frozen yogurt, which we kindly refused. Overall experience, horrible. Never ever going back

The food was pretty good. Prices weren’t that cheap and expensive. Overall just pretty good.

Huge fan of spicy pork kimbob (jaeyuk kimbob). Oden soup which comes with kimbob is very good.

Will not return to this place ever again. I ordered cup size spicy rice cake and the lady charged me $ 7.99 (overpriced) for 8 rice cakes, 5 pieces of fish cakes, 1 boiled egg and little bit of vegetables. I don’t know how they keep their ingredients but I could taste unpleasant other food flavors in the rice cakes and boiled egg. There was a big beetle looking insect in the restaurant crying, very annoying and not appetizing at all!

School zone has always been one of my to-​go places for food. We’ve always eat-​in and today was the first time we ordered for pick up.
We got shrimp fried rice with curry, donkatsu with curry and kimchi ramen with spam. The shrimp fried rice is tasty and came with a good amount of plump shrimps. Donkatsu was ok, just the usual, though meat was. But dried. The kimchi ramen with spam, had NO SPAM, which was supposed to be one of the main ingredients of this dish?
I called them up to complain and the lady who answered the phone barely spoke a word of English. I told her about my kimchi Ramen with spam, and she thought I wanted to make an order. All she could say was «2 seconds!» then tried to pass the call to another person. The other guy doesn’t speak much English either. 3^rd guy finally understood what I said and told me they would remake the dish.
At that point my husband did not want to drive back again so we just told them to give us a credit. The guy agreed but who knows if they will still remember!
Check your food when you order take-​out at this place, you never know what you’ll get!

I love their combo deal with the spicy instant ramen and dduk bok ki. So yum! The portions are huge and very satisfying. Their kimchi kimbap is my favorite and I’ve had the mom’s kimbap there also, which is pretty good as well.
It’s definitely more casual but the food comes out really quick and there’s usually a table to sit down and dine in if you want. The prices range and there are a lot of various items on their menu.

If you’re short on time or need a quick bite to grab and don’t want any greasy fast food this is a good place stop by. The kimbaps are never disappointing and which ever you order will always keep you satisfied with full fillings. I would personally recommend the bacon kimchi kimbap. But without their odeng or fishcake soup the kimbap is incomplete. The soup broth with fishcakes will help the kimbap to go down smoother while entertaining your tastebuds. Their spicy rice cakes are also good too but for those that are not good with spicy foods beware it is really spicy but still good.
The price however isn’t so cheap I mean you would keep your stomach and wallet full if you did go to mcD but it is healthier than your typical fast foods unless you ordered a salad. And the their frozen ice cream is okay but not great, so just stick with the main dishes.

Just your run of the mill average Korean place.
Dishes are a bit pricey but I guess it makes up for the fact that you don’t have to tip.
Their dishes aren’t delicious but they aren’t bad either.
Being able to get their o-​deng soup (w/​o the o-​dong obviously) for free is a nice pre-​meal appetizer.
Most (def not all) of their workers are pretty mean and are constantly questioning their customers when they ask for something. Is it that hard to give more kimchee or rice? Jeez.
I only go here when I’m in the area and I need a quick meal.

I’m giving it 4 stars because for what it IS, it’s good. It’s certainly not fine dining, it’s not really great Korean food (definitely on the lower-​end). But it doesn’t pretend to be anything but. Even the interior is molded to look like your average cafeteria. So it’s not pretending to be something it’s not. It is what it is and for what it is, I think it’s pretty good.
I usually get the veg. mushroom gimbap, dokbokki (which they are kind enough to give me without any odaeng /​fishcake), spicy ramen, fried rice cake on a stick (which tastes better than it sounds), and other vegetarian stuff that they offer. The dokbokki never has a consistent shape… sometimes I get the normal size and sometimes they are more like cubes… which is a little bit weird. It could stand to be spicier. But like I said, for what it IS, it’s not bad. Plus they have build-​your-​own frozen yogurt which is cool. Overpriced, but still cool.
Also if you ask for the wi-​fi password, they will usually let you use it.
They also get a +1 extra star for not giving a hoot what your ethnicity is. You definitely do not need to be Korean to go here.

Fast casual Korean place. It’s a little overpriced, but usually gets the job done. I particularly enjoy the kimchi jjigae with spam, which again is overpriced, but very hearty.
One demerit of note: I went there this week and ordered the pork lunch box– the picture clearly shows curry over the rice. But my box did not come with it. When I asked the lady, she said only the fish box now gets the curry because the other boxes are then too salty.
Uh. Change the pictures then? I wouldn’t have gotten the box if there was no curry!

compare to their price, this place is good for Korean foods. I really like the Frozen Yoghurts. They have about three to four flavors (green tea, plain, …).
Try lunch specials (lunch box) with great prices.

If I could, I’d give this place a NEGATIVE 5 stars. I’ve actually been boycotting School Zone for at least a year now. I used to be a regular customer — I’d buy lunch once a week here. But no more!
One day, I picked up my order as usual and brought it back to the office. When I opened the bag, I noticed there was also a small container of ddukboki (Korean spicy rice cake). I assumed that it was a freebie for being a regular customer so I didn’t think anything of it. Next time I walked into School Zone, the lady accused me of STEALING the ddukboki and said I should have returned it. I pointed out that it was THEIR MISTAKE in packing my bag wrong and should have left it at that. I mean, if I had returned the ddukboki, were they going to repack it when they should have just thrown it away? Was I supposed to check my bag on the spot to make sure they packed it correctly? GEEZ!!!
I was appalled that she publicly scolded me about it when the right customer service move is to cough it up as their mistake and not give me sh*t over a $ 5 dish. The food at School Zone isn’t worth the rude, distasteful customer service.

I want to make something clear. School zone is not a restaurant. The appropriate name of the place in Korean is «boon-​shik-​jum» which means a dining establishment where you get junk food (a Korean equivalent of what is called a «diner» in the US).
Unless I am not mistaken, my opinion is that diners can only go so far in making quality food. Everything pretty much fits within a moderate range in terms of quality, service, and what not. Sure there are diners that try to put a unique spin on the décor, outfit, and service (kind of like the retro-​feel you get at places like Silver Diner’s), but more or less they are about equal.
School zone tries tries to stand out from the typical Korean «boon-​shik-​jum» with a minimialist, modern décor and hipster feel by having things like loud K-​pop music in the background.
The place is heralded as the best place to get Korean junk food in NJ and the stuff they sell range from bibimbab (korean mixed veggies in rice), spicy korean rice cakes (Dduk-​bok-​gi), Tonkatsu (fried pork/​chicken cutlets), kimbab (korean style maki), and smash-​dumplings (these are dumplings that have been inspired by smash bagels found in Hoboken.
I recommend their spicy korean rice cakes and the spicy beef kimbab. The taste and quality of the two dishes are on par with what you would find in Korea. If you want to eat this Korean style you should order the two dishes and dip the kimbab in the red and spicy rice cake sauce. It kills the taste of the kimbab a bit, but it’s the way that koreans eat. Bet you didn’t hear that before :)
As with all reviews, some complaints surface.
My first complaint is that you have to order these things 20min or so in advance over the phone or it’ll be a long wait. I’m perplexed b/​c there aren’t tons of orders and the dishes do not need to be freshly prepared.
My second complaint is the price. My bill was about $ 20 for the two dishes. That’s very close to a full service Korean dining establishment with better ingredients and more side dishes.
If you are in the area and want to experience a Korean «diner» this is the place. It’s foreigner friendly (aka very clean) and it retains the true taste of a Korean diner. The two rarely go hand-​in-​hand so give it a try sometime!

Rounded up from 3.5 stars.
For no-​frills, honest food in a no-​frills atmosphere, School Zone is certainly a place to consider.
By «honest,» I mean that it fits the concept of a walk-​up eatery and is priced correctly. For $ 5 to $ 10, I am not going to expect the same level of food quality found in a sit-​down restaurant where I would pay 50−75% more.
There are reviews here complaining about the service. However, to be fair, I feel that the service suitably meets that of a walk-​up eatery. Think of it more like a level above a Baja Fresh rather than a TGI Fridays.
In summary, you get what you pay for.
Please note that I don’t work there, and I am not Korean.
Tip: Come here on a weeknight. In this manner, you lose the crowds and the loudness. The place is notably cleaner, perhaps because the folks at the counter are not bombarded with customers as they would be on a crowded night.
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Note: This review was originally posted for the wrong School Zone location; it was meant to be posted here.