So Moon Nan Jip

The Story: This is my second time visiting and I’ll admit the reason I came back because I forgot the Unilocal the establishment. haha…
Food:
My friend Amy R. and I ordered pork belly and galbi. I didn’t care much for the pork belly but the Galbi was melt in your mouth. They have ample amount of banchan served with cold barley tea.
We also ordered dumplings (mandu) — very crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. Perfection.
The food is cooked over charcoal — only place I’ve been to that does that. It does indeed add an extra layer of flavor onto the meat.
Price: We spent $ 50 each (with tip) for 2 BBQ dishes and 1 order of mandu.
Service: It was good. My problem was more with the valet than the wait staff.
Parking & Finding the Place: There is valet parking behind the restaurant but beware! the guy demands tip! I’m usually a tipper regardless but saying «tip tip tip» is just rude.
Additional Thoughts/​Tips: Would come back for Galbi! But thats about it!

I’ll definitely be coming back to this establishment. Went here with my fellow Unilocaler friend since we both hadn’t been (well, her in a very long time, haha).
Atmosphere– the place is nicely lit and comfortably air conditioned. The tables, however, are incredibly cramped together. Once seated though that didn’t really matter (there was only two of us, though). The grill tops are not natural gas– they bring out the charcoal pre-​fired in metal buckets and put them under the grill grate. It made the meat just that much better.
Service– I got here later than my friend, and she was already seated when I got there. Service throughout the meal was consistent and not overbearing. The servers cooked the meat for us.
Alcohol– they do serve alcohol like Korean beer and soju but we didn’t order any.
Banchan– egg soufflé, lettuce leaves, fermented bean paste, spicy cucumber salad, sweet pickled radishes, a regular table salad, bean sprouts, kimchi that wasn’t too sour (which is how I like it). Very pleased with these.
Food– we ordered two plates (beef Galbi and samgyeopsal) and an order of fried mandu.
Holy crap on a stick, those mandu! The best ones I have ever had in my life! These alone were worth the meal. Crunchy, meaty, and glass noodles inside and this amazingly salty kind of glaze on the outside of the dumpling. The dipping sauce was a compliment and not overpowering.
The samgyeopsal was nothing to write home about. It cooked nicely but just lacked that pork flavor I really enjoy. The plate only had four pieces of meat on it and barely felt like it was worth the 30+ bucks we paid for it. It’s the reason I knocked this review down a star.
The beef Galbi however was incredible. Tender, marinated perfectly and sweet without being overpowering. They cooked it perfectly and there was enough on the plate for it to be worth it to me.
Overall I will come back to this restaurant. It was worth the trip!

It’s always busy at this restaurant. The menu offerings are typically of what you find at Korean restaurants. They have a sushi bar also. We like the bulgogi and kalbi the best. Very tasty and tender. Their seafood pancake and bibimbap are one of the best that we’ve tried. Fried dumplings were so so. The japchae noodles are very tasty.
We like to go with friends and family.

Delicious Korean BBQ, probably one of the best I’ve had, and best in this area. I would recommend this place to anyone, everything is delicious. Prices are good, great service and most important, amazing food.

Look up Palisades Park and it says Korean Town. I have been going here well over 10 plus years and i find this is the best place in town. If you go early between 6:00 & 7:00, 9 out of ten you are being seated. Sny later you will see a line out the door. We usually order our SoJo and OB right away at this time the are putting out the small plates of appetizers. We usually order the Kalbi, miso soup, rice, garlic cloves in oil which i put on the grill to roast and sesame seed oil. They will barbaque for you I prefer to cook myself and take our time to savor this delicious food. Place is a bit pricey but you get fresh meats fish vegetables. This place is by far the best Korean restaurant.

Great Service and food. Galbi is the best. Stew is just ok.

Terrible service. If you don’t order a specific number of entrees they don’t give you rice and they charge you extra for more panchan. We felt we were treated differently from the start because of this. Read other reviews for similar experiences. We were a group of 4 (2 guys and 2 girls). Half of us were hungry and ordered $ 65 worth of food. They thought that wasn’t enough… apparently we should order «3 – 4 dishes» for 4 people for it to be satisfactory. Very rude about it too.
Their meat quality was good — I’ll give them that. Other than that, it was terrible.
Ridiculous. Read the negative reviews. I suspect the positive reviews are from the staff themselves, family, or people who have never had an authentic Korean BBQ experience.
Otherwise they should be TRANSPARENT about their services (IE NO RICE OR PANJAN) if people don’t want to spend $ 100 for 4 people to dine.

Solid authentic Korean food and great service from the ladies. By authentic I mean the BBQ is cooked with quality coals not natural gas. As a big group, we ordered spicy and non-​spicy hot pots, BBQ kalbis, chicken breast, short ribs, and marinated beef. Everything was delicious so do the complimentary appetizers and steamed eggs.
The steamed egg was my favorite of the night — cooked and served in a hot stone while still
boiling! It’s fluffy, rich, and juicy! Hmmmm, yum! Can’t stop for another bite.
We ended up 34.5pp with unfinished food. It was worth the deal and service. Ladies helped us cooking the BBQ meats and kept refilling our favorite small dishes like steamed egg and seaweed salad. Will come back and say hi to the friendly ladies!

The food are excellent and delicious! Totally love the people working there. Great place definitely will come back again and again ;-)

Consistently good food here. The service is always decent if you know how to speak korean I think. The ladies can be mean sometimes just like all women. Got a free service Gye-​jang (fresh blue crab in soy sauce) cuz they forgot to bring dwenjang soup with the bbq meat.
You can always count on So Moon Nap Jib foodwise, thumbs up to the chef + amigos here :)

Food was okay, soup dishes were kind of bland. They give you a good assortment of side dishes. Think they give you even more side dishes if you order a full BBQ meal versus just a regular dish.
Place doesn’t feel cheap but the prices are super reasonable. Little over $ 20 for tofu stew and a soup dish. Typical Korean wood décor tables.
They open early though unlike the other Korean restaurants in NJ.

This place is either average or outstanding, but overall their food is pretty good. They use real firewood to cook their meat so it really helps embark the smokey flavor.
I didn’t realize you could order one portion of the grilled meat, but you should do that and perhaps get another dish to share if you’re eating out with another person!

My friends and I decided to take a day trip up to North Jersey. Spent some time at King Sauna and then headed over to So Moon Nan Jip for dinner. We got seated right away. I’m not sure we expected much but food and service were so good. We ordered grilled kalbi and jigae. We left very happy.

You’re thrown off because they have sushi too. When they have two Asian restaurants in one, you think twice, but So Moon Nan Jip is NOT that case. Both sushi and their Korean food is awesome.
I came here a few years ago and recently visited again. My university friend (who’s not Korean) lives in Pal Park and he says So Moon Nan Jip is where all the «locals» go and has sushi and Korean, so if you’re not in the mood for one, you can always have the other.
I will say that their small dishes could have more variety, but the ones you get are quite tasty. Their kimchi is surprisingly spicy, but still has some flavor in it. I’m a big fan of a good mix of both because a lot of the times the spiciness overpowers the taste.
We ordered kalbi bbq, soondubu and a seafood pancake for three and almost didn’t finish the seafood pancake. FYI about bbq, if you order only one order of meat, they make it in the back, if you order a set menu, they’ll cook it in front of you.
You could not adjust the spicy level of my soondubu, but do not worry, it was not very spicy at all and actually one of the best soondubu’s I’ve ever had… ever.
The service is really on point with refilling our teas and cleaning up empty plates. What’s great is they have employees who speak very clear English and do not discriminate that you are not Korean. Sometimes, in very Korean places, service could vary.
Lastly, the opening hours for this place is awesome. Open early and closes late. Good for getting back after the sunrises or for a late night snack.
All in all, I would not hesitate to come back. Prices are ok, service is good, food is goooooood and they also have parking in the back for those coming from out of the area!

I am from South Korea and I came to U.S. 4 years ago. Sometimes my body wants to have Korean food because I miss Korea. Anyhow I moved to Palisades Park and i was really happy with so many Korean restaurants here, unlike CT where i used to live. This is my dinner story at this restaurant today — 4÷12÷16.
I ordered one order of Jumuluk () and one order of Chadolbogi ()BBQ. For drinks, I ordered a beer and a soju (which I remember was $ 6.99). I asked the lady who I think was the owner cuz we were sitting near the cashier area and the fat lady was dressed up a lot and acting bossy to the waiters. I asked if this was the correct special price and she kept ignoring the price remark and just brought a bottle over. I then asked the waitress for a lemon (since restaurants always give you a whole lemon or two if you order alcohol because Koreans like to mix it into their drinks). The waitress actually wrote this request down on her pad and then walked over to the owner as if to confirm something. Ok, well that’s that.
Our waitress did not pay attention to cooking our meats and most of it was ruined. Once it was done cooking, she placed the done meats on top of our green onion salad!!! My wife is allergic to onions so she was unable to eat any of the meats that touched the salad. Isn’t she supposed to place done meats on our front plates? So, my wife could not eat any more meat after the first serving.
Anyhow, when the waitress brought out the bill, there was a charge for $ 9.99 (I thought soju was $ 6.99) so I asked her why the price was so high and she said they charged $ 3 for the lemon. It was so obvious that she realized they got caught for over-​charging so just said they charged $ 3 for lemon instead. Pretty ridiculous. We paid, tipped and left. Will never return although we live a 2-​minute walk from here.
(I spoke to my friend who was there a week ago and he said that when he checked his dinner receipt when he got back home from eating, they had charged him for an extra soju.)
The food might be decent but these little tactics that they have to gain a few extra bucks is sleezy and deceiving.

Don’t know where to start.
But if you really want Korean bbq
Is not one better then this one
Love real charcoal. And the quality of the the meat here’s the best
kalbi is The best money can buy
The services I give them 5 starts
The owner is always there that means a lot
If you want to go to Korean in nj this is the one

Eight banchans, steamed egg, green onion salad, lettuce wraps, and some doenjang paste to accompany tabletop BBQ. The banchan I liked best were the potato salad, anchovies, bean sprouts, steamed egg, and spinach — very good!
An order of shrimp which was grilled over hot coals was slightly sweet and tasty. An order of kalbi was also excellent though veering towards the sweet side as well. A few rings of onion and one-​fourth of a king oyster mushroom accompanied the platters.
A bottle of biofeel rounded out the meal.
This place looks like a typical Korean BBQ place.

We went out for korean bbq with our family of 6, most of which had never gone before and we had a great time here!
We started with the scallion pancake which was the size of a dinner plate and really yummy. Only issues is they leave the green onions in giant chunks which could be cut smaller. We then ordered the beef bulgogi and another beef dish (I wish I could remember which one) to cook over the grill and of course it came with a plethora of sides such as kimchi, black seaweed, a fish dish, chicken dish, cucumber salad, slaw and fermented bean paste. All the food was really delicious but it was a bit overpriced and the bbq portions added up quickly. We noticed that every table drank a round of «biofeel» at the end of their meal so a few of us decided to try it. Turns out it is really young yogurt that tastes super sugary and helps settle your stomach. This stuff is awesome!
I think our server underestimated some of our experience with bbq and she insisted on cooking everything for us which was a little annoying but she was very attentive and we were never without food and it all came out delicious. She even noticed that one member of our group liked his meat well done and would make sure and cook his to taste. One of the other issues is that the table is pretty uncomfortable, because there is a bar that hits your knees and blocks you from sitting close. The entire restaurant is pretty close quarters so be prepared for that.

Omg deliciousness and tender BBQ with great assortment of banchan.
First at their say there banchan is even better than The K town barbecue places in NYC. The selection and diverse city it’s amazing it’s so delicious and fresh. Some favorites included a cold jellyfish salad, marinated fish, pickled radish, and their kimchi is spot on.
Hubby and I ordered the kalbi and bulgogi bbq. Both meets were deliciously marinated is so amazingly tender. Their bulgogi has the perfect combination of fat and lean meat and sliced paper thin allowing it for optimal flavoring.
We will definitely be back!!!

four stars for their food. One less star based on service. they’re quick and efficient but they lie to their customers which irritates me. there was one banchan that we wanted more of and she blatantly said that they don’t have anymore… but I see them serving more to customers sitting adjacent to us. clearly they had more.
I got the lunch special kalbi & nengmyun. when they brought it out, I asked for a bowl of rice for my kalbi. the lady kept resisting and I kept insisting for my rice. she resorted to saying that I should eat my kalbi and nengmyun and if it’s not enough, she’ll bring me rice later. I explained to her that I want rice to eat with my kalbi. ultimately, I got my rice but it wasn’t without a fight. I need my rice for my kalbi! AND THEN, when she brought my rice she said that I better not have any left over nengmyun! flabbergasted. well, I finished my rice, kalbi, and nengmyun. unfortunately, she didn’t come back to see that…
the food overall was pretty good. my mom and I initially went to get kalbi which was $ 31 for one order. got there and was pleasantly surprised to see that lunch specials were till 2:30! so we spent $ 18/​person rather than $ 31.