Wooden Charcoal Korean Village Barbecue House

The food is not always consistent here. Sometime the kalbi seems like a rip off, is not marinated well. But it’s still the best Korean BBQ in the Bay Area. Have been coming here all my life.

Rude services, and the food is not good and way too expensive.
Tells all my friends to avoid at all cost.

Who charges for side dishes??? $ 17.00 Really!!! Doesn’t that come free with the meal on korean restaurants?

Don’t come out of your way to come here for a late night meal. They were not open at 2:30am on a Tuesday.

This place is good. But it is really pricey.
I came here with my family for lunch. We where starving and this was the closet restaurant around It was either this place or Chinese food. So of course we went with Korean food.
It was Sunday, so they where Just opening up for lunch. We where the only ones there. The service was great. The food came out quick.
We ordered A lot of food. We had the option of grilling it ourselves at the table or having them cook it in the kitchen. We went with the later cuz we didn’t want to smell like bbq at church.
The food was Really good. There was so much, we had to take it home. We where so full and satisfied. The next time we come back here, we will definitely cook it ourselves for the price we paid for lunch.

Whenever I want some good authentic Korean BBQ, I’m always going to be down to come here. The Wooden Charcoal BBQ dinner set up is great, but you have to get there before 11pm in order to get it with your party. I never have had to wait here whenever I’ve come, and I always leave with a full stomach. I will tell you though, it is pricey, and if you don’t remind the servers to get you water, you will actually go your entire meal without water. (It happened to my friends and I the 2^nd time I came here). Also be warned that you will come out of there smelling like a bon fire or a bbq cook out because the charcoal smell is strong. It makes the meat you eat smokey and extra delicious. I love their banchan selection though!
I just wish they did wooden charcoal past 11pm :(

Very bad service
waitress (skinny, shout hair, 50around age) big problem

Always get the short ribs
Somewhat pricey but it’s worth it
Definitely recommend giving it a try

Yum yum! We came with a party of 6 and ordered a lot. The owner sent over some complimentary tofu soup to go with everything else. We loved the beef on the grill and could have kept going and going. We also enjoyed the noodles. $ 150 for 6 people including the tip, but with no alcohol.

This place simply doesn’t worth what they are charging. It’s a little pricey comparing to the quality of the food the serve and their impolite customer service.

Bad service and the food were constantly late, bad, and expensive. Been here a couple of times, and it was mostly horrible experiences. (Doesn’t care to review, as they were mainly bad memories).
The first bad memory: They open till late night, and some of my friends like to go there when nowhere else opened. First time was a disaster. There was just one server in the shop, and we had to wait a very long time to get our order placed (everyone was starving since it was late already). However, the server came with a pissed off face and looked like she doesn’t care about her job. After everyone ordered, the food just came out really slow. Some orders came out so late that others have already finished. Sigh. In the end, the bill was very expensive. We’re all non-​Korean, and no one had a clue of what was written on the receipt that the server wrote us (it was all in Korean and a mess). However, we paid and left thinking of never coming back.
The second bad memory: Came back thinking the possibility of maybe there is different server, wrong (still the same old mid-​age lady with the piss off face). She took our orders and left with no care. Same bad service and we regret going there already. Then the bill came, and I am very sure there are some charges that went wrong because we definitely didn’t order over $ 130 for three people. We did the math ourselves and could find out what went wrong. Plus no one drinks in our party. Not wanting to deal with the drama at 4 am we left again.
Bad memories continue: the third time we went there, there was a fight inside their shop. It was madness multiple Asians fighting each other, and the cops came at the end. This time, we didn’t even get to order.
Definitely not coming back. Pure disappointment.
Tip: Go get McDonalds or something 24hrs when it is too late. (At least you can be sure of the food quality and service quality).
Don’t go to this place as there are:
1) Bad Server
2) Bad Food
3) Bad Price
4) Crazy Drunk Customers

Its been a long while since my friends and I last stepped into this place and much of it is still the same. The overwhelming aroma of kalbi and grilled meats, the ambience, the décor, oh how we missed it all. Luckily the food quality also did not change and this place continues to be a pretty reliable choice for Korean Bbq. Whether you choose to have their kitchen grill your meats or you diy, you can’t go wrong either way. We only wish they had AYCE.

Service was good and friendly. It’s kind of expensive but hits the spot if you’re craving Korean food. I had the dolsot bibimbap and bf had the beef bone soup. Sides were good.

My friends and I (group of 6) came here on a Saturday night. We had to wait about 10 minutes for a table and the restaurant was very busy. We were seated and it took a little time to order but once we ordered, the panchan and drinks came out very quickly. The waitresses were all very friendly and nice. We really enjoyed the kalbi, spicy pork bbq, bulgogi, soon tubu jiggae, and dduk gook. Yum yum! All the meats were marinated perfectly! They also brought out so much panchans and gave us tons of refills.
The icing on the cake was that we didn’t realize that gratuity was already included and we all gave tip without knowing. The waitress told us about the mistake as we were about to head out and said she would remove the tip amount from everyone’s card. How nice and honest is that? It honestly surprised all of us and it speaks highly of the staff.
Highly recommend this joint!!!

Of course I’m going to give this place a fiver star because it’s our families go to place for Korean BBQ. We always leave happy and full. We get a good amount of side dishes, their kimchi’s always fresh and they always have the little anchovies. The food is very tasty and it’s fun to grill the meats with your friend and family. The food comes out fast and we always get an extra spicy tofu soup on the house. They are generous with their portions. The bathroom is always clean.

I don’t know, maybe I ate Korean too much or had too much good Korean in LA but wooden charcoal this time was expensive and not up to par.
Did not give us any extra dishes just ban Chan. Kalbi wasn’t marinated as we requested, we ordered 3 times and they said it was marinated but wasn’t.
3 kalbi, two soon dubu, ox tail soup, shrimp for bbq. One small beer. $ 268 including their automatic tip? 3 adults two kids need auto tip?
Didn’t get gum or candy at the end either or sikhee.
Price was off but didn’t complain. Han il Kwan friend left that place too but it is still ok. Might have to go back to brothers and jang soo as go to Korean spots.

Came solely because we were hungry, it was 1AM, and this place was open.
By the time we sat down and opened the menu, and saw freaking tofu soup for $ 16 (usually $ 10 – 12 max) and other outrageous prices, we were in too deep to go back. So we ordered a tofu soup and a short rib stew (~$ 19). Everything about this place seemed kind of worn and run down, including the food. Our dishes were just kind of bland and generally unappetizing. Probably the only time I’ve had bad Korean food. Who messes up tofu soup?! And the size of our two soups was pathetic, especially for that price.
If you’re looking for some late night snacks, you should just take your drunk ass home. It ain’t worth it.

I called multiple Korean restaurants to see whether they served beef brisket and after calling at least three different restaurants, this location told me that they served it. My stomach was set on having beef brisket and I was happy that I was going to a different Korean restaurant that wasn’t YakiniQ.
Got there, looked at the dinner menu and didn’t see brisket anywhere. I asked the waiter when she was taking our order if they had it and she told me they didn’t. They probably misunderstood me on the phone, but I was pretty disappointed cus y’know when your stomach is set on something, you won’t feel satisfied unless you get it. So I decided to order something else that seemed like it was the beef brisket (roast beef) and bulgogi.
A couple of reasons why I’m giving this restaurant two stars:
1) Their meat was overpriced, especially since their portions were very small. It would have been more worth it to eat at AYCE even though I never eat a lot at AYCE.
2) They didn’t have beef brisket when they said they did over the phone.
3) I didn’t like cooking the meat on the charcoal grill because it made the meat super dry. It was also easy to burn the meat because the heat was on full blast since you couldn’t control the level of heat. Also, because the heat couldn’t be controlled/​adjusted to my liking, I felt like I was in a sauna the whole time. I had to move to the seat next to the wall to avoid feeling this heat wave in front of my face the whole time.
4) The roast beef and bulgogi both tasted the same, barely any flavor.
What I did like though was the variety of banchan they offered and the free tofu soup. Don’t think I’ll ever want to grill my kbbq on a charcoal grill ever again =/

I don’t know what it is about Korean bbq in SF but they ALL SEEM TO SUCK. This place would’ve been ok however, the portions of their bbq is EXTREMELY little. Got an order for brisket, kalbi, and pork belly. Before, coming i already expected to pay a premium for non AYCE however, this was just ridiculous. The order of pork belly came with 3 slices. THREE, like seriously? for like 20 something buck you give me 3 slices? Ok fine i can look past the quantity since the quality was ok, but not once did they come by to offer more banchan (side dishes) we were clearly out of kimchi and everything else but nope no replacements at all. Not to mention the place was not packed either.
If all you see from this reivew is one thing then look below…
POOR QUANTITY + CRAP SERVICE = 2 stars

3.5 stars now. Prices have gone way up. 24.95 for bbq pork or chicken dinner. I don’t know if it’s really worth it anymore. Service is pretty poor.

My friend and I went with the $ 48 BBQ Charcoal Set for 2. Pretty pricey, but a ton of food came out. You get the standards: a bowl of rice, rice tea, and Korean Banchan. You get a hefty amount of Rib Eye and Chicken. And you even got some Soft Tofu Stew. As always, there is a helpful Korean lady to help you cook your meat. We were definitely not prepared for the amount of food, but thoroughly devoured and enjoyed everything that came our way.
It’s pricey and it probably will be even more expensive during my next visit. Prices are probably going up as often as rent is in San Francisco. Every price label seems to have been changed 4 – 5 times given the stack of small white labels displaying the price.
Pro tip — if you really enjoy any of the Banchan dishes, don’t hesitate to ask for some more.