Nagwon Garden

My friends and I were looking for korean bbq all last night and stumbled into here as a last ditch resort. I was pleasantly surprised that this place existed and I’ve lived in philly for over three years! Absolutely accessible from public transit, and the price isn’t bad for all you can eat. The sides are really authentic and delicious! The meat! It’s so delicious, and savory and the staff were a friendly sweet older couple. It’s now going to be my new go to for Korean food.

Best value all you can eat Korean bbq in city. It’s not close from where we live so hesitated to go there however the owner couple were very attentive. All you can eat bbq has all kind of meats and seafood. So everyone has something to eat.
Side dishes are pretty good. Sometime they are cold if you go odd hour.
Bean paste stew are delicious. Great value. Wish they were close to center city.

I heard such great things here so I decided to try the buffet today.
Problem is I was alone. I was informed by the lady at the door that they only accept parties of 2 at the buffet. I was turned away.
That’s just not good business.

So my family came in hungry and cold. We honestly only came here because it was the closest kbbq and we wanted to give this restaurant another try.
We ordered the shrimp & squid, spicy pork, and seafood soft tofu stew. We had to wait forty minutes before we got anything to eat but I’ll let it slide since there was only a old lady running the services. The side dishes that we received were decent but it didn’t have the punch that we expected. The flavors built up and then it just disappeared. Very disappointed. When the bbq food did come out, we didn’t expect that much meat. That was a plus. However my family was very disappointed when we were told that there were no lettuce wraps to wrap the meat. We just had meat and rice. If we knew that before hand, we would not have come at all. The stew had a nice flavor but it sort of reminded me of an instant ramen flavor. I was also disappointed when the only seafood we had in the «seafood stew» were a few pieces of tiny shrimp. I don’t expect much but just shrimp doesn’t make it a seafood stew.
Overall, the meal just felt really heavy.

It’s about four years since I’ve been here and some things have changed. One thing is they now offer BBQ buffet. We didn’t try that this time, maybe next, since we always loved their Kimchi and Galbitang Stew. And that’s what we went back for.
Side dishes were ok. The kimchi lacked flavor. But the stews. OMG… LOVE IT… Hasn’t changed from what we remembered. The flavor of the broth is still there. You could taste the flavor of the pork bone in their broth. It is a bit pricey, but worth it. The only downside is their seafood pancake. Other than octopus, we didn’t see any other «seafood».

I grew up coming here as a kid. I never had any issues aside from the fact that they can be slightly pricey. I love the food here. It always tastes authentic! I’ve had their jiggaes to their bbq. All very tasty. I love supporting my mom and pop restaurants (esp the good ones :)) so definitely come here for a try! There aren’t that many good korean restaurants elsewhere unless you go into NE Philly… you can always order to-​go as well!

Pretty good korean food here but do not go here for koran bbq. Its not worth it. I would ckme here for certain korean dishes but i would not come here if you want freshly cut meat for korean bbq.

This is a family owned throughoutly traditional Korean BBQ buffet. They use fresh coals under cast iron grill… no gas heat. Delicious marinated meat and fresh home made vegetables. We were so happy to take a chance on this restaurant. It’s a hidden gem. Fresh refrigerated meat selection of 10 different meats and about 12 different sides and pickles. Full bbq is $ 30/​person and so worth it. We took some pics at dinner. Some complain it’s more expensive than other places around Philly, but a lot of Korean families eat here, it’s never completely empty, at least not at dinner. The quality is very good.
They have other things as well, besides barbecue, traditional Korean dishes. Give it a try you won’t be sorry…
Enjoy!
Set back on Route 3 look for the green signs.

worth a try! small place but definitely has good quality of meat and worth $ 30/​person. Loveeeee!!! better than philly buffet in upper darby!

Awesome Bimbimbap and nice wait staff. The food was flavorful and had just enough spice.

I’m not sure that I EVER overpaid this much for a meal in ANY country of ANY ethnicity. Maybe they started out good, don’t know. This has Got to be their last ditch money grab before closing… should have known… followed some good older reviews, but the place was and remained empty while I was there.
I bought 42.00 worth of takeout. Flavor OK. Quality nothing more than average. 27.00 for a tin of «rib meat off the bone» and some veggies. Note to self. marinate 6 – 8 oz. Of beef… cook…add 1.50 of chopped veggies… bill yourself 42.00…with white rice

Never a bad meal here. Always great friendly service even with a slight language barrier. Great soups and stir fry dishes as well as traditional BBQ. I recommend the stir fried octopus (my personal favorite).

The guy who owns this place is quite nice. but not the wife. The meat quality is awful. I can tell by looking at the kalbi dries right away after being grilled. not many options on the side dishes either. and whats worst is the lady never looks satisfied with 20% gratuity for just sitting there!

I am just here for the mackerel and some soju for tonight, it doesnt look that tasty but it is actually different in a good way, the fish tastes more fried and squidy. not bad at all with a lot of lemon drenched over it.

I wanted to like this place and I hate to write bad reviews especially in a mom and pop place like this. It just wasn’t good.
Disclaimer that this isn’t for the BBQ. This review is simply for the dolsot bimibap — a very simple and classic dish of any korean restaurant. The rice was dry, slightly overcooked. I had a miso soup with my bimibap and eventually had to dip the rice in the soup to finish my dinner. The beef was barely existent. It was almost like ground beef. Had to literally search for it to taste it. Kimchi sadly was bland. I’m no kimchi expert but the color was pale and lacking the red spicy coloring and lacking the punch. Overall I didn’t have a good dinner, not a good bimibap specifically. Try elsewhere.
– keep eatin’

A solid 2 stars! Stumbled upon this place while driving around. Food was absolutely awesome, service very very good, décor was ok. My date and I shared a seafood and scallion pancake, bulgogi and short rib BBQ. Every dish was bursting with flavor and we were more than satisfied. I’ll be back!

I have NEVER in my life ate the worst bulgogi that was made so wrong! The bulgogi was prices at $ 20.99, so I thought it would be a decent dish. It came out to be a few pieces of meat drenched in a watery puddle of mess. I understand that some lower end restaurant would probably make this quality of food but… priced at $ 20.99. I will never return for my life! Please don’t come here. Also, there is only one person working there so the service is slow. Overall, I will NOT return!!!
To be correct, I am giving this place 0 stars!!!

This place has fantastic kalbee, and the side dishes are amazing. I usually come home smelling like a clove of garlic for a week, and I love it. The waitresses here speak very little English, and often come over to cook your kalbee for you, like a mother chiding her young child for doing something the wrong way. It’s funny, and you can tell they’re thinking ‘YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG let me do it for you, Westerner!” Instead of insulting, it’s very endearing.
My friend is Korean, and we like to bring her with us for better communication (and usually better service!)

I was initially hesitant to go in as the giant «KOREAN BUFFET» sign gave me pause. I didn’t want a buffet, but my desire for kimchi propelled me on. Thankfully, they don’t offer buffets at lunch time (or at least not at lunch time on weekdays — not sure of the weekends).
They have really good lunch specials — I had soondubu jigae (soft tofu spicy stew) that was I think only $ 7.99 — and it came with a whole host of banchans!
The service was really friendly and attentive, which made sense since I was the only person here eating at 2pm on a Tuesday.
I promised the server that I will be back if ever in the area again!

for korean food, there’s a general rule that holds true: that the fluency of the servers/​owners’ english and the authenticity of the food is inversely correlated. and lemme tell you, the ladies who work here have HORRIBLE english. it’s funny because one lady will try to take our order, and when she doesn’t understand something, she’ll call over another lady whose english is even worse. so naturally, the food is delicious.
the focus here is really on more traditional korean food: stews, casseroles, and the ever-​reliable korean bbq. however, there’s also the usual favorites including an assortment of noodles, rice dishes, appetizers and soondubu (!). i would say their typical spice level is somewhere around medium, but you can certainly ask for more spicy.
service is spectacular, despite the limited english comprehension. however, the ladies who work here sometimes like serving and cooking (in the case of kbbq) your food for you. i’m not a fan of that because i’ve been raised with a bit more westernized influence in my culture, but i understand that this is a sign of courtesy and respect in the traditional korean culture. so just be prepared for some over-​the-​top service along these lines when you come.
one catch: if you order meat to bbq, order at least two plates of meat, or else they won’t let you grill the meat at your own table (instead, they cook it in the kitchen and bring it out for you). and that’s really no fun at all.
not THE ABSOLUTE BEST korean food i’ve ever had. but the best i’ve had in philly so far. much more accessible than north philly for those poor souls without a car (me me!)