Son Ja Jang

Came with a friend who’s Korean — she ordered in Korean and the waitress asked if I was sure I (being not Korean) wanted what I ordered?
Mul mandu (steamed dumplings) are for sure the kind u find in the freezer aisle at H Mart. Sesame oil drizzled on top is a nice touch though. Except the waitress didn’t like the extra 30 seconds that my friend and I were debating about the goon (fried) vs mul (boiled) thus her tone and body language said it all.
A half moon bowl of jjampong (spicy seafood soup) and other half of jja jang myun (black bean noodles) $ 12-​$ 13 is perfect for the indecisive diner!
The hand pulled noodles are not made by a Korean albeit the person is most likely well trained? The thickness of the noodle is inconsistent, some thin and some thick, thus some are undercooked, overcooked, or just right. Heterogeneity doesn’t make for a consistent taste.
The jja jang myun sauce has good flavor (maybe a little more salt) but hard to mix and coat all the noodles evenly.
The jjampong broth is delicious with tons of seafood but again the inconsistent noodles take a little away from the dish.
The kimchi is the best I’ve had — crispy, spicy, and has a tasty umami after taste that I’ve never had before.
Next time I’ll skip the noodles and try other Korean food just for the kimchi!

Korean cuisine beyond the BBQ.
I work right in the middle of K-​town, and needles to say I have tried many Korean places, but this is the one my co-​workers, and I keep returning to. Why, you ask? Well simply put, it has very large variety of dishes, and good quality. If you like trying new things then this place is definitely for you. I been there about a dozen times, and I always try something new like blood stew, oxtail stew, and many other things. Korean BBQ is boring try something new at this place.

Wow this place is not even a shadow of the Son jajang in Palisades Park, NJ.
Finally, something to be proud of for living in the Garden State! Jersey strong, baby! LBI bumper sticker, mofos!
The jajangmien at the Ktown branch was pretty bad.
The noodles were soggy, the sauce was weak, and it just didn’t have a good taste to it. I knew something was off when I saw a conveyor belt with sushi plates in the back of the restaurant.
I can honestly and sadly say my wife makes tastier jajangmien than this place by preparing the instant jajangmien ramen packs from HMart. Sometimes she mixes it with chapagetti and it gives it a nice kick.
The Son ja jang in Palisades Park makes delicious noodles. I’ve been there quite a few times now and its consistently good. Strange that the high standards there don’t get brought to their Ktown branch. Maybe it was an off night.

This place has really gone down! This used to be my favorite place for Korean style Chinese food… not anymore. The food is bland and some of it is instant style (straight out of a package). The biggest culprit was the nengmyun. DON’T GET THE NENGMYUN! Go to H-​Mart and buy the package stuff. It’s the EXACT same thing. Save yourself 10+ dollars!

i was really confused about this place. is it chinese? is it korean? wait, there’s a sushi conveyor belt in the back?
for 3 people, we had a bibimbap, a meat stew (min 2 orders), and kimchi pancake. the food wasn’t bad. the meat was tender and flavorful and the kimchi pancake had a nice kick. bibimbap was mediocre but it did the job. overall, everything was okay, and sufficed but nothing stood out either. there are better options on this street to explore; but if you really don’t feel like waiting 2 hours at tofu house, try this out.

#KoreanChineseJapanese #This is 2 restaurants in 1 –Korean & Chinese with Conveyor Belt Sushi #Ordered the Jjam Ppong (jjampong) Korean Spicy Seafood Soup that’s actually on the Chinese restaurant menu. #I think if you order on the Son Ja Jang Chinese menu, you get different Banchan side dishes (or maybe less). #But they kept refilling my kimchi after I finished it. I probably ate $ 5 worth of kimchi right there.
#the Jjam Ppon Korean Spicy Seafood is big and a lot of food. I was stuffed and I had so much left. But only okay tasting.
#I LIKE how it is one of the more affordable sit-​down restaurants on Korean Way. #Friendly service. #refills on my kimchi.
#although I personally don’t do well with kimchi. #sucked that I spent a couple of hours getting my hair dyed at a salon right after. #KoreanDiarrhea

Son Ja Jang is the best Korean-​style Chinese food you can get in Manhattan. If you compare the food to the big names in Queens or Bergen Counties, they fall short in comparison. Luckily, they only have subpar restaurants like Hyo Dong Gak (35^th St) and Shanghai Mong (32^nd St) to compete with in Koreatown, NYC.
The restaurant is in a shared space with its sister restaurant, Mukeunji, which is a Korean BBQ restaurant that also serves traditional Korean dishes. The original locations for both restaurants are in Bergen County, NJ. The atmosphere is loud with the sound of the cooks hand pulling the noodles booming in the background.
The food is decent. Both jajangmyun and jambbong were good. The tangsooyook’s sauce is a little too sweet for my taste but it was cooked to a perfect crisp. I would recommend Son Ja Jang if you are craving for Korean-​Chinese in K-​Town. Otherwise, there are plenty of better restaurants elsewhere.

Definitely not the best jjajjangmyun I’ve had. I ordered the spicy jjajjangmyun, to which the waitress warned me that it would extremely spicy. I nodded okay — because I’ve grown up with Korean food, I thought I can generally handle very spicy foods. So it came, and I ate it. It’s not that it’s spicy, it just burns as you eat it. There is no spicy ‘taste’, just the feeling of your mouth hurting. It wasn’t difficult to eat, but it didn’t taste very pleasant either. Perhaps if I got the regular, it would be okay? But why bother, when there are other places on the same block that is just so better in terms of ambiance, service, and all around food?
I am pretty sure I will not return, even though the service was decent. Just the food and ambiance is not worth going out of your way for.

This was the worst Korean/​Chinese food I’ve had in a very long time.
Let’s start with the ban chan. The ban chan tasted like it had been sitting out for awhile as everything was luke warm when some or most of them should’ve been cold like the radish kimchi, fishcakes and potato salad. The second time we got fishcakes, it was cold but everything we got the first round was definitely sitting out for awhile.
The place itself was so hot. It didn’t bother me at first but then when you get your hot food, it’s not fun to be sweating and eating mediocre food.
I got the jja jjang myun and jjam peong half and half bowl. The jja jjang myun was bland. Also, it was sort of soupy so none of the sauce really stuck to the noodles. It’s a quick fix– add more cornstarch or thickening agent– but instead they choose to have a soupyish jja jjang myun. The jjam peong was better but nothing amazing. I wasn’t thrilled to be eating any of my food.
My fiancé got the soon du bu jigae with pork. I’ve never had soon du bu jigae with pork– only seafood or beef broth– so perhaps it was the pork broth that was bland or Son Ja Jang just makes everything bland. Basically, I would never get this gain.
It baffled me looking around. I wondered why other people came here. Was it because it’s on the cheaper side? Were lines at other places too long? My fiancé and I came here because after looking at a couple of places, we just made a rush decision because we were hungry. We figured 3 stars on Unilocal would still be good. Nope. We are 3.5+ star people. Anyways, we figure people come here for the barbeque. You really can’t go wrong with barbeque meat.
My food came out 10 minutes before my fiancé’s, which is OK because I eat at snail pace and there was ban chan for him to munch on, but still not ideal.
The service was good. 1 star for good service. Water was always full. Woo! Yah! Go water. Another star because my dish was the same price as the same dish at the Food Gallery ‘cept you get full service and more ban chan.