Poong Lim BBQ
“Seriously though, I've been here with my family for Sunday Brunch Buffet a few times and twice for dinner and it's always good.”
“There are banquet halls, which are decent, so you can have bigger parties here.”
“Beats any place in Ktown in the city and around Pal Park for me (and I'm Korean and kind of a food snob).”
Poong Lim BBQ
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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3.5 stars
I was able to try this place for a year end social gathering. There were several rooms reserved for such gathering and we were taking one of the rooms.
They started with some sashimi and sushi, which was quite fresh. Then they brought out some marinated korean bbq (beef). They also brought out jelly fish, which was pretty good. They served several options for 'entree' which included bibimbab (mixed rice and vegetables), naeng myun (cold noodle), tofu bowl, etc. Bibimbab I ordere were ok. Lastly they brought the assortment of dessert which were ok.
Service was adequate and servers worked very hard for the whole night. Oh the only thing is that the parking is valet (dont' know if they charge for parking), and once the spots are filled up, they won't take your car and ask you to park somewhere else (they will tell you to part at the municipal parking, which has small fee).
This place was ok. a bit pricey. Not really much else to talk about.
It's fine. It has complimentary valet parking (tip the valet pls) and a banquet room. Lunch tastes better than dinner and banquet food always tastes the best.
They don't let you pack leftover kimchi (lamesies) and all their food has a good dose of MSG (mama's secret inGredient).
The octopus pork belly stir fry is delicious but lotsa msg. Order it. Eat it. Feel bloated for the next two days. Whatever.
You can ask for purple rice.
I've been here many times and the experience seems to get worse each time. The BBQ is decent/mediocre, nothing noteworthy (I would not mention it to a friend asking me for recommendation to a Korean BBQ place). The other a la carte menu is just okay. The weekend brunch buffet is pretty poor. The food is not replenished often and sits out for a while as it withers and dries out. I understand that they are doing away with the buffet (last weekend was maybe the last weekend??). That's probably the only thing they've done right — closing the buffet for good. It is what it is… 2/5 stars.
So I finally tried the BBQ here. Had the Cha Dol Bae-gi, Deungshim, and marinated Kalbi.
Still has the circular staircase that leads you to the hostess stand. Hostess still has a bit of an attitude, but that might be my impression because I had to wait about 20 minutes for a table. The place is much larger than it appears and they have an entire banquet section towards the back of the building.
Banchan (small dishes) are still good. They give a good variety and are happy to refill them for you. Service is much better than my previous experience so it's good to see. It's a team effort, but our waitress was explaining to us about the meat selection (we asked for a less fatty piece) and the cooking process.
Cha Dol Bae-gi seemed to be a bit thicker cut than what I'm used to, but quality was pretty good, even though it was a bit more fatty than I've seen before. It wouldn't be my first choice. If it's there, I'll eat it and if it's not, I won't order it. Basically, I wouldn't kick it out of bed if it was there, ready and waiting.
Marinated Kalbi was good. The meat was good quality, tender, with light marinade. Not the best in the area, but definitely in the top 3. It wouldn't compel me to come to Poong Lim, but it would be something that I would order with another dish.
Deungshim – excellent. Yes, this is basically just a ribeye / sirloin steak (described as a top sirloin in the menu, but seemed to be more of a ribeye). Good marbling, good quality. Probably a choice cut and worth every penny. They cut away a bit of the fat and use it as a primer for the grill. Then they cook it with onions, garlic, and mushrooms. I really enjoyed this and will go back for more. This is the best place for deungshim – as simple of a dish as it is, you'd think other places would get it right.
Overall, this place is a solid 4.5 star. The prices are a bit on the higher end of Korean BBQ places, but the service and quality you receive is worth the cost. Highly recommended if you are looking for a Korean BBQ place in the area.
Poong Lim tries very hard to be bougey… Emphasis on the "tries". Its on the pricier side of Korean joints, but the banchans (complimentary side dishes) don't reflect the price. Everything I tried was just OK (galbi soup, dumpling soup, sashimi over rice, galbi), nothing special. My cousin had her engagement party here, and I will admit the food that was served in courses was pretty tasty. It was mostly fish, and not much meat.
The valet parking is a pain in the ass. The attendants are amazing at their job, squeezing so many cars into the lot like tetris, but you have to wait about 10 mins for them to fish your car out. Not an ideal spot for lunch.
I dig places that make me wanna recommend them to others. Poong Lim is not it :/
This place has been around for years in middle of Fort Lee. At one point, I thiught of this establishment as a 5 star Korean restaurant but unfortunately, depending on the day, type of food you order and are you in the restaurant side or the banquet side seems to dictate the level of service and quality of dinning experience. The regular dinning is to the right of the floor and banquet is towards the left. It's great to be able to get both BBQ as well as sushi here but I usually lean towards more for their sushi / sashimi order.
On Sundays they offer lunch/brunch ayce buffet for $29.99 per person which has huge variety of sushi, fish, meat, galbi, etc.
Service is above average and they offer valet service due to limited size of parking lot.
Really big and fancy Korean restaurant off the GWB bridge. Looks like people can have private parties/events here as they have a separate buffet area and party room. Food was okay and it was pretty expensive. Nice decor but service was blah. They definitely used a lot of MSG bc I knocked out after eating.