shin chon garden

howard county does koreanfoodbetter than anywhere except annandale. you get flavors. you get meat and vegetables. so don't pass it by.

i know that the alphabet and thefoodlook different. i know friends who love food, yet haven't been to shin chon garden. but korean seems perfect for someone who reads afoodblog. on the one hand, it's so close to "traditional" americanfood-- meat, vegetables, pickles, and a touch of some things unusual. on the other, they're mixed in new ways that will surprise and delight you.

i am giving it 3 stars coz they messed up in a few things. we ordered chicken and shrimp bbq. and both of them were marinated or covered with the exact same marinade, and plus the wait-staff could be more attentive in places like this where you are cooking the meat on the table. the staff know more about when to stop the cooking, and how long to cook it. we turned off the stove ourselves, and we were a little late in doing so, due to which our shrimp was a little over cooked as well. a good variety of side dishes, with the bbq and all of them were pretty good, i will admit. overall a good experience, if you want a close authentic korean bbq. but i still think you should have variations in the marinade, for different kinds of meat on the bbq.
on our second visit, which was an office party with over 25+ people. the service was not bad, but thefoodwas not good. then banchan was good but the duck for our grill was very fatty and not in a good way. was very chewey. the octopus for grilling was also over cooked and rubbery. & we didn't grill those things the wait staff was doing it for us. especially the duck & octopus was grilled at a different table and brought for us.

honey pig is better.. i went there today. the service is very friendly and respect with us. thefoodis pretty good and a bit more flavor steak and pork than honey pig. i like honey pig have more choice for foods. shin chon garden have a lot of asian people than honey pig. honey pig is more mixture of races. but.... honey pig open 24 hrs and that's so awesome! ;d

4 stars. you have to eat their bbq if you are in the area :) ive been this place more than 3 time i think and i absolutely loved their bbq. tastes amazing. lots of freebees before the mainfoodtoo. however minus one star for their service. waitrees are friendly and all but they do not come to check on us often unless we call them.

good food, hopefully that's enough. i love korean barbecue, though i'll be the first to admit that i don't understand it. i'm sure that i'm doing it wrong, but i don't care. i've been to shin chon several times, and almost always we're the only non koreans, which has to be a good sign. i've read reviews that say the servers speak excellent english, but that hasn't been my experience at all. any questions about how to prepare or eat thefoodare met with a shrug, and good luck flagging someone down if you want more water or something else. but thefoodis excellent and if you order barbecue you'll get plenty of it. note to vegetarians: other asian cuisines have much more to offer you than koreanfooddoes. note to solo diners: barbecue is best enjoyed by more than one person.

oh, and be carefull in this small, always packed parking lot: people drive like maniacs. also, as others have said, there is an excellent vietnamese bakery next door. save room.

update: ate here with four friends this evening (1/22/13) and we had excellent service from both the servers and the woman who i think is the owner. a couple of them spoke excellent english and explained to the folks who'd never had korean barbecue (three out of the five of us) how it worked. excellentfoodand pretty good sake for $32 a person, which included a generous tip. panchan was refilled often, water glasses even more so, and no one cared that we camped out talking for an hour after the meal.