Meokja Meokja - Korean BBQ

My personal favorite K-BBQ place in the area. Their combo menus are great. My family usually does a-la-carte unmarinated galbi though. All meat comes with doenjang jjigae, egg bomb, and corn cheese. I love that all side dishes are simple but necessary to enjoy with meat: sliced scallion, pickled raddish, sliced lettuce, kimchi, etc. In my opinion, this restaurant has the best cold buckwheat noodles in the area. Personal tip from native Korean - you pick up a piece of meat and wrap it around with cold buckwheat noodle. They go so well together. All servers are very well trained, well mannered, and quick with service. Food comes out pretty fast too. Price is definitely on the reasonable side considering this is k-bbq place. Atmosphere is dark and loud but it looks like Korean pocha or club. I love it though. Must try for k-bbq in the area, if you can get a seat. You usually have to be there by 5pm and start putting your name on the waitlist to eat at 6pm. You can make reservations but you still have to get there and wait. There’s no point unless you reserve a private room inside.

Pretty good offerings for Korean BBQ. Affordable and quality meat do not normally go hand in hand. It does in this case. Despite the high volume of patrons during thanksgiving, our server made sure we were taken care of. We had the meokja special of pork belly, brisket, and strip. We also had two orders of beef bulgogi. All tasted great.

Literally you cannot get a table if you walk in. The front desk will lie to you it’s an hour or 1.5 hour wait but then you’ll end up waiting like 2. I even asked how confident the front desk was for our wait time cus I didn’t mind going somewhere else and she just said we would get a table soon and should probably wait. We didn’t even get a chance to eat because they were being very inconsistent with how much time we have and even towards the end couldn’t figure out how to get us a table. Maybe have time limits for your table and allow people to make reservations at any time of the day not just after 5pm. Also, have 70% of your tables for reservation and 30% for walk ins that way you can control wait times and can have some sort of system to show what # you are in a queue.

We traveled 3 hours to come to town for my husband birthday and I chose Meokja for the high reviews. They did not disappoint. We had the wok seared spicy pork, shaved brisket and bulgogi ribeye. Not a piece of meat was left and we even ordered some to go! There are 3 picky kids in our party and they couldn’t stop saying how great everything tasted. Can’t wait until we are in town again!

Extremely great value for money! Staff is super fast and attentive and the corn cheese is amazing. I see some reviews complaining that others were sat before them but that’s because the people who look like they just "walked in and were sat immediately" had actually waited for over an hour elsewhere (which was the case for myself). Highly recommend making a reservation.

The flavor of the meat in this restaurant is so delicious! We enjoyed the cheese corn and the angry egg which comes free with your order as well as all the wonderful Kim chi, radish, mashed potatoes, salad, onions, and dipping sauces made from soy sauces and sesame seeds. It is a small place, but the meats are fresh and tender. We had the bulgogi, galbi, and pork ribs and they were all delicious. Our favorite meat is the marinated rib tips. It has the best flavor when grilled. This restaurant is the best Korean barbecue in Northern Virginia. We like it better than all the other Korean BBQ places because the marinade is excellent and the place is smaller than most places , but service is good. They prefer to grill everything for you. We will definitely come back and refer others. They do not take reservations. You need to come get on the waitlist and wait...most of the time it's over an hour long. They will call you when your table is close to being ready.

This place is OUT OF THIS WORLD!! Our experience was actually 12/10. First time having Korean BBQ and we decided to venture out and try Meokja Meokja because TikTok said it was one of the best places in the DMV. BOY WERE THEY CORRECT! Our server was Noah, not only was he kind and friendly, he was so helpful explaining the whole experience down to flavor combinations and even taste preferences. Truly an amazing experience. Service was great, food was great. We will 100% be returning!!