Ilsong Garden

CLOSED ON TUESDAY Very nice place for authentic Korean food! A friend of mine was stationed in Korea for a few years, and he said this is the closest he’s found to the real thing. The food was delicious, the service was great, and the restaurant was very clean. Perfect spot for anyone craving genuine Korean flavors!

Hard to enjoy your food when you look up and see what looks like mold looming above you in the vents, the water damage and paint peeling, nothing wrong with the server, I cannot complain about him Seafood pancake was greasy and unseasoned, while also having a floury starchy texture on the inside. Beef Bulgogi, was bland, and was hot for about 3 minutes after it came to the table Soon Du Bu (seafood soybean soup) was right along the lines of an instant ramen Glass of Water (not pictured) had particulates at the bottom of the glass. Hope I don’t get sick after spending a grand total of $62.23 for two entrees an app, and a Dr.Pepper

Visited Ilsong Garden a few weeks ago to have some Kimchi Jjigae and tea. The restaurant felt old school Korean and homely. The banchan was on an open bar and delicious. I especially enjoyed the fishcake, cucumber kimchi and the potato banchan. Staff was calm and efficient. Overall I enjoyed the meal a lot. Thank you

love their banchan, bulgogi, and fantastic shrimp! they are open late which is great, too.

I’m Korean and this is the best Korean restaurant I’ve ever been in San Antonio. I had cod fish soup and I felt like i’m in my hometown. My husband ordered spicy bulgogi and it was sooo good too. It was so authentic and spicy enough as well. I highly recommend to try some bulgogi and cod fish soup! If you are Korean, you will absolutely love the food here! I love the unlimited banchan too<3

Husband and I had the AYCE KBBQ dinner on a Saturday night, they’re open until 1:30am! AYCE includes appetizers, we ordered the fried dumplings, seafood pancake and spicy rice cakes. All the appetizers were served hot and tasted fresh! Best tteokbokki I’ve ever had! First time my husband has ever had tteokbokki and he liked it a lot! The fried dumplings were crispy and super flavorful! The seafood pancake had plenty of seafood inside and on top with a nice crispy bottom! They also have a self serve banchan station included with the meal. For our meats, we ordered the beef ribeye, beef bulgogi, la kalbi and spicy pork bulgogi. All the meats were well seasoned with generous portions! Our server was attentive and made sure we enjoyed our meal. We enjoyed our dinner and left full and happy. We will definitely be back soon!

We dined in for lunch here on Sunday. We ordered the Yaki Mandu appetizer, an entree of Beef (D8) which was marinated open-flamed ribeye steak with rice and ban chan, and an entree of Pork (D8) which was center-cut pork loin marinated in a hot sauce and served with rice and ban chan. This dish was spicy. All of the food was excellent, freshly made and well seasoned and the portions are enough for two people to share but it’s so good that I’d recommend that you get your own! We also ordered the fresh homemade lemonade and unsweetened ice tea. This place is clean and well kept. Great customer service and quick service. We were seated immediately when we arrived. We will definitely return here again and would highly recommend that you dine here.

Very tasty Korean food. Place was nice with big screen TVs. I noticed several parishioners were Korean. We ordered and food came out in short time. They have extras if you want to add like kimchi for free. Everything was super delicious. Only one minor problem, my tea was never refreshed, other than that everything was great.

Disappointed. Our family (7) went to eat dinner tonight. We LOVE Korean food and eat at Korean places all over town. We've been to Ilsong previously and food has always been good. Tonight 1/2 of us order beef bulgogi, the other 1/2 chicken katsu. Food was great. No complaints there. However that's the end of the great part. Service was awful. The waiter/host took forever to take drink orders, refills. Brought 1/2 the food orders out and 15 mins went by before the other 1/2 got their food. I ask the waiter- where is the pan Chan dishes? (If you eat Korean food you know most meals come with sides) He replies - oh there's a buffet up there, you go get it yourself (he never told us this we had to ask, and where he sat us we never saw it- there was a partition wall up) Then comes the bill. $30 "service charge" but then a space for a tip. So I ask the waiter "is the service fee the tip?" He says no. It's the fee for the restaurant. If you want to tip me, that's extra. So I ask again for him to explain again what the $30 covers. He could not. Facepalm. We gave him extra $ (even though he was not great at all) we will not be back If you are going to charge a service fee - you should be able to explain it.

The food is tasty! Generous serving! The service is fast but not much words are spoken by owners or the waiter who is always there! They are all very quiet lol There's no warm welcome or anything but the food IS good!

We were having lunch with some of David's siblings and we decided on @ilsong_koreanrestaurant. I was looking forward to the all you can eat ban chan (sides). We ordered several dishes to share: Kalbi Tang soup, Cod soup, 2 Kalbi, Pork Bulgogi, and Japchae. I didn't try the soup but everything else was great. Since there were 7 of us, we had a room to ourselves. Very intimate! If you're in the 410 and Blanco area, you should check them out!

Food is delicious, the kimchi stew and bulgogi are my favorites here but the service is mad strange. Walking in, there's no signage for seat yourself or wait to be seated, it's always got at least a few patrons in there but I find myself hovering out front for minutes each time until a server or busser comes and directs me to a table. You really have to chase them down at every turn, to place your order, to request anything like chopsticks, utensils, or napkins, to get your bill- don't come here if you're in a hurry. Self-serve banchan is pretty good, too. Got to really load up on cucumber kimchi. In the shortest short, great food, iffy service, drop in if you have time to burn.

The food tastes good, we got a lot of appetizers before the meats came out for the AYCE so we're filled on most of these items. The spring rolls were crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Tofo soup was fishy for my taste but my cousin loved it. Spicy rice cakes had the perfect amount of heat and sweet. There were also zucchini bits in there that were really good. I personally wasn't a fan on the bean paste and pork noodles but my cousin was. We also had a potatoe pancake that tasted amazing. We didn't know till later that there was a bar of kimchi and was what not because we weren't informed of this. It was also our first time so when we were seated I tho k it might've been helpful to mention that. Service was okay we had to keep looking for our waiter then getting his attention as he had an AirPod in one ear. The ambiance was quite there wasn't too many people there, definitely family owned, a nice place to try.

Ilsong garden was a good overall experience. My husband is Korean and we're always searching for new Korean restaurants to try. Ilsong was not busy at all when we arrived. Service was good and prompt. However, our server didn't tell us we had to serve our own banchan. We realized it towards the end of our meal. We shared Kalbi ribs and spicy pork. Both were very tasty. The banchan (options) were ok. Overall good experience. Ambiance was very chill, with kpop music videos playing on the tvs.

I would say for the most part the food was tasty. The Kalbi was kinda skimpy for the price, there were a couple pieces of just bone no meat attached. The panchan was served yourself but not much of a variety. The spicy pork bulgogi was kinda sweet but it was good just not what I'm use to. I'd probably choose a different Korean restaurant over this one. The service was limited but very polite. The inside decor was nice though.

I truly love this restaurant. I have been several times till the point I became friends with the owner. She is super kind and super friendly. I have never had any issues with the food. I even have tried their all you can eat bbq. They have the banchan out for you to serve yourself. The restaurant is spacious. They even have private rooms which one time the owner gave it to me and my friend during Covid times I will keep on returning to this restaurant

As an Asian American, I have been desperate trying to find a suitable, well priced Korean place since moving to the San Antonio area. I came across this place as it is conveniently located near my new worksite. I ordered the lunch portion of the beef bulgogi and now I'm in love. The meat and sides were generously portioned, tender, and not over done. Service and ambiance of the restaurant were also 10/10 for me. Since I had a great experience I ended up ordering the dinner portion for my significant other after the end of my shift. I will be returning here again.

Some of the best food we have had! Love the Korean BBQ, favorite was Beef Kalbi as well as the Kimbob roll and Shrimp pancake are some of my all time favorites! The kimchi is perfect % recommend trying this! The service was wonderful, super friendly and helpful! The restaurant is super cute love the Korean pop stair singer on TV and informative shows on others. They have large table as well for bigger parties. Can't wait to let the family come

I stopped by Ilsong Garden for some Korean food yesterday. I feel bad that I was the only one eating there, so I wanted to share a review. (albeit was like 5pm) I know we have a lot of AYCE Korean places nowadays but this place is still good and authentic. The sides/banchan is self-serve, so that's basically AYCE. I love the sweet potatoes! In case you don't know what to order, I recommend the pork belly for two and the spicy rice cakes (tteokbokki). Pork belly for 2 is a very generous portion and it's basically KBBQ but you don't have to grill it yourself. Try it as a wrap with the lettuce, a bit of soybean paste and dip it in the sesame oil. Delish! I love the chewy texture of rice cakes. Their spicy sauce is great. Not too spicy and a nice balance of sweetness. I wish their rice cakes weren't so thick because it's a bit filling, but still good. Next door is also a boba shop, if you want to bring in a special drink. Didn't seem like the owners minded. They were also streaming the Olympics if you're into that! I hope more of you give them a try, because they were one of the first Korean restaurants here in SA.

First time visiting here for lunch on a weekday, and it was amazing!! The portion sizes are SO huge, I could barely finish half of my bibimbap. They did not skimp on the protein either. The vegetables were so fresh and plenty. Love the self-serve station of sides! lots of variety and I like how customers can choose how much of each side they want. The inside is very clean, and most tables have a bbq station in the middle for those who want to opt in for the AYCE option. parking is pretty easy too!

The last time I came here was 2018. The restaurant started advertising late night KBBQ and all you can eat options this year so I those I would check it out. SA has a lot more Korean options than it used too which can be a good or bad thing. The oversaturating of the genre makes it hard to weed through the options. I eat Korean food regularly because either I cook it or eat at a Korean restaurant so I have a reasonable idea of what it's supposed to be like. Now onto my review. We stopped by on a Sunday afternoon and there were a few occupied tables when we walked it. We were quickly greeted and seated by the very friendly gentleman waiter. The staff was attentive the whole timenwe were there. The restaurant was clean and the noise level was normal with a KPOP show playing in the background. We ordered our beverages and started looking through the regular menu and All you can eat menu. It was just the two of us so I was actually planning on just ordering a specific entree instead of the full AYCE. However my friend wanted to try it. The AYCE options are limited to about 10 items, which is okay but can negatively because of the other AYCE options in town. The price was about $38 per person. Our food arrived very fast and they have a banchan bar set up so you can get your own side dishes. I thought this was a great idea because in my opinion no restaurant gives me enough kimchi and I always have to ask for more. They only had a few options up there though and I am not sure how often they change up which banchan to put out there. The food was tasty and marinated well. They do not have any spicy options which was a bummer. The dumplings and spring rolls we ordered were mediocre and nothing to write home about. Overall the meal wasn't bad but it definitely isn't the best that SA has to offer. It really is a middle of the road KBBQ option for me. Nothing stood out to me specifically to make this my go to spot. The late night operating hours could be a draw but in all honesty I am not if I would come for that when I can just grab a taco somewhere.

Needed a place to eat late night and found this gem! All of the food was 10/10. Customer service was fantastic - they were so patient explaining what some of the foods were! Ordered the kimbap, rice cakes, and soon du bu (spicy seafood, tofu soup) to go. Also included free banchan. Spicy rice cakes 10/10 - On the sweeter side and not too spicy. The tteobokki was the right consistency - chewy but still soft. The sauce is on the runnier side. Kimbop 10/10 - Perfect amount of sesame oil - very faint but still there! The rice is fresh. Each kimbop piece had the right filling ratio. Soon du bu 10/10 - They don't skimp on the fillings for this! The broth was very rich and mildly spicy. Would be so good to warm up on chilly days. I don't eat banchan much so I can't comment. Packaging 10/10 - I was worried the rice cakes would spill but they packed it in a bag already - so smart.

Quite yummy. Great service and the choices of sides plentiful. Lunch time provides a menu with all the flavor, but a more economic centric price point. Give it a try and thank me later

Not the best Korean BBQ, but daughter and I had a fun time here. Its $100 "dinner". So let's begin with.... The dinner menu starts at 1:30pm thats (1300 hrs). So the prices jump up $10 per person for the dinner fees of the bbq. Not sure if Korea has dinner at 1:30 in the pm but this restaurant does. So then they bring you mountains of meats thats not the freshest and tastes of refrigerator. We only ordered three meats and couldn't finish it all to try more. The dumplings were badass! But i should have taken notice how dead it was at 1:30pm dinner time on a Saturday.

Very happy to recommend Ilsong Garden. Clean, neat, K Pop on the screens but not too loud. staff is super friendly. we ordered two lunch specials - bulgogi, and a pot of jasmine tea. Always consistently good! The Ban Chan bar lets you pick your favorites to go with your special. We can't wait to come back again!

This Korean restaurant is delicious. They have a kimchi bar. The meat is well marinated, tasty and tender. The bbq grill it's a good experience with friends, laughing, cooking and eating. The owner and servers are helpful, smilling and answering your questions.

I was in the area for an interview and was craving Korean food. decided to order from here and wasn't disappointed. It definitely fulfilled my Korean food craving!

The food is excellent and flavorful. It's served hot without a long wait from the kitchen. The service was excellent as well from the moment I came in until I paid the bill. It was a little more crowded than I expected on a Christmas night, but it was still a good atmosphere. I didn't see "Chinese turkey" on the menu, though. (Reference the movie, A Christmas Story'.) I'll be back!

Today, I was over at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens taking pictures of flowers, bees, and butterflies. Since it is pretty far from my house, I decided to stop somewhere on the way home for lunch. I did a search for Korean food and saw Il Song Garden listed. To me that was like a sign. I would drive from one garden to another and enjoy some delicious Korean food. Now before I go any further, it is time for my usual disclaimer. I am not Korean. I have never been to Korea. I'm just an old fat man who enjoys watching Korean television series on Netflix, and gets really hungry watching the characters pigging out on what looks like amazing food. I can not vouch for the authenticity of any Korean Restaurant. Therefore, I can only make comments about how the food tasted to me. I was the only diner in the restaurant at the time I visited. The young man who worked the front led me to a table and asked if I wanted a drink. I ordered an unsweet tea. When he brought it back, he took my order for a squid salad appetizer and seafood Cha Jang Myun. He then explained that I was welcome to go to the little salad bar and get my own side dishes. I was in heaven looking at the side dishes. They had just enough choices to make me happy, and the thought of self-serve (read that as take AS MUCH as you want) kimchi was exciting. I took some fairly hefty portions of spicy pickled radish, korean pickles, fish cake, and kimchi. They are all my favorite sides, and you NEVER get enough in those cute little dishes they usually put in front of you. Let me just say right here that everyone of them was really good. When I got back to the table, the server was there with my squid salad. I had never had it before, but it was nothing like I expected. I was thinking it would be like calamari rings in a spicy asian dressing. No it was not. It was large thick slices of squid mixed with some paper thin veggies and marinated in a delicious spicy sauce. It tasted so good! I truly could have eaten a plate full of it and been happy with my meal. The Cha Jang Myun came in a HUGE white bowl. It smelled absolutely divine! I really thought I smelled chocolate, but I think that was just my imagination. It is made with a thick black bean sauce, and I can not find any reference to chocolate in any recipe or article about it. It certainly doesn't taste like chocolate. But then neither does Mexican mole sauce. Regardless, it was really delicious and satisfying. I made quite a mess slurping it off the chop sticks and was glad I was alone in the dining room! The seafood pieces in it were tasty. I know there were mussels and shrimp. I'm not sure what else. The place itself is really nice. The dining room is very clean and has a warm and cozy feel to it. They have some televisions on the walls. I like the one in front of me that was playing videos like MTV, except that they were Korean songs and clips from the K-dramas they were used on. I recognized a lot of the shows as those I have seen. I can't wait until I get to go back and try some other dishes. My youngest son also likes Korean food and wants me to take him. No problem. I'm ready.

Olson was able to accommodate our party of 16 it was great service overall! They had a variety of different offerings to choose from. I really enjoyed my plate of beef bulgogi. Regarding the sides like kimchi, etc they have it at a self serve bar area that you go and pick your sides which was nice. The place is cute and overall good experience. 4/5 for me because it's not the best but also not bad it's above mid but below smack

Food is pretty good. Limited options for the all you can eat. Cost about the same as K-pot where there's more options. Place closes really late when all other restaurants are closed Service pretty good... attentive Environment is clean... not fancy

Walking in, the restaurant was empty, besides one other couple. We were seated and ordered Bulgogi and Kimchi Jigae. The soup was flavorless and the meat was extremely rubbery and dry. The bulgogi was good, but the price for the portion size was outrageous. $50 for a bowl of soup and small plate of bulgogi. The banchan was also sitting out in a self serve tray, but it looks like it hadn't been touched for hours. The server did not bring banchan or tell us about the station as well. Just not a great experience. There were several dead roaches in the restroom and the room before them. Would not go back

hubbie had tried ilsong garden & wanted to take me. we both enjoy korean bbq & have tried several places around town. we were a bit confused about the grill tables. apparently they are only available for all you can eat. some places let you order portions of meat & let you grill it. deciding we werent hungry enough for AYCE ($38), hubbie ordered hot stone pot bibimbap ($15) and i got the beef bulgogi ($24). we started with steamed yaki mandu ($8)- they also offer it deep fried or pan fried. they were very good, and i enjoyed them steamed as we usually get pan fried. muchim is almost more important to me than the meat! i love the radishes & cucumbers the most, followed by potatoes. i liked that the veggies are served as all you care to eat salad bar style. i like some radish or cucumber with each bite of bulgogi. so it was nice to serve myself. hubbie declared his meal delicious and mine was flavorful & tender. portions were very generous, im pretty sure my leftover bulgogi will feed us both! it was 7:00 on a sunday, so not too many people there, but service was fast & friendly. i did notice lunch specials were available during the week.

Great food- Uber eats/ generous portions - on time delivery / a lot of bit of everything

The food was phenomenal. I am half Korean so I feel I'm a little bit more critical when eating Korean food :) but this place has some flavorful food. I ordered the Galbi and Kimbap. The galbi was very tasty and not too salty. It came in a separate container with raw onions on the bottom. The order also came with a container of rice and side dishes. The Kimbap was also very fresh and delicious and the portion is pretty big. I ordered online and the only reason I gave 4/5 stars because there was a hiccup in seeing the online order and so my card was charged twice for a wrong order. However, the gentleman recognized the issue and fixed it right away. I highly recommend this place if you're looking for authentic Korean food.

Start off by saying this is only about the food as I got it delivered and the food is good. It just doesn't taste like it's supposed to. It's like if I ordered French fries but got really good mashed potatoes. The kalbi isn't as sweet as you'd expect from Korean bbq more like that sauce mixed with black pepper sauce. Sundabu tasted closer to a kimchi jiggae. Seafood pancake was pretty good a little oily but nothing too bad.

Try the Yu Kae Jang! As someone who lifts weights it's so hard to find a place that serves enough protein and this place does not disappoint. It's a huge amount of food with a variety of components that all have so much flavor. I cannot believe there's not a line out the door every day.

ordered ilsong garden for takeout. 3.5 - kimbap: yum, sizable portion (two rolls worth). didn't hold shape very well but well stuffed - kimchi pancake: definitely have had better. thick pancake slices which were nice but the fry on the package was a bit much- quite oily - bibimbap: lots of rice, decent amount of pork meat. very yummy solid location for korean comfort food

Wow! I've been looking for a restaurant just like this to try black bean noodles and I can't believe I found it! The food was fresh, delicious and full of flavor! I can't wait to come back and try more!

The food was adequate. The service was ABYSMAL. The waitstaff here are one of the worst in Bexar County The ambience was good. Prices were appropriate.

The service was fast and the food was delicious! I was seated at the table in front of the window, which I appreciate. There was only a few others dining so it was quiet. I enjoyed my meal with a cup of green tea.

I love this place, but I'll never order delivery from them again, especially not through Yelp. 1. Their delivery fee was posted as $1.50, but they used grubhub that charged me $13 delivery fee, after I gave an $11 tip. 2. The most expensive item of my order, $22, was missing. It's hard to blame delivery when the container was prepared by the restaurant. If they didn't pick grubhub, then they need to post a "buyer beware" note on their menu. Maybe, show the possible charge. Otherwise, it's still on them. I was billed $75 for $40 worth of food, and didn't even get the main course. Bummer.

Go here only if you want authentic Korean food/bbq! Their Beef bulgogi is the BEST in town. Like soooo good! Big portion too. The Chop Chae is too die for! And oh did I mention UNLIMITED side dish?! Unli kimchi, fish cake, sweet pickle, everything! And don't forget to ask for the dried squid. Can't find an amazing place any other than this gem. Highly recommend!

The staff was so welcoming here! Excellent customer service and I fell in love with the Spicy beef soup Yuk Kae Jang! It was amazing! My son loved the Bulgogi

So good! I got the sea food soup and omg I loved it. The dumplings are to yummy as well

AMAZING!!!!! While visiting San Antonio my sisters & I tried this spot really late at night maybe 11pm ish and when we ordered we didn't have any expectations, but when we tried the food... OMG IT WAS SOOOOO GOOD!!!! Everything we had was just amazing and they have the BEST rice cake I have ever had in my life!!! I've never had rice cake as good as theirs!!!! I truly miss this place now that I'm back home in Cali. The vegetable pancakes was AMAZING as well dipping it in the rice cake sauce WHEW AMAZING!!!!

It blows my mind that this place is not constantly packed. They seem to do a lot of takeout. Their prices are very good with large portions for off the menu and AYCE Korean BBQ. They have something for everyone that loves Korean food. Can't wait to go back.

Food is always fresh, tasty, delicious, very filling. Great proportions and side dishes. Love the rice cakes, pork belly, spicy pork, spicy chicken, tonkatsu. Super service, always go back. Restaurant staff and service is so friendly and nice. Welcoming atmosphere.

Went there with my wife. Sake and chicken bulgogi and beef bulgogi, with 7 small vegetable sides (I.e. kimchi, pickled cucumber) waiter was friendly and attentive. Busy, relaxed, families! Highly recommend if you enjoy Korean cusine!

First time ordering delivery from this place and I immediately added it to my favorites. The food is so rich and flavorful and savory and you get a LOT per portion. The price seemed a little high at first, but for the amount you get, it's really not. I *highly* recommend the Beef Kalbi, Kimchi Fried Rice, and Spicy Rice Cakes. Everything we got was delightful (those dishes plus Bi Bim Bap and Veggie Spring Rolls), but those were my personal faves. My partner's faves were the Bi Bim Bap, Beef Kalbi, & Spicy Rice Cakes. Overall, a delight for the senses and the perfect way to fill your belly even later at night.

I ate at Ilson garden last week and ordered the Galbi and Yakimandu. The flavor was great as it is my favorite Korean dish. I felt the portion could have been a bit larger for the price of $29.00, compared to other Korean restaurants. I liked that the sides were at the buffet setup. This way I could get as much kimchee and other sides as I wanted. Plus you choose what you like and food is not wasted. I would return again and recommend it to others. I took a friend whose first time eating Korean, and she loved it. I give it 4 stars.

Been to a lot of Korean places in SA, this one is one of the best. Had the spicy stir-fried squid, a little more sweet than I like but the potion was big which was nice. The self serve banchan bar is amazing. Service was good and the place is very clean.

It's not bad but not amazing either. I haven't had any Korean food in San Antonio, thus I cannot say how this place is compared to the local standard. I had the jap chae with tofu, like I said, it's not bad, but also not mind blowing like some of the Korean places in NYC that I liked. I would come again if I don't have other places to go for Korean food.

Food is very tasty and fresh! Veggies were still crisp and not soft and soggy! Great selection of food items and drinks. Service staff is very attentive and friendly. We love this place! Portions are nice and you will need a to-go box, definitely!

Ilsong Garden is located near the Northstar Mall on Blanco. We stopped by here last night with a craving for Korean food. The portions were good, but I feel the price was a bit high for the quality of food. We had mandu, spring rolls, beef kalbi, and bibimbap. I'm not sure I would stop by again, there are better places that aren't too far away.

Server and host were friendly. Ambiance was nice and quiet. Kpop playing on tv. Ordered hot stone bibimbap and beef bulgogi which were good but not amazing. I've tasted better ones in other restaurants. Soju was not offered there but I was recommended the plum wine. The host said it's very popular with customers. I've never had plum wine before but it basically tasted like water. Maybe a bad glass? Banchan was just okay too. Had the potatoes, cucumber kimchi, spicy radish (not spicy for me) and regular kimchi. Sadly they were out of fish cakes which are my fave. Overall just an okay experience. I would come back if it were a late night, if I were in the area, and if I had a craving for Korean food. On any other day, I'd probably pass.

THIS PLACE IS DELICIOUS!!! The place is clean and pretty. Mouthwatering selections, smallest, and taste. I've been to South Korea and this is just as good. There's plenty of choices for the whole family whether vegetarian or not, even your pickiest eater will enjoy this. Will definitely come back and bring friends!