Yulee K.

This place was surprisingly good! We got their samgyeopsal, galbi, and kimchijjigae. Each dish was delicious and had the perfect Korean flavor. Their mocktails were also delicious! Make sure to also get their dessert. It comes with yakgwa and fruit. Every dish was perfectly curated to embrace Korean culture and was beautifully presented. Our server was also amazing! She was super nice and accommodating. I highly recommend if you are looking for an upscale Korean restaurant in the DC area!

Hannah R.

New neighborhood staple! We've been twice now- once for a happy hour at the bar and a restaurant week lunch. Both times were great! The bartender was knowledgeable and helped choose beverages. The happy hour menu is a great deal and we chose essentially every food item. Lunch was great as well! They were slammed and still were efficient with taking our order, service and checking in on us. Overall a great place and I hope to return soon for dinner!

Victoria S.

Wonderful dinner and zen-like experience. Walking down into the elegant dining room we felt a sense of quiet and peace. Staff was welcoming and attentive. Several menus were offered and explained to us. One was a prix fix multi course meal. Another is comprised of la carte items. Last was a happy hour menu with promotions and tapas sized plates. We decided to order items from both the regular and happy hour menu. Each course came out as it was ready and paced perfectly. We also got a tray of banchan (bean sprouts, watercress and fernbrake). From the happy hour menu we ordered seafood pancake, Mandu, japchae and 2 orders of kimbap. From the regular menu we got kimchi jigae. Everything was delicious and impeccably presented. The mandu was crisp and piping hot, with generous filling. The seafood pancake had plump pieces of squid and shrimp with scallion in a light fritter. The kimbap was perfectly rolled and had vegetables and beef with hints of sesame oil. The kimchi jigae came to the table simmering with a side of white rice. The stew was rich and spicy, with pork rib meat, 2 large slabs of tofu and a plethora of nappa kimchi. The japchae also had soy and sesame oil hints in the tender glass noodles, mixed with crisp veggies. Service was accommodating without being intrusive. The owner came to every table to chat with the patrons. Such a great dining experience!

Steven D.

Food is delicious, service was comprible to the busyness of the restaurant. The music was too loud, but you can definitely hear yourself echo throughout the restaurant due to the small interior. There are two parts of the restaurant with a set of doors. Patio and then the main dining area with two rooms for private bookings.

Christina Y.

I so badly wanted to love this place especially as there aren't very many Korean restaurants in the area. Don't get me wrong. The overall experience was great- from stellar service staff explaining the food options to my coworkers and the pretty big selection of entrees. There were many choices for vegetarians as well. For restaurant week, I ordered the mackerel and kimchi jjigae which were both delicious. However, I wish there were more side dishes, and my coworkers' galbi was on the chewy side. I was not at all impressed by the dessert that was included in the restaurant week menu as I could've easily bought by them at hmart. And it was too unique to my friends' liking. Worth coming back to try another dessert next time I'm in the area.

Solid Korean food in a pretty setting. Great lunch set too - good variety of options and very tasty. Solid service too. Going to buy a gift card for a gift too. So good!

Stacey L.

This review is specifically for our time at Onggi for Valentine's Day + my husband's experience as someone who has celiac (gluten free) GF. We also do not drink. Please note the tasting menu has cocktail pairings and that is not included in my review. We did order mocktails which we loved! NA Drinks/Mocktails: we ordered Noran and the Baek! Loved how light and flavorful our drinks were. Great choices with our food. Food: we ordered the Valentine's Day tasting menu! One of our servers was very knowledgeable on what my husband could and could not eat on the menu which we appreciated. When we visited their website prior to reservation's we were pleasantly surprised at how they advertised that most of the menu can be accommodated gluten free! First course: THE ONLY ITEM (shrimp jeon) that had to be accommodated GF because everything else was already GF! (-: We loved all of this and the kimchi was very good. The shrimp was cooked perfectly and the sauce with it was delicious. Second course: I got the minari seafood ceviche and my husband got the beef vegetable rolls so we could try both! Loved the ceviche and it was very refreshing! The beef rolls were kind of underwhelming. Maybe a little more umami would make it stand out more. Third course: bossam was great! Initially tried it without kimchi and had a weird bitter aftertaste but once you eat the bossam alongside the kimchi in one bite, it 100% makes a difference! Fourth course: husband chose grilled lamb chops and I did the seafood so we could again share our meals. We loved the lamb chops entree! Cooked perfectly medium rare and so tender. The sauce paired with it mixed into the mashed potatoes was delicious. I enjoyed my entree and the shrimp/fish was fine, nothing about it stood out to me personally. Definitely prefer the lamb chops entree. Dessert: strawberry red bean mochi and makgeolli chocolate was wonderful! There were these house made rice puffs surrounding the chocolate that I thought would be crispy. It was unfortunately not and felt a bit stale. Not sure if this was intentional but everything else about this dessert was rich and decadent! Now let's get to the ambiance/service/presentation: The establishment here is in a great location here in DuPont Circle. Atmosphere is very cozy and casual. Great place for date nights but also a place you can catchup with a friend/family! I will say because we went during the evening (not Onggi's fault at all), the bright LED lights from Capital Donner across the street was insanely blinding. So if you face towards that direction with a window view, be forewarned! Bathrooms are in the back behind the host stand when you make a left! In the women's bathroom there are two stalls. Very clean! Husband said it was very clean for the men's as well. There is a coat rack back there if you need to hang any of your heavy outer garments. Food was great but was disappointed at the service tonight. We made a reservation for 7:15 PM and arrived early. It was starting to get busy and our table was rushed to be cleaned. We were seated immediately and had the Valentine's Day tasting menu on our table + regular menu/drinks. When we booked the reservation we expected that we could try other items on the menu (we wanted to try the regular tasting menu) however we overheard from a couple next to us where the server mentioned only the Valentine's Day tasting menu was available. Would be nice if that was advertised on social media for future holidays/events or specify that more during reservations online. I like to observe my surroundings especially during dinner at a new spot for date night and noticed it felt understaffed. Everyone we've interacted with is absolutely wonderful by the way. Giving them the benefit of the doubt that it was just not their best night. We felt like they were running all over the place given it is a Valentine's Day after all. It took a long time for us to get a bottle of water for our table. I noticed all the other tables had a bottle of water except ours and we hoped a waiter would notice that without us asking but I had to reach out to someone. The couple next to us also did the same thing. During dinner it did feel weird we had to put our utensils on the bare table without anything underneath them. This does not feel very sanitary. Would be better if they had one of those chopstick holders/something for our utensils to rest on after our plates are taken away. This is a bit more nitpicky for me but when we had our bossam I noticed after eating that there were a lot of scratch marks shown on the plate. I personally would not want to see that on display especially if you're trying to present a nice meal. Maybe as a suggestion replace those plates with something more scratch resistant? Overall we actually had a great time! We definitely want to come back again to try other items on the menu and hopefully staff is a bit more attentive next time. Thank you Onggi!

Alice P.

The food was delicious! Went by yesterday with my friend who got the "experience Korea" pre-fixed HanJeongSik menu, and I ordered a la carte. All the food was delicious - even the abalone, which I usually do not like, but they season and cut it up well. Pros: If you're ordering from the "explore Korea" a la carte menu, I highly recommend the samgyeobsal. It's tender and the meat melts in your mouth, and the plum sauce is delicious. I also quite liked the dak galbi (spicy chicken with rice cakes). If you love pickles and/or kimchi, then I also recommend the jangajji. Speaking of which - I noticed they spelled it wrong on the menu. They have it as 짱이지 ("jjangaji" - but then they misspelled that too and put "jjangajji"), and it's supposed to be 장아찌 - or "jangajji." It's subtle but it's the difference between "pickled vegetables" and nonsensical words lol. The kimchi they use throughout their dishes is perfectly fermented and tasty. The vibe is cute inside, with subtle Korean-Asian touches in decor. Seating is a little too close to each other for my taste but it's fine if you don't have anything salacious to talk about lol. Some of the tables have a "booth" side where the seat is a bench made up of Himalayan salt blocks, and it's heated. There's a seat cushion you can use as a barrier as well. Cons: service was incredibly slow. For a 6-course menu (technically 7 because we got the add-on), it should not take 2+ hours, and at some point I feel like our server simply forgot about my a la carte dishes. The pacing was all off. We spent SO much time just waiting for our food. Our reservation was at 7:45pm and we didn't leave until about 10:10pm. At least some check-ins or a heads up about cook times would be appreciated. Waters were also rarely filled as our server almost never came by unless it was to deliver dishes. Not sure why they don't just leave the carafes at the table, as the cups are pretty small. I would definitely come back here but perhaps will try at a less busy time, and/or hope we get a different server.

Kylie D.

I came here with my partner for an early dinner on Saturday. We had a reservation but arrived a couple hours earlier, and they still seated us right away. Our server was very friendly and knowledgeable about the menu. We ordered a couple dishes a la carte (kimchi jjigae and godungeo) and both were very delicious. For the portion size, the prices are quite expensive. You are paying for the good service and upscale interior. They even had heated seating against the wall. If you can afford it, this place is well worth it!

Steven F.

What a lovely experience. I started with the, Not Another Lychee Martini. It was amazing. Not sweet, not harsh. Then I opted for the 4 course meal. Excellent choice! Couldn't regurgitate what everything is, they tell you about it when they serve. Literally everything was amazing, but highlights were the squash soup, pancake, ribs, and black sesame ice cream. Lovely space, perfect staff. Couldn't be more pleased.

Nikky L.

A one-of-a-kind Korean restaurant in the states! I've eaten Korean food since I was a kid, and most Korean spots fall into one of two categories: Korean barbecue or Korean mom-and-pop. Both have their pros and cons, but this spot is just a little different. It's a bit more high-end without being too ostentatious and the chef makes most of his stuff by scratch (even the gochugang!). I stalked the restaurant's opening and dug in a bit on the owners. The owners in Korea are known for slightly pricier, private room course meals, suitable for workplace networking. And the food is known for being delicious and healthy! It's not as expensive as a super fancy schmancy spot, but it's not necessarily cheap either. However, the price and portion of the food is very good considering the taste and decor. The decor is really nice for a work lunch or dinner, a romantic date spot, a friend gathering, or to eat by yourself (cough cough, me). Have I been coming here a little often for my wallet. Perhaps. Anyways, if you're hungry, get the meal courses. Lots of vegetables and meat (they even have more vegan options too!). Highlights: tender galbi, fried chicken wings, jeon (fried items from vegetables to fish), bibim gooksoo (slightly spicy but refreshing!), and the bibimbap (nutritious, crunchy, fresh!). And their bibimbap's quality significantly outshines their competitors since everything is done in-house. Not another lychee martini is the best cocktail and the flower tea and the black bean tea are elite (flower for #1!). They're in the soft opening stage until April 01, when they officially open. Try to get in now, because I have a feeling they will be very popular soon! Also, shoutout to Chef Kim and his wife along with Colin for the welcoming service and comforting food!

Ken S.

KenScale: 7.0/10 Visits: July 2025 Throughout our culinary journey together, my wife Jun and I have often found that reviewing a Korean restaurant is arguably the toughest task. Having grown up in Korea, we have certain expectations on what a Korean cuisine should be, and if a Korean restaurant doesn't meet those expectations, our review tends to be harsher than other non-Korean restaurants. Is that fair? Perhaps not, especially if a restaurant has gotten a lot of love from non-Korean diners. But if a restaurant's food has departed significantly from what we know to be the standard, we didn't think it is inappropriate to call that out. We had the same quandary when visiting Onggi, which a new Korean restaurant that opened in Dupont Circle. There are two ways to dine at Onggi, a la carte options and a 6-course Hanjeongsik tasting menu (at $145 per person for the regular menu and $125 per person for the vegan menu on our visit). We opted for the latter regular tasting menu to get a full sense of the restaurant's offerings inspired by royal course cuisine of Korea. The tasting menu started with a playful plate of sweet snacks such as dried gingers and persimmons, followed by the first course in which we both enjoyed the kabocha porridge and white pear kimchi. Goojeolpan, which consists of a number of ingredients you can wrap in mini-sized pancakes, is one of the standout Korean dishes; the version at Onggi wasn't bad but I found myself missing the delicious plate that my mother prepared for us on our previous visit to Korea. Things started to go downhill from there. I found the seasoning on abalone and scallop to be overly salty (although Jun's was just fine in seasoning), and japchae, the beloved stir-fried glass noodles dish, was a disaster, too oily without the chewy texture of the noodles. I whispered to Jun that her mother, who is an expert in japchae, would've been really upset with this dish. My biggest disappointment was from the last savory dish. Tteokgalbi, a popular minced beef short rib patty, was completely off in texture (imagine a burger patty that requires a lot of efforts to chew and doesn't quite melt in your mouth) and the aggressive seasoning completely overwhelmed the meat anyways. By the time the dessert of persimmon ice cream and seasonal fruit (nothing special here, either) arrived, my mood was fairly sour. Getting a reservation at Onggi doesn't look challenging and the sleek and modern dining space had a decent number of diners (mostly curious non-Korean) but not quite packed either. There is a full bar with some cocktails using traditional Korean ingredients as well as a concise wine list. On our way home from the restaurant, Jun asked again whether we are being too harsh in judging Onggi's mediocre dishes. I pondered her question for a few days but ultimately concluded that diners would know when a dish is objectively not very good with or without extensive experience with that country's cuisine. DC doesn't have as many great Korean restaurants at the moment (it doesn't help that we didn't have a great experience, either, at Anju in the city that many diners seem to like), so our experience at Onggi cemented my view that I will just indulge on Jun's masterful Korean cooking at home for the time being while we live here.

Gloria M.

Great food and service! I caught the happy hour 2-5pm on a Sunday afternoon for a few bites and a cocktail. The dishes I tried were delicious and I would recommend ordering multiple of each if sharing. The restaurant was modern and clean, definitely a good atmosphere. Looking forward to returning for the full menu!