Shozen & Manpo

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Highly recommend this Korean restaurant! As I have kinda high standard of Korean food, I didnt have any expectation to be honest. But I had delicious food here Galbi combo with tofu stew was great!

They use a ton of MSG in their tofu soups. You will walk out of the restaurant super dehydrated. On top of that, their tofu soups are more expensive than other tofu soup restaurants around the area. You also have to pay a quarter per egg to drop inside your soup. The broth also tastes like water and MSG — think of instant ramen soup.
The service isn’t good either. You have to flag down the server to get you additional sides and also to bring you the check. The server won’t come back to pick up the check until you are impatient.

This is a great place to have a meal! It has some Japanese choices as well as Korean and BBQ. The service was excellent and very friendly staff. It was quiet but yet busy. The food was awesome and very good portions for the price. I will definately ve back to this place. I highly recommend this place and give it a well deserved rating!!!

We just happened to be driving by and decided. To try, very glad we did, turned out to be one of the best secrets in San Diego. I will return the service is amazing and the food is great. The combination says for 2 but enough for a family of 4 with a 16 and 17 year old.

My husband and I have been looking for a place similar to the one we used to go to in Nashville. I think we found our place! We went in, the place was nice, the staff was super friendly and helpful with explaining the menu (spoke English just fine), and to top it off — the food was amazing! We will definitely be going back and recommending this place to our friends and family.

Unfortunately the worst Korean I’ve ever had.
Kalbi– super not authentic marinade
Seafood pancake — way too thick, more green onion than seafood. By far.
Seafood soon dubu– the broth was straight up last minute poured water. Really tasteless.
I was really surprised by my dissatisfaction. Bummers!

The family’s been coming here for a long time now, and for good reason.
The service is always very friendly (but everyone knows us now so that may be a bit biased).
The food is always tasty. I enjoy the bibim negmyun, bibimbap, kalbi and fish entrees. We almost never do the grill-​at-​the-​table option so I can’t speak on that.
The side dishes are continuously replenished (sometimes you have to ask).
Overall it’s a good place to come if you want some solid korean food (Ive never tried their japanese food).

Who gave them the «A» in their window???
They don’t speak a lick of English
The place is dirty
The place smells
They don’t wipe the tables down
They didn’t wash their hands before handling the food
They hand one waitress
The owner went from washing dishes to serving
Gross-​Gross-​Gross!!!

Shozen is the place my family visits for our Korean BBQ fix. Great quality meat, good customer service, and tasty soups and dishes. What’s not to love?! We always order the beef brisket since is thin and light along with the samgyupsal. Deeelicious. They also have yummy dwenjangjjigae (bean paste soup) and nengmyun (cold buckwheat noodles.) The best part of the nengmyun is the piece of pear inside. It’s so refreshing, and a great contrast to the salty and slightly vinegary broth. My family and I will keep coming here for Korean BBQ!

This is just my opinion. But I just can’t see myself coming back here. The waitress was really nice and Kalbi was pretty good but I didnt really like the other stuff

Excellent Korean and Sushi… A + service and friendly atmosphere. Very reasonable prices…

⁵⁄₅ solid stars
Wow, price and quality!!! We were amazed at how much food came to our table and super happy with the final bill!
We ordered the following for a party of 6:
1) Chicken spicy tofu soup: ⁴⁄₅
2) Cold noodles soup: ³⁄₅ I personally don’t like cold noodles, but the folks at the tables who ordered the cold noodles enjoyed it very much
3) Beef Bibimbap: ³⁄₅ eh, a bit too salty and saucy IMHO
4) Combo for 4 (wow.this can def feed 8 girls or 6 guys – so generous in portion): ⁵⁄₅ This is what will brings me back to this restaurant
Very affordable meal! Will def bring friends here!

They got new chair covers which is nice. Good friendly service. Food is good. Great neighborhood place to go to. You can park in back of Denny’s if there are no spots.

Nice lil tucked away Korean/​Sushi spot! They have Korean BBQ available too! I had bibim naengmeon — cold buckwheat noodles with slices of beef and turnip… Omg I don’t think I’ve had this since I was little and my mom prepped it for me with vinegar, hot mustard sauce and hot pepper paste lol. They have roasted garlic on a stick– yum! Hubby had the bento and it was huge! But-​Gogi came out on a sizzling grill and was a bit sliced thin for my taste and I like it to be a little more marinated but it was tasty! Sides were delicious, service was awesome. This is gonna definitely be the place I pig out on old childhood favorite dishes that I don’t usually find at most Korean restaurants. It’s closer than Clairmont/​Kearney Mesa which is pretty much the only spot you can find some of these entrees.

Parking was a bit of a hassle as everything in front of the store was Denny’s employee parking — come on you could only have so many employees!
Food was delicious. Pretty quick service on the korean food. It was kind of interesting to see japanese food and korean food both on the menu. Me and my coworker actually ordered too much food as we each ordered a entrée and also the seafood pancake. We arent huge eaters but we were pretty much full after sharing the small korean side dishes, our entrees and the pancake. It was empty when we went on a Saturday.
Would come again — just wish parking was easier instead of going near the hotel and then walking over.

I’ve been here 2x now and have always walked away FULL! They serve up a generous amount of meat when you order any of the Korean BBQ options. We always have some to take home.
All the sides are delicious and surprisingly enough for everyone at the table despite the small dishes. I love the jalapeño cabbage side and the pickled water chestnuts. The pickled cucumbers are good too. I love the side salads that come with the meal. The dressing is so good and reminds me of the Japanese salads.
Love that you get to cook your own meats on the table grills. One order of the meat is enough for 3 people especially if you also order a shared appetizer. We always tend to order more than we need to. The seafood pancake is HUGE and tasty.

I do love this place! Simple and easy cheap date night. its right off the exit in Mira Mesa. Parking can be hard depending on what time you come but it’s possible. I don’t really recommend the sushi just because I feel like there are a lot of other good places, this place is mainly for the K BBQ. My husband and I do the prime rib. About $ 30 and we get to bond and enjoy each other’s company over a simple dinner.

We’ve been coming here for ages. No matter what other Korean BBQ we try we come back. We had a large party and needed special accommodation. The owners were gracious, friendly and helpful. Great service, great food! The bulgogi, the shrimp, the seafood mix… all delicious.

I wish Unilocal would all half star reviews because Shozen and Manpo is not quite a four, but it’s not a three either.
I came here with a group of three, and we are eaters! We were definitely looking for a Korean BBQ place this night, and the fact that there was sushi as well was a huge bonus. It is a bbq place with grills tableside, which I love, especially since you get to smell your delicious cooking experience until you take a shower.
We ordered the meat service for 2 people which came with two kinds of beef and pork, a sushi combo plate, and a pajun. It was SO MUCH FOOD! There was a fair amount of banchan, and it was decent. The kimchi was okay, it wasn’t great. The pajun was really good. It is one of my favorite things in general, and they do a fine job of it here. The meat… there was so much of it. I don’t know what two people could possibly finish all of that. With your meat, you get a few veggies to grill and you also get a side of kooksu or (I think) jigae. At any rate, it is a FULL bowl, not like the small bowls of miso you get at sushi places. They give you rice as well. Seriously, it was gut busting amounts of food. And it was all good, not great, but good. The sushi was also decent, though I didn’t really eat much of it. Overall, the food was better than average, but can’t compare to oma’s cooking.
The service was fine. Our server came by to help us with our meat several times. Our drinks were refilled. She quickly brought whatever we asked for, and always with a pleasant demeanor.
I would come back here. I might try marinated meats the next time though for a more flavorful meal.

Best place i have ever eating!!!
Cooked my own food and it was delicious!
Customer service was amazing!
If im ever back in town I will definitely be back!
every penny spent was worth it.