Seoul Topokki — Restaurant in Boston

Seoul Topokki makes it high on our high taste-per-dollar list. Korean culinary tradition includes doctor’s advice - food is medicine there, by tradition, and there’s a wide assortment of healthy options for the budget-conscious. Most of our fellow diners were school-age, almost entirely Asian. We ordered Bulgogi Topokki, along with a Vergetable Korean pancake. New to us, Topokki refers to mochi-like rice cylinders, about the size of Penne pasta, but solid core, and is the specialty of the house, offered in a variety of combinations. The taste of both dishes, but particularly the beef broth, was off-the-charts great. My only complaint is a familiar one, having encountered this often at mid-priced and budget Asian restaurants - the beef consisted of some tender bits, but also beef slices that were so tough they were almost inedible. The shame of it is, this is easily prevented by slow-cooking the beef for at least a few hours, but apparently Topokki (and many other places) either aren’t on to this culinary technique, or don’t choose to invest the preparation time to get a really exceptional dish. I took my leftover beef and broth home, and slow-cooked the leftover beef, holding the broth on the side, along with some store-bought marked-down trimmed beef rib bones, cheap because it’s ostensibly for soup, with the desirable beef rib meat cut off. Cooked for 3 hours with onions at 250º, it became exceedingly tender, and with the Topokki broth added back along with some vegetables, it was extremely delicious and satisfying. The place is very comfortable and welcoming, and the staff is great. The picnic-style tables have nice rounded edges, and the chairs are wide, and the restrooms clean. We will defintitely be going back - but not for the beef, next time. We hope to hear back that they’ve decided to pre-cook or slow-cook the beef to alleviate the toughness - it’s a trick that works great on even the cheapest cuts of beef. It’d also be nice to see some capsaicin sauce on the table - we didn’t see it and it...

For anyone who doesn’t know what Topokki is, it translates to stir fried rice cakes. For me, when a restaurant names themselves after a food item, you best believe it mandatory for me to try that specific dish. In other words, if you’re the type to get lobster rolls at McDonalds or cheeseburgers at Papa Ginos, I wouldn’t read on :p

Restaurant Type: Casual Dining. My short summary sentence: Bring out the selfie sticks and your best victory poses.

Food (65%) Taste to price 4/5 Quality to price 4/5 Portion to price 4/5 Average = 4

Service (20%) Friendliness 4/5 Promptness 4/5 Average = 4

Cleanliness (15%) Bathroom n/a Dining area 4/5 Kitchen area 4/5 Average = 4

Overall Score = [F(.65)]+[S(.20)]+C(.15)] = [2.6]+[0.8]+[0.6] = 4

What else to know: This place is cute, like Korean Drama cute. What I mean is walking in I felt like I was on the set of Boys Over Flowers (don’t ask me how I know this). Once seated it only took one glance for me to realize this was a dating spot as couples surrounded my lonesome table. Was it awkward? “It’s only awkward if you make it awkward” was what someone told me and that became my mantra for the next 45 minutes. When the waitress arrived I proceeded to order their popular dish, the Cheese Topokki. It was simply delicious. The mozarella cheese was the perfect complement to the rice cakes and other ingredients underneath it, just clean and creamy. To my fellow non-Koreans, I would describe it like a lasagna with Korean flavorings (duh). They also have other dishes to eat with it such as the kimbap, rice...

As someone who's Korean and grew up in an area with tons of authentic Korean eateries, this place is probably the best I can get in Boston. We got the steamed dumplings, tuna mayo gimbap, budae jjigae, and my friend got a stone bowl bibimbap. The dumplings were decent, although they taste exactly like the freezer dumplings from HMart. Tuna mayo gimbap was pretty good, but I wasn't a big fan of the budae jjigae. Barely any rice cakes or veggies and was pretty much all ramen noodle, sausage, and Spam. For consisting mostly of those cheap processed ingredients, with a fairly small portion size, I was displeased that it cost a whole 16 dollars. I've had some delicious budae jjigae for half the price. The bibimbap was also 16 dollars, quite expensive for a dish that's just rice, vegetables, meat, and egg. Our dishes also weren't that clean, as our bowls still had a bunch of small food particles stuck to the inside. I also had their tteokbokki and soondae (Korean sausage) a few months ago. Tteokbokki is pretty good but I hated the soondae. Overall, the food is decent, just very overpriced from someone who's grown up on Korean food and knows that most of it is fairly inexpensive to make and sell; however, I understand that Boston is very expensive and it's harder to get good Korean ingredients for the price they're meant to be. The staff was nice at least, and the seating space is clean and decent. It's probably some of the better Korean food you can...