LUV DDUK - K FOOD — Restaurant in Cerritos

We ordered the least amount of spice, called Honey. my friend pointed to it and said no spice. I think the waitress either misunderstood and put the next option "little spice", or there is no such thing as no spice because my friend and I, (she's chinese, I'm white) were dying. the only one of us who seemed completely fine was our Mexican friend. All the spice stuff aside, it did have decent flavor but everyone at our table agreed we've had better for a better price. The toppings we got were skimpy. it looks like the cheese was a stick of unshredded string cheese that they tossed on top before cooking. There were 4 of us and only 3 sausages (I was the one that went without a sausage so I can't tell you if they were good or not). We ordered garlic chicken wings, the server said they come garlic or fried. they may have well been both due to the extremely crunchy nature of the breading. it was hard, too hot to handle, and when one is to take a bite, you'll get nothing but breading for the majority of the wing. I swear I spent a good 5 minutes or longer on one wing (trying to peel off some of the breading) and the net outcome was less than a full bite of meat. We ordered cheese corn which was a plate with a single layer of corn kernels on it topped with cheese and melted. There was not very much of that, as an appetizer meant to be shared between people we each got maybe two spoonfuls. The best thing on the menu that we tried was the "Jumbo Bulgogi Fried Rice" which was neither jumbo nor fried. It had crispy, salty strips of seaweed that added a good flavour and crisp to the rice and meat. The size of the plate was the same size as the plates they give the free (with meal) pasta salads and radishes. For one person its maybe a regular size, but definitely is not jumbo, and especially when you're sharing with the table. The yupdduk itself, nice chewy texture to the rice cakes and the fish cakes were tender and soft like how they are expected to be. Decent flavour but like I said earlier, "honey" isn't honey-like at all. It was so spicy that I was glad I ordered the chicken wings just so I could have the bucket (meant for bones) to put all of my napkins in. I ordered a drink at the beginning, strawberry sake, and I'm glad I did because it was the really good brand of sake, plus we were constantly running out of water so while my mouth was on fire from the spiciness of the least spicy yupp... Overall it was $72 (paid with cash) and an $8 tip. I paid 20 something because of my drink and my friends all paid around 17 each. I think that adds up right I'm not good at math. There was a bakery/Asian food/boba place around the corner that I'm upset we didnt eat at instead. (my friend that suggested yupdduk had never actually eaten here and we picked on her...

Plenty of parking. Thought the tteokboki was sweeter than it should have been, not sure about the cabbage and lil smokies in it, but the actual rice cakes were nice and chewy and the fish cake in it was good. Garlic bulgogi noodles and chicken wings were amazing. Thought the corn cheese and steamed egg were over priced for what they were. Dissapointed that the steamed egg was not served in the traditional stone bowl. Chicken katsu was good, but should have been served with pickled radish. Reminded me of a ktown cafe circa 2002, except it's in Cerritos. Wish they served just the curry (from the chicken katsu) to pour over rice, would have been almost as good as the curry house in my memories. The service was adequate, meaning the server brought out the food and brought us water when we asked and brought us napkins when we asked and brought us more utensils when we asked...but not attentive enough to notice we were out of water or needed more napkins or realize there wasnt enough utensils for every one at the table.

There should have been at least some kimchi or bon chon... there definitely should have been some kimchi or bon chon if they were going to charge me automatic gratuity... and here goes...

I do not agree with the mandatory gratuity on parties of more than 5 people, gratuity is exactly that... gratuity... it is not something which is automatic nor mandatory, if you deserve it, then it's given. It is my discretion to tip, it is my discretion as to the amount to tip, I should not be forced to tip a SPECIFIC amount just because I decided to eat with more than 4 other people. Why should my party of over 5 people have automatic gratuity vs a smaller party of less than 6 people? If you want to charge automatic gratuity, then be fair and charge it to everyone despite the number of people. Dont discriminate against me just because I ate with more than 4 other people. And honestly IDK why restaurants charge automatic gratuity because it's kinda like telling your patron, hey we don't trust you to tip... so why would i want to support somewhere that dosent think i will do the right thing. All it makes me think of is hey, when I've got something to celebrate and I want to go out with a group of my family and friends, this isn't the place to go to.

To be clear I'm not singling out this restaurant, I just DO NOT AGREE with any automatic gratuity at ANY restaurant just as I do not agree with "resort" fees at hotels, which is a whole nother rabbit hole I'm not going to go...

This heat is nothing to scoff at.

Korean spicy rice cakes is something that I’ve known to be a humble dish. It’s never been considered the main star at places I’ve tried it, usually offered as an appetiser or even a free check in meal. So when my friend sent me this place, I was taken aback to see a restaurant specialising in spicy rice cakes, and talked up the heat. She and I have decent spice tolerances, chowing through the Samyang Buldak noodles weekly, almost religiously at the time.

I think the parking lot is a tad small and can see it being rather difficult to find a space during peak hours. The seating area was a tad roomy, with most tables meant for fitting parties of four but there was a long booth and several separated tables that let us squeeze about eight of us together. Service was nice and prompt, which is welcomed when you’re eating spicy foods and might need some remedies.

We ordered the mild Yup Oh (more fish cake heavy) and the Set C original Yup Dduk which came with tempura, rice balls, and Korean sausage. This was my first time having Korean sausage, so I expected more of a snap from the casing and a meaty chew but it was more of a starchy kind of texture. The rice balls were just small scooped balls of rice covered in seaweed, which I believe were unsalted, but were a nice buffer for the rice cakes and sauce. The tempura was definitely the star. Lightly battered, but quite greasy, which might’ve lent it its heavy, hard hitting savoury flavours.

The mild heat level had a slight kick to it, and still might be spicy to those that don’t have a tolerance built up. The original spicy is something I’d place in between the original Samyang fire noodle and the 2x spicy. The pickled sides are your best friends here, there just isn’t enough mozzarella in that massive bowl to quell that heat. But, like the fire noodles, the heat came at the expense of flavour. I think I enjoyed the mild heat level more, the original packed heat but not much else and that doesn’t seem to bode well for the higher ranks.

The food is an absolutely great value (Came out to about $50 to feed eight of us!) and I imagine great to have drinks with as well, but I wanted a bit of the slight sweetness from other rice cake dishes I’ve had in the past. I still definitely recommend this place and would come back...