Chodang Tofu Restaurant — Restaurant in Chandler

I came to Chodang today to pick up a GrubHub order, and the experience was nothing short of frustrating. When I arrived, the order wasn’t ready—which is fine; that happens often. I always drive straight to the restaurant when an order comes in, and sometimes I wait. That’s just part of the job.

However, the way I was treated by the employee at the front was completely uncalled for. Before I could even finish saying I was there for a GrubHub order, she abruptly cut me off to say it wasn’t ready. Fine. But when I tried to confirm the order details, she snapped the name back at me in an irritated tone. I brushed it off—she seemed busy, as she was the only person running the front of a packed restaurant with one cook in the back. I get it.

The order finally came out 10 minutes later—twice as long as the wait time I was initially given. As I picked up the bag, I noticed that they had placed a canned soda inside with the hot food. I casually asked, “You guys put the soda in the same bag as the food?” That’s when things escalated.

The woman at the front completely lost her composure, raising her voice and angrily insisting that I wasn’t supposed to be there before the order was ready. She seemed upset that my arrival time could negatively impact their GrubHub rating—something that’s out of my control since the app sends orders automatically. I wasn’t there to cause problems; I was just doing my job. But for some reason, she was furious that I arrived when I did.

Then, she started threatening to “rate” me and have me fired from GrubHub—just for asking about the drink placement. I wasn’t even arguing, just asking a simple question, yet she reacted as if I had insulted her entire family. Meanwhile, customers were staring, which was beyond embarrassing.

At that moment, I knew I’d never return to this restaurant. It’s one thing to have a bad interaction with an employee, but the overall cleanliness and organization of this place were just as concerning. The restaurant looked dirty and unkempt, the bathroom wasn’t clean, and there were clear health code violations—such as personal groceries and makeup being stored in a drink refrigerator at the front of the restaurant. That’s just unacceptable.

If Chodang wants to avoid issues with delivery drivers, maybe they should invest in their own in-house delivery service instead of relying on third-party apps. But yelling at drivers for simply doing their jobs is not the answer. If this is how they treat a driver, I can only imagine how they treat their customers.

Would I ever eat here?...

Let's get it out of the way. The dishes were amazing. They were delicious. Absolutely no doubt about that. We try to support local, family, and small business whenever we can, but it is a matter of principle, we just can not recommend Chodang Tofu Restaurant due to what appeared to be greedy and scheming practice at this place. Is it to either to save themselves a few bucks or make a few more bucks? Whatever that reason might be, it doesn't matter. You guessed it. They charge you extra fees to eat there. Upon confronting them, they claimed they have a sign about the fees. But seriously, we walked in, they walked us to the table right away. We never saw the sign. If it was full transparency, could they have stopped and shown us the sign and asked if we are fine with the fees? They didn't. There was no disclosure of the fees on the menu either. Then, they also cited that it's really a fee for credit card use but seriously, who the hell uses cash nowadays. On top of that, as you can see from our receipt, the small Bulgogi dish was $25.99, Haemul Pa jeon $23.99, Bibimbop $18.99, etc... so you tell me that they are not already overcharging?! Hence, greedy and scheming. Look, they absolutely have a great product, their delicious dishes. But rather than focusing on capturing a loyal customer base by their products and services, they are focusing on scheming you for a few bucks?! Unbelievable. Attorney General Chris Mayes is going after restaurants with this practice. We will definitely help her office take down bad businesses like Chodang...

Tl:dr Soups are ok, meat dishes aren’t worth it. We still don’t know what the Beef Tofu Soup tastes like…

In the past my family would come here and have a great dinner. With the new owner, prices are higher and I would be fine with that if the quality and quantity went up too but the meat dishes and kimchi pancake quality has actually gone down. The soups were good though.

Don’t bother ordering the L.A. Galbi ($28.99), the Bulgogi ($25.99), or the Kimchi Jeon ($18.99). The quantity of food was scant and meats were served on aluminum platters that made the food get colder faster. The Galbi sat on a bed of raw onions which would normally be ok I guess if the plate was a sizzling plate but the plate was just an aluminum plate. The kimchi pancake was supposed to have kimchi and veggies but it was mainly just a starchy pancake. The restaurant was really stingy with the side dishes and the napkins for some reason.

We asked if they had a side of cooked tofu for my toddler and the server went to verify and asked us if it was ok if it was boiled and we were ok with it. We weren’t told we would be billed for a full beef tofu soup ($16.99) that just had boiled tofu in hot water. We inquired about that when the bill came and were strongly told that they don’t have sides of tofu. That would have been good to know before getting billed for a full soup.

This meal for 4 adults and a toddler ended up being $200+ after tip. We likely...