Gangnam Tofu Korean Cuisine — Restaurant in El Cerrito

Great food, usually (but not always) great service.

We love the naengmyeon and Gangnam chicken here; the prices are good, the servings are generous, and the food is delicious. The banchan are also plentiful and very yummy.

Overall service has been very good here. However, we recently had a strange experience with one server (older woman with long dyed hair) that left us feeling awkward and not very welcome. We asked her for two small items (one sauce and one side of pickled radishes) that are very commonly provided (we've asked for them before here no problem) and each time, she immediately said "no" and gave an excuse why. We thought it was strange since we've ordered them before, so we asked another employee who gladly and quickly brought us the items we asked for (he was great). It was such a strange experience that we thought that maybe she was new or just didn't understand us, but the other server explained that they had to ask the kitchen for those items, which made it seem like she just didn't want to take the time to grab them for us. Again, these were just things that could be quickly spooned into a bowl and brought out to us, so it was very weird and left us feeling very awkward and uncomfortable.

We will be happy to keep returning for the wonderful food, but hope we don't encounter this same server again. Thanks to the other staff that helped us and made us...

Oh Gangnam, my #1 favorite place in the Bay. Every time something good happens, I'm here. It's everything I want in a restaurant.

It's so cozy, right in the middle of an El Cerrito strip with enough space to hold the crowds in an intimate setting. At the counter it feels like I'm at a diner where I can comfortably watch baseball and drink my beer. At night or in the rain, it's a spot where time just stops. This is especially true when sipping out of the ice-cold glasses they serve you with any bottle of beer (I rarely see this nowadays but it makes all the difference).

All of the food is so good. The banchan carry so much flavor in their simple recipes, and complement every single dish. The soondooboo warms your heart while also invigorating you with spice. And my favorite, the Gangnam chicken, is so crispy while at the same time perfectly soaked in spicy sauce that rounds the dish out. I always put the remaining sauce on my side rice and can't get enough of it.

I've brought friends and family here, and each person loves this place as much as me. Gangnam is truly a gem and I hope it nothing...

Not bad, and they do try. From my brief visit for lunch, I observed that they sincerely endeavor to serve their customers competently. Competence is usually not the magic sauce in cuisine, however, and it’s in this sense that I wrote the first sentence of this review. We had fried chicken, rice cake soup, and a stew, all of which we ate out of hunger but didn’t manage to finish due to boredom.

The Gangnam dance reference in their name seems like an oddly mismatched link between a cultural phenomenon and their modest restaurant in El Cerrito, CA, and the dining experience likewise reflects disconnect between the effort and result.

(The robust numbers of patrons that I saw during lunch could partly be due to a basic desire for even competence such as GTKC’s and partly the limited options available in the neighborhood. For this I add a...