Dookki — Restaurant in Houston

Ok so first of all, dookki means two meals. And if you have never tried Tteokbokki before, please read this so you know how to make it.

people in the comments say how bland they are. that's because you haven't put any of those spice yet. and i assume they let you choose your spice level because everyone handles spice differently. some like their sauce to be super spicy some don't. when you go to the spice section, follow the directions but add x2 the amount bc it really is bland if you keep it at basic 1 scoop each. out of the 8, we mixed three, the 1, 2, and 6. 6 is the one that will really make a difference regarding the spice, the first two are just the bases. you can add other spices but the mix of 1,2 and 6 is what the original tteokbokki tastes like.

when you sit down they add some broth in the pot. when they do, you just want to dump everything you had in the ingredients except the ramen noodles since they cook really fast.

!!! you might think the broth is so little but it is supposed to be like that, teokbokki isnt supposed to be watery!! it's not a hotpot broth style food!!

and down the road you want to keep the temperature low and then add the broth 1-2x as you are eating it. if you turn off the heat it will get cold fast.

as for the fried tempuras you'd want to dip it in the sauce rather than cook it with it.

the fishcake. that fishcake was a huge let down. even tho you add soy sauce, that fishcake broth was so bland, i couldnt even. and the fishcake skewer again was so bland, if anything you can dip it in the tteokbboki sauce! or, the #2 chili sauce itself is pretty good with everything!

but yeah all the other ones are pretty self explanatory. $23/person for ayce and they offer fried rice after but we declined. we were way too full. im not sure how they do their fried rice but if they add the rice with all the ingredients for fried rice in that tteokbokki sauce, i dont want it, never done that before.., cant imagine the taste sounds nasty. but i cant comment on it bc i havent tried it.

they have two flavors of ice cream, vanilla and chocolate at the back. they also have a station for cooking ramen on its own next to the ice cream but idk if you would rly need that after that crazy huge meal.

overall i really liked it. i love love love! tteokbokki and this is heaven for me at least. good news is even tho it's in bellaire it's not in that busy plaza so parking isnt awful. music could improve and which the pot didnt move.

so once you get the hang of it of how to make it, that's when you know what the taste is supposed to be, and realize they pretty much let you decide the way you want to make it rather than one...

We went when it was not too busy and as a new place I’m sure they are still figuring some stuff out but despite that the food was very good!

1. You can add all kinds of noodles, rice cakes, fish cakes and more. Then you take it to your table to put into your broth. The sauces are all flavored perfectly. I went for the most popular formula recipe shown at the sauce bar. It came out perfectly, not too spicy and a perfect balance of flavors.

2. hot foods: there are hot foods on the ends of the buffet that include beef bulgogi, pork bulgogi, stir fried clear noodles, honey potatoes, fried chicken, fried vegetable tempura, dumplings, seaweed wrapped noodles, egg rolls and fish cake skewers. Pro tip, dip your dumplings and seaweed wrapped noodles into the sauce of your ttukbokki and you can’t go wrong!

3. Ramen bar, I never knew I needed this until I used it. You choose your ramen, out the sauce powder on top, push start and the perfect amount of water comes out along with a timer to make sure your ramen is perfectly cooked. I’m sure you can put stuff from the buffet in here to vamp your ramen too but it’s perfectly timed for a simple ramen so I wouldn’t overdo it.

4. After you’re done with the ttukbokki, you have some random fish cakes and sauce left so lastly, they have a rice and toppings area where you put ham, kimchi, seaweed and some toppings on the rice. You bring that to your table and dump on top of your leftover sauce to make the perfect fried rice. It was really a nice ending to the meal.

5. There is an ice cream bar with vanilla and chocolate ice cream scoops in the back to cool your mouth off at the end. It takes a lot of strength to get the ice cream out but that shows how creamy it is. I’ve had buffet ice cream before and this is better than most.

Overall this place tastes great and love the concept. The staff was still learning so service was a little slow but I can see how during a rush it would be crazy here. I’m sure as time goes they will iron out the kinks but try to go when it’s not SO busy to get the best experience. Also tables are kind of small so not a lot of room, so servers really need to come by and clear the table often. Taste wise, it’s very good here with authentic Korean flavors. I’d go again and for $22.99/person it’s worth it because you can’t get $22.99 Korean buffet...

The food is okay not very fresh as far as the veggie portions go . Price wise is fair but not worth it because you get pretty full fast , so you really pay 22 plus tax for 2 packets of ramen noodles in theory . The real reason I give this a 2 start review is because I didn’t appreciate the staff member that took care of me and my mom and niece .We get there and we are seated and right off the bat he asks “ you know how much it’s costs here right ? “ but in Spanish … ( as if I don’t speak English , side eye already ). I respond to him no in a very like “ No I don’t know really know … but I wouldn’t be here if I couldn’t afford a sit down restaurant in one of the cheapest spots in town ? If that makes sense … he continues to inform us of the pricing and the way the restaurant works … so I just say okay . My mom took of offense being that yes we are Hispanic but why would you even start off like that sitting down restaurant guests and a potential tipping customer …throughout the time we were there our waiter whom was also is Hispanic keeps chatting with us in Spanish which i assumed it was because he only spoke Spanish maybe … but as time goes by I noticed we were the only table being spoken to in Spanish … and he continues to ask us where we are from .. I quote “ well not Texas but where are your roots from “ at that point I just gave him this look like are you for real dude ? My niece was just like Mexico … . Towards the end of our meal I got upset that we couldn’t keep the little oil jar near by to stir our hot pots since we didn’t want our food to stick and couldn’t get the waiters to come in time … . Our waiters name was Juan not sure if he is still there being that it was a few weeks back during the holiday , literally - few days after they opened the place . Dissapointing because I see potential but to have staff like that isn’t worth going back … what made the experience there worse is that my mom usually does not like to go out to eat (we only went to this particular Korean hot pot because my niece loves Korean food ) and I do too , but yea it made it...