Dubu Dubu — Restaurant in Houston

The interior is small, but well organized and clean.

We were sat by a friendly young gentleman, and he offered us hot boricha (barley tea), which was very pleasant. The menu isn't huge, but offers some very common staples of dishes you'll find at a typical Korean restaurant in Texas.

We ordered the boiled dumplings and tteokbokki.

The banchan came out first, which is pretty common, so we got a chance to focus on the taste of each one. The fish cake was average, basically what you would expect. The kimchi was average as well, maybe a tad more bitter than average, but not bad. The pickled cucumbers were very strange: they had a bit of a smoky flavor, as if there was smoked paprika or white pepper in it. Not bad, but quite strange and unexpected. The Bean sprouts were also outside of the norm: you would expect sesame oil and garlic to be at the forefront and then some green onion for garnish. Theirs just tasted like black pepper for some reason.

After about 15 minutes the boiled dumplings and tteokbokki came out. (Nobody checked in on us after our food got to the table)

I quite liked the boiled dumplings. They were very small, but had good flavor and a chewy, consistent texture. I will say they were a bit pricey at almost $1 a piece.

The tteokbokki was what really disappointed me: gochujang should be the main flavor profile with its sweet/spicy and then balanced by an umami anchovy/kelp broth and soy sauce, with variances from there. The tteokbokki here really just tasted like a can Campbell's tomato soup was poured in with the rice cakes. I don't say that to be mean - it just seems like the most accurate description. It really tasted like a watered down tomato sauce.

I want to come back again to the tteokbokki another chance, maybe not close to the end of their open hours, but I'm also scared of paying $15 to get tomato soup with rice cakes again.

I'll come back to try one of their entrees and update,...

Came for early dinner, food came quick and it was very good. We ordered short ribs, shrimp fried rice and chicken bibimbap bowl. Short ribs were little chewy but well grilled. Our server was a young kid and seemed like he didn’t wanted to be there. Not one time he asked us if we need anything or if everything was ok? After finishing our food, we waited almost 10 minutes for someone to ask us if we needed a go box or the check. Our server passed by our table 3 times during that 10 minutes. My wife had to go to the counter and asked for the check and to go boxes. As we were checking out, they had the tip option set to 18% as minimum. I didn’t wanted to pay 18% because I didn’t get 18% worth of service, I wanted to pay 15% just for the hack of it and they didn’t have any custom options for tips, it’s either 18% or higher. So I walked out without tipping which I didn’t wanted to but I’ll not be paying 18%. If you want 18% please provide the service to that level. Our server didn’t greet us or smiled 1 time. He sat us down, took the order and served the food and walked away without my short ribs. After 5 minutes I had to ask him if the short ribs were coming!!! Like I said, food was good and came timely manner, but please improve your service so that us customers don’t hesitate to not only 18%...

It’s nice having a Korean restaurant closer to home instead of driving all the way to Bellaire. The food was flavorful, but the $21 chicken bulgogi was mostly vegetables with very little meat.

There was also a mix-up with our receipt, and when we brought it up, the server argued with us instead of just resolving it calmly. They insisted we should’ve known better based on how we ordered, even though it was our first visit and the restaurant had just opened. While they did end up honoring the original price, I don’t expect to have to argue with a server over something like that.

Overall, the food was good, but the portion sizes and customer service need some work. I’m willing to try it again later on and hope they work out the kinks, but for now, we’ll probably stick to Bellaire for...