Jang Guem — Restaurant in Houston

--- NK Score = 8.2/10 ---

8/10 = Furniture/Ambience 9/10 = Food Quality 8/10 = Prices/Services (Other Ratings Hidden) =( BASIC INFO )=

Medium Sized Restaurant Sometimes Busy, Usually Ok Good Food ( $9.00 - $17.00 ) Korean Tofu Soups, BBQ, Noodles Quite Pricy, Good Service Ok Parking, Some Walking = Atmosphere =

Casual ambience, the inside looks nice and organized, but it's just one room so you'll be able to hear some noise from the nearby tables. Also, it's usually not very busy, so you can relax and enjoy your meal without much wait time. Overall a pretty relaxed restaurant. = Food Quality =

ZaZang ($11.99): Noodles with black bean sauce. The kind they make here is quite interesting, it has a unique sweetness with a small touch of umami. The noodles were very soft and tender, and the sauce was extraordinarily delicious, although maybe a tiny bit too sweet. Other than that, this bowl of ZaZang noodles definitely gave me a good time and a belly too full to realize I'm still sitting here.

Korean BBQ + Tofu Soup ($17.99): Combination of some BBQ and a nice Seafood Beef tofu soup. The bbq was pretty standard, nothing too special or yummy about it, and the portion was kind of small. On second hand, the tofu soup was nice and savory, it was warm and had a nice texture that cleansed all the flavors in my mouth. I didn't think this one was that worth it.

Spicy Samkyupsal Fried Rice ($11.99): Semi-spicy fried rice with a nice egg yolk that tenderizes the flavor and heightens the texture. Pretty good fried rice, but the satisfaction decreases as time goes by, possibly cause too much rice and not much anything else. Overall a decent dish to try.

Infinite Sides (Free!): Actually pretty good and delicious, like I could eat this stuff all day and be satisfied. Most of the sides are somewhat sweet, like the tofu skin, mash potato, and kimchi, which is different from most places, but still pretty darn delicious. The mash potatoes are really something else, so good! = Price / Service =

Quite expensive place to eat, almost overpriced, except for the fact that you get infinite FREE sides! Like 6 different sides for free? Infinite? FREE? INFINITE? Ok, I'm done here. FREE? UNLIMITED!?? I mean it would be a rip off if the sides were bad, BUT IT'S GOOD! Free! Unlimited sides that are super fun to eat with your friends! Otherwise, most of the entree and other dishes are a bit pricy for a small portion.

Very good service, attentive and fast. They're also very coordinated and seem to work together well. Recommendations: Share with a friend or as a group, you'll save money as well as have fun eating the sides together, but please don't just order 1 dish for 4 friends.... that's just disrespectful and rude.

Signed NK (June 2017) Images below by...

Tucked in near a corner next to Hmart, Jang Geum Tofu has been around for years in Chinatown serving homey Korean food.

I remember frequenting this restaurant in the past with my family WAY back to when they had grilled mackerel, or whatever fish it was, as a side dish and when there were not that many Korean restaurants. I remember coming here and loving their kimchi tofu soup and side dishes. However, we started trying new places as newer Korean restautants and Kbbq places popped up and came less.

After trying new places for some time, I decided to come back. So much has changed in these past few years, but the food has remained consistent for the most part.

I ordered the combination (C1), which came with galbi and a tofu soup. For the soup, I chose the kimchi jigae tofu soup (T6). I also ordered the hot stone bibimbap with bulgogi.

The side dishes were good, with the mashed potatoes being my favorite. It was pretty well portioned, and I even had enough to share with my partner. The soup also came out boiling, and I love cracking the egg into the soup. The tofu soup is still good, and I think it is my favorite kimchi tofu soup in Houston. The galbi was okay and was very fatty with a lackluster flavor. The quality of the meat has not changed even after all these years.

The bulgogi bibimbap was pretty standard and was pretty good.

Overall, I think what you get for the prices of the meals are a lot and worth it. If I had to recommend one dish, it would be the kimchi jigae soup for sure! They also have a variety of options and...

We came around 830pm and was greeted and seated right away. Food came out hot and quick. Flavors were there, but not worth the money.

I've eaten Korean food all over the U.S and this place takes the cake for the most skimpy plates of meat! I ordered the combination tofu soup and ribs for $18. They give you the full sized tofu soup which is $9 on their menu. We basically paid an extra $9 For the ribs. I've never seen a place that basically gave me one and a half piece of ribs cut into 5 small pieces. So their full size ribs for $18 is probably 3 pieces cut into 10 small pieces. And what is Korean BBQ? It doesn't even state what it is. I had to ask the girl, that's when she told me it was ribs.

We ordered the large spicy pork for $18. We basically got 2 onions and very little pork (refer to pics). We thought maybe they gave us the wrong size. The table behind us got the spicy pork combo, it was on a smaller skillet but looks like it was the same amount we got. If it wasn't for the side dishes we would've been barely full for a $40 dinner. Meats in Houston is cheap, I figured if I've gotten more meat in smaller cities, they'd be more generous here. Nope. Food isn't worth the price, service was...