Tofu Village — Restaurant in Houston

I am from VA and during my visit to my family in Houston, Tx we decided to give this a try, needless to say that it was my first time eating here but definitely NOT my first time eating at a Korean restaurant as it is one of my favorite cuisine. So here is my very honest review. AUTHENTIC Korean food. TASTE was superb. PLACE was clean. CUSTOMER SERVICE was POOR, which is VERY IMPORTANT to me (cause it adds to and completes the experience!!!!). I mean, the waitress was “kinda” helpful but it was obvious that she was RUSHING us.We ordered a combo which needs to be cooked but apparently the burner was not working on the table she gave us and we need to move to another table, we were not ready to move yet ( I was literally in the middle of digging in from my plate of lettuce salad) but she hurriedly moved all our plates etc to the other table without even asking if we are ready or if it’s ok to move. She also asked if we wanted to cook it ourselves or they cook it for us. Of course, since we wanted the full experience, we said that we will cook it ourselves. Then she dumped all the pcs of the meat on the pan. So us, thinking that was the way it should be in this restaurant we just kept cooking it, then when she came back she “kinda” “scolded” us, “it was supposed to be cut, you said you know how to cook!”. Well, I actually “knew” because when we ate at VA beach restaurant the waiter cut it for us and explained everything before leaving us to cook for ourselves but because we were caught in a moment that I was just enjoying my sister’s company I actually didn’t mind if it was cut or not😊. So I said, “actually I know but I was just letting them do the cooking cause I am eating” I actually said it a little bit jokingly to calm the mood, however the waitress answered back, “well you shouldn’t be eating, you should be cooking!”- well, there you go, she just LOST me there, lol 😂 . To be serious, no matter how good the food is and how nice the place is, if you have a BAD customer service it kinda RUIN everything including your APPETITE! So my recommendation is , if customer service is not that important to you the food there is great, but if you want a complete the experience of good food and customer service just go...

Slow inconsistent serving service, COCKROACH ON TABLE and a lost appetite. The food tastes good though...

Came here on a Friday evening but they weren't full house, waitress people were walking around and kind of ignoring us as we waited to be seated.

We finally got seated and we were served a green salad as that is a standard and our waters. Ten minutes after we decided what we were ordering, we had to flag someone to come and they had the audacity to ask if we were ready -- nooo, we were sitting here with the menu closed and trying to flag your staff down for the past ten minutes for jokes!! I ordered the dduk cal bi and my boyfriend had a bibimbap. My order came about fifteen minutes after, and my boyfriend's meal did not come for another twenty minutes after mine had come. We even had to ask the staff if it's still coming. Unbelievable!!! We just brushed it off as maybe the kitchen is understaffed...but I thought it'd be nice if they had some communication going on... After snapping a quick picture of our food, I dig in at last and after five bites, my boyfriend spots a COCKROACH on the wall next to our table. The creature approaches my direction via the table and I flinch. I tried not to make a scene and disturb the other guests and I know it's not the end of the world...roaches exist and especially in food establishments that are next to one another. I had thought these creatures only appear at night. So why is this one out with there's so much movement in the restaurant and the lights are on??? It must not be it's first rodeo. I swap seats with my boyfriend and try to continue our food. It was difficult. We had additional trouble flagging down a waitress to get the cheque... it felt like they were ignoring us for some reason. We never left such a small tip at a business before, especially since the whole pandemic thing...if we can't afford to leave a 20% tip, we wouldn't be eating out...we know what it's like blahblahblah--- however, for this place, we should not have left...

The first thing the waitress said to me was 'why are you taking photos of our menu?' As a Korean I can say we can be paranoid sometimes. I assured her I was just going to upload it to google maps and not do anything shady with it (what shady thing could I even do with it??)

I've been coming here for years. It's not the most amazing Korean joint, but it's very reasonably priced, pretty authentic down to the servers, and conveniently located in Chinatown.

Once you enter, wait at the podium and someone will come seat you. I always get the combo meal - one soup and one meat dish. It's about $17 before taxes.

Seafood Tofu Soup/Haemul Sundubu Jjigae To be honest Jang Geum Tofu House does this better. They just can't get that seafood aroma right. All in all it tastes more like kimchi jjigae. It's nice though and there's plenty of tofu to go around - comes out hot and bubbling in a hot stone bowl.

Spicy Pork/Maeun Daeji Bulgogi This has gotten much better! Not as greasy as before. On a nice bed of white onions.

Side Salad Korean thousand island dressing - refreshing, no complaints. Complimentary with whatever you order. Came with two people and ordered one dish but still got two salads.

Cold Barley Tea Korean staple. Definitely recommend this - no additional charge. You can try hot tea as well.

Interior is relatively clean. There are kpop icons on the walls which make it a bit cheesy but I suppose it hasn't hurt them too much. On each table there's a grill if you want to order something you can cook at the table yourself.

The rice comes in a hot stone with a pot of hot water. You can scoop out most of the rice to eat, then leave a thin layer at the bottom of the hot stone and pour the hot water onto it. At the end of the meal it becomes a rice soup of sorts and it's a nice refreshing end to a spicy meal.

The check comes with those tiny asian bite-sized yogurt drinks which is a nice touch. The number one thing here is value! Probably can't get as good anywhere else in Houston...