BCD Tofu House — Restaurant in New York

I don’t usually write reviews, but as other reviews have mentioned, the service is absolutely awful. They employ needlessly rude and hostile servers, specifically Christine.

Their policy is that the entire party be present in order to be seated, but this was not mentioned when we registered for the wait list. 2 of our party of 5 were meeting us there, but they ran into some issues getting there, so by the time our table was ready only 3 of us were present. The person at the door was very kind and said that we could be seated so long as we order right away, which we agreed to.

We sat down, deliberated over the menu, and quickly decided what we wanted to order, at which point we turned our attention to coordinating with the straggling party members and chatting. Probably 15 minutes had passed, and finally Christine approached our table. Instead of asking us what we’d like to order, she says “when are your friends coming”.

To which I replied “they should be here in 10 minutes or so”.

She immediately exclaimed “10 MINUTES!”, and walked away angrily before I could say anything else.

She started talking to another staff member and (likely) the shift manager. After a minute or so, the initial door staff that allowed us in came over and said “So I let you in with the agreement that you’d order right away. If you’re not ready we can’t seat you”.

I explained to him that up to that point no one had asked us what we’d like to order, and that Christine never gave us that chance, despite us being ready to order.

He quickly pulled the manager aside (probably as the manager was preparing to kick us out) and said “No they’re good, no one asked them for their order”.

Christine then came back to our table to serve the side dishes, with no apology or mention of what happened, and no real communication of any kind. As she finished serving the side dishes she took a moment to glare at me. I didn’t want to piss off Christine even further (she could always spit in our food or something), but there was also no way that I was going to thank her right after she nearly got us kicked out of the restaurant and just glared at me, so I nodded slightly which was enough to get her to break her glare and leave the table.

We tipped a normal amount because multiple people served us the entrees and refills, and the shift manager provided the check, but this was one of the worst service experiences I’ve ever had at a restaurant.

They do enough business that they probably don’t care about reviews or losing otherwise satisfied customers, but their strict admittance policy and Christine’s awful behavior created a needlessly hostile and stressful environment which all but guarantee that no one I know will ever...

I really love everything about this place. The service is always lightning fast and the food is always superb. My most notable items are the raw marinated crab and the mackerel.

We came here at around 12:37 at night and had a great experience. The last time I went here I also came late at night; it is rare for a nice sit down place to be open so late, which I really like. We had many types of soondubu, the grilled mackerel, raw marinated crab, and a Chinese style pork stir fry dish.

The soups were all good with their slight variations, although the base is mostly the same. What we really enjoyed were the raw marinated crabs; the meat is super fresh, and the tangy gochujang sauce goes so well; not too spicy or overpowering either and goes well with rice. It is a messy food and they are nice enough to give you napkins and gloves to eat it. I would definitely order this dish and try it if you haven't; it is a must have every time that we visit this restaurant.

The grilled mackerel was cooked perfectly and was very flaky with light umami notes. Normally, mackerel can taste very fishy but I did not taste any of that with this grilled mackerel. It was piping hot when it was served to us on the hot plate and it tasted awesome.

The pork stir fry dish was good although it was super heavy. A ton of oil in the dish despite the good soy sauce umami and spice notes that it had. I wish it had some lemon or something to cut through the oil. There was a pool of oil near the bottom of the dish which I found to be overwhelming to eat.

The side dishes are all great. I really love how this restaurant treats you with so many side dishes to go along with your meal. The variety is fun. The kimchi is especially good; flavorful, crunchy, and fresh.

Service again is top notch. They are quick to get your food out and are always checking to see if you need water or if you need any refills on side dishes. Atmosphere is nice and this place is always packed with people even late at night. I highly recommend this place to anyone...

Decided to come here one night for dinner as I've been to other BCD Tofu Houses when I used to live in CA. I ordered a Galbi Combo (BBQ Short Rib served with Assorted Soon Tofu) what I normally order. The order arrives and I take my first bite, I had noticed a significantly softer texture than what Galbi should be like and that something was off; Trust me I would know, I'm Korean and grew up eating Korean BBQ my whole life. As soon as I pulled the bone away I had noticed the meat was still bright RED as RAW as can be! I flagged down one of the servers (Pedro was his name I believe, no Korean servers at this location for whatever reason) and had told/shown him my concern. He looked at me a little dumb founded like I was speaking a different language so I had requested a Korean speaking server. He later comes back with a Korean speaking individual who looked like he was in management and I politely described the issue. The Korean individual didn't really seem like he cared either, quite frankly I don't know what's going on with the staff in this location. Eventually they sent the dish back to be reheated up but this time around when the dish came out for the second time around it was too OVERCOOKED and CHARED, to be blunt it was BURNT. I refused to eat at such an establishment and just requested for the check to go grab a bite elsewhere. The check comes out and I had noticed there were a lot of unnecessary charges on it. At this point, I was pretty fed up and still hungry so I just paid their "hidden fees" and got out of there as soon as I could. I will probably never be coming back to this location of BCD Tofu...