So Gong Dong Tofu House

One or two star reviews are mostly about their service. Honestly, just because someone uses the word «no» in a very straightforward way, it doesn’t mean they are trying to be disrespectful. Actually, our Korean server told us where to find free parking next time we visit.
Regarding food, it’s pretty standard Korean fare, good quantity for the price. We shared a seafood tofu soup. It had a rich flavor, ample but not overwhelming spice. A nice touch was the barley in the rice. Ponchon was tasty, they gave us a small fried mackerel too. First time trying that at a Korean restaurant. Nice firm texture with a smoky flavor.

This is my first time to come here ! The food was delicious! They will refill the side-​dishes when they saw the dish is empty. I really like the seafood toufu soap ! Definitely will come back ! Yum !

A large group of my friends went to So Gong Dong Tofu House last night for a going away party. I had seafood and beef tofu soup (with a raw egg, of course), and it was absolutely delicious. Our servers were attentive, refilling our water classes and making sure we had everything we needed throughout our meal. They accommodated multiple credit cards (I love places that make it easy to split the bill between diners!), and they were delightfully personable. It was a truly wonderful experience. I’ll be back!

I love the ramen & soondubu together! They have other kinds of soups, you can choose the spiciness level (which is great for my non-​spicy friends), and you can choose whether you want it with rice or ramen. And the banchan was good (with variety) too. However, having gone many times, the service isn’t always consistent. Some days they would be friendly, and other days not so much.
This is a convenient place to have dinner/​lunch and then some good coffee/​dessert in the same strip mall area, all in one.

Stay away! Far Away! This place has the worst service. When I & my mom heard of this place via reviews from Unilocal,We decided to go there. However, when we got in, the place was FREEZING! So cold, even the cashier who was about to ding up our stuff was wearing winter attire. When we did get to order, the cashier BARELY spoke English and couldn’t really understand us. When we were done ordering, my mother asked how long was the food gonna take (because she heard previously that her old car was ready 2 pick up because she got in an accident and had to use a rental), she originally said 10 minutes. However, 15 minutes later, I ask the time until it’s done and whom I believe is the owner said it was gonna take HALF AN HOUR! I just bought a Sprite and left. I went to tell her the news and boy was she angry! That Sprite was my FIRST and LAST purchase from that establishment. My mom said if Unilocal had a half of a star option, she would’ve given it.

I actually happened upon this place during Korea Fest because all the street vendor food was over-​priced and looked unappealing. My meal was probably less than what I would have paid if I purchased food at the fest. I tried the seafood soondubu and I was satisfied. The banchan was okay but most of the dishes were way too salty – I was so dehydrated the rest of the day and I felt so bloated afterwards due to my high salt and water intake (it doesn’t help that the water cups are tiny). The bf ordered a soup as well, but was disappointed by how little meat there was in his dish. Although the waitresses were nice, the service was slow.

I went here during the Kfest in the summer. My friend suggested that we go here since she loves tofu. There was a total of 7 in my group.
When walking in, it wasn’t too crowded. Most tables were filled, but there was enough room for my group to sit. Waiting wasn’t long! It was nice how they placed us in a separate room as if we reserved a spot. The noise level was durable, but the separate room made it so much better. Bathrooms were pretty clean, I must admit. Nothing too disgusting…
The prices of the food weren’t super expensive. It all depends on what you get. I ordered a bibimbap in a sizzling steel pot ($ 10). They have a regular bowl of bibimbap for $ 7, but I prefer crispy rice. My bibimbap had a OK taste. It took a long while for the rice to crisp up, but the rice still tasted pretty delicious! The egg was a typical fried egg, although it would be nice if they had a pokey egg-​over easy type for my preference. My bibimbap was supposed to have beef in it, but the amount of meat that they put in there was so little! I love meat, so that was pretty disappointing. One thing that I absolutely loved though was the amount of veggies they put. The sides of veggies also were a great add-​on to my bibimbap. Their kimchi is pretty delicious. I wish I ordered their tofu soups (beef or seafood). I tasted a bit of my friends’ tofu soups, and they were pretty good.
The service people were friendly. Pretty much one of the ladies understood english well enough. Though, I thought it was silly how she thought I gave her an $ 11 tip. This restaurant is one of the places where you have to walk up to the cash register where they have your bill, and you pay (at least that’s what my group had to do). I only had a $ 10 bibimbap, but no $ 10 dollar. I payed about $ 21, and the lady just kept the money with no change back. I mentioned to her that I paid with a 20, and she was like, «oh, you did?». So, luckily I did get my change back. I understand people may make silly small mistakes, so it is not a big deal. if I could, I would give this place a 3.5

The Spicy Tofu Soup here is Totally Awesome! The Stone Bowl Bi Bim Bap is Very Tasty. The Ginseng Chicken Soup is Outstanding. Other Dishes are also Pretty Good, but the Standouts are the «Soups.» The Décor is Low Rent, but so are the Prices, so everything evens out. Definitely Worth A Try.

This place specializes in Soon Dubu, boiling hot tofu soup served in a stone bowl. My favorite is the kimchee pork Soon Dubu. It’s one of those dishes that gets tastier and tastier as it cools down and you get to the bottom of the bowl. They also won an award for best Dol Sut Bi Bim Bop in Chicago, it is really good. Like most Korean places in Chicago it’s not going to win any awards for the décor but that’s not why you go there. Unlike most Korean places they have no in-​table barbecue so you don’t leave reeking of smoke and Kalbi. My final recommendation is to try the steamed mandoo appetizer, they’re excellent and just spicy enough.

I really wanted to love this place! Sadly, this tofu house left me much to desire. My first visit was a take out order. I ordered the seafood tofu soup, a suggestion from the lady who took my order. A short 2 minute walk back home, I opened the take out order to be a bit underwhelmed. The soup was bland and I struggled to find any seafood in there– maybe like 2 clams and a couple chunks of fish, that was it. It did come with a few side dishes, in which I found the kimchi that came with it also not very good– like it wasn’t fermented enough. I also ordered the mandu, which was filled with noodles (no meat) and broke apart when I picked it up with my chopsticks.
My second attempt to fall in love with this place, I dined in. Ordered the yuk gae jang (spicy beef soup). Though there was some flavor, it still did not compare to the flavorful, spicy soup yuk gae jang should be. As this place is known as the «hole-​in-​the-​wall» gem I’ve read about, I was sadly disappointed.
It’s not horrible, underwhelming would be the correct description of my two experiences. I mean, if I was starving and stranded, it wouldn’t be a bad thing to get food from here. But being surrounded by so many Korean places and having so many other options, «underwhelming» would not be my first pick.

Definitely an authentic hole-​in-​the-​wall type of place which I usually love. Came Sunday evening and were the only ones there. Our server was a sweet older Korean lady. To note, her English is not great, so there definitely may be some miscommunication.
I had the large seafood sundubu, and to me it wasn’t that large. It was alright in flavor, could have been spicier, and definitely have had better. However, I enjoyed that it came piping hot and was served with raw eggs to drop in. It was also nice and traditional in the way they cook their rice that is left with a crispy crust. The banchan was quite good and enjoyed most of them. I also enjoyed that we got to sit in one of the private rooms. Satisfactory no frills place with reasonable prices, but definitely better places around.

A tiny, hole-​in-​the-​wall place with delicious Korean soondoboo, which a spicy stew of tofu, seafood (or any number of options), and a freshly cooked egg. The soup is perfectly seasoned, always served boiling hot in an oven-​baked clay pot. It is all served with the usual complement of tasty side-​dishes, including kimchi, rice cakes, and various other pickled and cooked items. It is all prepared authentically and with meticulous attention. A must-​go, and absolutely worth the trip if you’ve never experienced soondoboo before!

Solid sundubu complete with surly owner and side dish smörgåsbord. Service is a tad on the slow side. Haven’t tried anything other than the tofu soup and the pretty good japchae (not mind blowing but it’ll do if you are in the mood) so can’t speak to the rest of the pretty diverse menu, which is stew heavy. I only wish they gave you raw eggs to drop in the hot broth, as is custom in some similar joints.

It was early evening on a Monday and it seemed we were the first customers of the day. This place has a clean and tidy interior. I ordered the mixed tofu pot with rice, which is served with a raw egg that you can drop into the bubbling soup. The mixed pot was supposed to have seafood and meat, but I probably only saw one tiny piece of meat in the soup. Despite that it was very tasty. The way they serve the rice was interesting. They serve the rice in a hot pot so it has this nice crust of overcooked rice at the bottom– this is a good thing. They will ask you if I want to add warm barley tea into your rice, so you can have those crispy rice pieces with the barley tea at the end of meal. It was very nice to end to the meal. I saw another table have dolsot bibim bob and it looked so delicious. Although I enjoyed what I had I will definitely order that when I visit next time.

The service was weird… my friend ordered the chicken fried rice and the server made a twisted face and said «no»… which should have been an indication to order something else. My friend pointed to the entrée and the server confirmed the order. It showed up looking like no other chicken fried rice we had ever seen. My friend was VERY polite and ate a fair amount anyway regardless of the strange taste and appearance…
Then I got the horrible news that it caused her more than a day on the couch with the trash can next to her
Be careful when dining here… but really, don’t bother.

This soodoobu is greattttt but it AINT the best. BUT I did really enjoy it. I would go back for sure but I really like the soondoobu in the suburbs.
The banchan is pretty good but there was like this smashed up fish that was gross. It kinda ruined it for me. haha. If you go. don’t try it. the rest of the banchan was pretty good.
the owner was a friend of my friend so she stayed open for us and hooked us up. She was nice. I dont want to bash their place but it was just pretty average.

Disappointing. I was really craving some yummy Korean tofu soup and we saw this place got good reviews. We had the tofu soup, bibimbap, and mandu. Both the soup and bibimbap were A-​OK. Personally I think they both lacked salt, and the soup needed more spice. Mandu, on the other hand, I can say with confidence that it was the worse mandu I’ve had. The inside had absolutely no flavor, the wrap was saggy and fell off easily. It was horrible.

I love soondoobu, so when Kenny O. suggested that we come here for soondoobu, I was really excited. Unfortunately the place did not live up to our expectations.
When dining in a Tofu House, I figured that their specialty must be soondoobu (tofu soup). It may still be their specialty, but we were very disappointed with ours, and I don’t understand why this place has a four-​star average. It really isn’t good.
It started out with a waitress who couldn’t understand that Kenny O. wanted a large and spicy kimchi and pork tofu soup and that I wanted a small spicy seafood tofu soup. We got what we wanted, all right, but Kenny’s tofu soup was the same size as mine, which meant that it was a small order as opposed to a large order.
The first set of side dishes came out with the burnt rice. I didn’t understand why they didn’t just bring all of the side dishes at once, but that’s a minor detail. The burnt rice was too burnt, if there’s even such a thing. It was crispy to the point of dryness, and it tasted like old rice to me. Kenny described it as «chewy.» It was very unappealing. The kimchi cabbage and cucumbers were the only side dishes that I enjoyed. I didn’t like the fish cakes, and I normally love that stuff. It just didn’t have enough flavor; it was very bland in taste. I didn’t particularly enjoyed the kimchi chives nor did I enjoy the potatoes (they were slightly sour). Then the worst part of all: the mackerel was too fishy. By this point, I felt a bit offended. They gave us expired fish? WTF…
Back in California, I’m used to cracking my own egg over the boiling bowl of tofu soup and then mixing it all in. This isn’t how they do it here at So Gong Dong though. It came out with the egg already in it, and my egg was a little more cooked than I would have liked. Kenny’s was still runny. I was really disappointed.
And sure, I like all the little baby oysters, mussels, shrimps, squid, and calamari that came with my soup but the soup in general was so bland that there was very little difference between Kenny’s and mine. So again, I was met with disappointment.
Save your money; don’t go here.

I used to love coming here for seafood and beef soondubu because it was the best soondubu in the city, but recently the service and the quality of food has gone downhill. The last three times I ordered steamed mandoo (dumplings) and Haemul Pajeon (seafood pancake), the mandoo wrapper tasted floury and the pajeon was runny. I sent them back each time only to be served with an attitude and still undercooked appetizers.
So Gong Dong raised the price for the soondubu several times over the past year and now is $ 10 for a bowl. I thought the price was justifiable with the raw eggs to crack into our boiling stew and large variety of sides, which included grilled sardines. My soondubu tonight came with just 4 measly banchan sides and no raw egg or grilled sardines. The soondubu was a little bit too salty for me tonight too.
So Gong Dong is a tofu house and is known for its tofu dishes. They do have good soondubu and that is all I can vouch for. But I am not sure it is worth the trip from downtown all the way to North Park area to have some tofu stew anymore.

Spicy Seafood soup aka «soondubu jjigae» order it again and again. My favorite spot for this tasty dish is Chicago. Prices are great, service is what it is, beer is cold.
Just go and try it for yourself, prove me wrong…