DdukTak

Below-​average Korean restaurant, with excellent service.
Fried Chicken = It was cold and undercooked. Pretty horrible.
Odeng Tang = The fishcake soup was lukewarm and meh.
Pa Jun = Too mushy
I would come for drinks and the service, but definitely not the food.

The ice makkeoli here is quite tasty. The food is pretty good too. Lots of Koreans, needless to say. Definitely better than Pocha. This place and Pan are my go to Korean joints when I feel like eating a real Korean meal and don’t mind spending a pretty penny.

Crispy Kimchi Pancake! That’s the only thing I remember after stopping here for a snack and a drink. Which is fine, because we only ordered the pancake and a bottle of soju. After «stopping for a drink at a couple places» that night turned into «we have to eat and drink» at every place near us, I’m surprised that I remember this place at all. Based on their kimchi pancake, which is one of my favorite pancakes I’ve had anywhere, at the very least DdukTak seems like a cool little spot to do the soju and snack thing.

Really really good spicy tofu soup/​stew. I usually don’t like spicy foods, but this was incredibly delicious! The soup has tofu, pork, kimchi and rice cake. It was so good the flavor lingered in my mouth for hours afterwards and didn’t want to eat anything else to ruin it. My boyfriend ordered a stir-​fry seafood rice noodle dish which was also amazing and definitely want to come back for. The only set back was that it took a while for the food to get to our table because they were swamped with a huge group that came in suddenly. Aside from that, the service was friendly and the food is definitely worth coming for!

Omg best ice makkoli and jeon!

Food 4 stars. Service 0 stars.
I came here with a couple friends on a Friday night around 10pm. There was no wait, and the place was crowded but not really full, so it was surprising to hear our waitress say upfront when taking our orders that there was a backup in the kitchen and that our food would definitely take around an hour. Even though we ordered like, noodle dishes. Oh well. The ambience was nice, and so we got some cocktails. Waited for the panchan to nibble on… but no. It wasn’t coming. I asked the waitress about it, and she seemed surprised. Maybe my fault — but what kind of Korean restaurant doesn’t serve panchan? She brought us a tiny plate of kimchi. We had it refilled about 4 times. So 1.5 hours later, we get our noodle dishes — spicy chicken and seafood noodle stews. It was hearty and delicious, and not just your run of the mill stuff that you see everywhere. But still. 1.5 hours. really??? with nothing to nibble on???

Formerly Baden Baden, Dduktak surprisingly has a bit more mellow atmosphere than other Korean bar/​restaurant/​pub in the Koreatown areas where you can really have a conversation with your friends over some drinks. They have tables and the place is pretty well lit. We arrived around 10pm and the place wasn’t that busy at all. The prices were pretty much the same as other Korean places in the city. The food was alright, nothing spectacular or special. Got the Osam Bulgogi (Calamari+Spicy Pork) which was tasty and not overwhelmingly spicy nor sweet which was good. The waitress was pretty attentive to our needs and we felt appreciated. Me and my buddies started out with Makkeoli and then after 11pm, we probably drank like 7 bottles of soju and left the establishment around 1am.
QUICK TIP: Arrive here after 11pm and your bottle of soju will be half price or instead of paying $ 15 per bottle, it will be $ 7.50 which is awesome.
I wanted to «Check-​in» to this place but for some reason, it doesn’t appear in the search results on Unilocal for Smartphones. Wonder why @_@

For the price, the food was meh. Service seemed to be a little retarded. I good of the elevator and waited to be seated. The waitress was at the other end getting some drinks and a few minutes later another server walks past me I guess coming back from his break to get back to work. Yeah well here I am, gonna seat me or what? No, a few minutes after the the waitress told him to acknowledge me and that’s how I got seated. Looked through the menu and decided to settle on the fruit punch and Soondae bokkeum. The punch was kinda gross. It was a big bowl of chunky chopped fruit, sprite and yogurt. The Soondae bokkeum wasn’t anything special either but it was good. I won’t be returning though.

This place is located upstairs on the second floor, hidden behind other K-​Town restaurants. We came here to celebrate our friend’s birthday and luckily they had a sign that said that if it was your birthday you get a free cake. They really meant it when they said cake. We were expecting a tiny dessert with one little candle but what they had brought us was a huge cake that must have been at least $ 20! How sweet of them!
Food was pretty good. We ordered a seafood rice cake dish that was really spicy. Prices were reasonable.

You have to know what to order here as with most restaurants in k-​town. The spicy seafood ricecakes (haemul ddukboki) are delightful. The omelet is good and the sweet and sour fried chicken dish is excellent. Order the flavored rice wine (makgulli) for the ladies. It will get them drunk. It’s a chill place to drink and eat good korean bar food.

My friend bought me here for the DukkBuki (rice cake) dishes, and I was skeptical because A) It’s in Ktown, and B) last time I had Dukkbuki dish in Ktown, they literally had 8 pieces of Dukk that was probably the same price as DdukTak.
To my surprise, the two Dukkbuki dishes, one spicy Seafood with mozzarella on top, and the second was the DukkTak Dukktak special. Both of them were unique to any dukkbuki dish I’ve had and exceeded my (somewhat low) expectations. I brought my friends here for a second time, and that time we ordered the same dishes along with a Daak DoriTang (Chicken Soup) with Malkeoli (Alcohol Rice drink) and it was really filling, tasty, and the service was really helpful.
I for one am always disappointed with service in Ktown and the people at DdukKTak were really helpful.

I thought that compared to other K-​Town restaurants, this one was actually a lot more modern and menu-​friendly to people who might not know much about korean food. (read: a lot of food pictures). It’s a bit hard to find if you don’t know the exact location, so maybe they can do more to promote themselves. I only knew about its existence through Unilocal.
The menu is not that extensive, again, compared to the other restaurants, and the food is hit and miss. I ordered some of the pork dish that turned out to be really weird and not what I expected at all, so I ended up only eating like a fourth of it. But I was saved by the dish that my friend ordered, a spicy chicken kimchi stew that was actually pretty good. BUT, I had seen that dish earlier on the menu and it didn’t look too appetizing. My friends too had dishes that they were ambivalent about.
The ambience is great though and more in line with places like Third Floor Café than Wonjo or Kunjip. I see a lot of young people, sometimes drinking more than eating, which is fine since they have a good selection of soju and sake.

Terrible! Possibly the worst korean restaurant I have ever been to.
I came here with high hopes because Baden Baden used to be an old hangout… Sorely disappointed!
First of all — does not even TASTE korean — the Potato pancake tasted blah. Ordered the ojingo bokhum, some soondae dish, and some kimchi + tofu dish — each dish was $ 18 – 25, tasted EXACTLY the same, contained BARELY any meat, and was SO spicy that none of us could eat it and was topped with chopped collard greens??? WTF!!! Terrible service too.

too pricy for such quality and quantity.
an entre ranges like 15 – 20 something like wtf. even the simplest thing, kimchi fried rice, is NOT GOOD. Just plain kimchi with rice, and a little side salad, and an egg. Even small food court’s has sliced meat and other shit in the dish.
It’s on 2^nd FL.
No traditional appetizers either.
Not recommended.

there are better places in K-​town. The prices are higher than other places and the nak ji bokeum was good but was so spicy. The service was sorta bad, they didn’t come refill our water when our glasses were empty when they kinda just stood there. The place was kinda empty when we went on a wednesday. I guess to have a good, time you actually have to drink alcohol.

Very over priced. Everything tasted just like Chinese take out to me. The seafood pancake was pretty good but the one dish I got had cheap iceberg lettuce on the side. Not coming back.

Good bye to «Baden Baden» and say hello to «Dduk Tak»!!! That’s right folks. the old Baden is OUT and they have built this new place instead. the bar area is totally gutted out and there are only table sitting…
If you are familiar with Korean culture, then you will understand that Makgulli (rice wine) is a traditional drink that is well served with either kimchi or hearty seafood pancakes… I’ve been to pretty good traditional restaurants in Korea and this obviously cannot compare. However, the slurpee rice wine with actual ice floating inside the big bowl is to die for. make sure to order their version of the pancakes and some soup dish like mussels or odeng (fish cakes)… AWESOME!
Definitely going back…

Great food and atmosphere. Friendly service is also a plus. The cold snail dish was one of the best I’ve ever had, including the ones I’ve had in Korea. Mango Mak Gul Le cocktail was little too sweet for our taste but still good.
Revising the review after second visit with larger party, which gave us an opportunity to try out more dishes. It turns out that not all dishes are great as the snail. While nothing was bad, most of them were little too spicy even for us Korean. Service was also bit worse than our first visit, even though we had the same waiter! The fresh mak gul le was refreshingly served with thin sheet of ice on top, and the kal gook su (hand cut noodle soup) saved us from burning our mouth with all other spicy dishes.

The nak ji bokeum was awesome on a bed of udon noodles. The kimchi fried rice was one of the best I’ve ever had, altho the sunny side up egg could’ve been a little bit more runny. The soondae bokkeum was bomb w/​lots of glass noodles and crunchy sesame seeds. The kimchi pajeon was also very tasty — crispy yet chewy w/​lots of kimchi, the way I like it.
The icy mak gul lee was good too!

Stars: 4.5
Although I am usually reluctant to admit it, I guess it’s time I come to grips with the truth. My name is Diane and I am a Ktown regular. Though I frequent the many bars and restaurants of 32^nd street more often than I would like to admit, it goes without saying that reverting to Ktown is more out of habit than about quality. That being said, I am both thrilled and surprised to present Ktown’s newest addition — Dduk Tak — a place that really sets itself apart from the rest.
Highlights:
— Soondae Bokum (really spicy but the winner of the night and a MUST try!)
— Potato Cheese Jun (think large hash brown pancake w/​melted cheese and flavorful condiments)
— Seafood Ddukbokki with cheese (yum!)
— Odeng Tang (fishcake stew/​soup — perfect for the cold weather)
— Nakji Bokum (spicy squid stir fry w/​udon noodles)
— Tofu Kimchi Bokum (tofu is soft and delicious!)
This is my new favorite place in Ktown because it has AMAZING food, good drinks, and great atmosphere. I first heard of this place a week or two back when promoters were handing out cards for their grand opening. Thinking, «Ahh, just another bar/​restaurant opening in Ktown,» I chucked it in the trash and thought nothing of it. But after hearing from a friend that the food was pretty good here, I decided to give it a try. I AM SO GLAD I DID!.I walked in with a group of friends around 6pm on a Saturday. There were only 2 or 3 tables with people, but as the night progressed (we were there for awhile) the place really filled up and had this nice buzzing vibe to it. It combines the traditional Korean drinking atmosphere (without being ghetto) and a relaxed comfortable feel (think Pocha but cleaner and cozier). It’s perfect for getting dinner and hanging out with a group of friends. THey play good music (both Korean and American) and the wait staff was very nice and friendly. If you’re planning on doing the typical Ktown bar/​club crawl, this would actually be a great place to start.
FOOD: The food is seriously phenomenal and that is coming from a foodie that is hyper critical of Korean food. It has your really traditional run of the mill dishes, but also has a bunch of fusion-​y dishes that are delicious (and the best part is they aren’t pretentious about being «fusion»). We ordered number of dishes and shared. The highlights above were my personal favorites. They had so much stuff on their menu, I’m actually really excited to go back and try the rest of it.
DRINKS: They have all your standard Korean alcohol, but also have some new spins on old favorites like makkoli cocktails. We stuck to what we know this time around (regular makkoli and ohship) but I foresee a lot of future drinking, eating, and trying new dishes/​drinks here.