Spring Rain

It’s been almost half a year since I’ve had Korean and I’m glad I managed to get my nom on before leaving the bay =D Between me and my friend, we had the:
–Haemul Pajeon (Best I’ve had to date! Crispy on the outside and lightly chewy on the inside with the perfect ratio of batter to seafood. The peppers gave it a nice kick too.)
–Assorted Soondubu
–Dumpling Soondubu (Very tasty, their «spicy» level was just right and it was loaded with tofu. Only two dumplings though =\)
The interior’s very clean and well laid-​out with plenty of space. I noticed our server wasn’t the most animated or friendly person ever, but she was prompt and got the job done so I can’t really complain.

Spring Rain was good but not good enough to justify their high prices. They offered a variety of banchan, as expected, but their entrees fell short.
I tried Seafood Soondubu which was really watery & lacked flavor. Their Bibimbap was a better option.
I miss So Gong Dong Tofu House in Milpitas. I’m still on the hunt for a good Korean restaurant in the Tri-​Valley.

P: This is where you’ll probably find the best korean food around the tri valley area. Although a bit pricey, the food is worth it. The tofu soup has really good flavor and is not bland like a couple others we’ve tried around the area. The bibimbap is good as well. I would like to try their pork belly, however, i don’t feel like spending $ 28 to see how good it is.
L: Good korean food. A tad expensive but the flavors of the food make up for it.
I like their dolsot bibimbap, beef tofu soup –so go gi soon dubu (spicy), samgyupsal, and yuk ge jang.
The banchan they serve could use some sprucing up but it’s not bad at all to begin with.
The lady who is always there is always pleasant and helpful.

Hate to give this place a bad review beacuse the owner of this place is so sweet but Spring Rain. there are definitely room for improvement.
Came here with the BF on a Sunday night (Btw, they are closed for lunch on Sundays) He went with the Beef Bulgogi Entrée ($ 16.99) and I went with the Seafood Soondubu Tofu Soup ($ 11.99). We got about 10 things of side dishes, nice quantity but bad quality. Most of the side dishes were pretty tasteless. The beef bulgogi came out 5 minutes after we ordered it, the portion was little and it was lukewarm. It seriously tasted like the meat had been sitting out the whole day and they just microwaved it. My tofu soup was not spicy (i got medium) and it was REALLY salty. The rice we both got was warm at best. It was just a really bad quality meal overall.
Probably my least favorite Korean place in all of Bay Area. If you are craving Korean food, go to Korean Village down the street.

I’ve been here a couple few times with a buddy for dinner. Service is good and food is good as well. I spent two years in Korea a long time ago and I know authentic Korean food when I taste it. This is it. The owner will also sell you a jar of hand prepared kimchi for a reasonable price which is very tasty. My only complaint is that the side dishes are not very numerous or inventive, but the food is reasonably priced so you get what you pay for I guess. LOL
In all honesty, I now prefer to go to their competition a short ways up the road. Yes, there are two authentic Korean restaurants in P-​Town! Who knew?

2^nd Korean BBQ place I’ve been to. The location is somewhat obscure… it’s right after the railroad tracks in Downtown Pleasanton. The outside of the restaurant doesn’t look right, it seems very out of place.
Anyways, on with the food! I was with 3 people and we ordered the BBQ short ribs and grilled pork belly. The food-​to-​price ratio was bad. The BBQ short ribs cost $ 18.99, while the grilled pork bellies cost $ 27.99. The amount of food per plate was barely enough for 1 person, let alone 4. We’re lucky we got all the appetizer plates and extra rice!
Service was okay, the hostess was nice and polite, but she would often bring out the wrong things and in the wrong order. It took a while for us to get our rice and napkins.
I gave this restaurant 2 stars because it lacks fast and reliable customer service, and the price for the amount of food given was very low. It’s a good place to try once, but if money is tight (isn’t it always) and you’re really hungry, then I would not recommend this restaurant.

I am so happy I stumbled onto this Korean place in Pleasanton. How it didn’t come up on the first page of search results when looking for Korean in Pleasanton is beyond me.
It’s closer to downtown Pleasanton. The lady in the restaurant was quite nice. It’s a very small place, and I can see how easily it can get super busy with very slow service. I don’t think she has any other staff helping her in the front of the house. I went for dinner.
I have to say — for this area, this is probably the best Korean food I had and the price was par, if not maybe a bit less, for Korean bbq. There are no grills here, all the food is prepared in the kitchen, but that’s okay by me, especially when I’m eating by my self.
There was an array of banchan, so it was nice to have a decent variety.
The place was so clean and neat, it was kind of weird. As if it was too perfect.
Overall, I’ll be back for sure, the next time I want Korean food and I’m up in the East Bay.

It was a rainy sunday. We had been sitting in traffic for 3 out of the last 5 hours on the road. We were tired, cold… and extremely hungry.
Now before I go on any further, I just want to mention that I’m of Korean descent. So I always compare the restaurant’s food to my mom’s own cooking. I call it the momma factor. The dishes can either be a win (if it’s of equal or better tastiness) or a fail (I can’t believe i’m paying for this shit). But I also want to say that I’m really easy to please because my mom’s cooking isn’t all that great. (but dont’ tell mom i said that!)
We had the Kalbi (short rib), dolsot bibimbap (mixed rice in stone pot), and the kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew).
Kalbi — It was very typical. Nothing special about it.
Dolsot bibimbap — I didn’t really like it. So much so that I asked for more sesame seed oil. It still didn’t make it any better. I piled on more of their spicy sauce. Unfortunately, it wasn’t «gochujang» but a more liquified version of it.
Kimchi jjigae — Now this is what is saved the restaurant from my having to endure my evil stink eye of korean food snobbery. Their jjigae was really good. It was really savory and really enjoyable.
If this restaurant were in the South Bay, it would be eaten alive by the abundance of amazing korean restaurants that we have. Fortunately for them, they are in an area where there isn’t much competition. I definitely wouldn’t travel out of my way to eat here. However, if I am in the area and REALLY REALLY REALLYcraving Korean food, I will come back. But that’s a huge if…

I have been craving Korean food since I moved to the far east Bay… the cultural desert that it is. We stopped by Spring Rain for lunch, around 2:30 on a Tuesday. I was excited to see that they were still serving the lunch menu. We really enjoyed the panchan: the turnip soup hit the spot, the celery pickle was delicious, as was the radish and the barbecued tofu. It makes me want to learn how to make these Korean pickles, I love them so much.
My BF and I both ordered the lunch special bi bim bap: him with beef, me with tofu, $ 8 each. The lunch serving does not come in a stone bowl and while it was still delicious, I missed it, because I love when the rice and the egg caramelize together and you have to scrape it off the bottom with your chopsticks (as many other reviewers have noted here). The hostess/​waitress was very attentive. Of course, we were the only people in the restaurant because it was 2:30 on a Tuesday.
I would thoroughly recommend this place and will go back the next time I am in Pleasanton or the next time I am in the mood for Korean… hmm, maybe tomorrow???

Higher than 3 stars, lower than 4. Spring Rain falls somewhere in between. It’s definitely solid:
— Panchan (Side Dishes): Decent number (9 types day we came) of normal variety. Nothing fancy. Just your regular cabbage, radish, cucumber kim chi, and sprouts, seaweed, etc.
— Dol Sot Bi Bim Bap: This is always good. The stone was nice and hot and so we were able to get lots of crispy rice. (Trick is to spread the rice upon arrival to increase surface area of rice to stone.)
— Kalbi: One of the best for not being a bbq place. Meaning they grill in the back and bring it to you. The sauce is on the sweeter side but the beef was tender and pieces were cut into the riblet sections. Tender, juicy. A favorite.
— Soon Du Bul: VERY flavorful. We all liked the soup base. Would have been a nice touch had there been a raw egg to crack into it.
— Pah Jan: Seafood green onion pancake appetizer. I’ve had better. This one needed more seafood to take out the doughy consistency. The crispiness was right though. A little heavy on the green onions. Felt it on my breath all night. Ick.
— Dok Bok Gi: So not on the menu but she said she’d make it for us. Yeah! And it was good. Super fresh rice logs, lots of veggies, and the right amount of spiciness, it’s a great homey item to have.
— Kim Chi Chige: Didn’t try this one but my friend really liked it.
We were the only table on a random Tuesday evening so we received undivided attention. The patroness/​chef was super nice and we could see she cared about her restaurant. The place was clean, well-​kept, had a pleasant feel. There’s a parking lot too which is nice. Agree with other Unilocalers that prices could be a little lower. Not the cheapest (group of 5 paid $ 19 each) but I did notice better quality on some of the dishes. No shikge, sweet rice water pine nut drink at the end of the meal, nor any sign of Yakult or melon gum. It’d be nice to have a little something at the end of the meal.
Good try — has potential.

There’s no other food that makes my mouth water like Korean food! Spring Rain in Pleasanton, serves up some decent Korean food and is one of the top Korean restaurants in the Tri-​Valley area.
I think overall, I am a pretty tough critic when it comes to Korean food and am always skeptical when people give any Korean restaurant 5 stars. But Spring Rain delivers decent food and is decently priced overall. I’ve seen lower prices but not by too much.
Spring Rain, is 3 stars A-​OK and here’s why.
THE FEEL: the place is very clean, with some sort of hard wood floor to keep it clean from all the rice and soups that splatter on the floor. I’ve been to too many Korean restaurants with carpet matted down with all sorts of food. yum. but this place is clean, restroom is very clean! Menu is presented nicely, not sticky and easy to read. Special dishes they are trying to sell are nicely displayed on the wall with photos that will make you drool.
BANCHAN (side dishes): It is standard that there be many and that they are replenished for free and on demand. so no bonus points here. But Spring Rain actually serves tasty, fresh banchan. Not stuff that looks like its been sitting around or maybe even… *gasp* recycled! Kimchees, pickled veggies, sprouts, tofu, spicy radish — varieties of crunchy, soft, spicy, tangy, sweet as Korean banchan should be!
This isn’t my first time here and so it would take too long to give pros and cons of every dish so i’ll narrow it down.
DOL SOT BI BIM BAP: mixed veggies over rice in a hot stone bowl that you can get with other meat on top (beef, spicy pork, spicy seafood, etc). It is so dang hot that your rice on the bottom turns crispy and lightly brown. It adds a nice crunchy, earthy flavor to the rice.
DWEN JANG JJIGAE: fermented soy bean soup. Sadly, way too salty. Now, i know salt is a preference thing. But I love salty foods, soups and restaurants in general put enough of the soy bean to make it salty. However, this place was over the top. I mean, my mouth and tongue lost moisture at some point. Solution is to ask them to redo or add broth to it.
GAM JA TTANG: Spicy pork and potato stew. The broth was pretty darn good. A nice spice to it and hits the spot when you’re feeling a little down, jet lagged or sick. However, the reason why so many people get this is to eat that pork because it’s tender, moist, filled with flavor and falls off the bone. But not this place. It was dry, like a brick and flavorless. Sadly, they boiled it too long. When we informed the waitress that’s what she said too and thanked us for letting her know.
YUK GEH JANG: spicy soup with veggies and shredded meat. It was pretty good! I was sick and this soup brought me out of my slumber!
BBQ: Overall, pretty standard. A little on the sweet side but it seems like a lot of Korean restaurants are trying to cater to our American palettes. One thing is you can’t cook the meat at your own table like you can at larger restaurants. Some people like this, some people don’t but it’s a pretty traditional thing to BBQ it yourself and serve it out to your friends and family.
Everything is served hot of course and the server/​owner is very nice. Overall, decent Korean restaurant! Give it a try if you’re in the area!

A Korean restaurant of this quality in the East Bay is definitely a rare find. The food here rivals the best Korean food you could get in the bay area. They also DO pay attention to their own Unilocal reviews!
Knocked down one star because sometimes service can be a bit slow when it gets busy.
I’ve been to this restaurant a couple of times now and have left each time very satisfied. They try to change up the side dishes they serve each time to mix things up every time you go! The bulgogi is as good as the bulgogi I could find in the better Korean restaurants in the South Bay. But my favorite dish that they serve here is definitely the Seafood Soup w/​Rice Dumplings. The soup is peppery and has a nice clam flavor base to it that gives it a taste you don’t normally find in Korean restaurants.
Order a bi-​bim-​bap, a half sized BBQ plate, and a soup and you’ll have a nice and filling meal for two in Korean food heaven.

Came here for lunch today and it was pretty good, but not, we thought, as good as Royal Tofu House. That may be because I had the Cheese Dol Sot Bibimbob, which is rice, bell pepper, and beef mixed up with Bibimbob sauce in a hot pot covered with cheese. (Jack or Mozzarella.) It was like the filling for a Korean Hot Pocket. Almost an Italian dish. Interesting, but I won’t try it again. My friends had the soft tofu soup and pronounced it good, though not spicy as requested.
Service was pretty good. I had to ask for more water once, but after that our server kept up with it. Its ironic that someone else said it was too hot in Spring Rain – we were freezing. Maybe there is no climate control at all?

Usually my family and I go to the Royal Tofu House in Pleasanton, but they are now closed for Sunday dinner. So, we decided to finally give Spring Rain a try.
Overall, I like Spring Rain. There are some things I wanted to highlight:
1. I liked the side dishes– apparently they make different ones every day, so you can expect a little change here every time you come in. A lot of the little side dishes which they served were items which I had not had before, so I thought that was pretty cool.
2. They have a very extensive Korean menu– probably the most extensive one I have found in the East Bay. I know most dishes– and there were several in there I had not heard of before, so I think die hards would really appreciate that.
3. The food was good. I thought my tofu soup was a little spicier and saltier than what I normally get when I order a medium spice, but I still liked it. Mine was the mushroom one, and it had inoki mushrooms in it, a grilled egg, and a pickled Chinese vegetable.
4. My only gripe with this place is price and food combinations. It is pretty pricey for dinner– so if you want to save a few bucks, come for lunch. The other thing is, there were no dinner combination options. Normally I like to get galbee and tofu soup together, but there was no such combination. I could have ordered the half order of the galbee with the tofu soup, but then it would have been super expensive.
Overall, a good experience and I would highly recommend this place to anyone who wants to go to a Korean restaurant with an extensive menu or wants a change from their usual Korean restaurant.

Round up to 3.5 stars. Yet my search continues…
Yes I am picky about my Korean food, and yes being that I have had some of the BEST Korean food during my life (spoiled from my parents home-​made food, LA and NY restaurants) that it’s hard to impress me with a large array of stars on Unilocal and an overload of banchan.
Therefore, only 3.5 stars…0.5 stars for effort. We started with the korean seafood pancakes… should have known from the picture on the menu I’d be disappointed… I personally don’t like that many green onions and bellpeppers in my pancakes, let alone an over abundance of it to make me want to stop eating the pancakes after 1 piece. Every once in a while I could see some squid in the pancakes, but not enough to make up for the overload of green onions, onions and bellpeppers… what is this a fajita?
Then the banchan… nothing spectacular, the typical assortment, the kimchee was awful, not enough spice and just blan pickled cabbage, bummer!
I ordered the ½ order of the bulgogi, which was OK. You can’t really mess up on bulgogi. My hubby had the Kalbi tang which was good. Again, can’t really mess up on Kabli tang, so that’s good.
Now the thing that kind of raised an eyebrow for me was the new «fusion» addition of Dol-​sup-​bi-​bim-​bap WITH cheese… huh??? I don’t know if I would categorize that as «Fusion» but hey, good try! Don’t get me wrong, our curiosity was heightened and we did wish we had tried it, since it was different, but I figure, if we had ordered it, we probably would have had a slab of KRAFT cheese placed on top of our bowl of steaming rice and would have been disappointed with our «fusion» experience, so thanks… but no thanks…
All in all, service was good, the location… ok…in downtown Pleasanton… the place is cute and clean. But it was really warm in there, AC please!!! Also, there was a bunch of people at another table contemplating the dating rules amongst each other and since this place is small… their conversation became everyone’s conversation… I was hoping one of them would stuff something in their mouths to turn the volume down on their ever-​so-​mind-​numbing conversation! blah!
Would I go back… for the «fusion» cheese bowl of rice, maybe… but honestly, I think not. Will go to Walnut Creek or Concord for some better options to the east bay’s Korean dining choices.

I came here with the boyfriend yesterday for lunch and ordered their tofu bowls. Service was a bit slow and it seemed to be the owner running everything that day. While I won’t say our experiance was bad, I wasn’t super impressed either. I think maybe we need to order something else off the menu because I don’t think their tofu bowls are their specialties.
We got about 6 sides, none of them were noodles, bean curd or tofu related, so I was a little dissappointed.
Also we both ordered our tofu bowls medium spicy since most restaurants usually throw in a lot of kick even for medium, but unfortunately if you want spicy you better ask for spicy here, even my white boyfriend wanted more kick!
Other than that I don’t want to rule out giving this place another chance, I liked the hole in the wall appeal of this place and would probably try coming here for dinner to try a few of the more authentic Korean dishes on the menu.

spring rain is a surprise find in the ‘burbs. they have many lunch specials 12 – 3 under $ 9. the dining room is decorated by pics of korean dishes and pics of korea society in brown tint.
samplings:
–hae mul soon du bu (10.95, clams, mussels, squid & soft tofu in house broth) pretty tasty soup. more impressive when i didn’t taste the prescene of msg. the waitress later reaffirmed this. their menu also mentions no msg used.
–7 fresh banchan. typical selections of the usual varieties.
their menu implies most sauces, broths, etc are made in house (sprng rain), not commercially made. looking forward to trying other items in the future. they also have a convienient take out menu on their website.

FINALLY! A Korean restaurant that is good in the Dublin/​Pleasanton area.
I just went there for lunch today. First thing I noticed was that it was very clean. So I crossed my fingers that it would taste good.
Their lunch prices are decent, most things are under $ 10.
I tried their kalbi, spicy pork bulgogi, and chap jeh. Their kalbi was delicious! Very tender and well marinated meat. Their spicy pork was a little strange to me. it had a pasty texture to it and it was spicy/​sweet. I’m not a huge fan of that dish. The chap jeh was really good though.
I’ll have to try their tofu soups and bi bim bop next time.
Try this place out!

I had a craving for tofu soup on Valentine’s Day so hubby obliged and off we went to try out Spring Rain. It’s located on the far end of the downtown strip. Clean restaurant with modern décor. There were 3 other parties there and no waiting — woohoo for downtown Pleasanton on a Saturday night… Valentine’s Day no less.
Side dishes were plentiful — at least 8 to 10. My tofu soup was piping hot and just the right spicy flavors. Hubby’s bulgogi was excellently marinated. Great meal and dining experience at a local mom & pop’s joint.
Will definitely be back!

I only had an appetizer here but the staff are really nice so that’s always a bonus. This small restaurant is tucked away from the main drag so chances are you, it won’t be too crowded. I’d probably go back here for some other Korean dishes when the mood strikes.