Gaesung House of Tofu

I’m sad to say, I found the food deeply unsatisfactory.
There are a few options for vegetarians, which is nice. However, I found the food very bland, as did the three people who were eating with me. The Kimchee was okay, but not great.
The waitress was very nice, but the food was disappointing. We won’t be returning, I’m afraid.

Pretty good… went here for lunch today with coworker and SIL.
Had the boiling pot of tofu with the tons of appetizers.
Pretty quiet place… not too many people must know about it. Service was nice and friendly (probably didn’t hurt that SIL is/​speaks korean).
A bit out of the way, but not a place to avoid.

Goish I haven’t been here in a long time, but I sure do remember how I loved this place.. .one of my favorite Korean foods is duk. duk bokki, duk gook, duk mandoo guk, or just plain duk.. .people say there’s no real flavor to it and I agree, but I just LOVE to eat it! (you can dip it in sesame oil, honey, almost anything really)
This place had my favorite duk gook because the duk was different than any other place. It’s called joh-​ran duk in which my mom told me it was North Korean style. It’s tiny balls of duk, kinda like boba but it’s white and more starchy. I also really liked their banchan because it was really fresh. Also, this place is kind of small, but I like the smaller setting because it makes the place feel more cozy.. .and when you’re enjoying a hot bowl of any soup, you want it to not only taste delicious, but comforting too (kinda like how you’d eat ramen on a cold rainy night.. .it’s perfect!)

Having lived right across the street for the last two years, it’s probably some sort of sign that I’ve never noticed this place. While the food isn’t horrible, I’ve had much better tofu soup (SGD Tofu House a bit further west, for one). For the most part, it’s just uncharacteristically bland for Korean food, which I consider anything BUT bland. And at these prices, they really should do much much better. Service is also a bit shoddy, with us having to specifically ask to have our tiny cup of tea refilled.
On the bright side, it’s pretty clean, and service is fast at least. Food comes pretty quick as well. And the banchans, unlike the main dishes, are actually quite good. One of them is this shredded beef dish, which I can’t say I’ve ever had anywhere else.

Ordered the Spicy combo tofu soup, perfect spice on a rainy day. Went around 4pm, no one around but the two workers who promptly seated me and had my tea and banchans on the table. Soup came out quickly too. $ 11 for a combo tofu soup with pork and beef. Banchans were mung sprouts, 2 kimchees, shredded BBQ beef (excellent), broccoli and rice in metal bowl (wish they served in stone pot)
Staff isn’t that attentive, even with only me in the place and sitting in a booth across the room from them, I ran out of tea and had to get my check. The meat was cubed, a little tough to me. No offer to refill banchans.
Same center as Smart and Final and Copenhagen Bakery.
They have a banner that Happy Hour starts at 6pm, haven’t tried it yet to see what they have to offer.

OK, so I’m not a big fan of Korean food, considering I don’t really like meat and spicy food makes my face turn red and splotchy.
But I found a few things that I like at Gaesung, which makes me happy. I had the mungbean pancake and the tofu salad, and shared a few other dishes with friends.
The mungbean pancake is delicious! It’s just a little crunchy and not too oily. The tofu salad was also good, but the tofu is ground, instead of in little squares, which makes it kind of hard to eat. I tried a few bites of my friends’ meat dishes and they were all pretty flavorful. Oh, and the side dishes were very yummy!
The service was very friendly, although there were a few minor communication problems with our server. It would have been easier if we were with someone who spoke Korean.
The food here is a little bit pricier than I had expected ($ 15 – 20 per person maybe), but you do get a lot of side dishes, rice, etc. with your meal.
I am rarely in the mood for Korean food, but when I am, I will come back here again.

This place has a solid reputation for having terribly rude service. The food is fairly decent, but I can’t get over how AWFUL the service has been every single time I’ve been here. I’m not asking for someone to polish my shoes while I wait, but their appalling lack of service is a complete turn-​off to the food.
The last time I was here, I met my mother here for lunch after the peak lunch rush. There were a couple of other tables served by only one woman, so it was by no means busy. By the end of our meal, there were only two other tables. I guess the waitress knew someone at one of the other tables because right after handing us the bill she then spent the next 15 – 20 minutes talking to them. It was pretty impossible for us to get her attention, and even though we were polite, she had this attitude of superiority.
There are plenty of other good Korean restaurants on El Camino, so I really don’t see a need to ever go here again.

Some of the servers may come off as rude, but that’s ok. Owner pulls enough weight. I LOVE THE OWNER!!! Think of the cartoon Mr Chau that you see on TV. now imagine the Korean Version. YES!!! THAT HAPPY CHEERY OLD MAN MAKES MY FOOD TASTE 10X BETTER (And the food taste damn good already). I absolutely adore his warm and friendiness and love for children.
Now down to the food, VERY CLEAN TEXTURE!!! ENOUGH SAID!!! I feel so damn healthy when I’m grubbin there. The cooking is very well done and precised. Perfect texture each time.

There gotta be a reason why I keep coming back to this restaurant. Considering how many Korean places are on El Camino, it must be hard to make customers come back again and again. Well, GHoT totally won me at hallo!
The cold weather and gray sky made me want to have the tasty and hot Soon Tofu.
As soon as we were seated, we got a hot cup of tea. After we ordered (Seafood for me and Pork for my buddy), we got the small dishes… hmm… Open the little silver lid on the rice bowl and smell the sweet steam… very peaceful. Those small dishes would be almost enough for my lunch, but then we saw 2 stone bowls bubbling with fire red liquid dumped on our table. Crack open row egg and wait patiently for another minute for the egg white to slightly harden. When you break the york, it disappeared in the red soup and making it slightly orange in color. Chunks of tofu and shrimp head and seafood chunks appeared as I mix the soup and egg round and round… Awww! I love the soon tofu in the cold day!!!
Quick and friendly service, and food is awesome! Love the price and plenty of parking as it is located in the large shopping strip mall.

I been here twice. I love kimchi tofu, my favorite place is Kang Nam but i live so far away from it. so when i don’t feel like driving to milipitas for tofu soup i just come here. its not as good as Kang Nam, but it’ll do. Its one of the better tofu house, more flavorful than SGD’s and Corner Place’s tofu. I love the place decorations, i mean the settings really nice, clean, quiet, classy for korean joint.
Extra points for the pan-​chan, its yummy, and they give you like 10 variety, (some places only give you six) however, their menu is rather limited, not much to choose from and its more pricey than your average korean cuisines. Overall, I think i like the place, definitely recommend it for tofu soup. i’ll come back since its one of the more tasteful place in the area.

First time I came here was introduced by a Korean coworker. He said this place has authentic Korean food. I had a sanche bibimbap and he said «Good choice… good choice.» The dish has tons and tons of veggie and some beef on the top. It is considered a cold dish because only the beef and rice are warm. It is great for a hot summer day. It is very light and refreshing. I love it.
Yesterday, I took my boyfriend here for lunch because I wanted him to try out the sanche bibimbap or maybe I was craving for it… hehe =). So he got that and I got the mushroom soon tofu. Both were delicious. The tofu was really soooooomoooth and tons of flavors.
BTW, they have 6 side dishes and one of them I didn’t see it at any other Korean restaurants. It is the stew beef strips… very juicy.
You can also try their Mung Bean pancake which my Korean coworker said elsewhere doesn’t have it. It was pretty good, but I prefer the seafood pancake more… crispier.

So it’s been something like 6 or 7 years since I last visited this place. Whether it was the same restaurant back then or not, I do not remember, but I do remember it having soondubu.
So today, I was taken here by one of the other VCs that I work with, who nearly always takes me to Korean restaurants (since he’s one of them), with the exception of the time he took me to lunch at Bleu Ginger.
So we ordered this interesting kimchee dish, where it was kimchee as normal, but was artfully done where the cabbage was split to look almost like a pumpkin. We also ordered another appetizer that looked like pajeon, but was made from yellow bean.
I ended up ordering the original soondubu, but the other guys ordered this hot beef soup dish that looked way better. Not to say that the soondubu was bad, but after seeing the size of the stuff the other guys I got, I started getting hungrier and hungrier.
For the shitty little strip mall that this restaurant is located, it’s good that the restaurant itself wasn’t too bad inside.

Clean. It was empty when we went in close to noon so was a bit concern and suprised. Maybe it’s the location? It’s in a small strip small with plenty parking.
Anyway, limited menu so deciding what to have was not difficult. I had the tofu with kimchi and beef and asked for EXTRA EXTRA spicy, but alas it wasn’t. The paste they provided was more sweet than spicy. Further request brought out a small dish of chili powder — I give up. Nonetheless, it was good.
The little dishes they brought out were ok — great that they keep refilling as asked. Two items I had not seen in other restaurants in the past — one is broccoli and the other is shredded beef. Others were more the standard items — kimchi, seaweed (wasabi flavored), daikon, bean sprouts…

I’ve been here quite a few times through the years. The décor was always a draw — a calm, clean and contemporary. The food was consistently good until my last visit. Now — I’m not good with the names of Korean foods, but I ordered a soup with short ribs that ended up being a big disappointment. The soup was bland and the beef looked like a boiled piece of meat. Not appetizing.
The banchan is good — especially when you’re hungry and want something to munch on before the meal arrives. I love the seaweed, boiled greens — and those itsy, bitsy little fish.
I’m not crossing them off my restaurant list, but I’ll probably order the bi bim bap next time I’m there.

i met a friend for dinner last night thinking i’d never been here before but when i pulled up, i realized i had when i lived in the south bay because i recognized the store front.
i was not impressed with the banchan here, particularly the kimchee. there was a lot of variety but none of them tasted that good. the combination soondubu was ok and the seafood pajon was fine.
there are too many other good korean places in the sunnyvale/​santa clara area to go back to this place. i hope helen starts eating land animals again soon so we can go to seoul gom tang.

I’ve been here twice. The first time was pretty good but a bit too long ago for me to write an accurate review. Came back for dinner tonight and was not so impressed. I gave it two stars for the clean, calm atmosphere and the generous number of little dishes (kimchi, etc.) that come with your meal. The mung bean pancakes were awful – they tasted like flour and stale oil, and that’s it. The chap chae (sauteed glass noodles) was weirdly dry. And the soup didn’t really have much «soup» going on – mostly a big mash of broken-​up tofu.
Also, the service was surprisingly bad considering my friend and I were the only customers in the restaurant. Aside from taking our order and bringing the food out, the two waitresses pretty much ignored us and had a really nice, long chat in the back the whole time we were there. I approached them once, asking for more tea about an hour after my cup had first been filled; they said, «yeah»; and the tea never came. So I went up, grabbed the tea pot, and helped myself a few times. Also, I say «tea» but what we were drinking was actually pale green water.

I was pretty disappointed in the food. The place was very clean and the pan chan was okay, but nothing amazing. My bulgogi was good during the first couple bites, but the rest tasted dry and hard. The soondubu broth was not too salty, but nothing spectacular either. The prices here are a bit high in my opinion for this area. I mean $ 11.50 for tofu soup and $ 22 for kalbi is a bit pricy I think for a tofu house. My stomach kind hurts now too. Boo. The service was super slow and not very good. More a 2.5 star.

Definitely one of the better Korean restaurants in the area. The décor and atmosphere is really nice, kind of like modern Korea w/​a traditional flair to it.
The service here is really good. The servers are prompt, friendly, and attentive to your needs. They don’t make you wait for all the small side dishes either after you order. And oh how good those side dishes are. The marinated potatoes are so addictive, don’t be surprised if they run out if you eat here late night.
The food itself is awesome. This place probably serves the best Jap Chae I’ve had. It’s served at the perfect temperature and has a slight hint of pepper that just enhances the flavor. The Gal-​Bi is also amazingly good. Marinated and cooked to perfection. Their hot tofu is nice and spicy and full of fixings that are bound to make you full. What I really like about their tofu too, is it’s not flaming spicy that you need to down a tub of water, but rather spicy enough to provide a good kick and taste.
I will say that it is kind of pricey here, but the extra few bucks you put in compared to other Korean restaurants are definitely worth it. I wish the location was a bit better though as it is in kind of a dumpy strip mall. .. At least that means there’s plenty of parking :).

Very few Korean joints taste like shit. It’s hard for a Korean cook to mess up when there’s crack salt, dahshidah (MSG), next to their spatula. But take the magic powder away and watch the cheaters get stuck in the sifter. And who’s left? Gaesung House of Tofu.
Not good, but a GREAT Korean restaurant that doesn’t cheat with flavor and truly cares about feeding their patrons food straight outta da Land of the Morning Calm. Their beef broth, the basis for most of their soups, tastes like hours of simmering and method, not crack salt. The banchan is thoughtfully made. The haemool pajun (seafood pancake) is fresh and beautifully fried.
The owner’s care extends to the meticulously calm décor. The servers are professional and thorough.
You know, as I write this I have a strong desire to meet the owner. I truly respect her business and integrity that shows in the food, service, and décor.

In reading the previous reviews, I realized that some clarification may be necessary: Korean cuisine varies by geography, just like Chinese food can be Mandarin, Cantonese, Szechuan, Hunan, etc.
Gaesung is an area of Korea in the north, where the cuisine is renowned for light, less spicy, «more refined» taste. So if you’re used to firehouse Korean food, typically from the southern part of the country, you may be disappointed by this restaurant.
That being said, this restaurant really excels at Gaesung specialties, such as bossom kimchee, pumpkin jigae, soon dubu (soft fresh tofu stew), seafood green onion pancake, fresh snowman duk kuk, and their pan chan (side dishes) are truly superb. It isn’t a barbeque joint, though my son is always happy to eat their galbi.
I’ve eaten here many times with friends and family, and the restaurant has never failed to please. You can tell by the number of Korean clientele, especially Korean businessmen who are entertaining on weekday evenings, that this restaurant has a strong following.