Natural Tofu Restaurant

L. A Kalbi, Spicy pork, bulgolgi, barbeque squid, bbq pig hock, beef tofu soup, and their korean styled pancakes. THESE are foods you must try. Prices are a tad high, considering most korean restaurants are but the food is very filling. They usually start you off with many trays of appetizers and then the main entrees come rolling in. These meals are usually meant to be shares amongst others — family style.
Dont forget to crack the egg open into the soon-​du-​boo (tofu soup) and let it cook a while. Extra tasty my friend.

Best bibimbap I’ve had. I LOVE how the rice against the hot stone bowl is actually crispy. Yum! The boolkoki is also really good; just a bunch of delicious marinated thin/​small pieces of beef with a side of white rice. They give you a bunch of little plates of pickled things and kimchi too, which is fun. The seafood pancake is just ok; it was too greasy for me so I didn’t have more than a bite. The people I was with said they thought it could’ve used a nice dipping sauce. This place is a little bit more expensive than I expected.

This place serves an awesome calamari that comes out on a sizzling plate. In general the menu is really good. Simple and short which I really prefer. The wait staff is courteous and attentive. Décor is a little in need of some serious love though.

not that great. service was okay.
— i saw a man (one of the chefs) empty ground meat from a plastic bag into a bucket with his bare hands as we walked into the restaurant. that’s UNSANITARY.
FOOD:
+ seafood pancake — tasty
+ bimimbap — we asked for spicy and this was not spicy. it had no flavor whatsoever. SKIP.
+ beef soondubu (sp?) — this was good, however we asked for spicy and it wasn’t.
The food was quite mediocre for what we paid. I’d say SKIP.

I got the L. A Kalbi and felt like the kalbi pieces were thin. I actually never had kalbi since my grandma passed, which was 15 years ago. And I’ve always remembered the kalbi she served were always thick and juicy.
Thankfully, this place gave you a lot of the kalbi pieces so it made up for their lack of thickness.
We also ordered the kimchi pancake and asked them to make it extra crispy, but it wasn’t crispy at all, so it was just alright.
The banchans (side dishes) were really good though even though they gave small portions.

Great Korean comfort food for the price! I wouldn’t list this as the best Korean food, but, I think it is the best deal in the area. It’s right next to the 40^th-​Lowery stop on Queens Boulevard. I’ve never had to wait for a seat. The service is fast. I love going here after a long day and I don’t want to cook. Yums! I like ordering their $ 9.95 do bu jigae as a medium (which is not very spicy). I made the mistake of ordering very mild once and it had no hot sauce in it whatsoever, but still tasted delicious. You can order certain soups to your spice level. I would rank their medium as mild. They take credit cards.

My wife and I liked this place a lot. The food is better than most of the Manhattan Korean restaurants and it is, not surprisingly, so much better value. Korean food doesn’t have to be expensive. Here, the soft tofu stew with clams and shrimp was really nice, although ordering it spicy did not produce a lot of heat. But the food is fresh with clean flavors. The side dishes were all great. And the BBQ chicken was really delicious. My wife tells me this is the same chicken dish, Dak Galbi, that the town of Chuncheon is famous for. We tried the original there one time, and I like the version here better (probably because it’s Americanized – more white meat, less fat, etc). Anyway, this is an excellent Korean restaurant.

I’ve been going here between six and 12 times per year for five years.
I ordered the seafood tofu soup, but it had enough MSG in it to preserve a horse. I ordered lightly spicy but it was watery for the first time. I don’t know what’s going on with this place.
A friend who goes there often said people are getting tired when they get home because of all the MSG. We think because it says «Natural» in the title we’ll get MSG-​free food.
It’s not MSG-​free, folks, and the quality has taken a hit.

This place is awesome. Great prices for galbi. Of course you don’t cook it yourself here but who cares when you have the same great dish for cheaper?
The kimchi pancakes are my favorite!
Sometimes they have issues with their internet that would make it cash only but other than that no complaints.

I don’t know who it is but there was some (possibly) new server I’ve never seen before. He has the worst service ever. Literally stares at my empty cup and side dishes and has the audacity to turn a blind eye. So rude, and unprofessional appearance (wobbling around and just leaning on chairs).
It’s almost like he knew he was terrible because he even had the other waiter come up to us to collect the check. (We were literally the only customers)
He became so much more alert when we asked for the check as well.
I used to love this place and its a shame I give the store a one-​star but the manager was also there and did not supervise anything to better assist.
Guess time made this restaurant worse.
#facts

No complaints. A good Korean tofu stew spot in the area. Authentic Korean too and affordable. Similar to BCD so I would just come for the stews that are about $ 10. Flavorful enough :) not out of this world but not bad at all !

This place is pretty convenient for me so I’m stoked to have found a cool Korean spot in the area that I like. Still looking to try more so I’ll update when I get around to that. We ordered the seafood pancake ($ 11.95) and a bowl of the kimchi soft tofu with pork ($ 9.95).
I’d say the seafood pancake was a bit bland but with the soy sauce mixture they give you with the free bon chon appetizers and some sriracha we asked for on the side, it was actually really good. But by itself it was a bit plain tasting.
The bowl of kimchi soft tofu was really really hot so we had to wait awhile to eat it. You get a raw egg to crack into it and let it cook which is fun. But it definitely takes some time so munch on some of the other things in the meantime. The pork was a bit dry but the broth was amazing, we ordered it medium and the spice was perfect for my taste. The soft tofu itself really didn’t do anything for me but the rest was great. Lots of flavor but still a kick of spice. My nose was running just slightly. I’d definitely try to seafood or beef next time though as the pork was a bit dry.
All in all, this place is really cool and I’d definitely give it another try. I’d maybe try some of the BBQ dishes next time.

As from previous reviews, the menu was limited but I enjoyed that. It’s soft tofu soup house, and they should leave the menu limited, which was fine.
Restaurant was clean. Waiter looked like he just woke up from his bed and took our order. Unfortunately, it took them about 15minutes to bring our food out. Place like this for tofu soup, it should take less than 10 minutes to cook our food especially since they only had 1 other customer in the restaurant.
Food was mediocre. We also ordered the Spicy Pork, Jeyuek Bokkum, presentation was sloppy. I know the meat is oily but I’ve seen better presentations of one of my favorite food.
Would I go there again? Probably not with all the other restaurants I’ve yet to explore in the neighborhood.

Pros: There wasn’t a lot of people on a Sunday. I got the combination tofu and the gabi. It was all great. The tofu is better than bcd tofu ‘s tofu. I didn’t notice any consistency difference and the mild is less spicy which i didn’t mind. Order a level of spicy up if you want spicy. The combination had a lot more clams and beef than the one at bcd tofu. The $ 17 galbi here was juicier and had more quantity than the $ 25 (normal price) galbi at bcd tofu. That’s a deal!!! They even cut it for you here.
Cons: I came here based on the good reviews. I read that the service wasn’t good here. I can see why. They forgot to give us four bowls of rice instead of three. However, The Spanish guy who works there made up it by coming by often to refill our water. The other servers did come When we needed them even if they weren’t in the actual vicinity.
The five side dishes were definitely lacking. The kimchi tasted sour and the only thing i liked was the bean sprouts. They refilled our side dishes when we asked though.
For two tofu bowls and galbi, total was ~$ 47. Better than normal prices at bcd tofu.
I would come again for the tofu and meat! And I’d try Korean bbq chicken!
One star off for the service and side dishes.

I love my mild spicy beef tofu stew. The spice was just right. There was only a few ban chans but they were good. Jap cahe was one of them. I usually order jap chae as a entrée but I was so happy that it was a side dish. My friends and I order an extra side of jap chae. It was delicious! They have very friendly service. There was a waiter that kept asking us if we wanted water. It was very nice of him. There wasn’t a lot of items on the menu which was good. I like simple menus more than the clutter ones. The bathrooms are separated into male and female. The storefront might seem small on the outside but it’s very spacious on the inside.

*Must Try: Seafood Pancake!
*Barbeque Boolkoki is really tasty.
*Combination Soft Tofu Bowl has everything you need. (Beef, Shrimp, Clams, Mushrooms.)
*ALL tofu bowls are ~$ 8.

Was excited to see they DIDN’T only serve tofu dishes.
However, the meal and experience was not great.
After sitting down, I was asked to order immediately after about a minute. I asked for a few minutes to look over the menu and didn’t see the waiter again for 15 minutes.
There are two prices on the menu. 80% of the dishes are $ 15 and the others are $ 10.
I went with the $ 10 Vietnamese noodles. Bad mistake.
This noodle dish is most similar to a ramen/​udon dish.
You get a huge bowl which seems awesome until you notice you just paid $ 10 for tasteless soup broth and a small portion of noodles sitting at the bottom, a few meatballs, and some beef.
The meatballs and beef were pretty good though.
Throughout the meal, my empty glass of water was never filled up until I asked for a refill myself.
The banchan they bring out at the beginning tasted pretty good though.
Basically, if you want to have a good meal here, order one of the $ 15 dishes.
On top of that, they have signs posted saying their credit card minimum is $ 15.
So you’ll have to bring cash or keep ordering.

Four stars because this place has solid tofu bowls that haven’t let me down. I always end up ordering the beef soft tofu and the seafood pancake when I go here. Korean food, especially tofu bowls, have always been a classic comfort food of mine. What I love about this place is that their appetizers change all the time — some of them are great and some of them are so so. Either way, the appetizers and the soup are all pretty good to prepare your palate.
What makes me give this place four stars instead of five is that this place is constantly understaffed. In addition, I get really bad service in this place for some reason, which is upsetting because how am I supposed to brag on social media about what I’m eating? In addition, there is a $ 15 minimum if I’m not mistaken, which makes it hard for me to come by and just eat a tofu bowl if I don’t have cash.
I would recommend coming here just because tofu bowls. Would I come back here? Definitely! It’s my local to go spot for tofu bowls.

It was really cold today so my bf and I decided to stop here and get some tofu. It was my first time here and the experience was great. Not many menu choices since they mainly focus on the tofu. I got the seafood tofu and it had one mussel, one shrimp and a lot of clam meat inside. It came with 4 options from very mild, mild, spicy and very spicy and I got the mild. The food also comes with 5 banchan (side dishes) and eggs to crack into your tofu soup.
Service was kinda off since we sat in the back and I had to walk up to ask for the check since the waitor mainly stayed at the front or behind the counter but I didn’t mind.
Interior is also nice and clean, quite spacious.

According to my Korean roommate, there is much better soondobu elsewhere. But if you’re having a craving for Korean in Sunnyside, this place satisfies.
Most items on the menu are around $ 8.95 (the soondobus). Service has always been good. I really enjoy all the little cold, pickled appetizers they bring to you before your meal.
No dessert menu. There is a credit card minimum.