Keungama Tofu House

Hmm… So after trying this place out yesterday, I’m a little confused about all the mediocre ratings for this restaurant. When my parents chose this place to eat for lunch, I naturally whipped out my phone to browse the Unilocal reviews and due to the not-​so-​impressed consensus, I was a bit skeptical about the quality of food we were about to eat.
This restaurant is a mom-​and-​pop, and it may be a little hard to spot if you’re not looking. The entrance is through a parking lot in the back, and it’s like one of those hidden gems in DTLA.
We decided to get 2 menu items to share among the 3 of us: the potato stew (gamjatang) and yookgaejang. We got our rice in dolsot, which is a Korean stone pot that makes the rice crispier and overall just — better. It will take a bit longer if you order dolsot rice so just be prepared to wait for your food to come out. It’s way better than a regular rice bowl so I’d say it’s worth the wait.
The portions are VERY generous — we were full from sharing 2 menu items among the three of us. You definitely feel like you’re getting your money’s worth here. If you’re planning to come here alone/​not planning to share, any of the soondooboo menu items seem perfect for one serving (based off what I saw from other people ordering).
The quality of the food was great — unlike a lot of other Korean places where spiciness and overall taste is solved with a lot of MSG, this place seemed to know how to make good tasting food while maintaining the integrity of the dish. My mom never uses MSG when she cooks, so our family has become very aware of the difference in taste when a restaurant does or does not use MSG, and we all agreed that the food quality was great.
The service also surprised us. The lady actually asked us first if we needed anything or if wanted any more banchan, which sad to say, was the first time this has happened while eating at a Korean restaurant in DTLA.
Lastly, this is just a small tidbit but we thought it was pretty unusual. Senior citizens are able to get a meal here for just $ 5 during their lunch hour (1130−2pm), INCLUDING TAX AND TIP. Impressive effort to reach out to the community.
Next time, we’re planning to try out one of their soondooboo, since it seems that’s their speciality. We’ll be back!

DO NOT GO HERE! SAVE YOUR MONEY AND TIME! I think I had one of the worst restaurant experiences tonight unfortunately. We had a group reservation for 7pm and they knew that we were coming. We ordered the food, but several of us, including myself, did not get our food until 8:40pm. That’s right…1.5 hours from the time we ordered until we got our food. It was a simple dish, too. The «sulung tang.»
I think the worst part of the experience, however, was the interaction with management. When we asked why it was taking them so long, they were completely unapologetic about how slow and bad the service was. They said the reason they served some of our food later was because we ordered later. This just was not true. We all ordered at the same time.
We really had to leave because we had other plans for the evening, and they only offered to pack the food that hadn’t come yet to go for our friends at our table who hadn’t eaten. That was quite insensitive. I’m not sure if they understood, but by that time our friends who hadn’t gotten the food did NOT want to eat because we all had to go.
Finally, they admitted that our food orders shouldn’t have taken that long to come out, and the manager said to us «Come on, you’re korean, we’re korean, right?» I’m not sure exactly what she was trying to insinuate through that comment but perhaps she was trying mend things.
Anyway, if you’re willing to spend a lot of time on overpriced, average tasting food at best, take your chances here. Unfortunately I and my friends won’t be any longer.

It was late at night and we decided to eat here because of the «tofu» name (thought all the food was vegetarian). They do have vegetarian/​vegan options but the restaurant is def. meat centered. Got a veggie clay pot. It was okay. The place looked clean, which was a plus.

Wasn’t feeling too well this morning so decided some spicy hot broth would make me feel better and clear my sinuses up. Though none of the workers spoke any English, we somehow managed to come to an agreement on a beef and dumpling soup with spicy broth. Though the beef was a little tough, it was definitely one of the better broths I’ve had. Dumplings were good and there was a good amount.
Banchan was average. But the purple rice was excellent.
Considering it’s basically next door to school, I’ll be back

I’ve been to Seoul a few times and this place has some charm about it. Never too busy, good food. I love Seong Buk Dong also, but this spot is more chill.

After finishing work at the cute coffee shop in this complex (Space e. um) I was on my way out and saw a sign for this next door establishment. Living near Westlake area, I am super close to ktown but hate to deal with the insane parking and people situation so it was awesome to know this place existed because it has garage parking, is super close to me and not crowded (mostly a bunch of middle-​aged Korean dudes kicking it after work). I walked in at 9pm (1 hr before they closed) and was immediately greeted by a waitress to be seated. Told her wanted to-​go and ordered one of my favorite dishes, spicy cold noodles at the counter easily and got my order in 10 minutes. Haven’t eaten in so can’t say anything about service which many reviewers committed about but seemed fine to me (btw I’m Asian but not Korean so wasn’t preferential treatment or anything).
Got home and liked that they separated the ice soup from the noodles to not make it soggy. The noodles were delicious, they not only have thinly shaved cucumber on top but also thinly sliced apple pieces that added an awesome slightly sweet crunch to the starchiness of this noodle dish. The pickled radish and spicy paste were yum (not too spicy although I am Thai so my tolerance is a bit different). Noodles were not too sticky or soft and were smooth especially once combined with the cold soup. This place is a tofu house so if they’re already good with a non-​tofu dish like cold noodles, I can’t wait to come back to try the soon du bu with their homemade tofu!

Good tofu but lacking in service. Until I find something great in food +service, this is going to remain my go to tofu place due to its location. Easy parking.

their food is mediocre, their service is average (depending on who you get, some bad, some great, so it averages out), and their regular (they don’t call it medium) tofu is extremely spicy. Service might be better when there are few customers.

I want to rate this place as a one star restaurant, but I’m not angry. I just don’t feel satisfied with the food and the slow service.
This restaurant is not the worst, but I am never going to suggest going back.
The side dishes are mediocre at best and the food is definitely below average.
I ordered the vegetable soondubu and it was basically a regular soondubu without meat/​seafood, but the same price.
Please do not come here.
Please don’t.
You are worth it.
You do not deserve this type of service.
(If you guys are wondering why I have a lot of check-​ins here, it might be because the adults I’m with frequently suggest we come here…)

Is this place trying to go out of business?
Service sucked, this one dish we ordered tasted so bad I told the server that something might have been wrong with the dish. They called someone who looked like the owner and he just ignored us, so we decided that to eat that dish and ordered something else. Came here 3 times in a row and the last one was just BADDDDD. Only one server during dinner time and there was about 7 tables all demanding service. I felt really bad for the server. Food isn’t the greatest, and price isn’t that great too. I did stop going to this place after my last bad experience, and I don’t think I will ever go back.

What can I say about this place that no other person who knows about delicious food haven’t said before.
Well, this is a very well hidden gem in K-​town, the «bold style» that they used to prepare their dishes actually makes the great difference compared to other places that serve tofu soups. If you add that to their very reasonable prices and quiet enviroment results to a go-​go establishment.
Kudos Keungama, expect to see me there very often from now on.

This is literally one of those hole in the wall places that you probably wouldn’t know was there. We came on a whim since we were craving some korean tofu. The waitress’s here definitely do NOT speak english so you have to point to what you want to order. But on the off hand luck she did speak chinese! That was the most hilarious and interesting ordering experience ever. Apparently she was a korean exchange student to china so learned to speak mandarin while she was there. But TMI, the service here was still soso. It felt like a mom/​pop kind of joint. The food was very traditional korean soondabu with country-​ish feel to the ponchon (side dishes). The food is SPICY even if you order mild. However, the overall flavor is just not that memorable.
Overall the experience was just ok with ok food.

The food was ok. Nothing special but the service really needs some help.
They didn’t know how to speak English, so they kept on sending different people to try to get our order. … This was after the fact that we had to wait over 10 minutes (after being seated) to even the get the menu.
Overall, horrible experience and ok food.

I am no expert on Korean cuisine but even I can tell that the style of food at Keungama Tofu House is different from other places I’ve tried in Koreatown.
The food tastes rustic, country-​style, with bold flavors. My favorite dish here is gamjatang, the spicy pork and potato stew. It’s very simply prepared and not loaded down with additional vegetables. It’s just the pork neck, potatoes, the spicy stew, perilla leaves, and the perilla seeds. It’s absolutely delicious and I have to eat it at least twice a month.
Now that they know me, they are very friendly and gracious whenever I come, either to dine in or take away.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover this cute restaurant~~ on a Saturday night, they had a private parking lot with no valet required.
This restaurant is quite large– they have private dining rooms too for large gatherings. I ordered the gamja tang (pork bones stew with potato) and my bf ordered gom gook (ox tail soup). To be honest I’ve never had gamja tang ($ 10.99)
before, but the broth was so flavorful, thick, and it reminded me of a spicy stew. You have to work with the bones and it can be a bit tricky eating the meat, but it was really tender and fell off the bone.
The gom gook ($ 9.99)
broth was light yet had a really meaty flavour– it was my first time trying that as well. It came with an entire soup-​sized bowl of green onions and accompanying salt + pepper.
It seems to cater to an older crowd and I can see why. The food here is classic and delicious.

I used to go to this place really often because it’s right down the street from where I work. Last week, I decided to come back here because I was craving Tofu soup. Their lunch menu and price is outstanding. I mean… where can you get korean food for around $ 5 these days? The amount of food and side dishes are great, service is great, and the atmosphere is welcoming. There is parking behind the entrance or you can use their underground parking structure, so no worries about valet or anything.
Try this place!

A conveniently located, standard Korean restaurant on Wilshire.
THE GOOD
Can’t beat the price. They have lunch specials for under $ 6 and soju specials. The food is okay, but not great.
THE BAD
The service could use some work as its often a bit slow, probably because the restaurant is a bit understaffed.
THE UGLY
Sometimes, or rather, oftentimes some menu items are not available (most notably their spicy noodles, which happen to be one of my favorite Korean dishes)

Update: came back again. The buzzer worked like a charm. Plus I found out that this place makes their own tofu. That’s awesome!!! Nobody does that anymore. OMG No wonder the soon dobu tastes awesome: D
Food was delicious! The tofu was super. The price was a bit high but you understand when you get the food, the portions are generous, and you get the purple rice automatically. You know this place is going to be good when all the clientele were Korean and all the specials were written in Korean only.
But there is always room for improvement. I went by myself to grab a quick lunch but was placed at a table with no buzzer, this would be fine if I could speak Korean but I don’t :P so it took a while for my waving arms to get their attention. Much to the amusement of the people at the next table. But I did eventually, and the service was really quick once they see you make the request.
Still though, next time, I’m getting a table with a buzzer.

The portions here are so worth it! It’s a bit pricey, but the food matches the price :)
I ordered the BBQ Bulgogi (Marinated Sliced Meats)…and it was huge! it came with a spicy tofu soup (not too spicy, and it was a cold day, and the soup was hot, not too spicy and yummy!)…it also came with side dishes such as a bowl of purple rice, a tofu cake, tofu strips (not pictured) pickled daikon radish slices, sliced seaweed and kimchi. Served with barley flavored water.
Total cost: $ 16.30 with tax and tip
They even have a lil button on the table for you in case you need the waitresses, especially since they’re constantly running around. Majority of them don’t speak English, but as long as you can point and make an attempt to pronouce the food items, they’ll understand.
Definitely a good place to come and eat on a cold day. If you come through the entrance on Wilshire, go all the way inside since that’s where their main entrance is because the parking lot faces that way.

I went here with a friend for lunch yesterday.
Although the restaurant is called the tofu house, they offer a lot more on their menu. They do have bulgogi, they have fish, and all kinds of things. I’m always a sucker for their soondubu.
I always order their seafood soondubu, and my friend enjoys their dumpling soondubu. She was craving the kimchi jun (pancake), so we ordered that too. I was STUFFED.
Their soups are served with black rice, and the broth is always really good and flavorful. They always add the right amount of spice, and I always leave feeling satisfied. The servers are all really sweet, the food is ready quickly, and the restaurant is always busy when we go for lunch.