Chodang Tofu Village

My friend and I were looking for a different place to eat and decided to try Chodang Tofu Village. I must say that we were pleasantly satisfied. This was our first time visiting this place. I myself am still getting my palate used to Korean food, and I have to say, this place certainly helped. I ordered the Chodang Combo #1 with Seafood and Beef Tofu Soup and it was amazing! Be careful with the bowls and dishes… they are hot (I’m talking temperature). I got regular spiciness and it was pretty spicy for me. Although I generally each non-​spicy food so I am a lightweight. I also enjoyed the service, they were polite and efficient.
I would definitely recommend this place for any veterans or rookies looking for some good Korean tofu soup. I found the combo I ordered very filling and tasty. Nothing was left on my plates, and I bet the same thing will happen to yours!

I love Tofu and I love spicy food, these two things come together in Chodang Tofu Village. Everything is piping hot, So Good. You can’t beat the price neither. There are lots of Korean Restaurant in this area, but they specialize in Tofu, I think they found their niche, I highly recommend it, but be careful, do not touch the containers, or you’ll get burned :)

Best soondooboo in the whole C-​H-​O dang world! I will go the distance for cho dang. Rookie mistake: I was eager to scrape the rice remainders that I touched the piping hot stone bowl, burned my finger, and still left feeling like I had the best Korean meal experience in my entire life! Which is rare when it comes to Korean restaurants in the Chicagoland or suburbs area.
The kalbi dish is also really good! It’s a great dish to share with a friend when you’re eating your soondooboo.

This has become one of my favorite spicy tofu places in the Chicagoland area. The food and service is consistent, and I can’t say that I have any complaint about it here. I almost always get the assorted tofu soup, but lately I’ve been enjoying the pork tofu soup. You can get it at the level of spiciness that you want — I typically get it «botong» which means regular spicy level. When it gets spicier than that, your lips and tongue get numb and you can’t taste the food. Now you don’t want that, do you?
Their banchan is simple and it’s not a lot, but those are very consistent as well. The perfect complement to the tofu soup. Stay hungry, my friends!

This is the place to go for some good comfort Korean tofu soup! My favorite part is the rice served in the hot stone bowl. You scoop out the rice into as separate bowl and as you eat your meal, the layer of rice left on the stone bowl will crisp up. I like to pry off the rice and dip it in my left over soup at the end of the meal. This isn’t commonly found at the Korean restaurants around this area. Another great bonus is that they are very accommodating to the spice level you want. So go as mild or as spicy as your palette will enjoy!
If you are looking for Korean BBQ, you will find some items but they come out pre-​cooked so it isn’t the cook while you eat experience. But definitely A+++ if you are looking for hot comfort soup! FYI — they give you and egg to crack into your hot boiling soup!

I’m a big fan! This is our must stop by after flying into O’hare. We love the free side dishes that comes with the fantastic tofu soup. Only thing I wouldn’t give them a 5 star review is the place is kind of a hole in the wall so don’t expect clean bathroom, dining room, kitchen area. Other than that this is a great place to have a hot bowl of soup.

The first time I tried this place was from a to go order. I was sold on that so I decided to come here for lunch today.
I don’t really ever want to eat soondooboo. I don’t even order it at restaurants, so me wanting to come here is huge.
Anyway I came here with 2 other people. We got 4 orders of modeum soondooboo (which has a little of everything), 1 mild, 2 spicy, 1 spicy to go, and an order of steamed dumplings.
Each order comes with dolsot rice (stone bowl rice) that you scoop all the rice out of and let the bottom layer of rice crisp up from the heat in the stone pot. Then you pour water into the still hot pot and let it turn into kinda like a porridge. It’s really good.
Also, each order comes with a raw egg that you crack into your soup while it’s still boiling. The residual heat cooks the egg perfectly. My yolk was still a little raw, which is exactly how I like it.
The banchan was all delicious and very refreshing since the soondooboo and rice were incredibly hot (in temperature). The soondooboo had a lot of flavor, more than others that I’ve tried. I liked it a lot. There was a generous portion of other things inside too. There was shrimp, mussels, clam, beef. I ordered the spicy and it wasn’t too spicy.
The steamed dumplings were not homemade. I was not impressed with them. I probably won’t order those again.
My main complaint is with the service. Our server had such an attitude. She was flinging our side dish plates. She tried to put the bubbling soondooboo between us which I thought was dangerous. I don’t think she even understood half the things we were saying…
There was also a manager/​owner there. She was great.
So even though the service sucked, I’d still come back because of the food. I want to try their curry soondooboo!

PROS: Great food, great service, never ending supply of banchan
CONS: Keep an eye out for the strip mall— we ALMOST always miss the turn out!
I recommend: Curry tofu bowl and bulgogi

Located in a strip mall — you could easily miss location.
The menu is fairly simple– mainly featuring the soon do boo — korean tofu soup. In the feature for ~$ 11 — you get an assortment of korean side dishes (panchan) kimchee cabbage, kimchee radish, sweet beans, marinated bean sprouts, pickled cucumber. Rice in a hot stone bowl — which leaves a nice flavorful crisp crust of rice as it contacts the hot stone bowl. You’re suppose to scoop out the rice leaving the crackle rice — add in a bit of tea to release the crispy rice. This transforms into a good «rice soup» as you get the flavor of the crusty rice. The soup is served absolutely bubbling hot — your choice of spice — get ready to sweat if you choose higher than mild. I had kimchee beef this time — and it was what I would expect. (Since you get free kimchee anyway — maybe I should have just ordered «beef».
spicy scale as determined by sweat:
Mild — oh tofu soup — its missing something… where’s the spice?
Hot — I need a hankerchief please.
Very spicy: where’s the A/​C? — and why is the water refill taking so long?
We ordered Kalbi as well — which was drier than I’m used to. The bulgogi did not wow or impress.
This restaurant is known for the soups which was good — and EVERY table in the restaurant had at least one bowl of soup.
Service is good — they got my order corrected really fast when they realised that I did not order the combo — just the soup. If you order the «combo» you get a smaller bowl of soup with a platter or beef (either kalbi short rib or bulgogi marinated sliced beef with onions) — neither platter was sizzling when arrived at table — so I imagine the iron platter was for show.
I would not make a trek out specifically for Cho Dang, but if it was along the way and I had my korean soup craving — I wouldnt mind stopping by,

Never realized how hard it is to find good soondubu (tofu stew) till I tried to find it elsewhere. I grew up coming to Chodang and was spolied with good soondubu. I realized the key to good soondubu is the broth! Its something alot of Korean restaurants nowdays tend to just shortcut. Soondubu here is definitely flavorful and rich in broth! I usually get the spicy mushroom and occasionally the ribs. The mushroom soondubu has an assorted variety of mushrooms.
Each meal comes with several side dishes called banchan. My favorite has to be the traditional neuleungji. After you scoop out the rice you pour water in the hot pot and it makes this delicious rice soup! I love eating it with the side dishes! Definitely a good way to end the meal.

Came here after a bbq party. The tofu really did taste more flavorful than supermarket varieties. I opted for the mild seafood & beef tofu jigae, and thought I could easily upgrade the spiciness level to regular. Huge portions for the price and good amount of seafood and beef in the pot. The hotpot rice was interesting (read the instructions on the back of the menu) though I was too full to attempt finishing. Banjan selection was relatively few but the squid daikon was worth seconds & thirds. Service was really friendly.

We were in the area and decided to try this place.
Normally we go to Tofu Village in Naperville so we decided to give this place a try.
They started with the standard small plates of «appetizers» — they give you 5. They were fresh but I was surprised as you get much more in Naperville.
The menu is more limited than tofu village in Naperville.
My tofu and veggie dumpling soup was good.
My daughter ordered steamed dumplings and she ate them all.
Husband had a combo meal. He said the meat was good but he was surprised to see his soup bowl was smaller than mine. He was not sure it was worth the combo price.
All in all– it was good but I’ve had better.

We ordered for take out, 1 seafood & beef tofu soup, 1 seafood tofu soup & 1 combo 1, which included tofu soup and beef short ribs and supposedly some side dishes. Just the combo 1, It’s like $ 20 and they only gave half a bowl of soup and like 7pcs of short ribs and like 4 side dishes for 3 orders. So cheap!

Pretty good!
Although there are few selections in the menu.
The best rice I had all over the states!

To be concise, the soondubu here is too good.
I wasn’t feeling soondubu before I went, so I felt a bit iffy about the restaurant’s focus on soondubu, but after my first spoon of my haemul soondubu, my appetite soared. All I could focus on was the soondubu. They give you rice in a hot pot, so that the rice hardens at the bottom. They also gave us many side dishes– I loved the beans and the kimchi.
It doesn’t matter what you are craving– after you eat your first bite, you will think that you had been craving soondubu your whole life, so just give this restaurant a try!
It was simply amazing~ I would definitely come here again and again!

This place is great for some hot tofu soups. The service is lacking but the food is delicious!
I’ve bern coming here since it’s opened. Not much has changed but the food is still good and warms the belly.
Plenty of banchan and noolongjee is great! Great spot during the cold winter months.

I’m a big fan of those scalding hot Korean tofu soups. The hardest part about finding it though is… how do you spell it? Soondubu, soon dubu, sundubu, soon tofu…
Anyway, for some reason it’s hard to find this stuff in the city unless you’re in the outskirts or the suburbs. Oh there’s options for Korean fried chicken or Korean barbecue, but not a black bowl of lava and bean curd.
Chodang is the perfect place to warm up with a deceptively filling bowl of tofu soup, crisped up rice, and your usual suspects of random bites of banchan. The soup comes out piping hot but very flavorful and rich, and my seafood version had a good amount of clams, shrimp, and more. I didn’t find their spicy version that spicy at all so next time I’ll try to go for the highest level they’ve got.
It’s not a super fancy place, but it’s not too pricy either. It’d be a hidden gem if not for Unilocal.It’s the perfect spot for when you just want to warm up and pig out while watching out for first degree burns.

Don’t be fooled by the limited menu — Chodang Tofu delivers a variety of taste at reasonable cost.
I was meeting up with some old friends, and they decided to hit this place up. My wife won’t go anywhere near tofu, so she subsisted on dumplings. I, being the adventurous eater, got the baby octopus bowl.
If you decide to eat here, the presentation and service of the food is something else. A variety of pickled vegetables (cucumbers, onions, carrots) is served on the side. White rice is served in a heavy, hot stone bowl that would make for a good mortar. The rice browns and crisps up. It ends up going great with the brothy tofu. Helpfully, the menu gives you directions on how to make all this work. :-)
The octopus was pretty tender. It was spicier than I expected it to be, so I was thankful for the rice (and, honestly, could have used a bit more!) But on the whole, it was highly flavorful and had varied textures – which fits the bill for what I look for in a Chinese restaurant.
Even my toddler devoured the spicy tofu, which was a pleasant surprise.
The dumplings were pretty good for what it’s worth. But the tofu is better. :-)

KNOWN FOR
— Soon Tofu (⁷⁄₁₀)
I ALSO TRIED
— Kalbi (Marinated Short Rib) (⁷⁄₁₀)
— Mool Nengmyun (³⁄₁₀)
— Bibimbap (⁵⁄₁₀)
I forgot who told me about this place, but man was I skeptical. Chicago has, probably, the worst Korean food on the planet, which always completely baffles me, considering that there’s a decent Korean population here. I don’t know if my taste buds have «grown up» since then, but I remember back in the 80’s and 90’s Korean food was pretty good over on Lawrence Ave. in Chicago, but many of those owners, after being in business for 15 – 20 years, closed shop in the late 90’s and retired to Northbrook. Now, we have small pockets of Koreans here ‘n’ there, and the food is just awful! Usually soon tofu is one of the biggest offenders, so when I heard that there’s a place like BCD in Arlington Heights, I completely dismissed it.
SOON TOFU
For those that don’t know, this is basically soft tofu in a spicy stew with meat (typically beef and seafood mixed) served while it’s still boiling in its hot stone bowl. You eat it with rice and whatever banchan (side dishes) come out. Also for those that don’t know, BCD is a small chain (that wisely stays away from Chicago, lest it be tainted) that specializes in soon tofu and has many locations in the LA area. BCD used to be my favorite soon tofu until I discovered Koba in Irvine. I bring up this backstory, because remember, someone told me that this was «just like BCD!» Really? They’re going to pair my once favorite soon tofu place with an Arlington Heights hole in the wall?
Though I maintain that I was still right in being skeptical, I was very pleasantly surprised! BCD’s Koreatown location in LA tastes much better than its LA suburbs counterparts, but there was one BCD location that suffered the most, and that was Garden Grove, CA. I would put Chodang’s soon tofu a notch below BCD Garden Grove!
There was actually flavor in the soon tofu! It wasn’t watery or just milky looking, it was a thick stew and was packed with flavor! I asked for extra spicy, and just like BCD and unlike Koba, it just tastes like their standard soon tofu + more peppers. It tastes more like just an add on instead of infusing with it. Soon Tofu’s flavors need to be very confident if you’re going to drop an egg in there, and surprisingly, Chodang’s soon tofu was still pretty good after! The seasoning suffers the most with the egg, but it also was resilient. That all being said, I think if you skip the egg, Chodang’s soon tofu could be on par with GG BCD. Final word: Best soon tofu in Chicago!
KALBI
Many soon tofu places have a kalbi combo where the soon tofu is a little smaller, but you get a side of kalbi. Chicago has the worst KBBQ too, so I was skeptical about this as well. Surprisingly, it was pretty tasty! The marinade was spot on, sweet and salty, but I think it could have been smokier. The rib was also a bit too fatty on some. I usually eat all the meat off the bone in LA, but the quality isn’t as high here for me to do that. It’s good, but I would probably save money and just get the soon tofu.
NENGMYUN
Terrible. They serve it with kimchi in it already (and a watermelon slice), and their kimchi sauce sucks. It’s too sour, fermented, and strong and it doesn’t taste like nengmyun + kimchi, it just tastes like kimchi. Yuck!
BIBIMBAP
Run of the mill. Nothing special.
CHO-​DAAAANG!
Their soon tofu brings them into the company of a very few Chicago restaurants that can hang with LA. That is saying something! The other 2 are Cho Sun Ok and New Seoul — which is in Arlington Heights also. Congrats!

Chodang is some great hangover food! I’m not a big soup person and their menu is mostly all soup with just a couple of exceptions — Bulgoki aka grilled marinated beef (which you can get on its own & is pricey or in a combo with the tofu soup but that’s a heck of a lot of food) —and their newest item Bi Bim Bap aka mixed rice!
I really enjoy the Bi Bam Bap served at Chodang along with all of the ban chans (aka little starter side dishes). We were served 5 banchans at Chodang are all quite tasty with the standards of kimchi (fermented veggies), Kongnamul (bean sprouts), some kind of cucumber namul, some veggie covered in gochujang (chili pepper paste), and a red bean banchan — plus a bowl of eggs.
After picking at the banchan a bit, my lunch crew and I received our main dishes quite quickly. I was the only non-​soup getter and it was fun teaching our coworkers about the various ingredients they were eating & the way to eat it all. The bi bim bap comes out in a stone dish just like the soups and quite hot. Now I wanted one of the eggs in my bi bim bap to be a bit cooked (but you could just put it in raw) so I immediately transferred all rice to the other bowl & cracked open the egg over the stone pot so it could cook in there… yes the bowl is that hot. While that is cooking, I mixed my ingredients a bit. The idea here is to mix up everything really well, adding some spice however I’m a weirdo that prefers the least amount of mixing as is possible so that’s how I did it.
Also, let that rice that sticks to the edges of the bowl just sit there getting crispy. Then you add a little water and eat that up. Nomz.
Back to the bi bim bap, the bi bim bap here has a whole mess of ingredients — enoki & 2 other kinds of mushrooms, sesame seasoned carrots, cucumber & bean sprouts, and ground chicken. Everything was so friggin delicious with the egg & rice in there. I’m usually can’t handle much spice but I feel like bibimbap needs a bit of kick to it so spread it all over giving it a nice reddish tint. It’s a huge portion but I’m a beast and I ate it all.
It gets packed to the brim during weekday lunches so try to get their as early as possible to ensure you get a seat. And be careful while waiting! The servers are carrying scolding (seriously a million degrees) bowls of bubbling soup very quickly, weaving around people. One false move and it could be a disaster!