Cho Dang Tofu Restaurant

ZERO FOR SERVICE, 3 stars for food, since the meat was undercooked, and rice was plain raw. came in at 12pm waited for 2 hours, then our food was served… wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone.

This place has absolutely the worst service that I’ve had the displeasure to suffer. I give it no stars. The staff was rude and that’s paying it a compliment! They seemed more concern with collecting my money than ensuring my order to go was in order.
The portions were small and the food mediocre. Don’t waste your time and especially your money.

Loved the food! I would say the service is not super quick and they didn’t have Japchae but otherwise, the sides are amazing! We had the Tofu soup, bulgogi and bi bim bap. All delicious and perfect amount for us!

Checked out a fairly new restaurant in Federal Way. The service was pretty good. Got a seat right away and was waited on quickly. Unlike other asian restaurant I’ve been in, at least this one the servers were checking up on me once in awhile. The food was excellent. Would come back here again.

5 stars for the food but ZERO FOR SERVICE!!!
Ever since this place relocated, it’s been super crazy busy (good for them!!). Today is the third time I came here this month because the food is honestly tasty. But every single time I came here the service has been horrible!
I personally feel bad for the waitresses/​waiters because I know it’s not their faults that the managers only let two of them work at a time but cmon. When my mom and I went in today, we waited at our table for 10 minutes with nothing! My mom then went up to ask for water and a menu at least, and the waitress stops by our table and just throws the menu and goes on to the next table.
It’s winter time, you guys know your business is obviously going to be booming because who doesn’t want delicious, hot, spicy soup in the cold! So to whoever the manager is– HIRE SOME MORE PEOPLE OR AT LEAST LET MORE THAN TWO PEOPLE WORK!!! I know Koreans can be stingy with this kind of stuff (I’m Korean), but service is just as important as the food.
Just expect to get your food 30 – 45 minutes later after you’ve been seated!

The food is good but the service isn’t worth it.
I watched a couple get ignored the whole time.
Come in with the expectation that if you’re not Asian, your service will be worse than what I had.

Before they moved to Gateway Center, I would always hit up the Cho Dang in the old Paldo market for some soondubu. I never had a bad experience which was why it was my go-​to for all the years it was there. Well that changed for us when we visited their new location today.
I am not sure if this may be a one time thing but the mushroom soondubu that we usually get was terrible! There was absolutely no flavor to it. It tasted like water. As if there wasn’t any broth to begin with. Instant ramen has more flavor than this.
I never had a problem before which is why it’s so disheartening. Maybe someone in the kitchen staff had a cold and couldn’t taste anything? There was no way what we got could pass off as soondubu. I wonder if other patrons at the time had the same experience as us. If the broth comes from the same stock, then I’m sure there has to be others. We aren’t ones to send food back to the kitchen or complain during our meal so we just ate what we could, which was hardly any of it. At least we had the daeji bulgogi which was alright. They also only had white rice to choose from, which isn’t a big deal.
That being said, Cho Dang left a bad taste in my mouth (or lack thereof, ha ha) and we’ll probably steer clear from the Federal Way location for awhile. It’s just unfortunate that I won’t have a place to go to when I’m craving soondubu in Federal Way. I’ll just stick to the many better options along South Tacoma Way/​Lakewood area.

I’m sad to say this place has been sluffin in the very recent months.
The last 3 times I’ve gone, our soondooboo came out NOT boiling. Soondooboo is supposed to be boiling hot for a good while even as you start eating it. Which then made the egg not cook. My friend and i’s eggs were just chillin in the soup. We debated whether or we should tell the server to bring this back to a boil but we just said F it.
Also, my friend and I order ’ ’ aka extra spicy and it’s never spicy enough.
It’s sad because this was my go to for soondooboo but I think I’ll be eating my soondooboo at Somoon nan jib because theirs is good, comes out boiling hot, and makes ‘extra spicy’ actually extra spicy.

Love this place! At first I was a little sad to hear from my mom that they closed down (location inside Paldo) but was craving soon-​du-​boo one day so I searched on Unilocal for other places and ended up finding the new location, got excited and ordered pick up and got the usual spicy level beef soon-​du-​boo, still good! Missed it, last time I had it was in 2012 – 2013? Anyway the guy at the cash register was polite and spoke to me in Korean so I was thoroughly impressed. The place was packed as usual but I will be coming back here again for the yellow croaker fried fish. Thanks for staying around Cho dang tofu!

Was craving tofu soup, so my cousin went through Unilocal and chose this place. She ordered the Beef Tofu Soup and I ordered the Seafood Tofu Soup. It was pretty good; we both enjoyed it. We both ordered the soup at the «very spicy» level, but didn’t feel it was spicy at all. I felt that the menu was pretty limited; I had wanted to have the option of trying more Korean food entrées. Service was okay, not that you should expect much from an Asian restaurant. They don’t usually come check up on you, so I had to flag her down to get water. When it came to paying, I gave my debit card and my cousin gave cash, so we could pay half and half. She brought back my card and receipt, charged my card for the whole order, and kept my cousin’s cash. We explained what we trying to do, and she seemed confused, then panicked. We told her to just keep the total charge on my card, and give my cousin back her cash. She still seemed confused. It took her a lot of thinking, then she voided the charge, recharged my card for the half amount, and gave my cousin back her cash change. I signed the voided receipt, the new receipt, then she kept pushing me to sign the old receipt with the wrong charges, which I didn’t feel comfortable doing. She was nice, she tried to make things right; the situation was just a little frustrating and definitely want to check my bank account to make sure everything went okay.

As Fall rolls in, nothing beats a bubbling stone pot of soft tofu soup.
Cho Dang Tofu used to be located inside the Paldo Korean Market but now has moved to the plaza next door. The place is cleaner and definitely more spacious.
I ordered the mushroom soft tofu soup at a medium spice level. The spice levels here are as follows: not spicy, medium, spicy and very spicy. My brother decided on the kimchi soft tofu soup and my mom ordered kalbi (short ribs). The banchan (side dishes) are actually pretty good. I really liked their marinated cucumber. My brother was munching on the salad dressed in mayonnaise. Each individual also gets their own side dish of fried fish as well. The rice here comes in a stone pot as well which makes great dish after all the rice is scooped out. Typically you pour hot tea into the pot so that it stops the rice from burning to the sides. Then you have almost like a crunchy rice porridge type dish to eat after your meal. I also like how they give you a separate bowl so you can mix your rice and soup.
My mushroom soft tofu soup was pretty good but I found it to be slightly on the bland side. I could see the mushrooms but I couldn’t really taste them. Although this was at medium spice, it definitely was not spicy at all. I probably should have gotten it one spice level higher. I enjoyed all the chunks of soft tofu. They do not crack an egg into your soup here, so if you enjoy that instant, yolky cooked egg, you have been warned that this place this does not add eggs.
There was a good amount of sizzling kalbi. It was not too burnt and the meat quality seemed pretty good. I enjoyed the caramelized onions that came with the kalbi. The meat dishes tend to be on the pricier side so I’m not entirely sure if it was worth the price. But overall, still yummy to have with the soup.
Service was really good here. We were checked up on and they were willing to refill the banchan dishes. Water and tea was refilled promptly as well.
Overall, pretty good soft tofu place in Federal Way. Would recommend and return.

Best tofu in town, but customer service not so much. Their banchan is decent and the food generally come out pretty quick.

I am sure there are better places that exist, but I think this place takes the cake for the area.
I have only been to a couple Tofu houses and they have been pretty good.
The quality of the food is great and customer service is awesome. The wait staff is very nice and attentive.
I love all the little extra dishes they give.
Anyhow, definitely will go back here.

My first experience with cho dang tofu was in Torrance CA. It’s placed right by a taekwando studio and a bowling alley. Every time my girlfriend and I split a tofu soup and bibimbap. Every time it tasted the exact same, wonderful. The large anchovies/​fish they give you along with all the banchans are always delicious.
Fast forward to recent time in WA, cho dang is in federal way? Thank god, the other «legit» Korean restaurants in federal way aren’t special. Cho dang on the other had tastes the same as in CA, which is to say lovely. 4 stars for cho dang, get a seafood or mixed tofu soup add a bibimbap and you will leave happy.

This place isn’t bad. Their banchan is quite delicious and comes with a fried fish. If you order their BBQ set menu, it comes with stone pot rice, your choice of soup or bibimbap and the meat. More than enough food for one person.
The only reason I came here was because it was close to the hotel we were staying at and we were craving something Asian and hearty to warm us in this cold and rainy Seattle weather.
Overall, not bad. Friendly staff, nice family-​owned restaurant. Good food.

Called to reserve a 10 seater for my fathers birthday. When we got to the location, no tables were set up for us. We waited which was fine, and when we put the baby chair at the end of the table, we were yelled at by one of the employees. My father didn’t want to eat there anymore but we still decided to stay because everyone was already there.
Food was mediocre.
Service was meh.
Décor was nice and clean.

Best tofu soup I’ve ever had. Tofu is thick, more like a stew than a broth. So much flavor — & the spicy pork is to die for! I was also pleasantly surprised by how nice and happy the workers were. It’s not typical for Korean restaurants to be so. Nice, lol! I mean this with love since I am always eating Korean, but their chipper attitudes just filled the air.
Definitely my fav place to get soup or Korean from now on (well, with a limited menu). Amazing!

I love Korean food! I would actually choose it over Japanese Sushi, for I love the little dishes Korean restaurants provide for you. Plus, it is unlimited refilling as well.
It was a nice hang out day for me and my friend, so we decided to head out for some Korean food. We totally picked out this restaurant out of randomness, and we later came to the place finding out there was a «Grand Opening» sign. The inside of the restaurant is ok. There is nothing really that spectacular for me to wow, except for they have a huge exhibit of different (tea or wine) cups on the wall.
Let’s jump to the food: the menus are simple! One page has tofu soup selections, and the other page has combination meals selections + selections of Korean BBQ. The very last page is basically Chef’s Special i.e. Bibimbap.
My friend ordered (hot) beef Bibimbap. We have always enjoyed hot Bibimbap over cold Bibimbap. I decided to order a combo: seafood tofu soup and Korean BBQ (beef ribs). The meat was excellent. Eating it a lot could get to you though, for the taste began to get sweeter for your palate. To us, the tofu soup was bland. There was nothing special about it. Bibimbap didn’t have lots of meat in it. Oh, one of the little dishes is a fried fish. You can absolutely eat the whole fish since the cook fries the fish completely done… Please careful… If your throat can’t handle such thing or you are just paranoid, please don’t make a nightmare for yourself… But the fish is really good!
Still, the experience was good for us, and I would definitely come back.

The Korean food was great. Great banchan (side dishes) and great service. We had the Korean ribs (kalbee) and spam ramen medley. I recommend soft tofu soup over this as that was the item most ordered. Great place to get your Korean fix.

*Location has moved away from the grocery store.
This place is good. I got Kalbi and Seafood Soon Tofu Soup. Probably one of the best specialty Korean Restaurants in Federal Way. It’s also pretty cheap. As other people mentioned the ban chan is so so, but the soup is good somewhat creamy. I would go again.