Bitgoul Tofu & BBQ Restaurant

I’m surprised I hadn’t already written a review for Bitgoul since I’ve been coming here for a few years now. But, since it has actually closed, I figure I should give it a sincere farewell by writing about it.
I first came across Bitgoul in 2005 when I was first exploring my newfound love for soondubu. At the time, BCD didn’t exist, so my only reference to soondubu was from Seoul Garden in Koreatown, and at the time, Seoul Garden was pretty good. I wandered in here and was pleased by the flavor of the soondubu but was also mildly disappointed by everything else. The ban chan was tiny and not varied compared to other Korean restaurants, and the service was only there when you called it with your call button. Nonetheless, I was impressed that the staff could also speak Chinese, and considering the price was cheap all things considered, I didn’t mind revisiting, especially since they were open ²⁴⁄₇.
I did have one bad experience, which was the time I found beads of something in my soondubu. My theory was that it was from the packaging that keeps food dry that you’re not supposed to eat but probably fell in by accident. They did make me a new batch and gave me free soda, but I would’ve rather had them take it off my check. I ended up staying away from them for a year before my stomach got the better of me and I decided to go back, and it was fine since.
I know they’re closed now, but I would like to thank them for their years of serving good soondubu in the main Flushing area. On to the next!

In the Age of Unilocaling…
I had a vendor fly in from overseas and was staying in the flushing area. We wanted somethign in the neighborhood we we came here for a quick dinner and boy was i embarassed!!!
The waitress was rude and non attentive. I asked three different people for a bowl and none of them brought it to the bought i got myself up and got it.
The check didnt come for about fifteen minutes after us waiting so i decided to get up on the way to the bathroom and ask for it, which in turn was the waitress coming up to me and trying to hand it to me as i was walking and then i told her to put it on the table.
Just a terrible, rude, and embarassing experience!!!
Remember im spending my HARD EARNED MONEY, your not doing me a favor!

YES to Poor Service — Waitresses are impolite, rude, hold onto frowning faces, greetingLESS, and rough around the edges…
*** HOWEVER — the food is actually quite good, especially the soft tofu and seafood pancake. #mouthwateringGOOD
#3 — Combination Soft Tofu (Shrimp, Clam, Beef) — DELICIOUS!!! We asked for a little spicy and it was perfect.
#15 — Stoneware Hot Pot assorted vegetables over rice (Beef /​Squid) — The Bibimbop is just OK in my opinion. I’ve had better in other Korean restaurants.
#? — Seafood Pancake is not listed on the menu so you have to call for it. This dish is in a large portion size because they treat it as an entrée. THE BEST!!!
The complementary side dishes are provided but not that many and not that great tasting either.
The environment is very casual and relaxing. Don’t worry about being rushed out of the restaurant because the staff don’t even have the time to bother you.
Don’t bother asking for the menu either because their menu, which is inside a standup display plastic board, is just ocated right on top of the table. The menu is very simple and has very limited selections. The price of the food is on the expensive side considering a small bowl of soft tofu w/​1 clam, 2 shrimps, and a few pieces of beef costs $ 10.99. But I’m ok with it because I don’t come here often anyway.
I’ll be back in a BLUE MOON!

If I could, I would give a 0 star ! Came in with a friend on a rain day, menu was more pricy than other places indeed. Ordered «seafood» tofu soup, got 1 clam and 5 small shrimp and all tofu. Portion is small so I ended up eating all my rice in order to be full. Halfway eating, my buddy noticed a cockroach near me. It eventually crawled over to her side. The staffs there weren’t not so great, hard time explaining menu to us when we asked for more detail. Toward the end, we noticed these small tiny white ant-​like bugs? On our table !!! Not sure how it got there. We let the waiter know, told him to let his manager know but he just laughed it off like it wasn’t big deal !?! That made me sick to my stomach realized I just ate there! Not a good experience and def. not ever. Coming back again.

It was a cold, gloomy, rainy day today.
Which translates into … hot, spicy, soft tofu (soondobu as the Koreans would say) day.
thank you Bitgoul for your simple yet delicious menu. your purple rice rocks my world!

It was pretty empty when I went for a birthday. Little did I know why until I saw the menu. It was very expensive and not worth it. We did Korean BBQ, which they cooked the meat for us. We had three slices of meat and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t cheap. A bowl of tofu was $ 10. A small bowl of hot tofu! They did give us little platters of things to eat with it, like kimchi and some carrot things. Wasn’t too great, I’ve had better stuff at all-​you-​can-​eat Korean BBQs.
The restaurant was pretty empty. Staff was pretty friendly, but they didn’t really give us accurate descriptions of what we would be eating. Had we known the portions would be so small we would have gone elsewhere. Good for groups? If you want to be paying about $ 200 to be filled up, then sure. Not cheap.
The food itself was not worth it. It was tasty, but if you really want to get your money’s worth for Korean BBQ, go unlimited. Or don’t go at all. I went over to the nearby BBQ stand where they had chicken, fried tofu, fishball, even fried squid kebabs for $ 1.25 each. That filled me up more than this did.

I usually am just neutral about Korean food (besides their BBQ), but the food here was pretty good! I especially liked the seafood pancake — that’s really what pushed this from a 3 to a 4 star rating. It is sooooo delicious. GET IT.
The tofu wasn’t very exceptional… Maybe it’s because we ordered mostly white tofu (can’t eat spicy) or maybe it’s because it *is*, well, tofu, but the the soondobu seemed pretty bland to me. The texture was good though — nice and soft, and melts right into your mouth.
The «Stoneware hot pot assorted vegetables over rice (Beef) was also really good. Usually stone pot rice dishes seem very bland to me because I can’t add the spicy sauce that goes along with it, but this one was very tasty as it was.
We all really liked the tea that was served. It had a grain/​wheat taste, which we were all very fond of – not the typical cheap tea.
The service was a bit lacking. We came in around 2:30pm, probably after the lunch rush, so the staff was all just chilling on the seats when we walked in. They seated us in the back (with no one else around us) and seemed to have forgotten about us after our food was served. We had to steal utensils from nearby tables whenever we needed more, and we even served ourselves tea from a pitcher nearby.

Used to be my favorite spot. Soondubu is my absolute favorite dish & this place used to hit the spot.
Friends told me about bugs crawling the walls & tables. Experienced a palm-​sized cockroach firsthand.
Also noticed that the health inspection for this place has «Grade Pending» for God knows how long. I’ve worked in many restaurants & food businesses to know Health Inspection grades do not take over a month to deliver.
Service was whatever. Could’ve cracked a smile for a +1 star.
Side dishes were nothing special.
Ordered Assorted Soondubu (Clam, Shrimp.& Beef) but only got one piece of each. Cheap, much?

I like the décor of this place and the free AC it has. Definitely quite insulated from the outside noise. Service was just so so. I was quite surprised that the workers speak mandarin. Kind of threw us off and we suspected that the food would be sub par.
One thing to note is that their menu system is quite weird in the sense that it isn’t organized very well and doesn’t correlate well with what they have posted on the walls. We ordered their tofu meals. I had the seafood one and was quite disappointed in what kind of seafood I got. Definitely not enough ingredients and the soup base was quite bland. I usually never finish the soup base but it was quite tasteless and not salty at all. One minor redeeming thing is that the tofu was excellent. I would say the tofu itself is even better than Seoul Garden in Manhattan. But because other parts of the dish failed, the tofu had no way of saving the dish. The tofu was very smooth and just the right consistency for this meal. If they can enhance the other parts to the dish, this would be a great tofu house.
One other issue is the side dishes. It was very heavy on various kimchi items. Most places give one type of kimchi dish, this place gave 3. Granted that it was kimchi cabbage, squid, and radish, but it was still kimchi. I would have liked more variety. Perhaps substituting one kimchi dish for a seaweed dish or a tofu or bean curd dish. I think that would have been better.
In any case, I wouldn’t recommend this place because the flavors aren’t there. Perhaps their BBQ is better. Who knows.

I order takeout from here. I came to this place cause there’s a restaurant near where I’m originally from with the same name. In fact, it’s either a chain or a lot of people like to copy this place. The servers speak both Korean and Chinese. I’ve never spoken to them in English, so I’m not going to be of any help there. I’m sure they know the basics at least, though.
I always get the soon doo boo (sp?). The tofu is the perfect consistency and the soup is flavorful enough. Sometimes it’s not salty enough, but usually, it’s pretty good. For takeout, they give you hot tea while you wait which is really nice in the winter. They also pack some side dishes and a soup for you to take with your meal as well as a little container of rice. I was really surprised, cause a lot of Korean and regular places for that matter are actually pretty cheap and will only give you what you asked for. So I was happy to find that they had packed me a little extra. The Chinese broccoli side dish is my favorite, and of course, the kimchi.
For seating, there was a lot of it. While I’ve never actually eaten in the establishment, there’s seating in the front by the windows and door and then in the back if you want a little bit more privacy. Everything looks pretty clean and the wait staff is pretty responsive. The place is open pretty late and is your standard Korean prices. For Flushing, it’s a little pricey, but I like this place. The staff is nice and courteous, the tofu soup is pretty good, and they give you more than the bare minimum.

I’m not too sure what’s the deal with non-​koreans going to korean restaurants but definitely there is a difference. My friends have gone with koreans and they were asked for banchan (side dish refills) and even got noticeably better service. I never got my tea refilled that day and once they brought the food to me, it felt like everyone was being helped by my friend. The Kimchi Soondubu Jigae (what I ordered) was pretty good. I ordered at «spicy» and if i come next time, I’d probably get very spicy. The soup is loaded pretty well with lots of tofu. Some people love the broth more (like me) so if you do, this is probably not the place for you to get this. Otherwise, they do give a good amount of ingredients and not just liquid. Would go to a different place to have these soups but if i was around and was craving it, I would come back.

Yum their seafood (shrimp and clam) tofu soup was delicious and super yummy. One of the best soonduboos ever. Only thing is it comes with one baby clam and maybe 4 regular sized shrimps that still have the shells intact. I would have preferred more clam and shell-​less shrimp. The soup seriously is some good stuff and they adjust the spicyness to a level that you would prefer.
Also their ban chans are great. I ended up getting another refill cause it was THAT good.
Décor is a ⁵⁄₅. This is a great place for a small group or one other person because there’s tons of seating and lots of privacy with the way that the tables are arranged.

I love getting jigae with it and this is the best place to get jigae.
I almost always get soon doo boo jigae here. It is always open after I get back late from work and so much better than mcdonalds across the street.
Korean tofu or what I call tofu of koreans is a party in your belly with a combination of spicy mellowed out by tofu which I think is pure genius. but here you can have seafood or pork or beef or a combination of all of them with your spicy korean tofu soup. you can also alter the spiciness. Be careful when you eat it though because this soup is temperature hot. if you eat it in house it comes in a special bowl meant to keep it sizzling hot. they give you rice, some cold mild tasting kimchi soup and some basic banchan like pickled radish and bean sprouts even if you order to go.
I have even tried their already prepared marinated bbq items and they were pretty good except a bit on the pricier side. they also added korean sushi rolls and boiled pork and some other items to their menu which I have yet to try since the korean tofu is the best thing here.
the employees are all very friendly and nice and they have a call button if you need attention at your table. dont forget your piece of charm gum when you leave to get that spiciness out of your mouth.
Its near the 7 train and good for late night korean without having to hike over to northern.

Yeah, great tofu! I’d hit that again and again.
But there are soooooooo many Korean places to check out in Queens. My dream is to go to a different Korean restaurant every Saturday along Northern Boulevard. You could go almost as far as Huntington Station with this plan. It’d last years. Pipe dreams…

I’ve been coming here for over 10 years now and the tofu stew never disappoints. It is always flavorful and tasty. I always get the mushroom tofu stew (mild with a raw egg) and ask for brown rice (which is not your standard brown rice, but purple in color and the texture is more similar to white rice). The other food is good too, but the tofu stew is what keeps me coming back.
Other pluses include: the restaurant is clean and cozy, accepts credit cards, and the waitstaff speaks English, Korean and Mandarin.

I always get the mushroom soonduboo. It’s always delicious and the banchan is great. Be aware that the kimchi does taste funky sometimes though…

Their service is really good. Came with my friend who lived in Flushing for quite some time… said that they served awesome Octopus. We both love seafood so much and we haven’t had Octopus for quite some time…
We are a little disappointed because they no longer serve octopus anymore. Looking at their menu which is only a page on the table… under the waitress recommendation. we ordered Seafood tofu soup and bbq squid… I love spicy food and the waitress recommended a medium spicy instead of spicy so that I am able to taste the soup instead of just feeling numb after drinking it. The food were served to us in less than 5 minutes. This worth a star because I don’t have much patience. The unlimited side dishes were served as well. I really like their bean sprouts.
I don’t really have much comment about their food. Their bbq squid portion is really big. I think I should not order seafood tofu soup instead. I still prefer kimchi tofu soup. :)
Not too bad for the price. They served us tea once we were sat at our table. :)

If you’re coming here, you better be eating tofu. Order anything else and it’ll be a waste of time. Opened late and plenty of seating, prices are pretty decent for the tofu bowls. You can customize your spice level to your tolerance and the button on the table is certainly useful (mild is great if you want spice but have no tolerance).
I got the beef and seafood tofu bowl and it was a taste of bubbly goodness on a cold winter night. The side dishes were decent but unmemorable. The menu can be a bit lacking if you don’t want tofu.

decent soondubu and the price is decent too. But some how i feel like the flavor is lacking a bit compare to BCD in the city. the soup is not as flavorful and not as spicy and more watered down
the side dishes were ok… the kimchi wasn’t the greatest I have had
Overall, it was an ok experience… but I prefer BCD much better… and the side dishes at BCD are banging

You can’t really go wrong with soft tofu but at $ 9.99 it was alright. The side dishes weren’t too impressive but at least the service was good and they always refilled your tea. They also add tea into the bowl with the left over rice versus the other places that use water.
The location is right outside the Main St 7 train station so it’s quite convenient for a rainy cold day. Indoors is covered with wooden furniture with many booths and seating. The bathroom downstairs is a bit quiet and creepy otherwise clean.
Not my number 1 tofu place but they’re alright in my books.