Pyeong Chang Tofu House Oakland 오클랜드 평창 순두부

Expensive as expected

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 4

Really pricey for what you get. It tastes great, but portions are egregiously small. The photos in Google reviews don't do a great job of conveying how small the soup entrees are.

Food: 5

Recommended dishes: Vegan, Mung Bean Pancake 녹두전

We ordered tofu soup and seafood pancake. The restaurant serves free small cold appetizers that are commonly served in Korean restaurants.
These appetizers are good. I wish they have fish cakes hahaha.
The pancake is the best I ever had. It’s so crispy.

I adored PT(Phyungchang Tofu) for long years. I'd enjoyed their food for about 10 years. Their food was exceptional with the chef's masterful seasoning skills with sugar and salt. The banchan(assorted small free dishes) was so special, I'd wish to buy them if I could. The service was perfect and people who worked at PT was so energetic and happy. Their old-fashioned interior reminded me of authentic Korean restaurants. Everything was perfect,

until the pandemic took over. Here is my honest and worrisome review about Phyungchang Tofu.

1. High Price
Most affordable dish is almost $20 or more expensive. Their special menus are now $40~60, and I can't find reason why I need to eat at PT over fine dining restaurants.
The price changed everything. Now the banchan has less variety. the soup bowl is smaller. The seafood pancake is smaller. Inflation is a strong excuse that we all expect. But the high price boom in Korean restaurants scene, is very sad story. Because old time korean food was good, big, and cheap for people. I understand the business owner, but man.. you'd better find other way around.

2. Lack of flavor
I don't know what happened on their kitchen. Every dishes lost its magical seasoning level. It just became tasteless. Amount of main protein (such as beef, seafood) reduced significantly. the number of banchan reduced. the kinds of banchan became generic. And their main tofu soup completely lost its deep and rich flavors. PT lost their core skill, flavor, and its end of story. I am willing to pay money as long as the food is good as before. What happened.

3. Service
I found they extended their business to Berkeley. Yes, I see PT were successful over years in Oakland. But I started to see owner or manager people only counts money at the gate. And employees were just moving food from kitchen to table. Not so much interaction or checking on the current table. I couldn't see experienced old time waiter or waitress any more. They seemed looking new, overworked and unorganized.

4. Atmosphere
They need to remodel their restroom immediately before opening a new restaurant in other location. It is old and unpleasant. The table used to be authentic feeling, now it is fully covered with grease. The only change was fancy menu with higher price marks.

5. Unidentified Menu
KFC(Korean fried chicken) is very hot item in korean restaurant business in the US. And it appeared on the menu of PT too! It was good. But their quality of KFC was not the top notch on the market. It may ruined the balance of food quality, and it may lose identity of affordable normal people's common dish: tofu soup restaurant. They need to review their menu and do real business.

I used to eat at Phyungchang Tofu almost once in every 2 week for about 10 years. Now, I don't go PT anymore. The menu, identity, they all come from the food(flavor: 맛) and the consistency of master chef. I am willing to pay upraised price as long as the food is good. but I am afraid, because nowadays, replies on reviews are macro. I apologize on hard review, but man you gotta do something.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 3

Service: 3

Recommended dishes: 섞어 순두부 combination tofu soup

The food is good, their famous pancake is good but not incredible, it was very soft. But in general the food does have flavor and I recommend it.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 3

I ordered from this restaurant on ubereats.com. I specifically asked for additional chopsticks. Unfortunately I never received any chopsticks or napkins with the order. I have lived in Korea and I am surprised that they don’t include chopsticks with the basic order. Any place would include some basic utensils,especially in Asian restaurant where you expect the basics to eat, chopsticks.

Great food but there’s a high likelihood your car will be broken into of you parked nearby.

I've been coming here for several years since I've moved to the neighborhood in 2008. The last few times the squid tofu soup was bland and barely any squid. When I got the dumpling soup a few weeks ago they were mush. When I went tonight the seafood pancake only had squid when it's supposed to have mussels, clams and shrimp also. The bancha was even bland. $24 for the pancake and $3.50 for a soda was not worth the price. I understand in inflation is affecting prices but there's plenty of other Korean restaurants in Oakland Korea town where the cost is worth it.
I was thankful they didn't charge the $4.50 for the bancha. I'm sad to see how much the food has been affected with the change of ownership.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 5

First time trying tofu soup and I will always remember this place. Super delicious. Customer service was really good and the staff were all very friendly, they checked on us multiple times to ask if we needed anything else. Didn’t get their names but it was a younger gentlemen with a soccer jersey and a girl with short hair. Two amazing, hard working people.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Original Tofu Soup

Extremely overpriced. $25 for buckwheat noodle in leftover tofu water which they call soy milk. Worst Korean dish I’ve ever had.
Service was minimum too. No replenishment of banchan for dining in.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 2

Service: 1

Got the Combo Tofu Soup and Kimchi Tofu Soup - both were delicious. LOTS of tofu. The bon chons were very quality: kimchi, cucumber, tofu, and potatoes (sweet). I will say the crispy rice was a bit confusing for us - we didn't know how to eat it and by the time they flipped it, it was pretty burnt. Highly recommend the tofu soup! Perfect for a cold night!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: 섞어 순두부 combination tofu soup, Stone Pot, Seafood Tofu Soup

Best soft tofu stews!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Food was outstandingly fantastic, super friendly staff. The Ambiente was okay, a bit uncomfortable benches, not that cosy to sit and eat. The outside area isn’t safe, don’t recommend to come in the evening. We almost got attacked by a homeless after we left the restaurant.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5

WOW! Took me right back to my days in Seoul, eating a steamy, spicy bowl of 김치찌개 while it rained outside. The vibe of this restaurant is classic Korean style — K-pop on the TV, water in the plastic jug with the soju ads, and wide tables with plenty of space for the rotating selection of banchan (don’t worry though, they always include kimchi).

If you were to ask me to take you to the most authentic feeling Korean joint, this would be #1 on the list.

Okay, now the food — ho. ly. smokes! Everything was delicious and extremely high quality. The sizzling dolsat bibimbop and bulgogi were highlights, though the kimchi pancake was amazing as well (and not too spicy whatsoever!). We were pleasantly surprised to have a complimentary bowl of tofu soup included in the meal, and were so glad we didn’t miss out on it — there’s a reason they’re called the tofu house. The kimchi tofu soup was INCREDIBLE! We could choose our spice level (I went for medium) and it made for seriously the most unforgettable meal. I savored every bite!

We didn’t realize that the meals came with a side of rice in a big stone pot, so in hindsight we felt like we could’ve skipped the bibimbap and still had a very filling meal. It ended up being fine though, as it just meant I had more leftovers to take home for lunch the next day! :)

One thing to keep in mind is that because the food is really high quality, the price tag is a bit steeper than other Korean restaurants are in Temescal. However, between the quality and quantity of the food we really felt like we were the ones getting the better end of the bargain. I do think that the larger the group, the easier you might be able to bear the cost and try all of the incredible dishes.

I’m not too proud to say that I enjoyed the meal so much that I went back a week later and ordered takeout! This place lives up to the hype and is somewhere I’d highly recommend for anyone in the mood for real, hearty, authentic 한국음식.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Kimchi Jeon, Stone Pot, Bibimbap

As others have said, this restaurant is much more expensive than others nearby. I don’t mind an expensive restaurant so long as I feel like I got my money’s worth. I didn’t tonight. We both ordered the Dol Sot. It was 65 percent rice with a smattering of shredded carrots, a few bean sprouts, a tiny bit of seaweed a few squares of tofu and an egg. For $24.99 I expected larger variety and higher quantity of veggies and tofu.

On the plus side, the tofu soup was delicious, the service was pretty good considering they had just one waitress and one person bringing out the orders.

Sadly, we won’t be back.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 4