Todam Tofu House

BEWARE gluten free eaters! The menu clearly states gluten free on some of their items, but they ARE NOT GLUTEN FREE!
I thought I finally found safe haven for those Korean cravings, even though the food is subpar to begin with. On my third visit here, the normal waitress who had previously confirmed the gluten free-​ness of the things I ordered was not there. The younger gentleman working came back from the kitchen and said, «sorry, you shouldn’t expect any Asian fare to be gluten free.» Of course my reply was, «then why does it say that on your menu?» All he did was apologize that they needed to get that changed. Sure, we’ll see if that ever happens.
Super misleading, and super not helpful. The tofu stew is also watery and tasteless. Thumbs down all around.
I’d give this place zero stars if I could!

The place is much nicer after the regrand opening! New TV’s and new interior layout.
Overall, I would rate this place 3.5 stars.
4 stars for the food. I love the tofu soup! It’s tasty unlike other tofu soups I’ve tried in the past. Banchan is not bad either! Purple rice is good too. =)
2 stars for the service. There was only one waiter working and there was only one other table seated when we got there. It took a really long time for us to receive our banchan. Every time we looked around for our server, he was standing behind the counter looking down (maybe his phone). Our appetizer came out after our entrees. When we’re done with our food… The waiter was no where to be found. My bf and I were sitting down for nearly 10 minutes waiting for somebody to come to ask for the check. We heard people in the kitchen so we got up and stood next to the kitchen and we were yelling «EXCUSE ME!» numerous times until someone in the kitchen seen us another 10 minutes later… The lady comes out and gives us our check. Then, our waiter comes out after the fact out of no where.
They need more then one server or at least communicate with each other so that one of them can watch the floor while the other one is in the bathroom.

Service was terrible & food nothing to brag about. Save yr $$. The only tasty item in the banchaan assortment was the kimchee. Ordered the wings & wasn’t even asked which sauce we wanted-​was given the sweet & sour which wasn’t that good. Asked for my tofu dish to be spicey-​it wasn’t. Tried the kalbi-​tasted like old meat was used. Best thing about the place was the tv’s! Won’t be going back

In terms of worst restaurant experiences ever, I think our meal yesterday at Todam will be hard to top. We read the reviews about bad service, but usually take them with a grain of salt, especially for Asian restaurants. Todam took «bad service» to a whole ‘nother level – to give it one star is even generous.
In essence, it took two hours for our food to arrive. TWO hours. Here was our timeline:
6:45 – Seated
7:05 – Put in orders. Asked for tea and ban chan.
7:25 – First wave of ban chan arrives. (note 40 minute time delay)
8:15 – We ask for a refill on ban chan. And ask about our food. Seeing as it has already been over an hour. They say the food is ready, but the purple rice is not. We say fine, just bring out the food without the purple rice.
Nothing happens for another 20 minutes.
8:35 – Three meals arrive (out of the eight that we ordered), including the paejun (did it really take two hours to make a seafood pancake?).
8:40 – Refill of ban chan arrives
8:45 – I have to leave the restaurant midway through my meal because I have a flight to catch
8:50 – Rest of the food finally arrives. They mess up an order of bulgogi and bring out a bibimbap instead.
9:15 – pay the check, then leave. Note: 25 minutes for eating and paying the check.
Several times throughout the wait, we debated going somewhere else. Which we would have done, but we were treating out of town guests (which made the whole experience doubly embarrassing).
And when the check came, they didn’t even offer a discount to compensate us for our time (lest you forget, two hours of our time). We felt bad for the poor little server/​waitress/​hostess/​busgirl, so we tipped a normal amount.
If you are still not convinced, here is a list of other things that went wrong:
· The tea tasted like sponge. As in it was completely watered down and tasted like the detergent that was used to clean the plastic cup. We asked for a new batch, but she said it would take three hours to make. Meanwhile, other people were getting served tea…
· One of the bulgogi orders did not come with rice, but was lined with onions on the bottom. This bulgogi dish was very poor quality, and the beef was chewy
· They only allow one refill of ban chan
· They only gave us three out of four rice orders
· There was a glazed potato in the second round ban chan that had gone foul already

Pretty good. Was almost empty, which is kind of a bonus. The rice under my bibimbap was deliciously crisped. In general the food was quite good, though I’ve had better. Service was a bit slow, considering how few customers there were.

My family and I used to come to this place all the time. Ever since it renovated, it’s not the same. The service was never amazing, but it’s gotten worse. First off, when we walked in, they told us to wait 10 minutes even though there were only 2 other tables seated because they needed to clean up so their turn over ratio is awful. Then, we waited a very long time for our food and it came very slowly. The beef bulgogi was very dry and more than half an hour later, half of our dishes haven’t arrived. Turns out, they forgot one of the main dishes we ordered and my mom was waiting for that dish the whole time. I’m very disappointed because this used to be one of our favorite places to go and now, I don’t think we’ll be returning. If you can’t keep up or manage 3 tables, then I just don’t understand.

I trusted the first review I read for this place and ordered exactly as suggested: seafood pajun (pancake) and combination soft tofu soup (mild) which comes with purple rice.
Banchan: a little subpar, nothing really stuck out as awesome, standard dishes with slightly off flavors/​textures
Seafood pajun: crispy b/​c practically deep fried, the right ratio of seafood, green onion, batter. Only problem is that it’s really oily for two people to eat on our own. Next time we’ll probably only order if we have 4 or more people.
Combination soft tofu soup: Very tasty, lots of flavor imparted from both the beef and the seafood. It came so hot, I didn’t have to worry about the egg not cooking in time.
Purple rice: It is only faintly purple, but that’s just the style that they cook it. It’s very tasty, I love letting it crisp up in the stone pot, and at the end, when I can’t get the last bits, I pour in a little bit of my barley tea and turn it into roasted rice soup for a cleansing finish to my meal!
Good: tofu stew and rice, pajun if you have a group
Not so good: don’t expect stellar banchan or quick service

If I could give this place ten stars I would. My family and I ALWAYS come here. We love love love the food! So delicious and always hits the spot. Service has gotten a lot better since hiring more staff but honestly, people have to understand this is a small restaurant. The staff are doing their best to accommodate all the customers so people just need to chill out. Anyway, I’d recommend coming to try! Maybe you’ll love it as much as my family and I do!

The food is good, prices could be better. But this isn’t the case. My rating is strictly because of POOR QUALITY SERVICE. The lady who took our order took forever to refill our ban chan dishes and we asked several times for more tea and she never brought it. I ended up going up to refill it myself. I feel like when we ask for something it goes in one ear and out the other. She has no expression on her face and does not seem to enjoy her job. We asked for 4 boxes to go and she only brought 3. The table next door had 4 people and gave them extra dishes when she brought the ban chan out. We had to catch ours with the napkins. She delivered unequal service to different parties. The food was good but I had a bad experience because of the worker. If you don’t care for service and plan to get everything yourself this is the place to go.

I had mixed feelings about this place. It used to be more run down with 1 young server all by herself and sometimes I’ll see the restaurant not filled up, but they had to turn people away, so when you see this time and again, it made for a stressful meal, stressful as in I was having feeling the server’s stress and thinking about the loss of business for them! In the past, we have been reluctant to bring friends and family to the restaurant (we did it once, and it didn’t go so well). The food has always been great.
Well, a few days ago, we went there, and it’s been remodeled, so there is a new menu. There is still the placemat, but they are new and heartily laminated, not peeling like before. There are three servers! Admittedly, the prices have gone up slightly, so the vegetarian tofu soup is $ 9.75 or $ 9.95, and with meat is $ 10.95. Seafood might be $ 1 more. We ordered a pork and a beef tofu soup and galbi ($ 16.95?). In hindsight, we should have just split the soup because it was way too much food. The tofu soups came up with yummy purple rice cooked in a clay pot. The rice is supposed to stick to the side so that you can shovel it out and eat it. If it’s too hard, you can soak it in the soup. I could eat this every night.
There were maybe 8 banchan. We asked for refills on 4 of the items, but I read somewhere that they only refill once, which I’ve never experienced before! I don’t know if it’s true or not, but bean sprouts and cucumbers are really cheap, and not every table gets refills, so I’m not so sure that’s a good practice. Galbi had very good flavor and the onions were a bonus. I always wish for more galbi though, especially at that price, but mostly because I love the item.
Now that they have remodeled and have additional servers, I’d be more apt to come and would definitely introduce people to the place.

I feel like the reopening did well to them. Both the bibibamp and bulgogi were great.

It’s a lovely place to dine in, specially after the remodeled. Service is so great, good price. I have to order Seafood Pancake and a Korean imported beer every time. Definitely recommended. Forgot to mention the BBQ Galbi is so yummy.

They’ve changed!!! I use to come here often cause it was cheap (under $ 10 for tofu soup) but now they’ve raised all their prices. Yea they have more food varieties like japchae, seafood pancake and chicken wings but those are expensive too. Corn cheese is $ 8! I think the food quality went down too. The ban Chans were good before but now the quantity and quality is down along with a new requirement for one refill included? What! I’ve never heard of limited ban chans before. Very disappointed

I come here only for three things:
1) Their Tofu soup — always hits the spot!
2) Their Pajun — crispy on the side, heaps of seafood and scallions! Delicious sauce.
3) Purple rice that comes into a stone bowl! Let it continue to sizzle and it turns the bottom of the rice crisp.
If you stick to those three items, you’ll like this place!

Besides the hot food coming out super hot and sizzling, there is nothing else about this place that is good. I tell myself each time I come here and each time, I regret coming after.
First of, they have a really small parking lot. They share with their neighbors so you’re just going to have to park on busy El Camino. Plenty of parking, just be careful when you get out from the driver’s side.
I think they are trying to do some remodeling in there. You can tell there is some sort of construction going inside to make a bar or something. But they are putting in some dividers which is making the restaurant look more small than it really is. Lighting isn’t all that great either.
You basically seat yourself at this restaurant. And when you seat yourself, be greeted by a disgusting menu on the table. The menu is basically laminated and used as a place mat. They basically just wipe down the place mat more than the table. Yuck.
Service is slow. One server who really isn’t all that enthusiastic about her job. I think she is the owner and just trying to handle things herself… anyways, you often have to flag her down.
Like I said earlier, the soups and hot dishes you order always comes out hot. That’s a plus considering how long you wait for it. The side dishes are def not on point. Small portions. I mean you can ask for seconds, but you can tell from the server’s facial expression that she isn’t happy you asked. Oh and even though the menu says purple rice… the rice isn’t purple when you get it. It’s like white rice!
Oh and don’t order to-​go hot tofu soup. They basically just throw a block of tofu in the soup not even cut or anything.

We actually like the food here. Why? Reasonable price, good portion, right flavor. The reason I gave 3 stars only, it’s the inconsistency of food quality and flavor we experienced frequently. Food, in general, still not bad. The biggest problem, is the way they operate the business. The owner was one-​person everything. She does everything herself, rarely see 2^nd waitress. One time, it was her kid and the kid’s friend that work here as waitress. The server is always either one person only or the owner herself. It looks like they have problem getting the help. Too bad, they could have done better business if they have better servers and customer service.
I feel they are missing out the person so knows how to operate business. I hope they can make improvements. And do better soon!

Worst korean restaurant i’ve ever had. Expensive dinner price ($ 12) for a tiny portion of spicy pork bbq. All side dishes look old and rice is super dry plus bad customer service as well.

Todam definitely hits the spot after a day of shopping or after watching a movie at Tanforan mall. Lots of street parking if you can’t get a spot in the lot.
I love tofu house that has an extensive soft tofu soup menu. Some places only have the seafood option. Todam has at least six on their menu. Mushroom soft tofu soup has always been my favorite. They have different level of spiciness and medium was more on the mild side. Next time, I’m going to ask for spicy!
Their kalbi is really good and priced much cheaper than other Korean restaurants. Definitely get it with your meal. Their ban chan (side dishes) was decent as well. The bean sprouts were so good!!! Perfectly seasoned.
They have one TV and it was pretty cool how I enjoyed my dinner while watching the Oscar Awards. That reminds me, I need to watch Birdman and see what that movie is all about. Well deserved awards I bet!

I’ve been coming to Todam for the past 5 years. During the first few years, I thought it was actually quite good. The tofu, bulgogi and galbi were all tasty. And because of that, it became a regular lunch spot for my coworkers and me. Unfortunately, in the past year or so, the food has gone down hill. I use to love getting the dosot bibimbap, but the recent times I’ve had it, the rice was very oily, the veggies didn’t seem fresh and the appearance of meat was sparse.
The service was always inconsistent. Sometimes you were in and out of there very efficiently. Other times you were lucky if you got your food in 40 mins. What frustrates me is service seemed worse when there were less patrons. SMH!
If you were to try Todam, pass on the bibimbap and get the bulgogi or tofu dishes.

Todam tofu house offers all the basics you’d expect such as the multiple dishes of kimchi related appetizers. I’m saying this tofu house is just «A-​OK» because the overall flavors of the food were nothing special, and the service came with some attitude.
You can expect to get a sizzling bowl of tofu, a raw egg, and a bowl of white rice for around $ 9 per person.
Bottom line: I would recommend this place for those times you can’t spend a lot of $ but you need a LOT of food.