BCD Tofu House in Koreantown, New York

For dinner one day, we stop by BCD Tofu House (5W 32^nd St., New York, NY 10001). I think this a small chain Korean restaurant. When we got there, the place was crowded which was a great sign. That’s how you know it’s going to be good. The wait was about 10 minutes. The place was pretty big with two levels.

Deep Fried Fish

Side Dishes

Before our dishes came out, each of us got a mini deep-fried fish as well as some side dishes (bon chon) for the table to share. The fish was basically salted and deep fried. It was good and crispy on some parts. If you wanted to eat some of the bones you could. That’s how deep -fried it was.  For the side dishes, they were good. I tasted some of them. The kimchi was okay. I got to admit kimchi is an acquired taste. On the far right there was macaroni with some creamy dressing and raisins. I thought it was interesting. The pickled cucumber was good. The broccoli was flavorful and tender. I didn’t tasted the dried shrimp or what we presume is pickled radish but my friend said it was good.

Veggie Bi Bim Bap

For my main dish, I got the cold veggie bi bim bap. It came with an assortment of vegetables (carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, etc.), a fried egg, and tofu on top of the rice. The red bi bim bap sauce was premade and came in a big red squeeze bottle. The picture above is after I mixed everything together with the sauce (as you can probably see already I didn't go a good job).  The vegetables were tendered. The egg was well cooked. I actually would have prefer the egg to be a little bit runny. The sauce which is what I think really makes this dish was delicious. It was very mild spicy and had sweetness to it.  I enjoyed my meal very much. Also not pictured is that they provided a bowl of some hard burned rice soaked in hot water. So apparently, they make the rice in stone bowls and after the rice is cooked, there is some rice on the bottom that gets hard, crispy and somewhat burn. They scrape the rice on the bottom of the stone bowl and add water to it. Not sure, what is the purpose of this. Maybe it not to waste food or maybe it is supposed cleanse your palette after the meal. Whatever the reason it is, the bowl of rice in water was not tasty. Based on the fish, bonchon, and my dish, I would definitely consider visiting this restaurant chain again.