finally tried a new restaurant

i hate to admit it, but it's been a very long time since i've tried a new restaurant. i tend to be a creature of habit, and given our neighbourhood, chris and i opt to stick close by. but last night, i was out w/the girls, and we ventured to the burnaby/coquitlam border.

the house of tofu soup......pris' co-worker had mentioned this korean restaurant so we googled it and read some ppl's reviews and then made a 7:30 p.m. reservation and headed east. at first we couldn't find the place, because it's tucked behind a plethora of korean mini-malls catering to every need.....travel, groceries, food, etc. when we eventually got there 10 minutes late, we were immediately seated and proceeded with trying to understand the menu (written in korean, english and chinese). the service wasn't exactly speedy, but since there were only 2 servers for a packed restaurant, and we weren't exactly in a hurry to go anywhere after, i wasn't too fussed. i ordered the soup (mild w/kimchi) & bulgoghi (pork).....the soup comes in varieties of spicyness.....white (clear soup), mild, regular, hot. or something like that.

our food started arriving within 10 minutes.....a series of appetizers to accompany our meal.....2 scoops of mashed potatoes, 2 pieces of daikon swimming in a cold type of sauce (we're not sure what it was), kimchi, spicy pickled onions and some type of root vegetable (i think), and a cold seaweed dish. it was a near disaster when i went to grab one of the eggs.....i was pretty smart and shook it first and that's when i discovered it was raw :P we also ordered a side dish of deep fried dumplings....really yummy! our meal was off to a good start. when our entree arrived, the soup dishes were boiling in the stone pots and this is where the raw egg makes an appearance :-) our server also dished out the rice which came in a stone pot. when the rice pot was empty, she poured cold tea into the pot to loosen the rice.....it's almost identifical to japanese okaisan (rice cooked w/genmaicha), or a distant relative of chinese congee.

for $13.99 for my 2-part meal, i was completely stuffed at the end. the pork was excellent.....mildly spicy on a bed of par-fried onions.....delish! we're definitely going to go back there again.....especially since we know how to find it now :P

house of tofu soup
4563 north road, burnaby
tel: 604-420-5254