Yupdduk
“I got the spicy orginal ddukbookgii with mozzarella on top (dukbokgii= rice cake) my bf got ramen with some huge tuna rice ball.”
“I am not Korean or Asian for that matter but I like spicy food and this place did not disappoint.”
“Ramen so far is the only thing worth it for a lunch time dish.”
Yupdduk
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Everything about my Friday is unpredictable: I may or may not be in New York, I may or may not leave the office before 6, and I may or may not eat dinner with other people. Oh wait, there is one predictable thing about Fridays: every restaurant in Ktown will have a wait.
This particular Friday, I was craving omurice, so a friend and I decided to head to Ktown – Yupdduk specifically, as it offered omurice and a shorter wait time than most restaurants (~15 minutes).
We ordered the assorted yupgi topokki (spicy) and omurice (essentially a type of omelette). The assorted yupgi topokki is rice cake, fish cake, ramen noodles, and some tempera vegetables, topped with mozzarella cheese. Now, I've never put mozzarella cheese on yupgi topokki, but it was delicious! The entire dish was a favorite for me, and the spicy level wasn't terrible (just enough to get some tingling in your mouth, not so much I couldn't eat it continuously). The omurice could've been better – the sauce was only okay, and I didn't feel like the egg was cooked as well as I've had at other places, but overall, not bad.
The restaurant itself is pretty small, and service can be slow, but the food is worth it.
I'm glad I discovered this place. My friend and I didn't even have to wait in line on a Friday night. Here's my four-star breakdown:
Assorted yupgi topokki – I'd never think to put
mozzarella cheese on top of topokki, but I love it! The rice cake was soft and chewy, and you could even taste the freshness of the dough.
Assorted fries – Loved the sweet potato fries! Not as big a fan of the seaweed roll with the noodles in the middle. It was a bit too dry for me.
Mini rice balls – A perfect way to offset the spice in the topokki. It's supposed to be bite size, but my mouth is a tad small so I had to cut it in half for bite size.
Citrus Soju – Too sweet. Reminded me of yogurt soju.
Space – I'm sensing a theme in NYC. Simple, narrow layout. Mostly 2-person seating, but I suppose you can easily push two tables together for 4-person seating. Bathroom is all the way in the back, on the left hand side (super tiny).
Service – Waiter was attentive to my water cup, which is important to me because I down a lot of water. For that, service gets an A.
Got a small assorted ddukboki for 12.95 or something similar. Ordered it as the medium spice which was perfect for me. They gave the same side they do in those Korean/Chinese places
I guess I'll list it in order of what was my personal favorite.
Tteok: Nicely chewy, solid
Sausage: Quite good, liked this topping a lot
Fish cake: Not as thick as other places, taste was good.
Noodles: A bit chewy, but overall fine.
Cabbage: Nothing special
Boiled Egg: Uhh, a boiled egg. I think a different type of egg would work better. I guess I'm too used to Ramen/Ramyeon where the egg adds to the experience
Broth/Sauce: Spicy but really watery, not super good
Cheese: Super clumped together, not good at all. Frankly one of the reasons why I am giving this place said review.
When two of the main things, i.e. the cheese and to an extent the broth (due to wateriness, not spiciness,) in this dish are not good, I can't recommend a place like this.
Good tteok/rice cake at least.
2.4
This place is alright. Service is a hit or miss- really friendly or just really bad.
The ddukbokki spice level seems to be dumbed down since the last time I came.
I ordered 'spicy' and it was hardly spicy..
The seaweed rolls and joomuk bab is pretty good, too! We also ordered the bool dak ddong jeeb and it was pretty good, as well. The regular one without any spice had a bit of a fishy (?) taste to it..so beware! Considering the quality/type of food, it is a bit pricey (compared to korea).
If you come to experience the fire-y spice, make sure to speak up, or else you might be served food on the sweeter side.
Maybe this place should be called nopeduk or maybeduk.
I got take out from here and I would say they are average at best for food quality and expensive at that. 3 stars is really being generous but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt – maybe it was an off day…
The soon dae was good, probably the highlight of the meal, but the dubboki lacked a bit of flavor, possibly because some of the sauce leaked out of the to go box and because we ordered it with mild spiciness instead of medium. Apparently dubboki is what this place is really known for and their specialty.
The tempura pieces were all old and stale as was the side order of dumplings which consisted of two very crappy dumplings. I've had much better Korean dumplings at the sample table at Hmart in Edison New Jersey.
At $29 including tax this was not a good deal quality or quantity wise.
The place is casual. It's not very amusing. They have music playing and all but this place wasn't as enthusiastic. However, the service was fast. I got seated immediately. I ordered and the food came in no time.
The food: Assorted ddukboki and the bulgogi rice
The assorted ddukboki came with one boiled egg, fishcakes and cheese on top. That was alright. I didn't know what I was expecting from it since it didn't remind me of anything as I was eating it. It was just spicy, nothing else. The bulgogi rice was supposed to be savory but it was sweet… It was hard to eat. I didn't like the sweetness.
3.5/5 stars.
One thing I don't love about Yupdduk is their service and how you can see that their kitchen is dirty, but other than that their food is good. My favorites from here are the cheesy dubboki and the braised ribs that are covered in cheese.
Please be wary of your spice tolerance because their mild is SPICY and their spicy IS SUPER HOT, ALMOST GONNA DIE HOT.
I love coming here for a more casual (almost fast food) korean experience.
#1 order: boneless spicy chicken feet. While it doesn't have that great grilled flavor that you get from the bone-in chicken feet over at Pocha, it's just so much more convenient to eat and the flavor is delicious and burning all at the same time. One of their more expensive items but definitely deserving of a try
The budae jjigae here is also solid, but lacks some real meaty depth. I think they might use some msg in the base instead of meat/bones/anchovy and kelp. Feels like a lower tier budae jjigae than I've had at some other places but perhaps that's actually more authentic for army stew, haha
Prices are fairly moderate for the area.