No worries: Tofu at So Gong Dong in Palisades Park is as good as ever

The rice-flour seafood pancake at So Gong Dong in Palisades Park is one of the soft-tofu restaurant's non-spicy dishes.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

We've been relying on So Gong Dong in Palisades Park for years to deliver a filling meal of healthy soft tofu, rice and vegetable side dishes for only $10. 

But in September, when we stopped there for dinner, my wife complained the beef broth of her soft-tofu stew was too salty, and I thought the grilled whole squid I ordered was a lot smaller than before.

Those proved to be momentary setbacks, as we found out on Friday, when we returned to the second-floor restaurant with our son, who was home from college and just had to have soft tofu.

Belly busting meal

I ordered an oyster tofu stew with rice and complimentary side dishes, and it was as good as ever ($9.99).

I also ordered a seafood pancake to share ($11.99), and my wife and son chose pork soft-tofu stews ($9.99 each). 

I'm not sure why, but after a couple of slices of pancake, I couldn't finish my tofu stew, and took the leftovers home.

Our son also ordered Bulgogi or Korean barbecue made with prime beef, and couldn't finish that either ($14.99).

Soft-tofu stews can be ordered from "no spicy" to "more spicy."

And when you finish the kimchi and other side dishes, just ask for more.

If you're afraid the beef broth will be too salty, you can order your soft-tofu stew made with hot water.

Organic tofu

For 100% organic tofu, try BCD Tofu House, 1640 Schlosser St., Fort Lee, where a complete dinner of tofu stew, rice and side dishes is $12.99.

The Fort Lee restaurant is usually packed, but doesn't take reservations, and you might have to wait on line.

When the soft-tofu stew is brought to your table in a stone bowl, it is bubbling furiously, hot enough to poach the fresh egg that is provided. We always ask for the stew "more spicy."

One of the great pleasures of a soft-tofu dinner is breaking a soft-boiled egg yolk over white rice and eating them together. The crunchy rice lining the bottom of the stone bowl is worth trying to scrape up.

Seaweed with gochujang, a spicy red-pepper sauce, was one of the complimentary side dishes on Friday.

Pickled radish with sliced jalapeno pepper.

Cucumber kimchi, above, and cabbage kimchi, below.

A side dish of bean sprouts.

The dining room filled up quickly as we ate.

Details

So Gong Dong Tofu & B.B.Q., 118 Broad Ave., Second Floor, Palisades Park; 201-313-5550.

Open 7 days, 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Valet parking and free parking on side streets. Meters in effect 7 days until 9 p.m.

Although So Gong Dong doesn't have a liquor license, you are discouraged from bringing beer or soju to enjoy with your meal.

Beef isn't the only choice for Korean BBQ

So Moon Nan Jib is one of the few Korean barbecue restaurants in Palisades Park and Fort Lee that still uses wood charcoal.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Sitting around the charcoal grill at So Moon Nan Jib on Saturday, we were trying to remember the last time we had what my son calls "cook on the table."

For years, cooking thinly sliced beef or ribs over a grill in the middle of the table was one of our favorite meals -- Korean or otherwise -- at So Moon Nan Jib, Madangsui and other North Jersey restaurants.

The meals are filling and full of fun, as you wrap beef, garlic, kimchi, shredded scallion salad, rice and whatever else will fit into red-leaf lettuce leaves, and do your best to cram the whole package into your mouth.

But Korean restaurants don't tell you anything about how the beef was raised and, for more than a year, we prepared the meal at home, using free-range, grass-fed Australian beef sold at ShopRite supermarkets.

Seafood only

Then, in February 2010, we stopped eating meat and poultry altogether. 

My wife and son resumed eating meat several months later, but I'm still eating only seafood.

Luckily, So Moon Nan Jib in Palisades Park is one of the few places offering raw shrimp to cook on the table-top grill, supplemented by seven non-meat side dishes that are part of every Korean meal.

If you want to cook on the table in a Korean restaurant, you have to order a minimum of two portions of meat.

So at So Moon Nan Jib, we ordered the bulgogi, slices of marinated beef ($28.99), and the butterflied shrimp ($24.99 for a dozen). We also ordered pricey translucent noodles called japchae ($17.99), but we couldn't finish them and would have had enough to eat without them.

The restaurant's interior seems to have been freshened, and service was attentive, with the waitresses doing some of the grilling for us and clearing empty dishes.

Side dishes

The seven side dishes included cabbage and radish kimchis, bean sprouts, an American-style salad in a creamy dressing, broccoli and a hot egg souffle you eat with a spoon.

The spicy radish kimchi hid slices of chewy raw fish, and the cabbage kimchi contained a raw oyster. Rice, bean paste and a scallion salad to wrap in the lettuce with the beef or shrimp completed the meal.

Before the recession, waitresses would replace a side dish without asking, but on Saturday night, I had to ask for more radish and cabbage kimchi and more red-leaf lettuce. 

After we finished, an American woman with her husband at the table across the way said, "I'll bet you know exactly how I feel."

We agreed all of us were stuffed.


Then and now

In February 2005, I wrote a review of So Moon Nan Jib for The Record's Dining Out on $50 column, referring to a meal for four people, including tax and tip.

Back then, the restaurant served soup and more side dishes, called panchan, with the meal.

On Saturday evening, three of us spent $94, including a bottle of Korean beer ($5),  Sprite ($1.99), tax and tip. 

Without the al la carte noodle dish, the bill would have been about $76.

So Moon Nan Jib, 238 Broad Ave., Palisades Park; 
201-944-3998. Open seven days, valet parking in rear, sushi bar.

Korean restaurant falls off list of favorites

We love Korean restaurants for their outstanding service, abundant side dishes and good value, but we were disappointed during a visit last night to one of our favorite barbecue places, So Moon Nan Jib in Palisades Park.

The last time we had tried to eat there, more than a year ago, we found it closed for renovations. Looking around Saturday night, we couldn't tell what had changed in the dining room, but service was sluggish and I had to keep asking -- for more kimchi, for sliced garlic, for more napkins, for steamed rice.

Other Korean restaurants often replenish your side dishes without asking, at times even before you finish them.

So Moon Nan Jib is one of the few places in North Jersey that still uses charcoal in the table-top grills, and there is often a line out the door. Me, my wife and my son went early, between 5 and 6 p.m., got a table easily and were brought two menus. But no one came over to take our order until I gestured to one of the managers.

We chose marinated raw shrimp and bulgogi, thin-sliced raw beef, both for cooking on the table, and a platter of japchae, translucent noodles with bits of meat and vegetables. I don't know of any other barbecue restaurant serving these butterflied shrimp, which cook in only a few minutes and are bursting with flavor.

Most Korean meals come with an array of side dishes, and So Moon Nan Jib is now serving six: kimchi, steamed broccoli, stewed fish, mushrooms, American-style salad and radish. We also got a salad of shredded scallions, spicy red bean paste and red-leaf lettuce leaves for the barbecue, which you wrap in the lettuce along with as many of the other items as you can manage before stuffing the whole package into your mouth. Near the end, we got an egg souffle in a stone bowl.

It was a messy meal in a noisy dining room, and a lot more expensive than in the past. Our three entrees totaled $75.94, including tax. Ouch. I added a tip of $8.

We won't be returning to So Moon Nan Jib. Better choices are two restaurants where we had barbecue while it was closed: Woo Jung in Palisades Park and Madangsui in Fort Lee, where the beef is fresh and the charcoal comes out after 6 p.m.