Dookki

Good concept but … Service and atmosphere: The service was really good. The staff members were friendly, knowledgeable and very helpful. The restaurant wasn’t the cleanest nor well organised. The flors and table were sticky, the food stations missed plates and cutlery. The restrooms need some attention too. Food and drinks: The selection of items to cook in the pot were decent. Good number of various sauces to flavour the broth. You can opt for different noodle, mushrooms, and three different meats. There were some ready to eat fried foods, sushi and fish cakes. Our server was really nice and helped us choose three different sauces for the broth which made it very tasty and flavourful. Pricing: $$ 40 for two.

Make a visit after seeing their fried chicken advertisement. For the price, its quality food but definitely carb heavy- you get tteokbokki hotpot with limited veggies and 2 meat options, kimchi fried rice and ramen station. Fried chicken are delicious but does lose the crispness as it sits outside. Place is clean, friendly waiters.

Dined in here two weeks ago. The ingredient selection is great and the price is very good. Besides the main food in the middle pot. I really like their fried chickens! It was my first time there. Will definitely go back when my friends visit. There are two reman machines (like the one you see in k drama!) as well as ice cream.

I came here for the first time on a Sunday. The server explained everything in detail and was very attentive to us. It's buffet style. There was a lot of selection for food, including many different kind of tteok and other add-ins, like fish cakes, meats, and veggies. Also many different type of noodles to choose from (glass, ramyun, etc). There were also kimbap, musubi, fruits, friend chicken, dumplings, and more. So much variety. Different sauces to try as well. There was also ice cream to finish off the meal. 😋 I would definitely recommend and I have to come back to try different combinations.

I had the best experience at Dookki tonight. I’m new to the hotpot experience and out waiter Juan walked us through it perfectly! He checked up on us frequently and made us feel very cared for. Shoutout to Kevin too! They both made our night unforgettable, I will be returning soon!

Went there for the first time for dinner with my Wife. The price for buffet is not bad around $24.99. There is not nnq, just hot pot. I think the buffet is alright. The beef and the soup was good. The chicken is too large and not enough flavor. There is not as much vegetables option like other places. We enjoy the services and the atmosphere. This place is definitely for the younger crowd. If you never been there before, I would visit for yourself and see if you like it. We enjoy the whole experience but they need more variety.

The only thing that was good was the plain fried chicken. everything was sticky, maybe because everything is odly too sweet. Everything, had sweet flavoring. Nah im not coming back its just not worth it. Ps we saw our waiter twice in the beginning and when we got out check.

The place is more of a college hangout. The floors are filthy and slippery. The hostess did a bad job at explaining how everything works. The buffet items like fried chicken, bulgogi and others are actually way better than the hotpot. The broths lack flavor. The sauces are great but again without a clear explanation we were kinda lost.

Amazing food & amazing deals if you are craving tteokbokki. I love the AYCE options and how you can make your own sauce. There are plenty of spicy options available. Just make sure your whole party agrees with the sauce. Not only is the tteokbokki good the side dishes were amazing as well. Recommend their korean fried chicken and sweet potato mattang. The service was great and they were friendly when explaining all the steps. When we went we had to wait outside a couple of minutes, so when it gets busy I would recommend making reservations ahead of time.

Dookki is a great spot for tteobokki lovers! Went back recently and was able to finally try the fried rice at the end. This is an all you can eat tteobokki restaurant. You cook it in a pot at your table. They boil some anchovy broth and you make your sauce to add. You can add a variety of ingredients including different rice cakes, noodles, veggies, seafood, and more. There's also some hot foods to enjoy alongside include spicy pork, pork belly, and bulgogi. My go to pot includes regular rice cakes, corn cheese rice cakes, bean sprouts, bok choy, cabbage, sausages, ramen noodles, and fried tofu. For the sauce, I do half spicy, half cream. I like to dip the fried dumplings in the sauce. They also have some ice cream and ramen packs in the back. It's a great spot to go every once in a while.

A great tteokbokki concept restaurant! Super fun and good vibes for friends and family to hang out. I went with a friend during lunchtime, plenty of space and parking, and peaceful! The vegetables and toppings for our tteokbokki pot were really fresh. We added cabbage, onions, beansprouts, shrimp, and beef. The rose sauce was delicious and a great option for people who can't eat spicy foods. All of the items were really good and the quality was delicious. The cupbap bar was great. I felt the ready-to-eat items on the buffet were lackluster. The dumpling was bland, fried chicken was not bad, but just okay overall. The fries were amazing, they have a ginger seasoning on them that I thought was really unique. Service was good and welcoming; the waiter was always ready to help us! I would come back for sure and definitely recommend!

My boyfriend & a friend of ours decided to try out Dookki. We came on a Sunday night right before 8PM and it was fairly empty. The staff was nice and we sat down right away. Our server gave us the run down and left us to explore all the options. There was many different options to choose from the sauce/flavor of our broth, to the fixings of the hot pot, to the toppings, rice, noodles, and even fried snacks to enjoy on the side (their selection of kimchi was my favorite). Although the fried snacks were cold and some a lil bland, everything else was sooooo good. When I tell you we was EATING, that would still be an understatement. We were living it up in there, with every bowl getting more and more delicious as we figured it out. The mussels were another favorite!! Our waitress was super nice and helped us with any questions or concerns. We were also surprised with the ice cream that's self served and to-go need be. Overall a really good spot to eat at!! Our bill for 3 people was $110 (before tip) but we did get 2 beers and soju.

My brother, my Korean sister-in-law visiting from Dallas & I decided to check this place out for the first time on a Saturday around 1 pm. It's right next to 85 C in Chinatown so there was plenty of parking. The restroom was clean and had two stalls for women's. The restaurant wasn't overly busy so it was easy to maneuver around the buffet stations. There was a good variety of Korean food and they were refilling the stations within a decent time. Our server was very helpful in guiding us on cooking. There was an instructional guide on the table to help step by step on cooking and the different types of appliances. I feel like it can be little intimidating to try without prior experience or without someone who knows what to cook together. I really enjoyed the hot food station which included japchae, spicy pork, bulgogi, various fried chicken, fries, & friend dumplings. There is a big tteokbokki sauce station and we chose rose. It had a good kick but not overly spicy where you can't enjoy. After you're done with the hotpot portion, the server can help you with cooking the bibimbap (fried rice) and I recommend requesting the fried mozzarella which a blow torch is used to fry it. There is also ramen station and small selection of basic ice cream flavors as well. The server didn't proactively refill our waters but after asking when all of our cups had emptied, she did do so right away. Overall, it was a good first time experience and recommend first timers to be open minded when it comes to learning to eat the traditional Korean dishes!

We've been coming to Dookki at least 4 times a month since they opened. For the month of November 2024, they have a Pajama Party promo which is 50% off after 6pm when you wear your pajamas to dinner. If not, dinner is $22.99/pp. I enjoy coming here because of the large selection of food. From their fried food station, ramen station, rice cakes, banchan, and wide variety of sauces, you'll never run out of choices. I like my sauce sweet and spicy, it's a combination of 5 of their sauces. Oh and their broth is anchovy base so it's perfect for my vegetarian friend. They even have ice cream for dessert! They're always playing KPop music and several TVs playing KPop music videos. The staff is really helpful and always available for any needs. They'll even make your fried rice at the end if you have room in your belly for it! Will definitely keep coming back!

My friends and I came while dookki was having a promotion for their one year anniversary! I've always wanted to try this place out, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to. We got seated quickly on a Monday evening, and we were at a table with two burners, so my friends and I got to create two different broths. The format on how to do things can be confusing, but a server will be there to help start the process. They pour in some broth into the pot, and we make our own sauce. As we added all of our chosen toppings into the pot when it began to boil, we noticed that the broth would disappear pretty fast. Therefore, we had to request more broth multiple times and also turn down the heat. They had a good number of ingredients to choose from. The sauce station has measurements on the board if you need guidance. I totally missed it after I created the most random sauce LOL. The kimchi was fresh, and the fried chicken was crispy and yummy. I liked dipping the kimbap into the soup. Highly recommend the cheese tteokbokki, so good! Be sure to attend to your soup every now and then bc our noodles got stuck to the bottom of the pot, especially the glass noodles. It was like charred at one point oops... The meat selection was small, but I did enjoy the thin pork belly slices. Honestly, we all started feeling full after we finished the broth portion. We still needed to move onto the rice part, but the rice cakes and noodles + extra side dishes filled us up quicker than anticipated. The rice was great, and we got to add in bulgogi and spicy pork. We ended off the meal with ice cream. Our server was extremely helpful and always available for assistance. She got us started with our soups and then our rice. The inside is relatively big, so it never feels like it's crammed. Parking in front of the building can be packed, but they have another big shared parking lot to the side.

I really loved the food here, it was really good and fresh. I also like the vibe and the aesthetic of the place. However I did have this inconvenience with a server that ruined the whole experience . All I remember is that she had dyed hair and always made faces at everything and everyone. I think I heard her say her name was Ashley something like that. Most of the time I didn't even know what I was doing I was so confused. She didn't explain or help out. Worst server ever. She was always at the front of the restaurant. She was absolutely no help whatsoever, I don't even know why she's a server. At that point she's a host. I hope next time I do come I get a different server who will actually help. Besides that the place itself is good and would recommend.

Solid AYCE tteokbokki restaurant. On weekdays, it is not that busy but be expected to wait on the weekends (like any other popular restaurant in Chinatown). Situated right next to 85C Bakery, parking can be a hit or miss depending on when/what day you go but I never had to wait an abnormally long time even when the wait was 1+ hours. Ambiance is very casual. Kpop music usually playing in the background. Good for hang outs. It's not too big or too small of a restaurant. Good diversity of food. I like this place more than Sweet Pot K-Kitchen in Sugar Land because you can mix your tteokbokki sauces and create your own flavor. Sweet Pot you just select 1 flavor. Less variety than Sweet Pot but I think the food is more fresh. Service was pretty good. They didn't really explain the concept/what each kind of plate was for when I said I was new but luckily I knew or was able to figure it out. Other than that, they were attentive and came by every so often. Glad I got to try this place out! And you will leave very full.

I love the concept of Dookki, it starts out with you picking your own toppings/items to go into the broth and then the option to make fried rice followed by dessert all for ~$24. They also have some premade items like bulgogi which is nice to have while you wait for your soup to cook. It truly is all you can eat style and it's so good. You start out with your own broth and then you make your own soup base flavor, they have about 16 different combos if I recall correctly. Once you finish your soup you have the option to get more broth and go back for seconds if you'd like. They have boba and ice cream (free) for dessert and it's also good. This would be a perfect spot for a date and the lighting is a tad dark. With that being said, there is plenty of seating! Lastly, the only reason I've decided to take off a star is because the service could be better, I've only been twice but both times our server did not come and check up on us and we had to waive them down for our check after sitting there for a bit.

The food here was top notch for an all you can eat teólogo-bokki. The plethora of choices has something for anyone who loves this style of food. The service was good, though a bit slow. The food made up for it though. The restaurant was clean. But do expect to sweat because the heat from your meal cooking is going to keep you nice and toasty. 10/10 would definitely recommend.

The service and staff are really attentive and sweet. Especially the hosts! The food wasn't anything amazing or spectacular. I've tried it once and haven't craved it or wanted to come back. The variety/assortment of items available to put in your rice cake dish was a lot - from fish cakes, noodles, sauces and different rice cakes. I like how there is a hot bar too with dishes other than rice cake. Overall it was very average to me.

It's a brand new experience with Dookki. The famous teokbokki from Korea drama came to life with a little twist. This place is all you can eat with a sauce bar, ingredients bar, hot food section and ramen machine. Even better, they offer boba and sojus!! They have variety of rice cakes, fish cakes and veggies. When you first got in, the waiter/waitress will guide you on how to set up your sauces. I like this part the most, because you get to try all different kind of combinations and try a bit of different flavors. Next you'll get all the ingredients you want to add to the pot. A little advice- don't get too much rice cake from the beginning. Rice cakes tend to overcook if you don't finish it right away. Except the uncooked food bar, they also have ready to eat food. It's got some noodles, Korean fried chicken, bugulgi and much more. Also, we love to dip our dumplings inside the teobokki sauce!! Last but not the least, they have ramens!!! You get to either cook your ramen with a ramen machine, or simply put them inside your teobokki. Not sure if they have cheese, but you're welcome to ask them!! Give this place a try and let me know how you like it!!

This was my first time trying hot pot and I had an amazing experience. Our server was so nice and explained everything and constantly helped us out because we had no clue what we were doing. There were so many options I wanted to try everything. My eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach because after the hot pot portion we were not ready for the fried rice. I went during their pajama promotion after watching a TikTok and I was definitely not disappointed. The place is big enough to where there was never really a wait to get more food and it was always fully stocked. My favorite was the bulgogi and kimchi it paired with the hotpot perfectly. This places is perfect for groups of friends, families and solo dates, I will be coming back!

This place is fun. The food is so good. Make sure you go hungry. They even have ice cream fro dessert.

This place is a solid tteokbokki restaurant. I went twice during the pajama party promotion, definitely worth coming! Be expected to wait on the weekends, but weeknights are good during the week! Nicely situated in Chinatown next to 85C Bakery Cafe and Wells Fargo. Let's talk about the food. They have several sections/areas such as: -Tteokbokki of all kinds -Sauces (savory, sweet, spicy, salty, etc.) -Vegetables (like onions, bean sprouts, cabbage, etc.) -Meat (sliced pork/beef, fish balls, smoked sausages, etc.) -Noodles (rice, ramen, etc.) -Entrees (french fries, korean fried chicken, sushi, kimchi, etc.) -Ice cream (scoop your own, can take it with you to-go!) I like the community style pot in the middle of the table! My girlfriend and I went the frist time and we absolutely enjoyed it! Took my parents the second time and they got to pick and choose what they want! Will definitely be back, a great spot!

I finally paced myself and ate the fried rice at the end!! This time, I had the pleasure to dine with my graduate professor since she was visiting for a conference. We talked and dined at dookki where she explained to me the culture and how it was back in Korea. She then made the fried rice mixture at the end with her Busan sauce (where she is from) and it was delicious! Food here is always great and it seemed like customer service has improved a lot since returning. Upgraded from my last review of 4/5 to 5/5!

Finally found my way here after much waiting. Dookki is the premier AYCE tteokbokki restaurant in town, and the experience here was deliciously awesome. Firstly, I'm a fan of tteokbokki, but I'm not always a fan of the sauce it traditionally comes with. It's often times too sweet. I do love the texture of the springy fat tteok though! Here you can create your own sauce, and with a lot of varieties of tteok. They have skinny ones, extra long ones, filled ones, and everything in between! Of course, there's lot of options to customize your creation. From fresh veggies, to thin sliced meats, fish balls, and seafood, the customizations are endless! You even get to create your own sauce to season the house broth with. The server gives you a manual your first time, to teach you how to do everything properly, but we kinda skipped reading it and winged it. I have to mention the ready to eat items such as the Korean fried chicken, kimbap, japchae, and bulgolgi. They were all yummy! The fried chicken was super tasty and replenished often. Apparently at the end of the meal, they use the leftover sauce to make a fried rice, but I skipped out on this option as I was so stuffed. I did leave room for some scooped ice cream with sprinkles though. Definitely worth another visit. I just wish they had a few more sliced meat options, but that's about it.

We'd heard about this location from several local news outlets, and my wife has been into trying Korean places since getting into K-Drama, so we decided to check this place out for lunch. The place was mostly empty and the service was spectacular. The waitress walked us through the process of mixing the fish cake broth with various sauces to make a customized broth, and where to get the items to mix. She even helped us along. Following a couple of rounds of the hot pot, she came around with the items to turn the broth into Korean Fried Rice, which was well worth the experience. Some of our favorite items had nothing to do with the broth at all. The gimbap, beef bulgogi, and grilled pork were all excellent by themselves, as were the fried chicken and fried seaweed rolls. We didn't have enough space in our stomachs to try the Ramen bar, but it didn't seem like a very popular option given all of the other alternatives available. We did make an effort to grab ice cream at the end, which was self-serve in a cooler in the back. That might have been the only downside, as it felt like more of an afterthought than a feature. Overall, I highly recommend this for a different lunch or dinner experience. It's truly all you can eat for 90 min, but can be eaten in courses that create variety and don't feel like a standard buffet.

Went for November pj month, and it was half off if you show up in pajamas. Overall the experience was so fun. Good for a date night out to have some fun, or to just go with a group of friends! The seating there is limited...I would set a reservation if it on the weekend. It's an all you can eat Korean style hotpot with tons to choose from. Our servers were very attentive as well which made the experience even better.

Love the name since it reminds me of ... you know. Luckily, the food and flavors here are far from that. With a unique spin on tteokbokki and all you can eat, you really can't go wrong. However there are a few short comings with Dookki. This place has a super nice facility. Filled with minimalistic, up to date furnishings, the place is comfy and inviting. While normally you would know what to do at an AYCE, there seems to be an orientation by the server that they MUST share and instead of a menu on your table, there is a 'Dookki User Guide'. Hmmm did I sign up for a class or something??? After about ten minutes of learning and absorbing all the info, we took the correct steps to start the tteobokki cooking of the pot. Be sure to use the correct apparatus for sauce, sides, rice or other foods because they watch you like a hawk. Food has limited selections and choices. It's mostly divided up into pot ready, ready to eat, cold sides, rice bowl toppings and sides. Which to me means you don't really do one thing particularly well. However most of the foods turned out pretty delicious and I zoned in on their fried chicken. For their pricing of $20-25 it really wasn't bad. They have a ramen station but personally I wouldn't waste stomach space on packaged ramen if this is a AYCE. I wish there were more stuff to throw into the hotpot and the orientation and study guide is annoying af.

Never tried this concept before. It's like hot pot, except instead of meat, you have rice cakes. I feel like you have to really really love dukkbokki to love this place. I normally do really love dukkbokki but normally as a side dish and not as the star of the meal. The rice cakes were very nice and chewy, but the buffet doesn't have as many other food options as hot pot places have. The ready to eat food had some good stuff, like the japchae and bulgogi, but some misses too. The fried rice they make at the end with the leftover sauce was pretty good. There's also an ice cream station and, for some weird reason, a self-serve ramen station. Service was good enough for a buffet style place. Our server made the fried rice for us. Inside of the restaurant is clean and modern. Glad we tried this but not sure we'll be back.

Been wanting to try this place ever since I've seen a bunch of youtubers in Korea try it! I just so happened to be in Houston this weekend, and this was my first stop out of the airport haha. We came around 8:30pm and were sat right away. It took a little while for the staff to get to us to let us know how it works and get drink orders, but it was pretty self explanatory--it's buffet style so you can add in whatever you want into your pot! They also have ready to eat hot foods as well AND a ramen station. There are plenty of different flavors that you can create for your tteokbokki, but my boyfriend and I just stuck with the spicy rose. It was so good! Highly recommend this place if you want to try out a new concept; however, it is quite pricey for what it is. PS. Get the corn cheese tteok!!!

I never knew that a tteokbokki buffet was a thing, but now Dookki is one of my new favorite restaurants! I've only come on weeknights so it's never been too busy, but the quality was always really good! It's almost essential that you enjoy the chewy, bouncy texture of tteokbokki to enjoy this restaurant. There is an option to make fried rice using your leftover tteokbokki sauce after the tteokbokki round, so if you don't enjoy the tteokbokki, there is that fried rice option, the delicious cooked foods available in the buffet area, the instant ramen section (although I doubt anyone uses it), and ice cream for dessert! Although a brief glance at the tables would make you think this setup resembles hot pot where you cook your food yourself, the server actually cooks your food. First, you fill your sauce bowl with whatever mixture of sauces you want. I do half Dookki (original spicy) and half Busan (sweet and spicy), for a sweet sauce with a kick to it. Then grab the ingredients you want in your tteokbokki. I recommend getting one of everything just to try it because you can do another round with the stuff you really liked. Then the server cooks it while you go grab some of the cooked foods in the buffet area. I really appreciated that they were thoughtful in providing cooked foods so customers wouldn't just be sitting there, waiting for the tteokbokki to cook. I liked almost all of the cooked foods. Again, I recommend getting one of everything just to try it. The fried chicken is inconsistent, sometimes dry, sometimes good and the gimmari (fried seaweed rolls) are my new obsession, thank you, Dookki!! Then, by the time you're done eating your cooked foods, your tteokbokki should be ready! I liked all of the tteokbokki toppings! They all felt like very good quality. The tteokbokki were all perfectly chewy and bouncy in texture. I loved the fish cake noodles! I've never seen those before! The fishballs and meatballs were good, pretty standard. You have to peel your own boiled egg if you want it. And the mussels are pretty small, but tasted surprisingly really fresh and good! I kept coming back for them lol there are some fish cakes on skewers, but I feel like you could skip them. There's smaller pieces of fish cake on the buffet side, and there wasn't really anything special about the ones on skewers, except that they were on skewers. The noodles were all really good too! I'd recommend trying all of them as well. Not sure if I had an unusual experience, but the ramyeon noodles turned kind of chewy after being cooked in the sauce. It was really good! The chewy noodles are like the japchae noodles, thin and slightly chewy. The Chinese glass noodles are wide, thick, and definitely the chewiest. I can't believe how many times I used the word "chewy" in this review, but it really feels like this restaurant is focused on that texture and provides quality food for people who enjoy it! That being said, if you don't like chewy, bouncy foods, specifically tteokbokki, this probably won't be a good restaurant for you. But if you do, you'll love it here!!

Such a fun experience! We are newbies to the Korean food scene and the servers were great at helping us get started. So many choices and therefore endless combinations. We enjoyed some sushi and LOVED the Korean fried chicken while waiting on the pot to cook. We tried the more traditional way then on our second round added all the extras that sounded good...and our combo was a hit!. The fried rice that we made in the pot was so good. The kids really enjoyed the boba and adults were fans of the peach Soju. Such a fun and unique place! Can't recommend enough and you definitely won't leave hungry!

Came for dinner and was surprised at the selection given. It's classic Korean street food items such as fried chicken, kimbap, etc. solid food even if not amazing! Service was alright and ambiance was casual. It is definitely very carb forward such I anticipated (and loved). Dinner was ~50$ for 2 adults!

Wow we were so excited to try this place as it was a new experience of getting to eat AYCE tteokbokki. We went on a colder day so the warmth of the broth was nice. When we first sat down, the waiter explained to us how everything worked. He pours in a base broth and then you can choose the flavors to pour in. We didn't want anything too spicy so went with the rosé flavor. The cheese ring is an extra $5 but it was our first time so we wanted to try it. Not sure if it I would get it again but it was good. You also have the option for them to make you fried rice at the end! At the middle area, they have a bunch of different types of tteokbokki. My favorite was the ones with cheese in the middle and the longer tteokbokki that had a great texture. You can also get a variety of vegetables like boy choy and cabbage. There is also an area of noodles and we got the ramen noodles. I also loved the fish cakes - they were delicious!! They also have a nice fried food section that has fried chicken, fried dumpling and fried gimmari. I love the gimmari (fried seaweed roll) so I got a bunch of those. They also have japchae, bulgogi, and spicy chicken. The japchae and spicy chicken were my favorites. Lastly, they have some self serve ramen stations and a few different ice creams but we didn't use these or get any dessert as we were stuffed. All in all, it was a fun experience, and I would come again with friends! You do get full pretty fast since the rice cakes are pretty filling so we weren't able to do the fried rice part at the end but thats always an option too! Food wise, it not not anything special but I think the experience is fun, especially with a group of friends!

I spotted an Instagram post by a leader from Chow Down in Chinatown about a new breed of AYCE Korean Restaurant called Dookki. Uh? Never noticed that spot hidden between bushy fence from Wells Fargo Bank and wraparound windows at 85C Bakery, this used to be occupied by Hong Kong Street Food, which vacated since the beginning of Covid era. Vertical wood pecks decorated the entire storefront doesn't look like anything spectacular but the inside gave me a big wow effect. I came here during a late lunch around 2 pm. There was a good amount of customers already. Consider busy peak hours, it would be a long wait. I was not familiar with the name. So, I searched on Google. According to MEALTONES.com, "Dookki, which means 'two meals' in Korean, offers tteokbokki for the first meal and fried rice for the second meal." Waiter insisted of me to try the second meal - fried rice. I was pretty overwhelmed after the tteokbokki hot pot. Oh, by the way, it was 110 degrees outside. The thought of eating hot pot didn't stop me. The price of $19.99 was reasonable. Consider eating something hot and spicy would easily cost that much in Chinatown. There were many steps to follow. I wish I had time to study how to properly enjoy Dookki. Waiter was friendly and knowledgeable. I am definitely coming back to experiment my own 2 meals. I would like to try Ramyeon and Cupbap.

So I saw this place advertised on Instagram and wanted to check it out! Now don't get me wrong, I enjoyed most of the food and the price $20 was fair for ayce (rice cakes, fried rice, ramen bar). I think this place is a great trendy restaurant to visit for first-timers. It's fun, and you get to do all the cooking lol. Great for date night! Being korean, I personally just prefer to make all this at home LOL with slightly better flavor, but for the average American without korean experience, it would be a great place to visit. What I liked the best: -the small cheese rice cakes (looks like little white sausage) - trust me and just throw the chicken karaage in the rice cake soup and eat it -Apparently, the egg rolls were good - ramen bar concept Cons: -fish cake soup was bland as heck -we used way more of the best sauce recipe recommendation size for better flavor Will I come back? As a first timer, yes. Or If I'm having an immense craving for spicy rice cakes and my friends want to go, yes!

Decent all-you-can-eat tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes) restaurant in Houston. Pick your sauces, ingredients, then let them cook, pretty simple and easy. A few bullets: +Lots of choices for your rice cake 'medium'. There's sweet potato and cheese-filled ones. +Can make cupbap or fried rice +Sauces are tasty! And broth is decent +Mussels are available +AYCE ice cream +Good service -Carb-heavy -Bulgogi is mushy/slimy -Japchae was not particularly appetizing either -Fried chicken is just chicken strips -Chocolate ice cream ran out -Only 90 minutes, might not be enough for larger groups -Ramen bar is just packaged ramen. I was expecting specialty noodles or something, maybe my expectations were out of wack. Overall verdict: The tteokbokki is great, and making it just the way you like it is something I never thought I wanted. I wouldn't go here for the other prepared dishes though. It's an interesting new concept to add to Chinatown! We don't need another sushi or hotpot spot, tteokbokki could be just the thing!

It's a nice korean tteokbokki AYCE. Food are good and the staff is very helpful and attentive. It's a good place to try new food.

This is an AYCE place revolving around rice cake so if you are a fan of rice cake like me this place is for you. There are a decent variety of things to choose from to add to your pot and a ramen bar for you as well. I especially loved the fish cake on the skewer. Overall, the food was very good. There is a station for sauces as well to make the flavoring you desire but don't fret if you are unsure what you want as they have recommended sauces and the recipes to make it. I would recommend sitting with people who have similar spice tolerances as you though because it will only be one sauce per pot. My friends and I were too full before we could make it to the fried rice portion but I've heard good things about it and will have to come back to try it out. The service however was very disappointing. We walked in and were not greeted by the staff even though someone was at the front desk. The staff did not seem like they wanted to be there and were very inattentive to us even though it was slow. We were able to get seated quickly but we did go when it wasn't peak eating hours. There is a lot of seating available and a nice interior though with K-Pop playing.

I am not a huge fan of tteokbokki , but I really liked the variety that they had. For example, I like the filled ones like the sweet potato and the cheese corn. The rest were pretty much original flavor, but in different shapes, so I was more interested in trying the other ingredients and the prepared. The ingredients to put in the soup were limited. No meats, but there were some seafoods and a good variety of veggies. The prepared foods were not great. The bulgogi beef was good but the japchae and fried chicken bites were not very good. I wasn't a fan of the sauces in the broth, maybe because they were too sweet. Overall, the value is quite good but the flavors and food quality's just ok.

If you like tteokbokki, this is your type of place. Come hungry b/c those rice cakes can be filling. The rice cakes are really cute here- hearts, flowers, and regular shaped. They pour a broth in a pot and you can choose your sauce. You only get 1 sauce change. There are several stations. You take your big bowl and gather whatever you want to add to your hotpot. There are plates and bowls available for cooked meats, kimbap, japchae, fried dumplings, fried chicken, etc. You can make your own bibimbap bowl or ramen. You're supposed to end your meal with fried rice made from the leftover sauce. Plus, you can choose from 4 flavors of ice cream and top it with sprinkles. Overall, I thought the service was good. The tteokbokki was fun to eat, but I felt like I barely ate any rice cakes and put way too many fish cakes, etc. The cooked stuff would have been better if it wasn't sitting out under a heated lamp, but they put just enough out and refilled when necessary. It was kept tidy. I think there was a variety of items that kids can eat, which is a plus b/c korean food can get spicy. I happened to visit when they had a promotion, so got 22% off plus a free drink coupon via raffle. Now, I have a coupon to go back within a couple months.

We did Dookki. Dookki means "two meals" and from my understanding after making tteokbokki, you use the remaining sauce to make Korean fried rice. This is not hotpot. It looks like it could be but it's really not. There is a pan that they add some broth and sesame oil. You make your own sauce and add it to the pan along with the things you get at the food bar. This is why it's not hotpot (to me). The sauce isn't the consistency of broth, it's acts more like seasoning, thicker hense the pan and not a pot. For an extra charge, you can have a cheese ring added, we didn't bc both of us aren't great with lactose The good stuff. There are various noodle options: ramyung, chewy noodles, glass noodles. There are various shapes, lengths, thickness of tteokbokki, corn cheese nuggets, sweet potato nuggets, sausage, fish cakes, meatballs, fish balls, fried tofu pieces,egg ,etc There were also shrimp and mussels (great for added flavor) There are veggies of course: cabbage, bean sprouts, bok choy, green onions, onions, mushrooms, etc There is a seasoning bar (soy sauce, spicy sauce, Korean spicy sauce etc) and toppings (corn, seaweed, ham, onion,kimchi, radish,etc) There are also fish sticks skewers like you have seen in kdramas and any Korean street food video. Keep in mind they are huge pieces of fish cakes so don't pick up too many. Moderation. There are also pre-made foods on the ends. One side has fried chicken, fried dumplings, mini fried seaweed rolls, mini egg rolls). The other had japchae, bulgogi, fried pork. There was also a bowl of those tiny sausages and tiny tteokbokki that are usually skewered and kind of sweet as well as some fried potatoes, also with a sweet sauce. If that wasn't enough, there is also a ramen station like in the kdramas where you self service. And for dessert they had self serve ice cream (4 flavors) with a few toppings. My advice: be moderate, get a little of everything the first round because you can always go back for more. They do charge if you leave too much uneaten food. NOTE: they will add more broth when the sauce runs low if needed, and they will change the pan 1x (included) if you want to make a different sauce. There is an instruction guide but we didn't read it . The staff (all we encountered) were super helpful and friendly and answered all our questions. We didn't do the fried rice bc we didn't pre-work but I'm sure if you ask the staff they can explain the process. And don't get it confused with the Chinese style fried rice, not the same, this is Korean fried rice. Overall, def plan to go back. I enjoyed it all. The glass noodles are chewy and nice, don't leave them in too long or they get soft and meh. The fried chicken was delightful -crispy and tender. Perfect. Keep an eye on the heat on the pan and turn it down when needed. It heats up pretty quick. The tables made for 2 aren't very big so it can be almost like a game of Tetris to get everything to fit. They give you a big bowl that you reuse to get your stuff. Then there are little plates and bowls to get the fried and premade stuff. There is also a sauce container they give you to reuse for your sauce. Enjoy! It's an interesting experience and I recommend everyone go once, just not all on the same day!

Do Not Go to this cheating and shamless Restaurant！ To the owner: Call me at 504-435-5568! A deceitful, disgusting, and dishonest restaurant！ I look forward to seeing this lying establishment go out of business very soon！ On August 23rd at 7:55 PM, my child and I, along with a friend, attended your pajama event in our pajamas. We wanted to try your store because of the discount, but more importantly, we wanted to enjoy a fun and casual night out, wearing pajamas while eating hotpot without feeling awkward. My friend wore a very typical set of Chinese pajamas, and we even showed you the online link where the item is listed as pajamas! However, your female manager, after hearing our explanation, still did not consider our clothes as pajamas! She even told us to check your definition of pajamas on Instagram. Doesn't your store even have the decency to print out the standards? Owner, stop playing these deceptive games for promotions! You posted about the event on Facebook without mentioning any specific pajama requirements, and when we arrived at your store, your manager told us there were specific requirements for pajamas and to check Instagram. Don't overestimate yourselves! You are just an ordinary Korean hotpot restaurant. I could afford to eat there a thousand times at full price, but when I saw your promotion on Facebook, it was your responsibility to state the pajama requirements there! Not stating it and then changing the requirements on Instagram is unacceptable. Shame on you! I only have Twitter and Facebook, not Instagram. Even if I did, there's no reason I should be misled to check different platforms for varying requirements about the same event. Customers are there to support you, not to be played for fools. Do you expect customers to arrive late at night, already hungry, only to be told their pajamas are not acceptable and then feel embarrassed to go elsewhere, ending up having an unpleasant experience at your full-price restaurant? You are very calculating! Wake up! We are the kind of customers who will not be fooled or spun around by you. If you can't afford to promote properly, don't do it! Using deceptive methods for promotions only shows that you are an owner lacking integrity.

Excellent all you can eat tteokbokki spot! Lots of options to pick from, sauce bar, fish cakes, ready to eat foods. The only add on you can pick is the fondue cheese ring! U can also make fried rice with your leftovers. And there's a ramen bar and ice cream. Great place, good service. I'd love to come hang out with my friends again.

Most diehard AYCE fans would scoff at the idea of a carb-laden tteokbokki feast - not us though! We knew going in that Houston's first eatery dedicated to chewy, savory rice cakes would have big shoes to fill, having taken the place of the iconic HK Food Street. To our surprise, we would discover that the true gems of Dookki might have been everything but the tteok - here's our thoughts on what we sampled: Sauce bar: The restaurant helpfully provides some recommended sauce combos for you to customize your brew; one member of our party was spice-averse, but we found success in creating a mild sweet heat with 2 scoops of Dookki original and 1 scoop of gooey Jajang. Feel free to mix and match! Tteok bar: You'll find rice cakes of all colors, shapes, and compositions here! We definitely had to sample each offering but were mindful not to fill up on the bouncy morsels - we enjoyed the purple sweet potato variation the most. Veggies, tofu, and seafood: The veggie selection here is fairly limited, but the mushrooms and cabbage were pleasantly fresh and a welcome reprieve from the otherwise carb-and-protein-heavy choices. Same was true for the tofu, which soak up the tteokbokki sauce wonderfully but come only in 1-2 varieties. The surprise winner was the plate of whole shrimps, which not only satisfied my quest for value but also flavored our soup with a subtle savoriness. Yum! Fried food station: We all raved about the spicy soy chicken, fried beautifully and doused in a dilution of the aforementioned Jajang sauce. Who knew the fried chicken would be the best thing at a tteokbokki / hot pot joint?? The remainder of the items, such as veggie fritters, mandu, and seaweed rolls, provided additional fodder for dipping into our cooking sauce, though again - everything in moderation! Grilled food station and odeng bar: If you're impatient or just plain hungry, the prepared hot foods are quite decent, if mostly unremarkable - shout-out to the odeng bar with the insanely long skewers for being the most dangerous yet addictive food station! Cleanse your palate with a sip of odeng broth between bites of fish cake and tteokbokki. Self-serve ramen machine: Yes, you could just get the dry noodles to put into your own table pot, but wouldn't you rather have the experience of cooking the noodles on the automatic machine?? We tried this once as a table for the novelty of it, though surely you wouldn't come to Dookki just to eat Shin Ramyun ;) Fried rice: Despite being 95% stuffed at this point, we couldn't leave without passing through the second phase of the meal. Our delightful waitress helped us scoop out some of the extra cooking liquid, gathered the fried rice ingredients, then proceeded to cook it teppanyaki-style at our table. (Dinner and a show!) The rice soaks up all the delicious juices and is a satisfying, if heavy, end to the meal. About half of the restaurant was full when we went on Saturday night, so you won't have any issues scoring a table or getting service. At $23 per person it's a little cheaper than other AYCE spots in Chinatown, albeit with mostly "filler" foods - but at the end of the day, I had a great time! I'm excited to take my Korean-food-loving friends here and see how many rice cakes I can stuff them with ;)

Recommend understanding the concept before disappointing yourself with expectations. This is not hot pot style ayce. It's ayce for Tteokbokki & fish cakes fans. Tteokbokki is Korean rice cakes cooked in a thick sauce. This concept you can add other types of ingredients to boost it up. I was lost at first but understanding the process now. This can be eaten solo or shareable. The downside to that is all party must agree on the sauce, because there's only one burner. So recommend you eat with someone who can tolerate same spice level. My husband got his own burner because his spice level is 5x hotter than mine. My daughter and I made a non spicy base, we made jajang (we scooped it 3x for our measurement) kinda remind me of jjajangmyeon. II'm not a fan of Tteokbokki (Korean rice cakes) it's heavy for me, but the other ingredients I mixed in was good. And we chose ramen as our carb. I did like the cheese rice ball (it had corn in there too) The sauce is runny at first but as you cook, the carb starches makes it thicker. The leftover sauce you can make fried rice from the fried rice topping bar. If you're a fan of that crispy pan rice you leave it on longer. I'm not a fan of it so I ate it saucey. Texture is wet, but different. It was pretty good stir fry Kim chi and top off with seaweed. I want to add cheese on it next time. The instant ramen station was awesome! I want the machine! You can also fill your bowl with toppings from the Tteokbokki station to make a gourmet ramen pot. There are hot food stations with fried & sautéed items. We loved the fried chicken pieces. I was full so didn't go the hot food for japchae, spicy stir fried pork, and bulgogi. Honestly not bad for $20's ayce, because just getting bulgogi dish at a Korean restaurant is almost $12-$15 alone. Overall a different experience and there are other familiar options to eat to make up for the dish you're not a fan of. Staff was friendly, attentive and explained the rules of food waste fee & It is 90 mins dining time.

Walked in here happening to make it on their first day of soft opening. Inside, you are immediately greeted with a clean and modern interior with a large buffet bar in the middle. The service is altogether good, and I'm sure it will only get better with time. The way the service works is a little confusing, but you will get a soup base and you add flavor to it yourself. After that, you can cook all the things you want in this rather shallow hot pot. The value is insane at 22.95 for dinner! It's a ton of variety and there is plenty of protein, greens and carbs. Personally, I loved making the fried rice and throwing some bulgogi on top. The napa cabbage, onions, and fishcake were also great. There's also an automatic ramen machine in the back, with a nice ice cream bar in the back. The ice cream is kept too cold, which makes it hard to scoop. Also would be nice to see asian flavors here. Overall, I'm really impressed with this new spot and definitely recommend you visit. I can foresee Dookki getting a ton of customers. There is good meat, value, and clean presentation.

Don't expect it to be like those other Asian buffets with a huge variety of selections. It's a good spot if you REALLY enjoy Korean rice cakes and flavors. They have 3 types of noodles to choose from & endless toppings! There is also a separate ramen section (shin, Jin, neoguri, etc.) along with an ice cream section (6 flavors). Everything is basically self serve as any buffet, except heating the soup & pouring broth. The staff is very kind and helpful when you need them. I believe their adult lunch prices differ from dinner and when we went during lunch they were also doing kids (12 & under) eat free. Overall a cozy feel! I would go again in the future to try out other flavors and the fried rice since last time I was too full to experience it.

My tummy hurts but in the best way possible. The girls at the front are so sweet and explained how everything worked, even adding their own recommendations. They were very attentive and checked up on us and our hotpot multiple times. The food is great, and I feel full but it was so worth it. The side dishes are nice to pick at while you wait for the food to heat up. Would definitely come back when I'm in the area again!!

I was really excited to try Dookki because Tteokbokki is one of my favorite Korean dishes and the DIY and AYCE concepts were a novelty to me. I came on a weekday, late afternoon for lunch and there were still a good amount of people eating there. Since it was my partner and I's first time, our server explained how we were supposed to go about preparing all the food. We also learned that we could make fried rice after we were done with our Tteokbokki, which was cool! I was honestly a little disappointed with the toppings selection for the Tteokbokki. In the end, Tteokbokki is just rice cakes and there's only so much you can do with that, so I thought that the novelty of the process should've really come from the variety of toppings you can put in your Tteokbokki. There were just a couple vegetables, fish cakes, and seafood you could choose from. The toppings for the fried rice section of the buffet were also underwhelming. However, a positive is that there is a solid variety of premade foods that you can pick from the buffet, like japchae, bulgogi, kimbap, fried chicken, and wings. There's also a freezer where you can scoop out your own ice cream after the end of your meal! For a price of $15.99/person, I think my lunch experience was pretty solid, but I wouldn't come back again anytime soon.

Such a fun experience with friends. We went during their November special which was wearing our pjs after 6pm and receiving 50% off. That brought our total to $12 per person which is a steal for all you can eat. The food was yummy and you can tell the quality of the ingredients was really good. I really enjoyed my experience here and would definitely recommend right now with the promotion going on everyday til 11/31.

I was really excited to try an all you can eat tteokbokki concept - I love AYCE and I love the chewiness of tteokbokki bring me unparalleled joy. The process is very simple. They give you two measuring cup shaped containers - the larger one is for to mix sauces that become the flavoring for your plain broth at the table, and the smaller one is for your personal dipping sauce. With a larger group, some people got confused and switched the cup sizes but the quantity and mixture of sauces/flavors is pretty foolproof, and they'll let you start over if needed. We enjoyed eating through the mainly fried prepared items while we waited for our broth to boil. The selection of prepared foods and hot pot ingredients, however, was less impressive than other hot pot establishments. There were more tteokbokki and noodle options than at other hot pot restaurants, but this wouldn't sway the vote for me to choose this place again over others. You'll definitely be full at the end of the meal, but that will be because you filled up on a lotttt of starches rather than meats.

I love it!! It's really easy to make and super delicious! I've had amazing service every time. The atmosphere is nice too! I love the music and the staff is super friendly!

Food - personally thought the quality was pretty average in terms of the freshness and availability of the ingredients and the taste and quality of the additional food items. The concept is awesome but I'm not sure if quality of food varies with days, but the quality that day did not meet expectations Service - okay, very self serving location. honestly there was not much help provided for first time comers who are not familiar with tteoboki - they pointed at the instructions on the paper. Ambiance - decent, clean, spacious

I visited here on a Friday evening about 2 months after they had opened, and it still had a fresh smell about it. I was expecting a long wait, but instead, I was able to be seated right away. Let me just preface by saying this is one of those complicated restaurants where you will do most of the cooking at your table, with multiple steps involved. Here, patrons basically cook their own soups on the induction top at the table, eat fried finger foods and dip them in the broth, if they want, then make fried rice from the leftover broth using the ingredient bar. One option is a cheese ring that you can order with your soup to make it more creamy or make cheese corn on a separate plate. There is also a ramen bar at the rear wall where there are 2 stations to make packaged ramen (yes, the same ramen you see in the grocery stores). After dinner, if you're still hungry, as with many buffets, there is a small area to the left of the ramen bar to dip and make your own ice cream using a few different toppings (mainly sprinkles). I feel this is really asking a lot to have customers here in the US make their own soups in a quick like manner. There are just various things that can go wrong. It should be left to the chefs in the kitchen to make this type of soup, imo. Cooking meats on a grill is one thing, but making a soup is just more complicated. I made my sauce based on a suggestion from a magazine article I read earlier in the day from my visit, which was similar to one suggested on the sign at the sauce bar, using 2 different spicy options and one mild option. I grabbed all the ingredients during my 2 different attempts to make broth. The first turned our great and spicy, then I decided to have the waiter bring a new bowl and I made a very mild one. My favorite ingredient for the soup were the mussels, even though they were small and nothing special. Otherwise, I really don't have much to say for all the noodle options with various tastes and textures. I thought a lot of them tasted similar. I'm not a fried rice fan, but I made it anyway just to complete the process. It turned out okay, but not something I would eat regularly, even if I was a fan. Overall, I think this restaurant is a culturally popular thing that may not bode well with other cultures on a regular basis. It's fun to try once, but I don't see myself being a regular.

Haven't had Korean food in a while and I've seen this place before on TikTok soo decided to try it out. We were seated at our table then were instructed on what this buffet is like. Picked out our sauce, Rose, for some spice that wouldn't be overwhelming. Then we selected out items for the tteokbokki. This is where I'll mention that in this regard, it really isn't like a traditional hot pot or KBBQ buffet. You do certainly get to choose as much as you want (however much fits within the bowl you're given) but once you put it into the hot pot with the broth then that's pretty much it from my understanding. I know this may not be an issue for most, but I feel it caps the experience. What if you wanted more of this and too much of that? What if your friends wanted a different sauce you have to compromised? What about food allergies? In the meantime, while the tteokbokki is cooking, you can get some of the hot food they have available. Even though it's not necessarily the main focus of the restaurant, I felt like these really made the buffet for me. There's a solid variety of kimbimbop as well as Korean fried chicken. Alongside that, there's even a ramen station in the back. I highly recommend getting these before the tteokbokki is ready. Once it was ready, I did enjoy it. The assortment of rice cakes is more than enough in my opinion. After you're done, you can get the remaining broth to flavor a fried rice, if you still have room in your belly. My biggest downside is that this really isn't a buffet. You pretty much get one buffet and one fried rice that has to be shared across the table. You do have unlimitted kimbimbop and KFC, but IMO that's really supplementary. If they changed this to unlimitted, then I think it would better match the price for the quality and amount of food you get.