Lighthouse Tofu

Hard to understand the ladies but they do try and it is definitely worth. Great flavors and portion sizes but try to take a native to guide you. Took one star for cleanliness but definitely willing to give it another shot.

This is absolutely one of my favorite places — I can never get tired of the food.
The spicy tofu soup is very flavorful and the bulgogi is soft to chew!
The menu is not as limited, compared to the Lighthouse Tofu in Annandale — for example, I cannot order simple steamed egg at the Annandale location but I can at the Rockville location.
Servers attentive and atmosphere casual, light music playing in the background and there are large televisions mounted on the sides of the restaurant.
Parking lot is small and fills fast during dinner hours, but there always seem to be space towards the back at least!

I used to come here a lot when I lived in the area. Really good soon dooboo and the ladies who work there are always friendly. I usually get the seafood and beef soondooboo and it’s always good. I miss good soondooboo, because I have yet to find any on the west coast!

The only thing my girlfriend and I ever eat here is the dinner combo sets — bulggogi + soondaboo for me and kalbi + soondaboo for her. The maximum spicy here is spicy even for us on our Thai spicy scale. The pork and chicken bulggogi are meh, so I wouldn’t recommend those unless you absolutely are not capable of eating beef.
But bottom line get the soondaboo with or without anything else. I’ve tried it at many other K-​restaurants in Ellicott city and Annandale and I’m still coming back here.

I have been to the restaurant twice. First time with my colleges. It was just an after work hang around and we did not order too much food. The Korean speaking server laughed at us ordering too little.
The second time the Korean speaking server on purposely served us Hot tea with kid’s cup.
All in all, I had bad experiences with the service. The food is decent but pricy. I will give two star.

Not the best, but pretty solid Korean food. The food is pricier than the average Korean restaurant. I usually come here for the SoonDuBu, which is a spicy tofu soup. You can pick the level of spiciness of your soup. Remember to crack the egg into your soup right when you get it so that it can cook while the soup is still boiling hot. Sometimes the servers don’t tell you this and you’re stuck wondering what to do with a raw egg!
Their other entrees are tasty too, but expensive. If you’re really hungry, their combo meals are a good deal. It comes with a small soondubu, but note that it does not come with rice. I also like their Seafood Pancake, but wish it had a tad more seafood in it. The large Seafood Pancake, on the other hand, does come with rice.
It’s a decent sized restaurant. Every time I’ve been, it’s never been completely packed. Good for large groups. We showed up in a group of 18 the other day and had no issues. Friendly service. Plenty of parking.

One of my favorite restaurants to dine at in the Rockville area. As other reviews have shared Lighthouse specializes in spicy tofu soup with your choice of meat, or you can order it vegetarian. I really enjoy dining at this restaurant and have always had a positive experience. One of my favorite things to order is the lunch/​dinner combo of spicy chicken bbq with a choice of mushroom, or beef tofu soup. Very generous portions of meat with great tasting tofu soup.
Lastly the service at this restaurant is very good, not just for a Korean restaurant but considering other non-​Korean establishments as well. This isn’t a fine dining restaurant but if you’re ever craving a great Korean dining experience definitely check this place out!

I always thought I didn’t like Korean food. But my workmates took me today. One is Korean. He helped me understand the food and the menu.
I loved the vegetable soup. Spicy was just right. The pancakes are really good. We had barley tea too. All the sides especially the sprouts and cucumber were yummy.
Now I like Korean.

Always a favorite. Service is quick and courteous (and bilingual). Place is spic span clean.
I always get soondubu and sometimes get a seafood pancake. Soondubu is consistent, and remains my favorite place to come for it.
Seafood pancake is not always consistent with some times being crispy and others soggy. Just visited recently and questioned whether they had always had Kani in it but no shrimp… Seems unusual
Banchan aplenty per usual.
Note: Amex not accepted here

Not buying into the hype on this one. I don’t think this is a bad place at all. IMO, it’s just average, nothing more, nothing less.
Came here after hearing all the rave reviews about how this spot has some of the best soondoobu in the area. I’ve heard that they also have a spot in Annandale, and it does happen where two of the same businesses can have completely different food. But, I chose this one. Maybe I’ll check out the other one, I don’t know.
First thing I noticed after sitting down were the prices. It was 12.50 for the dinner time soondoobu (10.00 for lunch). Honestly, if I just hadn’t just drove for an hour, or if I was a local, I would have walked out. Waaayy overpriced. But another part of my brain was thinking «well, since a lot of people think this place is the best, I guess they have a right to charge those prices». And I was wrong.
Ordered the seafood and beef soondoobu. When it came out, I tasted the broth. It was a little bit bland. The tofu and seafood and beef were cooked alright, but the whole dish didn’t do anything for me. I think it was because the broth was kinda plain and watery. Average would be the best word to describe it. The banchan (side dishes) were just average as well. I personally don’t like «new kimchi», which is what they serve here. I prefer mine to be aged for a couple of weeks, at least. But everything was OK, just lacking a bit. Service was good though.
Yea, it was about average, but overpriced, I’m sure there are better places in town. Might check out the sister restaurant, but I don’t know.

There will be very less restaurants which I would rate as 5 star. This one gets only for Tofu Soup. I had «Curry Tofu Soup» and it was sooo good with very nice (high) spice levels (I ordered at 2 level spice). If you can’t handle spice very well, don’t forget to tell them to keep spice level low else it will be high by default. I’m surely gonna go there again but this time only and only for Tofu Soup. Its soooooooo amazinnngg.
Rest of the food was just average.
Tip: Make sure you indicate what you want in the menu coz the servers there are not very good in English and you might end up getting something else than what you wanted.

I don’t frequent non-​BBQ Korean restaurants much, but I liked my experience here and would be back. I’m not a fan of spicy, and my white beef seafood tofu soup was surprisingly flavorful. I also split the the seafood pancake with others and really liked it — definitely one of the better seafood pancakes that I’ve had before.

Lighthouse Tofu epitomizes everything I think of when I think of traditional Korean cuisine. Upon walking in, we were greeted by two Korean ladies who showed us our seats amongst the wooden furniture of East Asian flair. I appreciated the ample space between our table and the neighboring tables — too often have I had to suffer through really cramped seating for the sake of good food.
Here the tradeoff didn’t apply because the food was absolutely delicious! We ordered the special Bulgogi Jungol (beef, vegetable, and noodle casserole), a large dish perfect for splitting among two people. Prior to our main dish, we were brought the classic assortment of picked cucumbers, kimchi, radish, and bean sprouts along with two bowls of perfect moist rice. (Sorry Americans, I’d leave the rice prep to the Asians. :))
One fun tip — don’t use the empty bowls with this dish for your appetizers. The side dishes should be eaten over the rice, not mixed in the separate bowl. My boyfriend made this mistake, so when the waitress came out to serve us the jungol, she looked disappointedly at the already used bowl and asked the other waitress to bring out a fresh one. I could not stop laughing at the mix-​up.
The Bulgogi Jungol itself was tasty too. A large pan’s worth of rice noodles, tender beef, mushrooms, and savory broth — definitely hit the spot. Plus the free refill of side dishes was appreciated too!

I’ve been looking for a go-​to Korean restaurant since I moved to the area, and I’ve been looking doubly hard for a place that does decent soondubu. I’m glad to say that Lighthouse Tofu fits the bill.
Service was spotty tonight but we happened to arrive at the same time as two giant tour buses full of kids, so that may have contributed to the lack of attention. However I have to say we were ignored the entire time we were at the restaurant even after the large group left, and we had to flag down a waitress three times before the second half of our order was delivered.
Regardless, the food is pretty good and they have some combo meals (bibimbap + tofu stew; bulgogi + tofu stew) that I’ll have to try the next time I go. The prices are moderate for the amount of food you get.

I was craving korean food and decided to come here due to their great reviews. The restaurant was really spacious inside and was crowded. This place must be great since there were a lot of people eating here. I ended up ordering a Spicy Dumpling Soondooboo (Korean Tofu) and sharing a Large Kimchi Pancake. Once we ordered, we were given some small side dishes (Kimchi, Bean Sprouts, Cucumbers, Radish, and Kimchi Soup). I was disappointed because there wasn’t a wide selection of side dishes. I’m used to having more choices back in CA.
Kimchi Pancake: it’s just a large, crispy pancake filled with kimchi. It was slightly doughy, but I was starving so I didn’t mind.
Spicy Dumpling Soondooboo: when I first received it, there wasn’t any steam coming out of it and it wasn’t boiling. I thought it was weird, because it should be steaming. It didn’t seem like it was hot, but I cracked an egg into the tofu soup. The egg didn’t cook, so I asked the server if she could send it back to heat it up. It came back boiling and steaming. The soup was slightly salty, and it seemed like they only put one dumpling in there.
Overall, their food was meh. The servers were really nice, but their food though… I really wanted to like this place. I might come back again to try something else and give them another chance.

Came here starving after a hike and this place really hit the spot. I ordered a mild seafood beef soon doo boo and it was a delicious blend of spicy soup and tofu-​goodness. My only complaint is that it was supposed to come with shrimp, clam, and beef and I only received one shrimp and very little clam and beef (I almost didn’t even think it was there at first). But I’ll cut them slack on that since it was the lunch special (about $ 12).
We also had some of the kalbi which was well cooked but the flavoring was a little sweet for my taste.

Bit Goeul Soondooboo, otherwise known as Lighthouse Tofu, has several locations; they are known for their tofu soup. It comes in different varieties (mushroom, seafood & beef, seafood, kimchi beef, oyster, beef & pork, soy bean, and vegetable), and you can customize the spiciness level. They also offer LA galbi, bulgogi, nak ji gook soo (noodles with octopus), pajuhns (Korean-​style pancakes), and lunch/​dinner combo meals. I’d heard that the Rockville location was the best location in the DC metro area, compared to the one in Annandale and the one out in Ellicott City. When we walked in, we were seated right away in a more quieter area (which was nice!). All the ahjummas here are so friendly, donned in their hanboks. I am a fan of the complimentary bowl of cold kimchi soup (that is filled with well-​fermented slices of kimchi; it is pretty refreshing), which also comes with some banchans. They also prepare nooruhngjee (burnt rice) for you, where they scrape out all the steamed rice, set them into individual steel rice bowls; the rice that are stuck to the big clay pot, barley water is then poured into — this turns into the ‘burnt rice soup’ that you can consume either before or after your meal. For the soondooboos, I usually stick with the Kimchi soondooboo, and this comes in a piping clay bowl, all bubbling — eggs were not available when we came, due to the virus going around, so it was all good. I really thought the soondooboo tasted better here, with generous amounts of tofu, and the jjigae itself was flavorful (having well-​fermented kimchi helps!). We also got the LA galbi, and I highly suggest in foregoing the meats and such; the galbi was overly sweet and too fatty, and it was just not tasty. Plus, it was close to $ 30 for 3 ribs (!). The place definitely gets packed, and there is a lot for your car.
+cold kimchi soup (spicy dongchimi) :D
+Kimchi soondooboo: D
+friendly ahjummas: D
+lot for your car

I’ve been here twice and the soondubu is great regardless of what fillings you get (seafood /​mushroom /​beef). I find the great way to experience the food is to try out their combo meal. A soondubu and entrée usually cost around 20 dollars and above and it’s give you an opportunity to try something new while having a safe fall back to the soondubu which can never go wrong.
I’ve tried a few of the meat entrees and it had always been delicious. They don’t cook in front of you like most Korean restaurant but I don’t really mind that because I don’t really want to smell like my food if I’m trying to go somewhere else after dinner. Try the spicy pork belly or the fish that they have on the special. Both was equally delicious
The wait staff are always friendly and service and food comes out promptly with very little wait time. Every time that I’ve been here it looks crowded with regulars who frequent the place.
The only thing that I didn’t like the place is that they charge $ 3 for extra rice, which seems a little excessive for the small bowl that they serve.

I was beyond disappointed with my experience at Lighthouse Tofu! First, let me berate their customer service. Although we were seated quickly with a group of 4 adults and 3 kids, our waitress was so rude and uncompromising. Can you believe that we were allowed to choose only their roasted barley tea (boricha) or cold water because she said there wasn’t enough room on the table! Who says that?! We also didn’t have enough utensils on the table and when we asked her for more, she was annoyed as if it were our fault that we didn’t have any.
To worsen the deal, because it was Martin Luther King Day, they said we couldn’t order the lunch combo deal, BUT we could order the dinner combo deal. When we asked if both were the same portions, she said yes, there’s no difference, you’re just paying more. What kind of restaurant offers such crappy menu deals. My friend and I ended up ordering the soondubu and naengmyun combo for $ 18.99. However, it didn’t come with the rice because it was a combo and we had to add another $ 3 on top of that to order a bowl. May as well have paid for it separately.
Let me add that in a previous trip to Lighthouse, my friend found a cockroach in her soup and they only offered a discount. I would have walked out.
Arirang has better soondubu anyway.
Good bye and good riddance!

I like this place because there aren’t that many great korean restaurants in this area.
I ordered the dumpling tofu soup and there was no dumpling in it. There were pieces of broken dough and some meats scattered in the soup. Typically, my dumpling soups from any other korean restaurant have visible dumplings in them. So it was a major turnoff. And my mom ordered bulgogi dinner meal combo with beef flavored tofu soup. I didn’t taste any beef flavor in it; it tasted like kimchi soup for it being ordered mild spice.
Servers were somewhat disconnected. They don’t smile or create friendly environment there. Takes forever to get refill on our hot teas.
I’ll come back only because this is the only decent korean restaurant around here other than that I would try to avoid this place as much as I can.