There’s a “rule” in enlightened restaurant reviewing that you don’t observe that, in a place serving ethnic food, there are a lot of people of that ethnicity enjoying that ethnic food. That seems odd to me. For example, advice you often hear in rural Texas when looking for a good place to eat is to “look for where all the pickup trucks are parked.” Is that a bad thing? I get that the lack of folks of a certain ethnic proclivity doesn’t mean that a restaurant of that same ethnic proclivity is not a good restaurant. But if a restaurant of a certain ethnic proclivity is full of folks of that ethic proclivity, doesn’t that mean something?
If it does mean something, then an nyeong K-Tofu & BBQ is legit. an nyeong occupies the former spot of the vegan restaurant Citizen Eatery and, based on the ethnic proclivity of the crowd (80% Korean?) and how busy they have been since Day 1 of their hard opening, they are aptly filling a missing gap in Austin’s cuisine. “an nyeong” means hello in Korean, and, like a lowercase hello, the place is friendly for those familiar and not familiar with K is for Korean cuisine.
Your meal starts off with banjan, an impressive array of five side dishes (kimchi, bean sprouts, fried tofu, glass noodles, and potatoes) and a bowl of rice (a set-up called “five cheop;” royalty gets twelve cheop) enjoyed throughout the meal. At an nyeong, banjan comes free with your order (like chips and salsa) and is limitless (on my first visit, I was like “What the…?” when all these dishes arrived for a solo lunch).
an nyeong’s signature dish is tofu soup (sundubu jjigae), but don’t let the tofu or lingering spirit of Citizen stop you carnivores from coming in because these soups come with your choice of chicken, beef, pork, or seafood (or straight-up tofu with veggies if that’s your bean). The Original Tofu Soup with chicken and mushroom ($18) arrives boiling in a stoneware bowl. Many dishes come with an egg, so crack ’em open quick and dump them on your food to cook them. On a scale of 1 to 10 for spiciness, I ordered a 6, and could definitely go higher. You can also apply their homemade hot sauce (gochujang) to adjust the flavor and how much sweat you want on your brow. The soup wiggled with flavor with the deep red gochujang bringing notes of savory, sweet, and spicy to the bowl. The soft pillows of freshly curdled tofu were like breathing clouds occasionally interrupted with the thunder of savory chicken. The bulging bowl seemed downright bottomless.
The Bride tried the Seafood and Vegetables in Stoneware ($20) and, on an earlier visit, I tried the same but with BBQ pork. The dish arrives in a straight-from-the-core-of-the-earth shallow bowl of granite. After cracking an egg on top, you stir fry the ingredients, scraping the deliciously crunchy-chewy rice from the rock. We also tried the Seafood Pancake (haemul-pajeon; squid, shrimp, and grilled onions fried in batter; $18) as an appetizer, although it arrived toward the end of our meal. It was soft and crispy with sparks of savory seafood. Dipping it into a sauce made of soy, rice vinegar, and sugar (Sprite?), these pancakes really popped. Several folks nearby donned black latex gloves to eat another Korean specialty of an nyeong, Marinated Crab (yangnyeom-gejang; $27).
Regardless of who is cramming the restaurant (be prepared to wait for a seat), the full seats are fully deserved. The food and service are stellar as is the experience. Although there were no pick-ups out back, an nyeong is a worthy stop.
an nyeong K-Tofu & BBQ , 5011 Burnet Road, (512) 792-9546
I wrote this review for the Allandale Neighbor.
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