Kaju Tofu House

In the pantheon of cuisine, Korean cuisine is extremely underrated and misunderstood by many outsiders. Here in America, Korean Americans are fiercely proud of their cuisine and seem to have preserved their food traditions. You will not find Americanized versions of Korean favorites like you would at the local Chinese take out where most of the dishes are geared toward American taste preferences. This preservation of cuisine makes Korean cuisine exciting and the authentic article. Kaju Tofu House in the Allston neighborhood of Boston is a fantastic example of a Korean restaurant keeping things simple and with tradition. As its name would indicate, Kaju Tofu House does specialize in tofu dishes, more specifically soft tofu. Most of those soft tofu dishes are soups or stews served bubbling hot from the kitchen. If you do not like tofu do no fear, there are a variety of other amazing dishes to choose from. Kaju serves Korean classics such as bulgogi(Korean BBQ beef), kalbi(BBQ beef short ribs), clay pot rice, and bibimbap. Each table is served a variety of banchan before your meal is served. Banchan are small plates of pickles, or salads that are traditionally served to accompany any meal in Korean cuisine. Some of the banchan included cabbage kimchi, cucumber kimchi, sesame bean sprouts, potatoes cooked in soy sauce, a bean salad, and a glass noodle salad. I had one of their clay pot rice dishes that was filled with a variety of seafood such as squid, fish, and octopus. It featured Korean chili paste, nori flakes, chopped scallions, and sesame seeds on top.  If you like spicy food and seafood this dish is probably up your alley. The clay pot rice and almost everything else is served piping hot from the kitchen. It literally sizzled on its way to the table. This place is always packed during dinner time. My best advice is to go early in the evening as it is a neighborhood favorite and can fill up quickly. As for price point, Kaju is very reasonable with most of the dishes costing between $10 and $20. Kaju is a great option for Korean cuisine and at a reasonable price.