For a relatively small Houston restaurant, I was pleasantly surprised at the wide variety of items available at their lunch buffet. My group went on a Tuesday, were seated immediately, and everything on the buffet was kept stocked the whole time we were there. They have at least eight different types of rice balls and sticks for the hot pot, as well as a nice big section for vegetables. There were several fish ball and fish skewer choices along with fatty sliced beef, shrimp, and very lean pork. If you didn't want the hot pot, there were three entrées, including two types of Korean barbecue beef. I believe there were eight sauce choices where you could mix and match to create your own blend to add to the broth. And if you don't want hot pot or premade Korean dishes, they also had a ramen station with six different brands of noodles, along with ramen cookers to dispense hot water and time your noodles. BEST OF ALL, when we went, there were four varieties of Korean fried chicken, along with fries, some type of seaweed-wrapped rice fritter, and a chopped potato and veggie fritter. To end the meal, they had free ice cream that you could scoop yourself (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, cookies and cream). Our hot pot heated immediately, and the controls were accessible so that we could turn it down when ready. Great service!!!! You need to know that it is a bit hard to find the first time. The shopping center appears to be a U Shape: the restaurant is at the front, far right corner facing Bellaire. It is a couple doors to the right from 85° Bakery. With the buffet, tax and tip, price was about $20 per person for all you can eat. read more

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I ate more of the prepared hot foods than the main itself. In my opinion it was super watery and not in a soupy tteokboki way. It was bland even after putting three scoops of sauce. The cream was diluted and did not make it much creamier. There was also a dead fruit fly in the radish bin. Workers were nice but not knowledgeable. Ambience was fine but I filled up on their fried chicken and the ramen station. This is not traditional tteokboki in any way. read more

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I've been to Dookki a couple of times and always enjoy it. I personally love their rice cakes. The sweet potato and cheese rice cake is the best in my opinion and definitely a must-try. The soup bases are easy to customize with guides on the wall, which makes the experience fun and beginner-friendly. The only downside is that refills for the soup can sometimes take a bit longer than expected. That said, they have plenty of other options to enjoy in the meantime, including other dishes, a ramen station, and Korean fried chicken. Overall, still a great spot if you're craving teokbokki! read more

Dookki - Houston - Korean Near Me - Houston, Texas

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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. read more

Dookki - Houston - Korean Near Me - Houston, Texas

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Went here with my best friend! Staff was friendly. Inside there is a lot of seating and it was pretty clean. It's kinda cold inside. Food was yummy. We got rose sauce mixed with some spicy sauce. Pretty good. The rice cakes were very chewy and the meat was tender. Ramen was also great. I'd rate this place a 7/10. read more

Dookki - Houston - Korean Near Me - Houston, Texas

Come here once for the experience and then never again. For $29 (including tip and tax) you get discount hotpot and a bunch of rice cakes in different shapes and sizes that all taste the same lol. This place has it all - fish cake skewers (decent), KFC (not great), gimbap (okay), and even a ramen bar with the fancy hot water dispenser that times it for you (lol). The purple sweet potato rice cake is definitely the best one. Maybe Koreans will like this place better with the nostalgic appeal, but for me, one time is enough. read more

Dookki - Houston - Korean Near Me - Houston, Texas

As much as I love their tekkbokki, I realized they don't monitor how people get food items. I just witnessed Simone eating fries standing by the hot food section, then he went ahead to pick fried chicken with his hands after I stood there watched himrub his belly under his shirt. That's gross. When I pointed out hey you can't do that, the dude just dropped the chicken back to the basket. Will you eat that? When I mentioned this to the staff, they said o so sorry, will give you 15% off. Wow. Man, so over it, up and I go. Like that 15% will change my mind. I'm a big foodie, I Didn't tell your staff so I can get few dollars back in my pocket. $3 and some change, that's even more disrespectful. As much as I enjoyed eating here, think this gonna be my last time. read more

My sister and I went to Dooki on a Sunday when it was actually chilly in Houston, and we were craving something warm and comforting. It ended up being the perfect choice. Our waitress was very nice and pretty attentive the entire time. They have plenty of seating, so we didn't have to wait for a table. They have a large selection of items you can add to your broth, along with plenty of sauces for customizing your meal. There's also a good variety of vegetables and meats, plus individual plates you can order if you don't want to build a full hot pot. Overall, we really enjoyed the food and would definitely consider coming back, especially on a cold day. read more

Dookki - Houston - Korean Near Me - Houston, Texas

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Stopped by before heading back home from our family vacation. They easily accommodated our large party. The diy tteokbokki set up can be a bit confusing for the first time. There are a lot of bowls of different sizes on the table and they try to explain but there is a lot to it. Seems like pretty much one bowl is for the sauce and one bowl you add rice cake and topping choices, similar to hot pot. They are have good hot buffet options. We enjoyed the chicken. Definitely a fun place to try out read more

Let me just start by saying I really had high hopes for this business as I had seen it all over social media! I had the dinner pricing that equaled the buffet portion and hot pot for $50.00. This is a little pricey for hot pot but was happy to pay for good food and excellent service. Little did I know it was not the experience I hoped for. FOOD: There was not much instruction on how to create your hot pot other than just labels and a buffet style line. So you could over spice your broth and screw up the hot pot. If you are a first timer trying to get hotpot you would be completely lost. The actual buffet food was okay. I was expecting more than just finger foods. Now, the hot pot was decent but a lot to be desired. I could not put my finger on it if it was the sauce or the broth. SERVICE: It was just okay. I was constantly trying to get a hold of someone to refill drinks, broth or the normal requests as you eat a meal. For hotpot it should be second nature you will need more from your waiter. If I did not lower the temperature of my hotpot it would have burned completely waiting for staff. The wait staff seemed they were lost and going in circles. OVERALL EXPERIENCE: For a restaurant to make you wait long periods to sit down and the food/service not measure up it does not make sense to advertise reservations. I understand busy times in a restaurant but that should not excuse the hospitality of a restaurant. After witnessing super sticky floors, mishandled messy condiments, empty buffet trays on a busy holiday, warm sushi, empty ice cream containers, and just messiness all around it is red flag for cross contamination and getting sick/food poisoning. Please note it was not even close to the end of the business hours. It is very upsetting to post because I really wanted to love this restaurant but it is just had too many red flags. As a long time foodie I had to post to prevent anyone else from potentially getting sick. read more

As much as I wanted to like Dookki, I just don't think it's for me. There isn't much to eat in terms of variety, and the hotpot supposedly no flavor - according to the staff. We're supposed to build our own sauce, which it's not a concept that I like - I personally prefer food that's already prepared and not a DIY setup. However, I can see why some people enjoy it, especially if you like customizing your meal, but it's just not my preference. The service was okay, and the ambiance wasn't bad, though it didn't feel very clean. For a Tuesday AYCE spot, it was surprisingly busy. However, they ran out of beef multiple times, and I had to keep asking for refills. Same thing with the broth--it felt like I was constantly having to remind them, which made the overall experience frustrating. I was also looking forward to trying the Korean fried chicken, but the flavors didn't match what I wanted. The regular flavors like Soy Garlic flavor didn't have a non-spicy option, and the one that is non-spicy flavor seems like it could use some spice. The ice cream situation isn't looking good either--there was a large container, but it was mostly scraped down to the bottom. It didn't feel hygienic at all. I would prefer they give us our own personal 1 serving cup to eat. TLDR: It's just not my cup of tea. The pricing was about $22/pp, and we paid about $80 for 3 people. DIY setup, not much variety and food seems to be running out quickly for an AYCE setup. I dont think I'll becoming back ~ read more

I got sent an IG post about their all you can eat hot pot and Korean fried chicken, and since I was already in the area... obviously I had to stop in. They have three chicken flavors: Yangnyeum, Snowing Cheese (both not my personal favorites), and Honey Brown which absolutely understood the assignment; really good! Our server Kelvin was super helpful. He walked me through all the sauces and explained how the hot pot works. You usually start with an anchovy broth base for the tteokbokki, but since I'm basically allergic to life (especially seafood), he offered beef broth or water instead and pointed out which sauces were fish based so I could safely avoid them, much appreciated. They also have a ramen station, and for dessert there's a self serve ice cream area with vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. As of January 12, 2026, they're running a giveaway: if you can stop the clock at 607 or 670, your meal is free. I was nowhere close... not even spiritually. Overall, $15.95 (without drinks) for hot pot isn't bad at all. Definitely worth checking out. read more

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The servers are super nice and it is all you can eat. Unfortunately the food is terrible. The best thing there was the packaged ramen. The rice cakes were cute and a variety but not great. It was geared toward a younger crowd. You can try this place but I wouldn't want to return. It is fairly cheap to eat but there isn't much meat or tasty items. read more

Came during MLK day and it was packed! Grateful it's not a very loud restaurant regardless and still easy to talk to your friends. Servers were busy and instructions were not very clear on how to properly do the sauce for the tteokbokki. Even so the food was still pretty solid. We accidentally burnt our first pot, and we were def not alone cause another table I passed by burnt their food too but by the second batch we understood the process better. I did ask the server if they still did fried rice, and she said they were too busy and that we would have to do it ourselves which I was fine with. I asked for some instructions which weren't very clear, and was going to attempt to do so myself, but before I could start the same server said she'll help us which was very nice of her. She def did a better job than what I could do. Overall would come back if I was craving tteokbokki. But will say all other food like the fried chicken was not tasty to me personally. Half my friends were mixed about it. read more

Great experience at Dookki! The food was fresh and flavorful, and it was really fun customizing our own tteokbokki. We especially liked that you can do a half-and-half setup--tteokbokki on one side and cook meat like shabu-shabu on the other. The place was clean, the atmosphere was lively, and the staff were friendly. Definitely a fun spot for families or friends--we'll be back! read more

We went back to Dookki again to check how good this place again. The food taste good still the Korean wings are still good, the soup still good. The service is good still except that they have a hard time filling up the cooked food area and the selection seems a little less for the soup. I still like yo come here especially during colder weather. read more

Dookki - Houston - Assorted Korean wings and Japchae - Korean Near Me - Houston, Texas

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I don't think I actually enjoyed this place correctly, it's more so my fault - it is unlimited for a lot of food but it feels weird to not know what food goes with what sauce and what noodle goes with what broth. I would definitely come back with someone who has much more experience so I can truly experience it fully, my mother and I went and we felt limited to our Korean food experience so we couldn't combined the "best combos" for our food options lol. Overall - delicious and would like to come back in the future. Minus one star due to how dirty some of the "bar silverwares" were, like people dirty hand were grabbing shared silverware and you can see plenty of grease hand marks on it. read more

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The service and ambiance are nice. However, the food overall is mid. The hot foods available like the fried chicken are good and I find myself enjoying that more than the actually hot pot with the rice cakes and other toppings. read more

I tried Dookki back in Vietnam, so I had to check out the first one in America, and it did not disappoint! Everything was just as good as I remembered. The place is clean, the service is super nice, and I was really impressed with how cheap the drinks were. They also have free desserts like fruit and ice cream, which is a nice touch. We ate a ton and only spent $60 including drinks - such a good deal. Definitely worth coming here if you're craving hotpot, Korean food and want to eat a lot! read more

Dookki - Houston - Korean Near Me - Houston, Texas

I love tteokbokki, and ever since this place opened a few years ago, I've been wanting to try it. Finally got it out of my system, and went today. You have to really like tteokbokki because this is AYCE, and honestly, it's not bad at all. It was about $23/person on the weekend. The restaurant is clean. The servers were quick, and very attentive. I like how they allowed us to have a duo pot so we chose anchovy broth in one, and mala in the other. Then there's the sauce bar in the middle of the restaurant to add to your broth. They had a variety of tteokbokki to choose from, and plenty of other toppings. On the side, they also offered korean fried chicken wings, which weren't bad at all because I could imagine them to be pretty good if made fresh for us. The other fried foods were a bit stale, so I would skip on that. They also had fish cake soup, japchae, bulgogi, kimchi, daikon, etc. To end off your meal, they also offer ice cream: cookies & cream, vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. Overall, I am glad I finally gave this place a try. Although it's my first visit, it is sadly my last. I just needed to get it out of my system, and say that I've tried it before. I recommend it to anybody who really likes tteokbokki to try it at least once. read more

Dookki is way better than Sweet Pot in sugarland. At dookki they had three options for soup bases which are beef bone, mama, and the original anchovy. We ended up going with the beef bone but still making our own sauces to add into the broth. I think making your own sauces and choosing the flavors is fun because you get to choose how spicy you like it. The buffet option has definitely grown compared to when they first opened. They added more flavors of korean fried chicken and more things to add to your tteokbokki. The interior is very spacious and perfect if you wanna bring your friends or go on a date. The service was very nice and they always came around to help and check on us. I would definitely come again if I'm ever craving rice cakes. I also like how they have the 67 challenge where you try to stop the timer at 6.70 or 6.07 seconds and if you get it then your meal is free! You should definitely try your luck read more

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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. read more

Dookki - Houston - Korean Near Me - Houston, Texas

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. read more

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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! read more

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I absolutely love tteokbokki, and I finally had the chance to go try out Dookki recently. I've been here a few times ever since for weekday lunch, and I really love the rice cakes and the customization options available here. The servers are nice and helpful, and Everything is buffet style. There is a sauce bar with a variety of sauces you can choose (or mix) from for the soup. My favorite combination for the soup base is 1 scoop Dookki sauce and 1 scoop Tteokmo sauce. The bulgogi and the Rose sauces are also really tasty. The rice cakes are nice and chewy. There is a huge selection of tteok to choose from, ranging from classic rice cakes to wheat tteok, cheese-filled teokk, and more, and I really love the corn cheese ball and the sweet potato wheat tteok. There are also different fish cakes (including hot fish cake sticks), noodles, veggies, ready-to-eat dishes like gimbap, side dishes, grilled foods, fried foods, and many more to choose from. Sliced meats are also available, but they are extremely limited (only pork and beef). I was always too full to try the fried rice by the end, so I definitely plan on trying that next time I stop by. There is also a self-serve ramen bar and ice cream. If you go here for lunch on a weekday, you really can't beat $15.99 for AYCE . You definitely won't be disappointed if you love tteokbokki. read more

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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. read more

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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. read more

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Lots of seating, plenty of food selection for everyone, upbeat vibe, friendly service, but a little tricky to navigate if it's your first time. Definitely a great place to go as a group because the service itself is a huge icebreaker. There is genuinely something for everyone and it's mostly all you can eat. read more

Dookki - Houston - Korean Near Me - Houston, Texas

I had a really fun time at dookki celebrating my bday. The server started us with some broth in our hotpot and we grabbed some sauces and different things to cook. The fried food bar and Kimbap bar kept us entertained while our food warmed up. Honestly, you have to go with the right people. Not everyone loves tteokboki and it is also hard to eat a lot of them as they are quite filling. The soju highball was excellent and not expensive at all. I would skip the ramen next time and add rice instead. Loved the cheese tteokboki so much. read more

Dookki - Houston - Highball - Korean Near Me - Houston, Texas

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. read more

Dookki - Houston - Korean Near Me - Houston, Texas

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!! read more

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This was my 3rd time at Dookki Bellaire. The main dishes are always good and consistent, no complaints there. But this visit the water had a strong moldy taste, which was hard to ignore. Appetizers were also off -- fried chicken was just okay and the fries came out cold. I usually enjoy coming here, but the water issue really needs to be fixed. read more

Dookki - Houston - Main dish - Korean Near Me - Houston, Texas

Chicken wings were ok not enough variety . Service was good and ambiance was nice. No ice tea though this is the south ice tea is common and should be common also not hard to make . Not everyone wants to drink coke or Pepsi products . Place was nice just needs some work to many other Korean fried chicken places to eat to say this is my favorite place and will coke to often read more

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! read more

Dookki - Houston - Korean Near Me - Houston, Texas

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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 ;) read more

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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. read more

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The hot pot concept is unique where you can make your own soup base. if you are looking for something affordable this is the place but there is limited meat and veggie selection. The Korean fried chicken was juicy and flavorful but cold because it was left out. read more

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. read more

Dookki - Houston - Korean Near Me - Houston, Texas

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. read more

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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. read more

Dookki - Houston - Korean Near Me - Houston, Texas