HTK Hwang Tokil

Can't believe we clean out the bowls and all the side dishes. We were NOT hungry or starving, we ate breakfast: coffee & sandwich. ( few hours ago)
This was lunch before 1pm... that mean it was that Delicious!!!
The packaging was perfectly packaged & the presentation of Togo looked appetizing.
Just right amount of spiciness & all the dish were flavored perfectly. Was craving for the spicy beef soup & mix veggies rice ( bibimobob)
After finish eating ... felt happy:) Hit the spot;)
Thank you ! :)

Highly recommend coming here for some authentic homestyle Korean food! Came here to see if they were open for dine-in and to my luck, they were. The restaurant was pretty empty other than for a few customers dining in as well. I had ordered the gondre (thistle) dolsot which came with a side of bean paste soup while my mom had ordered the kalguksu (knife cut noodles).

The bean paste soup is very refreshing, with a slight kick to it. Not many Korean restaurants serve gondre rice, so it was a nice surprise to see it available. They gave me a side of soy sauce with chopped up chives and a side of bean paste to mix into the rice. Personally wished that they would add some mushrooms to the gondre rice like the ones I had purchased at the market but nonetheless it was still very tasty. The side dishes are actually really good as well, I personally enjoyed the egg and potatoes the best out of all that was served.

Definitely will come here more often, prices are very reasonable and they even have a lunch menu as well.

I came here for a weekend lunch and the place was nearly empty. There are some cool decorations around the walls and on the tables. It gives me old and mysterious vibes. When I first walked in, there were no workers around, until a few minutes later, I was greeted with "Annyeonghaseyo."

The menu has a lot of options: noodles, casseroles, hot stone pots, bbq, ssambap, dumplings, and more. Any of your Korean food cravings will likely be fulfilled. I tried their octopus hot stone and noodle soup with chicken. The hot stone was mostly rice and vegetables. It would have been better with more meat. The flavors were good though, with little spice. The chicken in the noodle soup was really tasty, while the noodles itself were smooth and chewy. The broth was light. The free side dishes are always a plus.

Also tried a cinnamon slush for the first time ever. I didn't know what to expect from it, so I'm glad that it turned out to be a nice, refreshing drink. The cinnamon flavor was not too strong. The consistency of the slush was just right.

Only two Korean ladies were working while I was there. They were kind and welcoming. It's a small and authentic restaurant. Felt very traditional. Reasonable prices. Located in a shared plaza. Parking is usually not hard to find.

Alright, so I was trying to find a place that had decent Korean food, and decided to look in yelp. This place didn't seem to have much reviews , but I decided to give it a try anyways. I have now been here a few times , and have already found some dishes I would go for ! Just to note parking is decent , and you can def notice this place when you are outside.

Ambiance
This place isn't the biggest place , I believe max capacity seating is 49 , the decorations around the place is pretty neat ! As you can see in my pictures they have a lot of different things displayed, from money to bottled ginseng or artichoke .

Food
The dishes I would recommend would be
Bulgogi and Octopus Hot Pot 32.99 - Although a little on the pricey side , the soup is so rich with flavor with the different ingredients inside. If you like octopus there is a nice texture, and you can see them cut it into bite size pieces for you as they put it on a portable butane stove

Grilled Atka Mackerel 18.99- This fish was cooked pretty well in my opinion , nicely seasoned with the option to add some lemon on top. (I love lemon on any fish)

Seafood Green Onion Pancake 16.99- this is one of the better seafood pancakes I have eaten , packed with seafood inside , coming with tasty sauce on the side you can dip or pour on top of your piece of pancake.

We were given 7 different banchan dishes that was all pretty decent, and we were also given purple rice. We had also ordered the "Rabuki" (ramen with rice cake, have had better) and the Bulgogi / galbi combo with the soon tofu. These were pretty standard from my opinion and I would most likely stick to the dishes I listed the next time I visit .

Overall it's nice to find a place like this in Rowland Heights. The service is pretty decent , and we were even given this rice desert drink which was a nice ending of our meal. Will probably look into trying some different dishes next time.

COVID UPDATE:
Hello there. I have a few things to say.
1) First, the pertinent-pandemic-related review: The staff were all wearing masks, and there's some outdoor seating available. These tables are not the plastic kind that many are using, but of wood (which I personally enjoy much more). The tables all had bottles of sanitizer and wipes donned. This restaurant also had room dividers up- which, I'm not sure if it was for decoration but it certainly helps with decreasing people just getting packed since this restaurant is in a popular plaza, even if a bunch of people are walking or driving by, you'll be safer with the physical barrier.

2) Hello, hello there. Food review time! Pandemic or no pandemic, this place serves up some DELICIOUS, HIGH QUALITY FOOD!
I have been to this restaurant twice now and have to say I think it's delicious, well-priced, the decorations are all- Mwuah chef's kiss (Disclaimer- the INSIDE decorations..). I have gotten the Sanchae Bibimbap, spicy shrimp dumplings, leek dumplings, Bossam, and some stews. They , are , All , Good, PEOPLE.
I am pleading to the court because I think this place is so underrated (people still can't get over Korean BBQ. Y'all should really, branch out a bit. Don't worry, you'll be okay).

Stay safe y'all!

TLDR; This Place seem Safe, This Place Is Delicious, I Think This Place Overrated. BuhBye, STAY SAFE WEAR A MASK PLS :)

I have to give it to them. Food became much more consistent with great natural flavors. Love their dwenjang and soups. Those hot stone herb rice dishes are great too. Definitely gotten better and they deserve better rating from me.
Service too has became much faster and more attentive.
Only gripe for me? Tight parking situation with lots of "Asian" drivers!!! Also, the price seems little more expensive than other Korean places in town, considering their lunch specials run about average $13.
Still considering the quality - I say it is worth that price.
I still dig their interior decoration of antiques. It does bring that homey, comfy, and nostalgic feeling~
Try this place out if you're looking for a better (cleaner) tasting Korean food in Rowland Heights area.

Rounded up because the interior of this restaurant is cute. It's like old school Korean with old Korean money displayed.

The service was not that great. The tall, young Korean girl was not very friendly. Maybe because of the language barrier?

The spicy beef noodle had good flavor, the cold spicy noodle was decent but had a little too much veggies on top. It came with a really delicious bowl of soup though. The dumpling platter had an assortment of their different dumplings and was overall pretty good.

At the end of the meal they give you this slush. One had a sweet rice taste and the other had a lot of cinnamon. It was a good palate cleanser.

It has been 3 months from my last visit at Hwang Tokil HTK. Since the first visit was pretty horrible, I almost didn't want to go back but then again, that was 3 months ago so here we were, giving it another shot.

During a late lunch on a Sunday, the parking was still pretty much a pain, but we found plenty of parkings on the right side of the plaza while others were waiting and blocking at the small lot in front of the restaurant. Seriously, a minute extra walking would still be better than 5 minutes sitting in the car waiting.

We were seated right away and got a pot of hot tea. I really like the decorations of the restaurant. This time we ordered the bulgogi and octopus casserole, galbi, and juicy pork dumplings.

First, we received all the side dishes. There were many to pick from and my favorite was the green veggie. I know, weird... Maybe my body was craving for fiber.

We got galbi next. It was 8 pieces of beef short ribs and it wasn't anything special, kind of like any other Korean short ribs I've had. I understand it could get expensive, but I thought $25.99 for the amount received was a bit much.

The juicy pork dumplings were similar to the Chinese style but sweeter. It wasn't something I am used to but not too bad. I would have to try the bun next time.

The taste of bulgogi and octopus casserole was improved from my last visit. It had a good amount of mushrooms and octopus, and the broth was tasty. Personally I never understand why bulgogi belongs to a stew since all the flavors from marinating would have been lost after boiling in the stew. It was still a great dish though for 2-3 people on a cold night.

The most improvement was the service. We were constantly checked to see if we needed anything, and offered more broth for the casserole without us asking. I was impressed on the management team and would recommend to check this place out if you haven't yet.

We stopped by for lunch today and enjoyed it!

Food:
Inspired by the photos on Yelp, we ordered the bulgogi and octopus hot pot ($29.99). It was enough for the 4 of us to share and we added ramen. The soup had a very heavy octopus flavor and the beef was kind of tough. I like seafood soup so it was good to me, but a couple of my friends were turned off by the flavor. The bibambap($11.99) was great here, very fresh tasting and the seafood pancake ($14.99) was sooo good! They offered complimentary rice punch here as dessert, I've never had it before but it was pretty refreshing!

Ambiance:
I love the decor here! Everything from the vintage Korean magazines to the set up was very authentic and well thought out

Service: fast and friendly

Price $$

I would come here again to try their short rib soup!

If you'd like to have a warm dinner during cold night, this is the place for you!

Food-We ordered their signature Octopus hotpot, the over all taste is good enough to give 5 starts.
We cooked the octopus no more than 5mins, but still hard to chew. Kinda wondering if that's because the ingredients they used were not suitable for hotpot? Had other octopus hotpot in the past and was more tender than this one.

Banchans are also in a good taste, we asked for couple more kkk..

Their food are in good portions, me and my girl finished the whole table, to be honest I think the amount is good for party of four.

Bookmarked and will come back for sure:)