Kaju Soft Tofu Irvine

There are two Kaju Soft Tofu restaurants in Irvine – this one, opened around 2005 at the Orange Tree Square shopping center on Jeffrey Road, and the second location of a same-named, differently owned Garden Grove-based chain, opened in 2023 only six minutes away down Walnut Avenue at Culver Drive. As their names suggest, they both specialize in hot tofu soups while serving fairly common Korean classics such as bulgogi, galbi, bibimbap, naengmyun, and dumplings, but their execution is lightly different, and the chain’s offerings are somewhat better.

This Kaju seats around 60 people in a somewhat austere and traditional but very clean box-like dining room where wood planks and artificial plants are the primary forms of decoration. Drinks are served out of cans or bottles from a fridge, and not aggressively offered, as each table receives several cups worth of tap water in a former soju bottle. Though there are both small, nice multi-page menus and digital versions available via QR codes on each table, there’s no online ordering at tables; an actual person takes each order and delivers all dishes, fairly quickly and nicely in our experience.

Despite window advertising promising “complimentary side dishes” with every meal, this version of Kaju delivered a fairly meager four banchan to us: standard cabbage and cucumber kimchi, slices of a basic fried pancake, and a scoop of potato salad, most in small portions, though each was refilled once at no additional cost – a note on the menu indicates a $5 charge for additional banchan sets. Notably, the other Irvine Kaju offered six larger, better-tasting initial banchan portions, and refilled them more than once proactively.

We sampled two of this Kaju’s meats – galbi and spicy pork bulgogi – as well as bowls of their soft tofu soup with beef and octopus, spicy naengmyun cold noodles, and dumplings. Both of the meat plates were solid: the galbi arrived as a small sizzling skillet with six ribs and onions, the pork bulgogi bright red and hot in both regards with plenty of gochujang sauce, sesame seeds, onions, and scallions. Ordered as parts of $31 to $34 dinner combos with the noodles and soup, respectively, they weren’t huge portions, but their meat quality, tenderness, and flavors were all quite good.