This New Koreatown Restaurant Takes Tofu Seriously — and It Works

A new restaurant in Koreatown zones in on curd

A meal at DubuHaus begins with an impressive collection of free banchan.

A massive, bilevel, three-restaurant complex is in the process of opening at 6 East 32nd Street just east of Fifth Avenue in Greater Koreatown, a neighborhood expanding in every direction. This complex includes Korean barbecue Howoo, and Musaek, a cocktail lounge featuring seafood. But a friend and I were principally interested in DubuHaus, which opened in mid-April specializing in freshly made tofu. “Haus” is the German spelling of house, and is used in this example to designate a familiar, pub-like restaurant.

We were surprised to have trouble securing a reservation on a Friday evening around 8:00 p.m. in early summer, a time when many well-off diners are already on the way to their summer homes and reservations are usually easy to get. We arrived to find DubuHaus thronged, with a knot of guests waiting to be seated. The layout was serpentine, with a formal foyer, two dining rooms, and party rooms upstairs. The dining rooms were visible over a low wall in the longish walk to get there, past big colorful photos of fruits and vegetables.