Tofu Factory in Richardson Is Your Next Korean Food Obsession

When walking into a restaurant, you likely first notice the smell. Maybe it’s fresh chopped herbs or deep-fried meat. If not the smell, it's the visuals: Is it a full house or an empty one? A rustic or modern aesthetic? Fine or casual dining?

At Tofu Factory, we were first hit with the sound. Not the sizzle of a grill, plates clanking together or the sharp cuts of a knife, but of the song “Fiction” by K-pop boy band Beast, now known as Highlight. A TV screen to the left of the entrance plays the synchronized music video on a rotation with dozens of other earworm K-pop classics, which happens to be more of a moodsetter than a candlelit table or any amount of front-of-house theatrics.

The Richardson eatery is located at the nucleus of DFW China Town, a sprawling strip mall that hosts 11 different Asian restaurants. It replaced Chang Jing Korean BBQ in June 2020, implementing a new style of Korean fare that favored smaller, more homestyle dishes.
At the booth, we were first served small salads with cucumber, carrots and a cherry tomato, along with a small piece of crab meat topped with a tangy ginger dressing. Pressing a small red button on the wall summoned a server, and we ordered a beef short rib soup, beef bibimbap and the restaurant's iconic mushroom soft tofu soup.

Our food arrived about 10 minutes later with a cavalcade of small but sharable side dishes, including kimchi, fishcake, seaweed salad, macaroni and mashed sweet potatoes.

The mushroom soft tofu soup is worth opening a restaurant for, combining the eponymous ingredients with a lightly cooked egg and a bowl of white rice for only $13.99. The steaming and savory broth warmed us up on an especially cold night.

If there's a critcism of Tofu Factory, it’s the shot glass-sized metal water cups that force you to ration out sips between bites of a scorching hot meal. It’s a fault we were willing to overlook, but not without Googling to confirm that an 18-count pack of Solo cups is only $5.
The beef short rib soup didn’t fare as well as the soft tofu. Also served with a bowl of white rice, the soup was made with a clearer broth filled to the brim with bone-in rib meat, thick-cut onions and thin glass noodles. The warmth it provided was still desirable, and we could see it as a comfort food if you grew up with it. Unfortunately, we didn’t, and the dish could’ve used some serious extra seasoning. At $19.99, you’re better suited looking elsewhere on the menu.

All that said, the stone pot bibimbap was a headliner. The traditional name for the dish is bibimbap, although it was listed on the menu as bibimbob. It was priced at $15.99 or $17.99 with your choice of meat. No matter the name or the price, this dish was worth it. The base is a sizzling bowl of quickly browning white rice that’s still frying on the bottom of the bowl. Cucumbers, carrots, mushrooms and bean sprouts were piled above it with a lightly fried egg at the top.

Tofu Factory is a winner. Get the bibimbap, try the soft tofu soup and come back to try any of the myriad of comfort Korean dishes on the menu.

Tofu Factory, 400 N. Greenville Ave, Richardson. Monday, Wednesday – Friday, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. and 5–9 p.m.; Saturday – Sunday, 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.; Tuesday closed.