Food

Cheap Eats 2009: Vit Goel ToFu

Great food, low prices, lots of fun

Why go: An entire restaurant devoted to tofu? Actually, make that tofu soup. But this blond-wood parlor in Little Korea is good enough to seduce the skeptical. The starring soup, with its rich red-pepper broth and custardy squares of house-made tofu, has curative power.

What to get: The soup called soondubu can be customized with oysters, vegetables, and, most memorably, a raw egg to be cracked open atop the roiling broth: Pierce the yolk to enrich and thicken the soup. Among the items beyond soup is a reliable version of bul goki.

Best for: A quiet pick-me-up at lunch or dinner.

Insider tip: Expect to flag down your server repeatedly for water, extra drinks, and even the check.

Open daily for lunch and dinner.

>> See all 2009 Cheap Eats restaurants here 

Ann Limpert
Executive Food Editor/Critic

Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.