Restaurant Opening Recap: DUBU in Elkins Park

DuBu New Korean Restaurant in Elkins Park PA

By Tinsel & Tine Editor, Le Anne Lindsay

I can’t believe more than a month has gone by since attending this bountiful restaurant opening and I’m just now having a chance to share about it. DuBu (1331 W Cheltenham Ave -located in the More Shopping Center in Elkins Park, PA 19027) officially opened April 29th. This is an upscale, yet casual Korean Restaurant, which along with Korean BBQ, also specializes in Vegetarian & Vegan dishes. The decor is minimalist, yet welcoming, and the lighting is low, but not too dim. The dining room seats 78, with private dining space to accommodate 44 seated guests.

The name DUBU is short for Sundubu Jjigae the name of a popular, traditional Korean soup. Dubu Soup is usually made with pieces of pork, small clams (also know as cockles), red-pepper powder, chopped garlic, a few other spices and beef broth. The mixture is served in earthenware bowls and boiled to an intense heat. When the broth starts to boil, chopped leeks and sesame oil are added, just before beating an egg into it. It was very pleasing, but I’m not sure it has the ability to become something as popular and accepted as Chinese Won Ton Soup, still, when you go to Dubu, I do recommend you start your meal with a bowl.

Speaking of starters, in Korean restaurants they are called Banchan, but I’m not talking about ordering appetizers, these are dishes that are just brought to the table, like American restaurants which offer a bread basket or the fried noodles on the table in most Chinatown restaurants, only Banchan is much more substantial.

Banchan – Loved the one on the left, which is Tofu that tasted like mashed potatoes

Opening Ceremony Dinner Menu:

Japechae – sweet potato noodles, stir fried in sesame oil with vegetables, flavored with soy sauce.

Dubu Soup – I don’t remember being asked which I’d prefer, but the menu offered Seafood, Assorted or Vegetable.

LA Kalbi – Marinated beef ribs thinly cut across the bone in a special house sauce. These were succulent and plentiful.

(Note: Other Korean Barbeque available – Bulgogi thinly sliced tender prime beef, marinated with special house sauces and LA Gochujang Samgyupsal Pork belly marinated with red pepper paste.

Loved the place card!

Dessert – several versions of rice cakes, not like the dietary crispy snack and certainly not anything like real cake, as rice doesn’t make cake consistency, it’s more like unsweetened candy. There was one version topped with pulverized red beans. In Korean tradition it’s a symbol of welcome or luck.

The Opening Ceremony also consisted of speeches made between courses:

Young S. Choi, President and CFO of More Shopping Center

Harvey Portner, President of Cheltenham Township Board of Commissioners

Bruan Havir, Cheltenham Township Manager

Jung Geun Song, President of The Korean American Association of Greater Philadelphia

Here’s a little video of the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

Note:video will not be visible to those receiving Tinsel & Tine via RSS Feed. Click HERE to view

We were also treated to a parting gift of Mesil Honey Tea, an undiluted tea extract of organic mesil. Each bottle of tea is fermented for 3 years in low-temperatures. The company has been making this tea since 1933. The box reads The oldest way to stay young. So, I should start making it my morning drink instead of coffee, but it’s been a month, and you know I haven’t.

Be sure to visit DuBu on facebook!

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