Tuck Into Spicy Korean Soondubu at Austin’s Newest Pop-Up

A new restaurant dedicated to soondubu — a spicy Korean soft tofu stew — is coming to Austin. Choga Soondubu is aiming to open a physical location, but before that, the restaurant will preview its fare with a summer-long pop-up in the city. This temporary menu will be available at Korean restaurant Jjim BBQ in the Zilker neighborhood on 1100 South Lamar Boulevard starting on Tuesday, June 22 with takeout and dine-in services during weekday lunches.

Choga’s namesake item is a soup full of silken tofu, vegetables, and poached eggs. The pop-up menu will feature four iterations: seafood with scallops, shrimp, clams, and calamari; a ribeye beef one; a seafood and beef combination one; and the Army made with ham and sausage.

Choga will also serve additional non-soup items such as grilled galbi (beef short ribs, pork collar), bibimbap (rice, noodles, shrimp), and sides like chicken mandoo and fried vegetables. Scope out the full menu below.

Choga’s pop-up location at Jjim makes sense, seeing as both businesses fall under the CKN Hospitality umbrella. CKN includes chief culinary officer and chef Youngmin Noh and chief operating officer Brian Kim. Ideally, CKN is looking to open Choga physically somewhere in the north-central, central, and east Austin areas.

Along those lines, the lunchtime Choga menu will share space with sibling restaurant Donkey Mo’s, which will offer its Korean fried chicken. Donkey currently only operates a single location in Austin up in the Lakeline Mall after shuttering its H-Mart stand earlier this March.

Choga’s hours will be from noon to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. Its last day of service will be on Friday, September 10.

• All Coverage of Jjim BBQ [EATX]