Korean Restaurant Owners Overcame Language and Bureaucratic Hurdles to Make Business a Success

Looking for a place to bring friends, family or coworkers for delectable homemade Korean fare? Many local Korean Americans head for K. Grill and Tofu House, a spacious, unassuming restaurant on San Mateo Avenue, where the food is authentic, the service is friendly and the prices are right.

Owner Dong-Ho Gill oversees the spotless kitchen while his wife, Ki-Young Kim, serves customers out front, striving to make them feel as if they were guests in her own home.

Gill, who has a background in hotel management, spent 15 years running a restaurant in Suwon, South Korea, before moving to this country last year.

From Korea, he brought many recipes he learned from his mother and his own special recipe for budae Jjigae, a spicy kimchi (Korea's famous fermented cabbage) and sausage stew, which is hard to find in this country, but a favorite among Korean Americans.

The stew is one of the signature dishes of K. Grill and Tofu House along with such traditional fare as galbi (grilled marinated beef), bulgogi (grilled marinated beef, chicken or pork) and bibimbab (beef and vegetables served with rice and a fried egg).

Tofu soups are also featured, and all meals come with rice and seven side dishes, called banchan. K. Grill and Tofu's banchan include spicy pumpkin, bean sprouts and freshly made kimchi based on Gill's mother's recipe. Unlike some Korean restaurants where kimchi comes out of a jar, Gill makes his from scratch.

Leaving Korea was a big decision for Gill because it meant leaving everything behind and starting again. Years before, Gill, now 48, had wanted to come to the United States to study hotel management but lacked the money to pursue that dream. This time, when a sister, who now lives in San Jose, told him about the availability of the restaurant space on San Mateo Avenue, he had saved up enough money to make the move.

Gill's limited English made starting the restaurant a challenge. But his sister and a nephew helped him over the many hurdles involved, from obtaining city permits to ordering supplies. Now that the restaurant is in full swing Gill and his wife work 12 hours a day, seven days a week to make the venture a success.

Gill said that one big difference between having a restaurant here and having one in Korea is the different way Americans and Koreans experience food. Food is a major part of the Korean culture, he explained, and when Koreans eat together, there's a lot of talking, laughing and eating. It's noisy.

"The American style is very quiet," he said.

When asked what Korean food he misses most, Gill mentions the wide variety of dishes available in Korea that he can't find here and his particular craving for a type of raw fish, accompanied by soju, a Korean distilled drink similar to vodka.

"It may be here," he said, "but I don't have the time to look for it."

Gill's wife taught piano in Korea and ran a private piano school. She enjoys working in the restaurant because it affords her the opportunity to meet people. But she misses the piano school and the family and friends she left behind.

Despite struggles, Gill and his wife are not looking back. A regular customer has stepped up to teach them English twice a week, and Kim has put up a sign in the restaurant about her availability as a piano teacher.

When Gill and his wife decided to move here, it was a decision based solely on their belief that their two young children would get a better education here.

"My children like it here," he said. "They are happy and that makes me happy."

K. Grill and Tofu House is open from 11am to 9pm daily. The restaurant seats about 40 and has large photos of classic dishes as décor. For those seeking well-prepared Korean food, or just a new restaurant to try, this one is definitely worth a visit.

Maura Hurley writes about the people and cultures behind the many restaurants on San Mateo Avenue. If you have a story to suggest about the cultures and cuisines on San Mateo Avenue, send the idea to martin@patch.com.