"No puedo creer que abrimos 300 espacios para el soft-opening y se acabaron en 15 minutos." That's how the content creator known as Tu Amigo Coreano described the August debut of his new restaurant on Avenida Alejandrino, as reported by Metro Puerto Rico. In English: he could not believe that 300 soft-opening spots were gone in 15 minutes.
The restaurant is Kokko Dak & Tokki Pastry. With it open, Guaynabo now has two Korean restaurants with clearly separate jobs. One is a grill-table dinner that opened in 2017 as Puerto Rico's first Korean BBQ restaurant and now operates inside Galería San Patricio. The other is a fried-chicken counter with a café and pastry side, built for lunch or an afternoon merienda. Which one fits depends on how much of the evening you want to give the meal, and which day of the week it is.
The Original Grill Table Is Now at Galería San Patricio
Ujeong Korean BBQ started the Korean barbecue scene on the island. The family behind it says it opened in 2017 as Puerto Rico's first Korean BBQ restaurant. Its ingredients and recipes come from Korea, and each dish gets a Puerto Rican finish so that, in the restaurant's own words, "every neighbor could feel at home at a Korean grill." The name means friendship in Korean.
Its arrival in Guaynabo was first reported in October 2025. News is my Business listed Ujeong among a wave of incoming tenants across the San Patricio properties, taking a 3,897-square-foot space next to Bottles at Galería San Patricio. That's a large room by the standards of that same announcement. The Pimentón pizzeria headed to Liberty Square was listed at 2,800 square feet, and several of the kiosks at 120 square feet or less. A grill restaurant needs that space. Every table is a cooking station, and the meal is paced by the grill.
The San Patricio directory now lists Ujeong under Galería San Patricio and describes it as a meeting point built around dishes like bulgogi and kimchi. The restaurant's own site gives the address as Calle Tabonuco, San Patricio, and shows its dining room set with grill tables.
The menu outside the grill is also worth knowing, because it lets a table share food while the meat cooks. These are the favorites listed on the restaurant's site:
- Pork Bao, $14. Soft buns with oven-made pork in kimchi BBQ sauce, pickled onions and cucumber.
- Tonkatsu, $12. Panko-breaded pork tenderloin with the house sauce.
- Pajeon, $10. A savory Korean scallion pancake with soy dipping sauce.
- Kimchi Stew, $10. A simple, aromatic broth.
The restaurant presents itself as a place for family gatherings, first dates and nights out with friends. Those are all occasions where the meal is the plan for the night.
The Alejandrino Counter Covers the Rest of the Day
Kokko Dak & Tokki Pastry fills the hours Ujeong doesn't. Metro Puerto Rico describes it as a restaurant built around Korean fried chicken, known for its extra-crispy texture and Asian-inspired sauces, plus other dishes from Korean street-food cooking. The Tokki Pastry side is a café for coffee, desserts and Asian pastry, which the outlet says stretches the visit "from lunch to a merienda."
The founder came to food from a different career. Metro describes Tu Amigo Coreano as a content creator and teacher known for sharing South Korean culture and food on his platforms, and this restaurant is his first step into business. In a 2022 profile, El Nuevo Día identified him as Jihyun Park. Most of the audience that claimed those 300 soft-opening spots already knew him from social media before they ever tasted his food.
Food creators who filmed the opening in August show a menu that goes well past chicken. One walkthrough on YouTube shows:
- Korean fried chicken, bone-in or boneless
- Korean dumplings with meat or vegetable filling
- Crispy pork-belly bites
- Kimchi fries
- A Korean corn dog filled with sausage and mozzarella
- Ramen and rice bowls
- A Korean fried-chicken burger
The same video shows the pastry case with a brownie, chocolate-chip and peanut-butter cookies, and a strawberry-cheesecake dessert. A second creator, posting on opening day, says he tried tteokbokki, gimbap and desserts. Opening-period posts put the address at 3 PR-838, on Avenida Alejandrino.
Which One Fits Tonight
| Ujeong Korean BBQ | Kokko Dak & Tokki Pastry | |
|---|---|---|
| Location | Galería San Patricio, Calle Tabonuco | 3 PR-838, Avenida Alejandrino |
| In Puerto Rico since | 2017 | August 2026 |
| Core format | Grill tables, shared plates | Fried chicken and street food, café and pastry |
| Signature items | Bulgogi, pork bao, pajeon, kimchi stew | Bone-in or boneless fried chicken, kimchi fries, Korean corn dog |
| Best suited to | Celebrations, group dinners, a planned night out | Lunch, a casual dinner, coffee and dessert |
| Listed hours | Wed–Sat 12–10 p.m., Sun 12–9 p.m. | Wed–Sun 11 a.m.–9 p.m., as posted at opening |
The table shows a practical point about the drive. The two restaurants sit on different corridors of Guaynabo. Ujeong is part of the San Patricio complex, where it shares parking with the shops and restaurants of Galería and the plaza. Kokko Dak is a standalone stop on PR-838. A dinner at Ujeong can be the anchor of an evening at San Patricio. A visit to Kokko Dak is more often its own errand, short enough to fit into the middle of a Saturday.
The Monday and Tuesday Gap
The two restaurants share one scheduling detail. Both are closed on Monday and Tuesday.
Ujeong's site lists both days as closed. It opens at noon Wednesday through Sunday and closes at 10 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 9 p.m. on Sunday. Kokko Dak's opening-period hours, posted in August, also showed Monday and Tuesday closed, with service from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
So Korean food in Guaynabo is a Wednesday-to-Sunday option. A craving that lands on a Monday night has no local answer at either address. The Sunday hours are also shorter than the rest of the week at Ujeong, and Kokko Dak's posted Sunday close matches its weekday close of 9 p.m.
Kokko Dak's hours deserve one caution. The schedule above was published around the August opening, and no later update has appeared in local coverage. New restaurants often adjust their hours in the first months. Before planning around Kokko Dak, check its current schedule on its own social channels. Ujeong's hours come from its official site, and for a group reservation its phone line, 939-325-5247, is listed there.
What Two Restaurants Add Up To
Metro framed Kokko Dak's opening as part of a wider rise of Korean food in Puerto Rico, driven by the popularity of South Korean culture and by diners looking for new flavors. In Guaynabo specifically, that rise currently comes down to two restaurants. Local news and business coverage from 2025 and 2026 doesn't show a dedicated Korean grocery, a standalone K-dessert shop, or a third Korean restaurant in the municipality. For now, the Tokki Pastry counter is the closest thing to a Korean café in town.
The founding dates show how the scene grew. The restaurant that brought Korean barbecue to the island in 2017 reached Galería San Patricio after its 2025 announcement, and the newest arrival opened in August 2026 with a following that booked out its soft opening in a quarter of an hour.
Knowing where the Wednesday lunch spot and the Saturday grill table are is part of feeling at home in Guaynabo. At The RODE Collection, we keep track of how the municipality's dining map changes, from San Patricio to Avenida Alejandrino, so our clients know it well before they move in. To talk through the parts of Guaynabo that suit the way you live, schedule a private consultation.
