korean resturants in LA

[Soup]

I will be in LA for almost a week in August. I am very interested in checking out the korean food scene in LA. I would really appreciate some korean resturant recommendation in the LA area.

I'm staying at the Dana Point but I will have a car. Any assistance will be appreciated.

Soup

[JFLinLA]

The big area for this is the Korea-town area in the heart of LA -- primarily mid-Wilshire area. Dana Point is in Orange County. Never fear however, we have an ever resourceful group of eGulleteers in the greater So Cal, LA area. I'm sure someone will know of a place or two closer to Dana Point. However, if you're up for a long drive (over and hour minimum, more with traffic) and an adventure . . .

[Joe Blowe]

Actually, Garden Grove would be a good place to start researching Korean food in OC. Start with this link, and stand by -- probably much more to come...

[FoodZealot]

There's some info and pix in this Korean BBQ thread from a while ago.

Shik Do Rak isn't listed on the link above for some reason.

~Tad

[russ parsons]

there are a lot of gulleters who know more about korean food than i do, but as a beginning fan, my favorite place is Yong Susan (8th and Vermont). they have a series of tasting menus, so the dinner is structured for you. and the food is very, very good. much more than the typical barbecue/panchan place (though there's certainly NOTHING wrong with that).

[chefzadi]

I will be in LA for almost a week in August.  I am very interested in checking out the korean food scene in LA.  I would really appreciate some korean resturant recommendation in the LA area.

I'm staying at the Dana Point but I will have a car.  Any assistance will be appreciated.

Soup

←

It's a mini Seoul here, sort of.

There are lots of restaurants that specialize in certain dishes, for instance neng myun or soon do dubo or bimbimbap. Even for bbq, you have places that cater to a younger 'trendy' crowd or no-frills Middle aged Korean men.

What are you looking for? There's a huge range here. Can you read Korean?

[melonpan]

most often we cook samgyeopsal (pork belly) at home. treat simply with salt and sesame seed oil. eat with the usual greens and rice.

sometimes we go out for samgyeopsal. when we do, we go to honey pig.

in korean the name of the place is "ggul dueji" which means piggy (literally "honey pig". "oink" in korean is "ggul ggul" which also means "honey honey").

gguldueji? such a cute name. and i never hear of it being mentioned. i dont usually recommend it either, but if youre going to be around for a week, and youve already hit all the other usual ktown suspects (yongsusan, sutbuljip etc) i would suggest going there if we agree that you like pork belly.

plenty of parking. we never have trouble. i LOVE that.

clean tables, sturdy seats. not too brightly lit. good mood. sometimes the people are a bit rowdy, as its kind of a drinking place too (pork belly isnt exactly date food) but you can go there just for the food.

if you decide to go there, i would not recommend getting anything other than samgyeopsal (pork belly - $13) or the "heuk dueji" samgyeopsal (that trendy "black pig" pork belly -$14). for me, the 'heuk dueji' is too much. too thick, too greasy, too fatty. but they charge a dollar more for it and maybe some people like it. im sure there are fans (my husband is one).

they give you a large plate of kongnamul (but this kind if the spicy kind) and a large plate of kimchi. this stuff is _really, really reaally_ good. super fresh, crispy. not very fermented, though. its supposed to be fresh and its excellent.

they are a little stingy with the sangchi, but i buzzed (a korean restaurant thing - they do their thing and dont take care of you until you ask for help) and they brought out extra and i was satisfied to learn that they arent one of those nasty bitter establishments that charges for extra lettuce.

we also have tried their duejibulgogi (spicy pork bulgogi). good. nice change of pace from the pork belly.

some things to note BEFORE YOU GO:<blockquote><ol><li>they dont, as a rule, give out rice until the end of the meal when they fry it up for you with ggaetnip (perilla leaves), sesame seed oil, gochujang. you can get rice before if you really want (we have asked and we have received), but i recommend you wait until the end, becasue IT IS SOOOO GOOD when they fry it up. ridiculously good. i think they should try to move the frying rice thing more towards the middle of the meal, but i guess it is a logistics problem.<li>they dont specialise in banchan so dont go there expecting anything other than one plate of mulkimchi, the regular outstanding kimchi and the kongnamul (was there ggakdugi too? in any case, just two or three or four).<li>they dont serve much else other than pork. i think they have some beef, but as this is a pork establishment, please dont order the beef unless you have been forced to go there. there are other places that do a better job of other non pork dishes.<li>you will leave S T U F F E D</ol></blockquote>recommend. and highly recommend if you want samgyeosal. i lived in maryland for four years. i dont think there was anything like this on little river turnpike. but maybe somethings come up in the three years since i moved.

in ktown.

Honey Pig

3400 W 8th St

Los Angeles, CA

213) 380-0256

[chefzadi]

For neng myun, I'd go to Chung Gi Wa on Olympic. You can get the special with Kalbi for about $10-$13. Their yook soo tastes like it has some ginseng in it, it's really good. The neng myun seasoning isn't too sweet like at so many other places. The portion is about double of a typical portion in Korea. And they put ALOT of garnishes on it.

For soon dae there's a place on Western and 8th. I've never tried it (I don't eat pork), but my in laws swear by the place and they have a loyal following, they make everything from scratch and they serve the range of soon dae dishes.

For jaja myun (spelling?) made with hand pulled noodles there is a place on Western.

I'll find the addresses if you are interested in any of these places.

There's night life scene as well, but I'm too old for it unless I want to hang out with the Middle aged minivan or huge Mercedes crowd.

[archestratus]

I've been to about 5 Korean restaurants in LA's Koreatown and my favorite is

Sa Rit Gol, in a little mini-mall at Olympic and Serrano. It's delicious, cozy and funky too, which I like more than these huge and modern Korean restaurant emporiums.

[touaregsand]

Those huge modern Korean restaurant emporiums can serve very good food, BUT I hardly ever go to them, unless it's with non-Koreans who want to be introduced to Korean food.

LA's Korea town has the best selection of specialty Korean restaurants compared to the rest of America, hands down, no contest.

What are your favorite dishes? Can you read Korean?

[touaregsand]

I want to add that K-Town has a great selection of Mexican and Central American restaurants from hole in the wall mom and pop to larger 'fancier' places representing multiple waves of immigration.

[savvysearch]

The latest issue of GQ has the writer's recommendations for some of LA's korean places.

[pfibiger]

I will be in LA for almost a week in August.  I am very interested in checking out the korean food scene in LA.  I would really appreciate some korean resturant recommendation in the LA area.

I'm staying at the Dana Point but I will have a car.  Any assistance will be appreciated.

Soup

←

I've only been to a couple, but based on conversations I've had with friends who have been to a bunch of these restaurants, I'm going to recommend Jonathan Gold's Koreantown Top 40 from the LA Weekly. Gold is almost always exactly on the money, and the list has enough breadth that I'm sure you'll be able to find a few restaurants that suit your fancy.

Phil

[mocchiatta]

Hey! It's awesome that you'll be trying out Korean restaurants across LA because the network is HUGE. Anywho, here's a few places to try out:

1. Seoul Garden - The best shabu shabu in town! You can also try their version of roast beef (ros gui). At the end of the meal, servers will then use the remnants of broth or meat, add rice, sesame seed oil, vegetables, etc. to make you either rice porridge (from the shabu shabu) or fried rice (from the ros gui).

1833 W Olympic Blvd

2. Shik Do Rak - It was a sort of trend to serve grilled beef and scallions with a flat sheet of rice cake called dukk po ssam. It's really, really delicious. If that's not your kind of thing, then there's always lettuce leaves.

2501 W Olympic Blvd

3. Chosun Galbi - If you want to go to a more upscale Korean restaurant, maybe this is the place to try. Their cha dul bae gi is especially tasted when topped with marinated scallions and wrapped in lettuce.

3330 W. Olympic Blvd.

4. Woo Lae Oak - This is definitely the trendy upscale Korean restaurant. Though it's on the expensive side, it's very good. The galbi jjim was my fave.

170 N La Cienega Blvd

There's a lot of restaurants on particular streets like Western, Olympic, Normandie, 3rd Street, etc. Typically, these are the Koreatown area streets, so if you drive around there, you'll find restaurants.

[Soup]

Those huge modern Korean restaurant emporiums can serve very good food, BUT I hardly ever go to them, unless it's with non-Koreans who want to be introduced to Korean food.

LA's Korea town has the best selection of specialty Korean restaurants compared to the rest of America, hands down, no contest.

What are your favorite dishes? Can you read Korean?

←

I can read korean a little bit. I usually don't have much problems with menus. Sometime I can sound things out but sometime don't know what they mean.

I had a GREAT time in LA Ktown. I wish I had more time to spend there. I think korean specialty resturants are great. I think the next time I'm in LA, I'm going to try to do more exploring. I'm pretty sure I can talk my father into going LA (he seemed very interested as I describe Ktown) so I don't have to worry about language issues.

Soup

[touaregsand]

Don't know how we missed getting hooked up. Ya should've PM ed me with dates!!!!

Next time PM me and I'll tell my mom, she loves to have guests for dinner.

I'll take you around K-town if you want.

[melonpan]

just tried a new (to me) place: omogari

they specialise in kimchi and kimchi jjigae, what they call the "omogari". since we were new the the place, we decided to go for what they specialise in and we ordered the omogari and their iron plate kimchi fried rice.

for banchan we were given:

muk (acorn based jelly)

gul jeot (salted spiced raw oysters)

kim (roasted salted seaweed sheets)

baechu kimchi

eomuk (fried fish cakes)

cold steamed broccoli

put gochu (korean peppers)

duenjang, chamgireum (soybean paste and sesame seed oil)

gamja jeon (fried potato slices)

we did not eat the eomuk (i have banned it from my life - it always has a freezer burn taste no matter where i go) and skipped the broccoli (why? why? there must be a lot of koreans out there who like it. but i dont understand the appeal of over steamed, naked, cold broccoli).

all the other banchan else was excellent. we cleared everything. and while we did not get more helpings of any of the banchan i could have had another round of the guljeot (cold and tasted of the ocean) and the excellent kimchi (de.li.cious).

with the fried rice we were given a small bowl of kongnamul guk (soybean sprout broth). simple, but really, you cant go wrong with kongnamul guk so i wont give them bonus points for it being good. the fried rice was satisfying. we were asked if we wanted spam (we did) and i think they cooked it with other meat (probably pork but i dont remember); it was all good. there were no off tastes and nothing tasted even slightly rancid... i know, you must wonder what kinds of places i frequent, but i have been to average homestyle restaurants and many times i can taste the old oil gone slightly off and or meat that must have been from two nights before. and as a whole the dish did not strike me as overly oily, which is also another problem that fried rice can have.

everything about the kimchi fried rice was very good. like something i would have made myself. just VERY well done. i was really happy with it, if you cant tell.

the omogari was excellent too. it was tangy, sour and spicy. the kimchi was perfect for stewing. the only complaint was that they were a little bit stingy with the pork and that the pork was not fatty enough. dining partner doesnt mind pork belly but i think the trend these days is to use meats more lean... but i concur, that it wouldnt have hurt to use more fatty pork for this dish. still, it was delicious. it is a jjigae that any korean would be happy with.

the house rice is also something just slightly different than the usual. it is white rice, but they add a few grains. i think they add just a little bit of lentils to the mix and something else that colors the rice reddish black. so its slightly attractively colored. something new and catches you off guard.

hmm. just writing about this (this late afternoon lunch took place five days ago) and boy, i sure want to go back tonight. i guess i will...

omogari

901 s western ave

los angeles, ca

(323) 734-4500

[xdrixn]

seongbukdong on 6th and berendon (sp?). small, about 10 tables. solid.

[melonpan]

occasionally we make it a point to try random places and last night we found

wah! jokbal * sundae

wow! pigs feet * blood sausage

3557 west 3rd street (at new hampshire)

los angeles, ca 90020

213 386-3231

wow! pigs feet might be hidden to most people, esp if they don't read korean. its a small place, set up just right for maybe 20 people to sit down, but i am sure they do their share of take out too. we saw two take out orders during out half hour stay... it has a run down yet homey feel, is clean and the two people working there were also friendly and efficient.

the two of us were feeling greedy so we got the pigs feet sampler (modeum jokbal) for $20 which includes all five of their pigs feet offerings:

* pigs feet (jokbal) - $10

* pigs feet terrine (jokbal pyeonyuk) - $10

* pigs toes (balgarak) - $10

* five spice pigs feet terrine (o hyang jokbal) - $13

* spicy grilled pigs feet (jokbal yang nyeom gui) - $13

their other specialty is blood sausage and they only sell them in two ways: plain blood sausage (sundae, small and large, $6 and $10) and blood sausage soup (sundae guk) - $6.50. we will have to return to try these.

their other five dishes we probably wont try since its not their specialty (call us odd), but they do offer other comfort dishes like potato soup (gamja tang) and kimchi stew (kimchi jjigae) for those who have been dragged there reluctantly and cant seem to bring themselves to eat either pigs feet or blood sausage.

the sampler came with a kettle of well chilled barley tea (boricha) and small sides of: soybean paste (duenjang), shrimp brine (sae-u jeot), sliced garlic and jalapenos, and pickled radishes and jalapenos.

i went there mentally prepared for freezer burned pigs feet. i have gone to several dimsum establishments where the chicken feet have terrible freezer burn. i cannot abide kamaboko, eomuk, odeng, chikuwa and the like for the same reason. as much as i love the taste of all these dishes, (and i do!) its just gag-inducing awful for me when theres freezer burn, which there is 90% of the time.

but it seems that theres no freezer burn taste to any of the dishes there. and if there was any in evidence, i couldnt taste it! yaay!

and not only was there no freezer burn, but it was ALL delicious!

my favourite was the spicy grilled pigs feet (not too spicy, but just right!), closely followed by the five spice pigs feet terrine. my husband thought the best was the plain pigs feet, with the pigs toes coming in second. there should be something for everyone's taste in the very generous sampler.

half way through dinner, we felt that there should be some rice, which the host provided right away along with some kimchi. neither were very good, but they werent bad either. okay, the kimchi was actually kind of subpar, but we werent there for the kimchi (go to l.a. omogari for that!). we also found out at the end of the meal that the rice and "kimchi" came gratis so i really shouldnt gripe.

we were very full after eating our way through half the sampler and there was still enough to go through for lunch today, with a tiny bit leftover still.

not bad for $20!

HIGHLY recommend.

there are some cons:

1) it is hard to find, esp if you cant read korean.

the place is small and in a tiny strip mall with difficult parking (friday night we had to drive around three times before we found anything nearby). it is also not listed clearly in english. the strip mall does have a sign for "el pollo bailador" -- which is also a good place to get, of all things, korean rotisserie chicken (el pollo bailador is aka dori dori tongdak).

2) i dont think anything in the restaurant is in english (which is why i translated most things and provided prices). and i dont know if the people who work there speak any english. but PLEASE, if you want a treat that cant be easily found outside l.a., dont let this stop you!

3) they dont serve soju or any other kind of drinks other than sodas and boricha. but you can take out and eat and drink at home! :-D