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Within the densely populated blocks of Koreatown, you’ll find the most diverse and high-quality array of Korean restaurants in the United States. If you’re wholly unfamiliar with Korean cuisine, there’s no better place to start than to explore its various strip mall restaurants—a task that might take the better part of a lifetime. Still, there’s a few eateries outside Koreatown worth paying attention to, including a few places servingKorean barbecue and a new-school restaurant in the Arts District . As a starting guide, we’ve rounded up the city’s very best Korean eateries, both inside and outside of Koreatown. While many do offer bulgogi and galbi now known and loved across the country, we’ve also included a great many other restaurants that specialize in other dishes equally worthy of recognition. Think seafood, bubbling cauldrons of tofu soup or kimchi stew, noodle dishes, dumplings and more. If you’ve only experienced the barbecue side of things, consider this a solid introduction to the rest of L.A.'s Korean cuisine.
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Named for the low-slung tables used in traditional dining, Soban serves one of the best Korean meals in Los Angeles that doesn’t involve a tabletop grill. Instead, this no-frills eatery offers the city’s best assortment of banchan and first-rate ganjang gejang, a.k.a. soy-marinated raw crab. Though service may be brusque, no other Korean seafood spot can top Soban’s buttery, sweet crab marinated in a blend of green chilies, white onion and soy sauce. The dozen-odd banchan plates that come with each meal burst with flavor, texture and painstaking attention to detail, from the cabbage kimchi to the seasoned acorn jelly. You’ll also find excellent galbi jjim—braised short ribs—and a fiery black cod stew. Newcomers should note Soban’s early close (8:30pm—with last orders taken 45 minutes prior). If you can, we suggest making a reservation: Everyone from the late Jonathan Gold to
The 15 Best Korean Bbq Restaurants In Los Angeles
’s Bong Joon-ho has dined at Soban—so unless you’re visiting on a weekday afternoon, you’ll very likely have to wait for a table otherwise.
While Angelenos remain divided on their favorite everyday Korean barbecue joint, Park’s seems to be the one unifying constant for special occasions. This premier destination for platters of marinated short rib, heavily marbled rib-eye and even American Wagyu cuts takes its meat selection seriously, with the prices to match. There’s also the excellent assortment of prepared dishes, including the kimchi pancake, tofu stew and cold buckwheat noodles. If you’re the type to judge a Korean restaurant off the quality of its banchan, Park’s will more than deliver with a delicate apple and potato salad, cucumber kimchi and more. For best results, order some of everything—you won’t regret rolling out of here. If we had to single out one go-to dish, though, it’s the Korean-style beef tartare: a mellow, sweeter version of the raw dish typically found on French menus.
Bubbling, red-tinged bowls of comforting tofu soup are now commonplace across Los Angeles, but this Koreatown eatery inside a former Mexican restaurant (look up at the cactus chandeliers) takes an unusually artisan approach to its soondubu. All the tofu at Surawon is made in-house (a relative rarity), and for a slight upcharge, there’s also a unique black soybean variety that lends a complex, almost nutty aftertaste to the soup’s typically neutral soy foundation. The same attention to detail makes for delicious takes on Korean standards, including the sizzling platters of barbecue chicken and generously portioned fried mackerel. Sure, Surawon might lack the late-night hours of other soondubu specialists, but when the main attraction is this fresh and delicious, we wouldn’t head anywhere else during regular business hours.
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View this post on Instagram A post shared by Koreatown Life (@koreatownlife) This iconic Koreatown drinking den with wood panel interiors, dim lighting and no-nonsense service is the best place in Los Angeles to enjoy anju, or Korean bar bites. Stepping through its doors can make you feel like you’ve been transported back to a late-20th-century Seoul pojangmacha—according to
Owner Caroline Cho constructed the bar based on her own memories of South Korea’s tented street pubs when she first opened it in 1997. Wooden block menus present a dizzying number of items, including standouts like the corn cheese, fresh clam soup and kimchi pancake. Other bites like hand rolls and the house lunch box—a shake-it-yourself rice mix of luncheon meat, kimchi, dried seaweed and egg—make for a deeply comforting, carb-heavy meal best accompanied by a glass of beer or soju.
Also known asMapo Galbi, Mapo Chicken’s signature dish has made this no-frills ajumma-run restaurant a beloved favorite among Korean food lovers for years. Meant to be eaten in groups of two or four, this bubbling red family-style dish full of chicken, rice cakes, perilla leaves and other vegetables can be spiced to your liking and modded out with cheese, udon noodles and extra vegetables. Make sure to save room for the fried rice, which your server will make at the end with the last of the skillet’s leftovers.
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This love letter to Korean comfort food inside Grand Central Market comes from Kwang Uh and Mina Park, the same chefs behind Baroo, the now-closed restaurant that helped popularize fermentation within the L.A. food scene. Now, the pair—who are married and have a son—have turned their attention to dosirak, or lunch boxes, which come perfectly portioned with three types of house-made banchan and your choice of L.A.-style galbi, kimchi-braised pork belly, doenjang-marinated chicken or vegan-friendly fried shiitake mushrooms. Kimchi fried rice, bibimbap and a KFC (the K stands for Korean here) rice bowl round out the menu, which easily rank among the top places to dine inside the Downtown food hall. With Uh and Park’s fermentation skills, the stall’s take-home, larger portioned banchan are equally mouth watering—especially, when available, Baroo’s signature kimchi yellow corn.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by JOVI | Vancouver Food • Travel (@nomsofvan) Sullungtang, alternatively romanized as seolleongtang, is a milky-white broth made from ox bones, brisket and occasionally other cuts of beef. Though you might see the dish pop up on other Korean restaurant menus, the consistently excellent version at Han Bat Sul Lung Tang is our favorite no-frills place in town whenever we’re craving a high-quality bowl of Korean beef soup for dine-in or takeout. Though prices have gone up in recent years, Han Bat’s clean-tasting broth, seasoned to your liking with salt, pepper, spring onions and red pepper paste, is still the finest sullungtang in town. A bowl of white rice and tender slabs of brisket, tongue or mixed cuts add substance to your bowl (available in medium or large), and with limited seating and little in the way of ambience, the move here for those dining in is to get in, eat quickly and get out.
At all hours of the day, Sun Nong Dan’s two Koreatown locations fill up with diners hankering for the cheese-covered mountain of marinated short rib, potatoes and onion known as galbi jjim. Though the cheese—and its requisite tableside pyrotechnics—is optional, the restaurant’s signature dish is not, at least for first-timers. Aside from their signature family-style dish, the rest of the beef-centric menu offers single-serving soups and meat platters designed to be dipped into bubbling hot pots. If you’re closer to the San Gabriel Valley, Sun Nong Dan also has outposts in San Gabriel (open until midnight) and Rowland Heights (open 24/7). For those near Koreatown, the larger location on Western Avenue typically has a much shorter wait.
Top 10 Best Korean Food In Los Angeles, Ca
View this post on Instagram A post shared by mdk noodles (@mdknoodles) This old-school dumpling and noodle specialist previously known as Myung Dong Kyoja is famous for its deliciously garlicky kimchi, freshly steamed pork mandu and comforting bowls of kalguksu, or knife-cut noodles. For warmer weather, MDK also serves an excellent spicy naengmyeon (which uses chewy, ultra-thin strands made of arrowroot flour) among several other traditional cold noodle dishes. Though “noodles” may now be in its official name, we always suggest adding the delicate steamed mandu to your order—they’re among the very best when it comes to Korean-style dumplings in Los Angeles.
With its everyday ambience, decent menu prices and top-notch meat selection, Soowon Galbi is one of our favorite Korean barbecue spots in K-town, especially when we’re in a group of four or more. The wait times here generally run shorter than other popular spots like Kang Hodong Baekjeong and Quarters, though we’re confused as to why; Soowon's banchan assortment and prepared dishes, including the perilla leaf stew and scallion pancake, showcase a depth and breadth of Korean cuisine that’s remarkable for a restaurant whose most popular items come cooked on a tabletop grill. The combination courses, in particular, offer excellent value for a crowd, especially the Combo B, which includes the must-have kkotsal, or marbled boneless short rib, and chadol, thinly sliced pieces of brisket that quickly crisp on the grill.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kobawoo House (@kobawoola) For
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This love letter to Korean comfort food inside Grand Central Market comes from Kwang Uh and Mina Park, the same chefs behind Baroo, the now-closed restaurant that helped popularize fermentation within the L.A. food scene. Now, the pair—who are married and have a son—have turned their attention to dosirak, or lunch boxes, which come perfectly portioned with three types of house-made banchan and your choice of L.A.-style galbi, kimchi-braised pork belly, doenjang-marinated chicken or vegan-friendly fried shiitake mushrooms. Kimchi fried rice, bibimbap and a KFC (the K stands for Korean here) rice bowl round out the menu, which easily rank among the top places to dine inside the Downtown food hall. With Uh and Park’s fermentation skills, the stall’s take-home, larger portioned banchan are equally mouth watering—especially, when available, Baroo’s signature kimchi yellow corn.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by JOVI | Vancouver Food • Travel (@nomsofvan) Sullungtang, alternatively romanized as seolleongtang, is a milky-white broth made from ox bones, brisket and occasionally other cuts of beef. Though you might see the dish pop up on other Korean restaurant menus, the consistently excellent version at Han Bat Sul Lung Tang is our favorite no-frills place in town whenever we’re craving a high-quality bowl of Korean beef soup for dine-in or takeout. Though prices have gone up in recent years, Han Bat’s clean-tasting broth, seasoned to your liking with salt, pepper, spring onions and red pepper paste, is still the finest sullungtang in town. A bowl of white rice and tender slabs of brisket, tongue or mixed cuts add substance to your bowl (available in medium or large), and with limited seating and little in the way of ambience, the move here for those dining in is to get in, eat quickly and get out.
At all hours of the day, Sun Nong Dan’s two Koreatown locations fill up with diners hankering for the cheese-covered mountain of marinated short rib, potatoes and onion known as galbi jjim. Though the cheese—and its requisite tableside pyrotechnics—is optional, the restaurant’s signature dish is not, at least for first-timers. Aside from their signature family-style dish, the rest of the beef-centric menu offers single-serving soups and meat platters designed to be dipped into bubbling hot pots. If you’re closer to the San Gabriel Valley, Sun Nong Dan also has outposts in San Gabriel (open until midnight) and Rowland Heights (open 24/7). For those near Koreatown, the larger location on Western Avenue typically has a much shorter wait.
Top 10 Best Korean Food In Los Angeles, Ca
View this post on Instagram A post shared by mdk noodles (@mdknoodles) This old-school dumpling and noodle specialist previously known as Myung Dong Kyoja is famous for its deliciously garlicky kimchi, freshly steamed pork mandu and comforting bowls of kalguksu, or knife-cut noodles. For warmer weather, MDK also serves an excellent spicy naengmyeon (which uses chewy, ultra-thin strands made of arrowroot flour) among several other traditional cold noodle dishes. Though “noodles” may now be in its official name, we always suggest adding the delicate steamed mandu to your order—they’re among the very best when it comes to Korean-style dumplings in Los Angeles.
With its everyday ambience, decent menu prices and top-notch meat selection, Soowon Galbi is one of our favorite Korean barbecue spots in K-town, especially when we’re in a group of four or more. The wait times here generally run shorter than other popular spots like Kang Hodong Baekjeong and Quarters, though we’re confused as to why; Soowon's banchan assortment and prepared dishes, including the perilla leaf stew and scallion pancake, showcase a depth and breadth of Korean cuisine that’s remarkable for a restaurant whose most popular items come cooked on a tabletop grill. The combination courses, in particular, offer excellent value for a crowd, especially the Combo B, which includes the must-have kkotsal, or marbled boneless short rib, and chadol, thinly sliced pieces of brisket that quickly crisp on the grill.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kobawoo House (@kobawoola) For
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