Kimchi chigae and.....?

Hi. I’m going to be in LA real quick in early march with a group of old friends to celebrate her baby’s first birthday, or her dol, if you’re Korean or familiar. The night before, i’m hoping we can get away from all the stress of the visitors and family members for just a few of us to catch up. It will probably be in Korea town, at a Korean restaurant, and the proud mother and one of the others will almost certaintly not care about ordering anything other than kimchi chigae. Which is fine with me, but i never order this in restaurants because it’s something i just make at home. They also, if I remember right, don’t really care for it made with super fatty meats, and one of them used to not eat red meat at all. If the kimchi chigae had a lot of fatty pork belly in it, it’s possible that a lot of it would just end up being deposited in my bowl, which is also fine with me. But i’m probably going to be interested in ordering something else i don’t usually make at home. So, i know this is very vague, but hopefully I can narrow it down based on recommendations: Where could we find very good to exceptional kimchi chigae, and what ELSE does that restaurant do very well, for someone interested in…something else. I don’t think we’d do Korean bbq. OK so for example, i don’t know how kobawoo’s kimchi chigae is supposed to be, but i am interested in trying their bossam, so if someone suggested kobawoo for chigae, that’s what i’d order instead. Likewise it seems that people love soban for their panchan and galbijjim, but how is their kimchi chigae? Where do you scratch the kimchi chigae itch, and what else is really good at THAT place? Thanks!

Seongbukdong. With the and being the mackerel or galbijim

Jun Won. With the and being the braised cod. And I been trying to try that chicken bulgogi that always sells out during lunch. They also do a galbijim as well.

Go with Jun Won. The food and the service is one of the best. The Son, Jeff is a cool dude and will ensure you have a great meal and time at his restaurant. Seongbukdong has like what 10 tables.

6 Likes

This pleases me. Our family has gone to Jun Won more than any other restaurant (apart from Pailin) in the last 3 years.

1 Like

Something missing there?

Oh man, that steamed cod at Jun Won.

Just had to add Soban here after seeing Chowseeker’s recent review. They got kimchi jigae. Also get the marinated crab, braised short ribs and over a dozen or so banchans makes it a great place to celebrate.

1 Like

Thank you for these suggestions, which I’ll heed for my next visit, but everyone including myself ended up wanting kalguksu so we went to hangari. I’m down in LA often enough these days though, so I’ll be checking these off the list soon, probably starting with jun won.