Doing a favor for a friend by utilizing our hive-mind:
A doljanchi (dol for short) is a Korean ceremony to celebrate a child turning 1 year-old.
Expecting anywhere from 10-30 people (sorry for variability, but nothing is set in stone yet) in a private room, around the end of the calendar year. Budget is between $5K-$8K. Downtown is preferred (but Chinatown/Echo Park/J-town/Arts District options will be considered). Good food is (of course) a requisite.
If no great options exist, a banquet room or space allowing for option of outside catering would be welcome.
The Dragon (Olympic X Vermont) is popular amongst Koreans for using private rooms for bdays, post funerals, graduations, receptions, businessmen yolo’ing, etc
If not, then I would suggest Broken Spanish. Yes, I know they are not open for lunch or brunch but they will rent out the restaurant for private parties. If you have a party closer to 30 …
Yongsusan next door to thew Dragon on Vermont does very brisk business next door for dol. We had both of our kids dol next door. Pretty reasonably priced and the food is good. They let you BYOB so you can save some money on booze.
If you end up being closer to 10 Park’s BBQ has a private room upstairs.
They only do lunch on the weekdays, which is mighty fine by the way, but from speaking with the owners, they are open to reserving the space for private events.
Give them a buzz, it never hurts to ask, and I think the room would work, and the $$$ would definitely be less than Broken Spanish.