Soban report

Come to think of it, there were several ladies lunching there. If I were a lady, I’d lunch there. I’d lunch at gjelina and spago more often though.

2 Likes

I think the price was fair, You’d have to pay me $1,000 to go find a fresh blue crab and kill it and chop it into bite size parts and make a sauce for it. Most non-Michelin restaurants I go to, I figure I could prepare better dishes at home pretty easily. That’s the thing about a lot of beloved ethnic restaurants. The food tastes good because it’s unique and interesting, but it doesnt take much skill to make. I’d say there was some skill going on at Soban though. I couldn’t do it at home without a lot of work.

Lol how do you find these places?

How many you been to?

hmmmm

is it a michelin starred restaurant ???

or are they no longer giving out stars in los angeles ???

it’s quite curious don’t you think ???

i’m pretty skilled at making most dishes around town, but just too lazy to prepare them myself. hell, sushi is really just slices of fish on top of rice, i could do that for myself, correct ???

I’m sorry,

If you’re going to order the most expensive thing on the menu, and bitch about the price, just…

Don’t, especially because it’s 1) not blue crab 2) not kosher.

JG (thanks to one his Korean lawyer-turned-writer “scouts”) made Soban all about the ganjang kkejang. Soban was never all about just that life.

They: ferment their own daengjjang (buried somewhere in the hills of Silver Lake), they brew their own soy sauce. There is no chef, just ajjushi and ajjuma who really are about nothing else other than their food creed. Hanjip can sous vide every part of a cow until it Jesus resurrects himself, but it still won’t be as morally decent as anything coming out of Soban.

Solo lunch can be had for $10. and it (ddaenjang jjigae) is as “Seoulful” as anything coming out of ANYWHERE in Ktown.

The mae-un galbi jjim is something that POT will never, ever, in Choi’s life time, be able to replicate. It’s $35, for 2, and that’s enough for dinner, versus the absolute MSG packed shit chicken being served at Mapo Galbi.

FTC/Chowhound is all about crap noodles and dumplings like Lee’s/Myung Dong Kyoja, but I stake my food life on this fam. Their kkaenip is always fresher than anyone else’s. They use every herb (including dill? What? DILL? in Korean cuisine?) they can get their hands on for their panchan. And they don’t have to.

6 Likes

This doesn’t register as a correct accusation against JG to me. Every review of Soban I’ve read from him hardcore reps the mae-un galbi jjim as THE item to get, as you say.

Good to know that dish feeds two though. I need to eat some Korean at the moment anyway.

Good Karma is legendary at USC. He’s probably a student there, or an alumni of the school.

I have basically no cooking talent at all, and I certainly have no idea at all how to come up with even a fraction of the recipes I eat at restaurants of high quality. So I feel immensely grateful for the wonderful things I eat. I imagine being a talented home cook must make you feel pretty upset most of the time when eating out?

I still do, but I don’t think anyone lunches at Gjelina proper anymore, it’s all moved to Gjusta (actually, why does Gjelina even exist anymore? I don’t wholly see what the point of going anymore is…well, I guess if you want decent vegetables after 11 pm on a weeknight it’s nice, but why not just open Gjusta till midnight?).

I guess Spago is the eternal perennial…hah Seems weird, but given the kinds of people that enjoy Spago, I have always been extremely put off by it. Is it actually worth eating at?

It’s not blue crab ???

I thought that was the dope fucking dish to get. But definitely not kosher.

The food at Spago is good, nothing mindblowing but always a good meal. And the patio is nice. It’s a relaxing, casual place for a high-end meal. It doesn’t feel as pretentious as melisse and providence.

I’ve been to 44 restaurants on the j gold list.

Michelin came here, shamed us, and left. And they were right. LA blows for fine dining,

Michelin does more than fine dining…don’t they?

Yes, I suppose “fine dining” isn’t quite the right word for Michelin’s focus. More accurate might be “elevated dining.” I’m most familiar with their Tokyo awards. They’ve given two and even three stars to tempura restaurants (hardly fining dining) where the ingredients and execution are both outstanding. I can’t think of a good similar example in the U.S., except for sushi places.

Soban is really good. Amazingly, it used to be even better. First couple of visits, the gejang was “better than Korea.” On subsequent visits, the food has been very legit but not on the same superlative level.

Prices have increased as portions have decreased. Galbi Jim is now nearly twice the price it was just a few years ago. The crabs are now smaller than they used to be, with less of the yellow crab fat that makes gejang magical.

This is the genesis of the backlash on Yelp you mention. You can see it reflected in the wait times for tables, too. Soban used to be packed even on off nights. But the last couple of visits, there’s been no wait.

Still, it’s all relative. Soban remains one of the best restaurants in K-town. Highly recommended.

1 Like

I attended USC in the late 1990’s and had never heard of the place. :frowning: I just MIGHT be able to make it on a Tuesday…

It was deserted on a Friday night at 8:30 about a month ago

had lunch there today. they’ve upgraded the menu and the prices. there are maybe 3 items under $10 now. we ordered 2 of them and our party of five still ended up shelling out $22pp including tax & tip for five dishes.

having said that, the food was good, i was expecting more in terms of the banchan. maybe they serve different ones at dinner. but there was no egg or tofu in the selection. still, the execution of what was there showed an attention to detail. the potato was unique that it was dry and not in liquid. this resulted in a fluffier texture. the eggplant was kinda mushroom-y in flavor. wasn’t expecting the cucumber to be cooked through (and subsequently mushy). someone else at the table commented that all the banchan had been cooked, not that they should be raw, but in a way that showed some attention, vs. haphazardly throwing some freebies together. actually, there was no excess liquid in any of the plates; there was an attention paid even to plating what are essentially freebies.

the braised beef (galbi jim?) was good.

wasn’t expecting to find gingko and chestnuts at the bottom.

the dolsot bap with squid was a hit. the rice had a very pleasing crunchy texture. it’s actually kinda easy to overdo it if you’re careless.

the doenjang (sp?) jjigae was good, but i suspect more an acquired taste for those who didn’t grow up eating fermented tofu.

kimchi jjigae

they offer a choice of white or brown rice - even the attention to the rice was noteworthy to me; short grained, yet not overly sticky - and somehow extremely filling - which is saying something since i’m a rice eater.

the kimchi/pork dish came late and frankly, we had hoped they’d forgotten as we were pretty full without it.

that might be as good a way as stating it; despite the relatively low price/size ratio. i was pretty satisfied when we were done, each dish was a comfort meal dish, and we had shared five of them including the braised beef. you could probably consider that a double. throw in the rice, and it kinda fills the soul as much as the belly. i am probably going to skip dinner tonight.

the fruit plate was a pleasant surprise (and maybe their way of saying “you’re done and we need the table” - there were people waiting throughout our meal)

channeling joe bob briggs:

jjigae fu
doenjang fu
dolsot fu
banchan fu
galbi jim fu
rice fu

no breasts (not even cleavage)

3 refills of ice water eventually resulting in the owner bringing a pitcher to our table.

the secret asian man says check it out

1 Like

they had grilled tofu as one of the panchan when i went for lunch. it was my favorite of the 12 little dishes. next was the bracken fern–but I’m dismayed to learn from Google that this may be a carcinogen???

your review has inspired me to go back soon. this is the best restaurant i’ve been to in the past month.