Midtown Lunch

If you’re in K-Town and craving a Korean burger chances are you’re going to hit up Kalbi Burger. Need a Korean burrito fix? Hop on twitter and see where Kogi is. Both would be perfect choices if you’re looking for well made, interesting and in many ways refined Korean food, masquerading as a fast food staple. But what if you want something a bit dirtier. A bit greasier. A place that reminds you what burgers and burritos were before they were elevated to something “better”. For a return to burger as diner food grease-bomb land (with a slight Asian twist), you have to check out Olympic Hamburger.

I won’t pretend to know the full history of Korean burgers and Korean burritos, or of Olympic Hamburger itself, but assuming that the arcade games are not there for irony this place easily predates Kogi. It’s totally un-hip menu is what you’d expect from a shitty takeout burger place, complete with chili, pastrami, frozen fries, chicken nuggets, and fried fish and shrimp that even I would probably shy away from.

But their standard cheeseburger is actually not bad. Grass fed beef, this is not. Medium rare? Uh… not going to happen (nor would you want it to.) But they toast the seeded bun on the griddle, the patty has plenty of flavor, and it’s only $2.50. If this place was open until super late, this burger would be a godsend. (Sadly, and shockingly, they close at 8:30pm.)

But because of their location (on Vermont just south of Olympic) they also have platters with teriyaki beef (what is essentially bulgogi) and teriyaki chicken, plus short ribs (galbi). But I was there for the part of the menu where these two worlds collide…

The “bulgogi burger” mentioned on the wall, and the “teriyaki burger” posted on the menu above the counter are the same thing (a likely throwback to a time when far more non-Korean Angelenos knew what teriyaki was than bulgogi), and I expected one of two preperations. Either a) a standard ground beef hamburger marinated in bulgogi sauce, or b) a sloppy chipped beef type sandwich with pieces of bulgogi falling over the side of the bun. Silly me! They don’t do either. Instead they mold the bulgogi beef they serve on their platters into perfect, almost burger’ish looking patty. How they get it to stay together, I don’t know, but it’s genius! The flavor of the marinade wasn’t strong enough to really shine through all the lettuce, tomato onion and bread, and because the beef is cheap some of the bites were a bit chewy (something you wouldn’t like if you were eating a normal burger), but all in all it was still strangely tasty. And for $3.75 it’s a good deal.

But if $3.75 is good deal for the burger, $4.75 is a steal for the burrito. The thing is available with teriyaki chicken or teriyaki beef, and absolutely massive. Oh, and for 25 cents more you can get the “combo”, which means they add chili to either the chicken or beef. (Even I’m not that crazy… plus I’d prefer to spend my quarter on Space Invaders.)

I ordered the teriyaki chicken burrito, which turned out to be a pretty simple concept. They just take their standard chicken teriyaki, which is sauteed with a ton of cabbage and onions, and stuff it into a giant tortilla with (I believe) American cheese, which strangely worked. No rice. No beans. The food snob in me would have liked some more Korean flavors, or kimchi, or a fried egg (Kogi style). But the tortilla loving, cheap fatso in me loved every single bite. Did I mention it’s ridiculously massive?

High cuisine this is not. I love Kogi. And Kalbi Burger is definitely good too. But sometimes you want to get gross (and play some Space Invaders.) And for that, I will probably find myself at Olympic Hamburger.

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

• Fuck the fancy burger trend.  Give me a $2.50, greasy, diner burger and I’m a happy man.
• The idea of cheap bulgogi, smashed into a patty and served on a hamburger bun sounds delicious to me
• The sound of cheap chicken teriyaki, wrapped in a tortilla, sounds great to me also

THE – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• If you like cheap bulgogi, there are plenty of better places in K-Town for that.
• American cheese on chicken teriyaki?  That’s disgusting.
• This place is a greasy dump.
• If I want a cheap burger, In N Out is everywhere (and way better than this place)

Olympic Burger & Burrito, 1001 S Vermont Ave, 213-385-1728