Midtown Lunch

After months and months of waiting Seoul Sausage on Sawtelle in West L.A. is finally opening on Saturday, but for those of you who can’t wait any longer they’ve been quietly training their staff and testing out menu items for the past two days.  L.A. has had a few chances to sample bites from the winners of the Great Food Truck Race (most notably at the L.A. Street Food Fest), but this week has been the first time I can remember that fans in L.A. can finally order a whole sausage sandwich- plus try out some of their non sausage items (short rib poutine, anybody!?)

A look at the goods (plus some of Seoul Sausage’s future plans) is after the jump…

Their “Test Lunch Menu” has two sausages and two rice balls for you to try. The spicy pork sausage on the left is served with an apple cabbage cole slaw, and the kalbi sausage on the right is served with a garlic jalapeno aoli and kimchi relish.  Both are $7.

If you like Korean spicy pork, you will love the sweet and spicy gochujang flavored pork sausage. And the creamy apple slaw is the perfect complement to the heat of the meat.  Don’t want it spicy?  The beef sausage is just plain sweet, like marinated Korean short ribs, but the garlic jalapeno aoli and kimchi relish (which looks like a homemade doenjang) perfectly combines all the extra stuff you get at a Korean BBQ restaurant with your meat.

The two signature rice balls are also available on the menu, including the super delicious cheesy kimchi rice balls with spicy pork ($3) and their Japanese curry filled rice balls ($3).

Can’t make it for lunch today?  At dinnertime they’ll be testing out some of their non sausage items, including a braised short rib poutine and a braised pork belly dukkboki (sauteed Korean rice cakes.)  Of course these are just the basic items.  They are working on a chicken sausage and possibly a vegetarian sausage, plus there will be specials- some which might come from well known chefs and food personalities.  I overheard some talk of a couple Indian themed specials courtesy of Chef Simon Majumdar that are going to happen before the end of this month (tikka masala riceball anybody!?)

Tomorrow (Friday 10/5) they’re going to be closed for some final prep before the grand opening on Saturday, so if you want a sneak peak today is your last chance.  Normally I’d recommend letting a place find their footing before rushing over to try stuff, but after trying the sausages yesterday, I’d say it’s well worth heading over for anybody who finds themselves in West L.A. today during lunch or dinnertime.

Seoul Sausage, 11313 Mississippi Ave. 310-477-7739