Midtown Lunch

Last month LA Weekly reported that Jeon Ju, the famed hot stone pot Bibimbap specialist that Jonathan Gold calls one of the 60 Korean Dishes that every Angeleno should know, had closed for what appeared to be some pretty substantial renovations. Well, as promised, they were only closed for about a week and a half, and not only did they renovate the interior they also updated the menu. Their back open and instead of 5 versions of dol sot bibimbap, they now have 8- including 2 that will be particularly exciting to vegetarians.

And the best part is, they didn’t even raise the prices.

The banchan is still the same (aka excellent) and you still get a whopping three additional cold and hot soup-like dishes.  The cold noodles in kimchi broth, mul kimchi, and the hot seaweed soup.  But what about the bibimbap?

The old menu featured 3 hot stone bibimbaps for $10.19 each, with your choice of kalbi, seafood, or kalbi and kimchi, plus two slightly more expensive versions, featuring traditional ingredients like chestnuts, gingko nuts, jujubes, and beans (the Yeong Yang and the Jeon Ju dolsot.)

Breath easy, all of those are still on the menu in addition to this new version that features bulgogi instead of kalbi.  They’ve also added a version with fried tofu (dubu dolsot, $10.19) and a cheap vegetable only version (namul dolsot, $8.34) that I believe might have only been available in a regular bowl before?

If you’ve never eaten doltsot bimbimbap before, the concept is pretty simple.  Squeeze some of the red bean paste mixture over the rice and veggies, mix, and eat.  Just be careful to leave a little bit of the rice on the outskirts so that it crisps up against the super hot stone pot.  What you end up with is a sweet and spicy Korean fried rice of sorts, with crispy bits all throughout.  The perfect lunch.

It’s good to have you back Jeon Ju.

Jeon Ju, 2716 West Olympic Boulevard. 213-386-5678