Midtown Lunch

Between Koreatown, Thai Town, the South Bay, Westminster, and the SGV, Los Angeles has no shortage of hilariously unfortunate, lost in translation restaurant names.  Of course when you discover one such place you have two options: be an adult and try to make sense of what the owners could have possibly meant (“It must be pronounced Toh Bahng, right?”).  Or just spend your entire lunch making foot based happy ending jokes.  I chose the latter.

But the truth is, it wasn’t the potential comedy that drew me to Toe Bang, the popular late night drinking spot in the same Koreatown plaza as Ho Dong Baekjeong.  It was their too good to be true sounding lunch specials, which I had read about here. That, plus I wanted to see if I could get a foot massage with my spicy pork. (Wait… that  doesn’t sound right. Or does it?)

Finding a grilled meat + stew combination lunch in Koreatown is like getting your toe banged by Quentin Tarantino (apparently it’s not hard).  But finding one of those combos for under $10?  Practically impossible… which is what makes Toe Bang so great. You get your choice of bulgogi, spicy pork, pork w/ kimchi, squid, or octopus plus kimchi jjigae or doenjang jjigae all for $9.99.

You also get a fried egg topped box of steamed rice, and a better than average selection of banchan (especially if you like the little sweet chewy anchovies and mayo heavy potato salad.)  And as if that wasn’t enough, they give you a free ice coffee at the end of the meal.  Good?  Of course not.  But it’s free!  (Or, at least it might as well be free considering how little you pay for the lunch.)  Considering that Toe Bang is known for being a late night drinking establishment, it’s no surprise that none of the food is the best you’ve ever had.  But for $10, the lunch combo is definitely a steal.

There are other lunch specials on the menu, including bimbimbap, naengmyeon (cold noodles), and katsu for just $9, and a galbi tang (short rib soup) for $10.  But there are far better versions of those dishes to be found at other places in KTown for similar prices.  At Toe Bang, stick to the meat/stew combo and you’ll be the foot fucking master.

Toe Bang, 3465 W 6th St. 213-387-4905