Midtown Lunch

Ask anybody who works Downtown where to get the best Korean food in the area and they’ll likely tell you to put your lazy ass into a car and drive to K-Town.  On a good day, it’s less than 10 minutes away. But not everybody has the luxury of time (or a car, for that matter), so for those people I’d say- Have you been to It’s a Wrap?  That’s right.  You wouldn’t necessarily know it by the name or the outside signage, but It’s a Wrap (on 7th btw. Flower & Fig) serves cheap, decent Korean food, in Downtown L.A.

I first heard about this place thanks to Profiled Lunch’er “Shauna” (aka The Minty) who recommended their spicy tofu soup.  Soondubu from a place called It’s a Wrap?!  I was instantly excited. Korean food hidden inside generic sounding delis is completely normal in Midtown Manhattan, so hearing about this place triggered an immediate (and all too familiar) craving.

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Last month The Guru released his annual 99 Essential Restaurants list, and naturally I scoured it with an eye towards under $10 lunches.  One in particular that caught my eye was Kobawoo, a Koreatown bossam specialist.  Their signature dish (the bossam) is a big $27 plate filled with slices of boiled pork belly, a special kimchi, and possibly raw oysters?  As great as it sounded it’s waaay out of the ML price range- but I was super excited to discover that they have a lunch special portion of bossam for under $10!!!

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My love of jjajangmyeon, the Korean/Chinese black bean sauce over noodles dish, is well documented.  So you can imagine how excited I was to read Lunch’er “Christine’s” profile a few weeks ago where she mentioned that you could also get also get jjajang rice at a place called Al Bae Ne (in Koreatown.)  That’s the same black bean sauce, served over fried rice instead of noodles.  How awesome is that?  (I discriminate against no carbs!)

Kristine graciously agreed to take me to her leader the delicious sounding black bean sauce rice.

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It only took one visit to Tahoe Galbi for me to rethink my position on the ubiquitous $10 All You Can Eat Korean BBQ lunch.  It’s not that I thought I wouldn’t be down with all you can eat Korean BBQ (how could it possibly be bad!?)  It was more me lamenting the fact that there weren’t any proper under $10 Korean buffets in Los Angeles.  I’m an old school buffet enthusiast, not just for the all you can eat aspect but also for the form itself.  Like carts at a dim sum palace, much of the joy I take from eating all I can eat is the buffet line itself.   But even though Tahoe converted me to this new way of gorging myself, it was clear it wasn’t going to be the end all be all $10 Korean BBQ spot of my dreams.  Room for improvement seemed possible, and it was then I decided I would need to try *all* of the $10 AYCE Korean BBQ spots in Koreatown before I’d be truly satisfied.  (You know… for science.)

Back in May Lunch’er “djjewelz” recommended Choi Ga Neh in the ML Forums, so I figured that would be as good a place as any to continue my quest.

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A few weeks ago Bibigo opened in Westwood Village to much fanfare, and while I mostly liked the food it didn’t make me as excited as it would have had it been… how to put this… dirtier. So when I saw Gushi (“the long standing beloved Korean shack on Gayley”) casually mentioned in this review of Bibigo I knew it had to be my next Westwood lunch.

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As much as I love, and have done serious research on, all you can eat buffets across the country, there is one gaping hole in my canon of face stuffing experiences: all you can eat Korean BBQ.  Every time I drive through K-Town I stare lovingly at all the signs touting meat feasts of epic proportions- and the best part is, a ton of them are under $10. And yet, for some reason, I’ve never been able to the pull trigger.  Part of it is my allegiance to the true all you can eat buffet (like Hansong), where all the food is laid in one giant smorgasbord, ready to be defeated at the hands of my rather large gut.  Admittedly a real all you can eat master wouldn’t let that technicality stand in his or her way, so I’m forced to admit that the real reason I haven’t been to one of these places is sheer intimidation.  Not only are there too many places to choose from, but I wasn’t sure exactly what happens when one enters one of these places.  Yes, many have $9.99 lunchtime options- but with upgrades avaialble (that allow you a better quality of meat) was the $10 ayce Korean BBQ deal really worth it?

So, when a Korean friend offered to accompany me to one of his favorite spots, Tahoe Galbi (on Wilton & Wilshire), I jumped at the chance.  Not just to fill the gaping hole in my all you can eat buffet resume, but also the big gaping hole that pops up in my stomach every day around 11:45am.

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And now a quick lesson in how math can be applied to everyday food decisions… for example, the transitive property.  I loved the fried chicken sandwich made by Animal chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo on the Cart for a Cause.  Jon & Vinny loved the chicken at Dino’s Burgers on Pico.  Therefore it is safe to assume that I would also love the chicken at Dino’s Burger.  And I did. So, when Kogi Chef Roy Choi told The Guru that he liked the chachiangmian from Dragon Restaurant in K-Town I knew I had to check it out.  I’m an unrepentant fan of Kogi and Chego, and noodles with black bean sauce is one of my favorite Korean/Chinese dishes (so far here in L.A. I’ve only tried the great $5 version at Mandarin House, also courtesy of @thejgold).  So when I read on Dragon’s website that they offer a $10 lunch special with that dish PLUS a standard Chinese food option, I couldn’t resist.

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