You Can Get Lunch at Park’s BBQ For $7

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No matter how you measure it, Koreatown is without a doubt the cheapest lunch neighborhood in Los Angeles.  Nowhere can you get as much good, hot food, for so little money as you do in the ever expanding corridor that starts between Western and Vermont. $5 will get you a pretty great bowl of noodles in black bean sauce, $6 will get you a decent bowl of soup or bibimbap and one of the best assortments of banchan in K’town. Hell, that same $6 can even get you a good Korean style chirashi sushi bowl. And, of course, there are the all you can eat BBQ places- where for as little as $9 during lunchtime you can feast on all the meat you can eat.

At this point not being able to get an under $10 soup or stew at a Koreatown restaurant is the exception not the rule- an exception that borders on extinction.  Now, you could be thinking “What about the expensive and famous restaurants?  Like Park’s BBQ! A meal at that place, lunch or dinner, can cost almost $50.  There’s no way they’re going to let you get out of there for lunch for under $10.”  And to that I say, “Guess again.”

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Since I do most of my eating during lunch, and most of my lunch’ing in Koreatown falls under $10, I managed to go over 3 years in L.A. without trying Park’s.  Widely considered to be the best Korean BBQ restaurant in Koreatown (which would likely make it the best Korean BBQ restaurant in the country), the cheap stuff at Park’s starts at $23.  The good stuff is in the $30s, and the best stuff can run you up to $77.  And there’s no separate menu during lunch.  What you see at dinner is what you get all day long.  In other words, it’s the kind of place you go when your parents are in town and your dad wants a good steak but you want to eat Korean food.  And of course, he’s paying.

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But even Park’s has succumbed to the cheap Koreatown masses by offering a Chef’s choice menu of three $7 lunch specials that change every day.  The menu can be found just inside the doorway to the restaurant on a flatscreen tv, and even though it likely includes runoff from the meals of the rich who dined at Park’s the night before, it’s without a doubt one of the best lunches in all of K-Town.

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Listed as “Beef Brisket Noodle” on some days, “Kalguksu w/ Brisket” on others, Park’s spicy version of knife cut noodle soup could easily be $12 and nobody would complain.  The bowl is huge, and comes completely stuffed with noodles, rice cakes, and a shocking amount of thinly sliced brisket, considering the price.  If I could be guaranteed they had this every day, I may never go to another kal guk su place again.

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Dogani tang is another soup that seems to pop up on the menu a bunch, a beef soup with hunks of knee tendon, korean red beans, and green onions.  If you’ve ever had sul lung tang, you’ll be familiar with the flavor (or lack thereof). They expect you to add seasoning to taste.

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If you’re really lucky you’ll show up on a day when they have a meat option, since it seems like a shame to go to Park’s and not get any grilled meat. This $7 bulgogi isn’t as good as what you get if you shelled out the serious cash, and grilled it yourself at the table, but it was $7 bulgogi from Park’s BBQ.  No complaints here.  Sadly there’s no guarantee that they’ll have a meat option the day you go.  We saw these three on a Friday, but yesterday (Tuesday) they had the noodle soup, the dogani, and a chicken soup, so if you’re not into Korean soups you will be taking a serious gamble going to Park’s just for their lunch special.

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As for banchan, you get a limited selection when ordering the lunch special and I can’t be sure but it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that they offload some of the older stuff on the cheapos like me who are only coming in for the $7 lunch.  Then again, old banchan from Park’s is better than fresh banchan from most places.

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Even I’ll admit that going to Park’s and not getting grilled meats seems kind of crazy, but don’t give up on it just yet.  If you go with a group of friends you can use the lunch special to pad your meal, and bring down the cost per person while still leaving you full.  3-4 people could easily split one of these soups. Pair that with an order of marinated galbi, rice and all the banchan you get when ordering the fancy meats, and we’re talking about a filling splurge lunch at THE Park’s BBQ for $15-17.  I will definitely be back, and I may or may not bring my parents.

Park’s BBQ, 955 S Vermont Ave, 213-380-1717

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