Koreatown

PSY Gives Thumbs Up to K-Town's "Gangnam Style" Restaurant

From pirate-themed bars to coffee shops shaped like the Titanic, Koreatown has always been known for it's gimmicky fads. But now it's been taken to a new, borderline litigious level with news that a Koreatown eatery has renamed itself after "Gangnam Style," the international mega-super-smash hit fro ... More >>

Koreatown: America's Hippest Neighborhood

Reality show K-Town unmasks the liquid rituals fueling Los Angeles' Koreatown neighborhood

Koreatown Hot Spots Guide: Map Out Your K-Town Nights

See also: *Koreatown: America's Hippest Neighborhood. This week's LA Weekly cover story covers the renaissance in Koreatown nightlife. The area has seen an invasion of bar-goers, food fanatics and hipster residents, thanks to the "the Yelp effect" and other factors. But what you're really asking ... More >>

Ji Tae Kim: Koreatown High Rise Shooting Suspect Is Real Estate Executive

Updated at the bottom with details about the suspect. Headline has changed. First posted at 4:55 p.m. Thursday. A man was shot in an attack at a Koreatown high rise this afternoon, police said. The victim was in critical condition, LAPD Officer Norma Eisenman told the Weekly. A suspect was quickly ... More >>

Mara Salvatrucha, Koreatown Gang, Is Now An International Crime Syndicate

Mara Salvatrucha, the Salvadoran American group that got its start in the heart of L.A.'s Koreatown, has been designated by federal authorities as an international criminal organization, a first for a street gang. MS-13, as it's also known, "is being targeted for its involvement in serious transnat ... More >>

Mara Salvatrucha's Koreatown Crime Booms Even During Truce And Federal Crackdown

See also: *Mara Salvatrucha, Koreatown Gang, Is Now An International Crime Syndicate. Even as the federal government announced this week that it would crack down on the Mara Salvatrucha gang, treating it as a "transnational criminal organization" on the level of a major drug cartel, L.A. police hav ... More >>

A Taste of Koreatown Debuts This Weekend

This Saturday, Sept. 8, the Korean American Coalition (KAC) will be hosting a Taste of Koreatown, a multicultural food festival that promises to showcase "the best restaurants in Koreatown." The event is replacing last year's Korean BBQ Cook-Off in favor of an event featuring a broader swath of K- ... More >>

Mara Salvatrucha Gang Turf Targeted in Spate of Deadly Koreatown Area Shootings

Updated at the bottom with a report stating there's a gang truce. First posted at 7:07 a.m. Monday. A spate of gang-related shootings have broken out in and around Koreatown in recent months, most happening in a neighborhood known as the epicenter of the global El Salvadoran Mara Salvatrucha gang. ... More >>

Amazonas Restaurant: Koreatown's Arepa Connection

How popular are arepas, the little fried corn cakes sold on street corners in Venezuela? Back in 2010, President Hugo Chavez introduced "socialist areperas" to ensure that the country's most famous export didn't fall into capitalist clutches. He even extended an invite to President Obama to come and ... More >>

K-Town by K-Town: A Jokbal Platter Seoul Train Partying in Rounds

Coverage of the delicious side of Koreatown has expanded past the well-tread over the years. We've learned about chic naengmyon (kudzu noodles in chilled beef broth) and gamjatang (pork neck soup). If we want Korean-style barbecue, we can distinguish places by cuts of meat and quality of banchan. Ev ... More >>

LAPD DUI Checkpoint Cheat Sheet For The Weekend: Koreatown, USC Area Targeted

You would think that the cops would give you a break after arresting 1,118 drivers for alleged DUI during 4th of July festivities in L.A. County this year. Nope. Not only are they not letting up, but the LAPD will be shooting fish in a barrel with one checkpoint this weekend:

Black Is the New Fugly: 2727 W. Olympic Blvd., Koreatown

L.A.'s got a lot of buildings coated with black glass bleck -- like the horrendous eyesore at Sony Pictures Plaza in Culver City, the Olympia Medical Plaza near San Vicente and Olympic and this newly reopened BBCN bank (formerly the Nara bank, which merged last fall with Center Bank to create BBCN) ... More >>

Spicy Food Fight: Fukuburger vs. Kalbi Burger

Though it may be more anecdotal than anything else, there is a popular theory that during South Korea's recession in the mid-to-late 2000's the country's young unemployed masses became especially enamored with a dish called buldak, or "fire chicken," a sauce-covered stir fry that was prepared so hot ... More >>

Koreatown to File Redistricting Lawsuit Against L.A. City Council; 2 Pro-Bono Firms on Board

They threatened, and they meant it: Koreatown is taking the L.A. City Council to court over the gerrymandered land grab that was redistricting 2011-12. City Hall politicians get loads of legal threats thrown their way, on the daily. But Koreatown activists' growing rage was given a lot more weight ... More >>

10 Best Korean BBQ Restaurants in Los Angeles

Los Angeles' Koreatown probably doesn't need another BBQ place -- well, at least not another Korean one. There seems to be a restaurant with tabletop grills in every plaza, strip mall and food court, cannibalizing another one's business two doors down or across the street. Let's be blunt: Entreprene ... More >>

Know When to Fold 'Em

K-pop Till You Drop: The Skinny on the Korean Boy and Girl Groups That Get Major Play in Koreatown

Story by Tiffanie Lee K-pop has become a worldwide phenomenon, and one of its great hubs is Los Angeles. Walk into any Koreatown club, dive, noraebang (karaoke bar) or, hell, even a bakery, and you'll hear the genre's famous slick jams and infectious dance beats. Importing elements of American R&B ... More >>

5 Koreatown Beer Joints: Hite Requirement

If you had to choose a part of the city to do a beer crawl, Koreatown would have to be a top pick: There seems to be at least one beer joint at nearly every corner of every block in the neighborhood. Inside, you'll find long lists of flavored soju, soju cocktails, beer and sometimes spirits, usuall ... More >>

I'm on a Boat: Why So Many Places in Koreatown Have Nautical and Pirate Designs

At the center of the city, there is a 100-foot-long ocean liner dry-docked in a parking lot. It would seem out of place in many if not most L.A. neighborhoods. Except here. Landlocked Koreatown is bobbing with nautical-themed restaurants, and you can't walk the length of a plank without stumbling in ... More >>

L.A. Redistricting Commission's Final Map: Still a Mess of Gerrymandered Land Grabs

At an exasperating L.A. Redistricting Commission meeting last Wednesday night that lasted into the wee hours, commissioners tried to address a whopping 75 community complaints, re: their hilariously gerrymandered first try at new voting districts for Los Angeles. The "proposed list of adjustments" ... More >>

Koreatown Roars Against Gerrymander

Sleeping tiger says no more splitting

Gays, Asians Fight for Own City Districts in Los Angeles Redistricting Battle

Redistricting is so hot this season! California's doing it; L.A. County 's doing it; and, because the city charter requires we do it once per decade, L.A. proper is jumping on the redistricting train in 2012, too. Literally. Tomorrow at 9 a.m., the Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission ... More >>

Wako Donkasu: 30 Sandwiches in 30 Days (Day 19)

Guzzle & NoshThe tonkatsu sandwich at Wako.​Like a supermodel in a burlap sack, some sandwiches, no matter how sloppily presented or haphazardly photographed, sell themselves. Others don't strut into the room. The tonkatsu sandwich at Wako Donkasu isn't ostentatious. It may even look like "the ... More >>

Eat More Pork: 8 Reasons Why It's Good For You

Guzzle & NoshA shot of the menu at Palsaik​Pork is good for you, full of life-preserving nutrients and vitamins, didn't you know? We recently spotted this list of pork belly's health benefits on the menu at Palsaik Samgyeopsal, a Koreatown sam-gyeopsal house. That'd be a restaurant specializin ... More >>

Kobawoo: 99 Essential Restaurants 2011

Beer Belly: From Death By Duck to Lucky Charms Pancakes

​We are in Koreatown. The customers are Korean. The chef won this year's Korean BBQ cookoff, with a dish of kimchi-brined pork loin with Cismontane Double IPA ssam-jang. But we are not eating Korean food -- we are eating something called Death by Duck, which is to say fries crisped in duck fat ... More >>

Venice 311 Founder Launches Koreatown 311

PHOTO BY SHANNON COTTRELLAlex Thompson, armed with her scanner and LA Weekly's "Best Police Blog" award.​Alex Thompson, that very controversial lady behind the Venice 311 police blog and Twitter account, has begun to expand her online empire -- just as she told the LA Weekly she would in "Clam ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews Soban

Braised Short Ribs at Seongbukdong

A. FrougGalbi jjim at Seongbukdong​ When talking about braised meat, phrases like "melt in your mouth" and "so tender I could cut it with my spoon" shouldn't mean anything. Because of course it does and of course you could. All that's needed to make tender, melting beef/chicken/pork/goat/lamb/ ... More >>

Koreatown Jewerly Store Smash-And-Grab Robbery is Second One Since May: Security Guard 'Bludgeoned'

LAPDKtown takedown.​Another day another jewelry store smash-and-grab in Koreatown. This time cops say a parking lot security guard was "bludgeoned" as three suspects made their exits. He was put in a hospital in critical condition and was subsequently stabilized. The 11 a.m. heist at CC Diamo ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews Wako Donkasu

L.A.'s Idea of Korean Food vs. What Koreans Really Eat

​ Our continuing series of Venn Food Diagrams has explored American regional and a smattering of international cuisines in no particular order or with any sense of geographic or cultural continuity. We're taking another random trip from the land of tater tot hot dish to the land of kimchi hot ... More >>

Iota: K-Town Teen Heaven

F. FriesemaJonagold apples​ Are you a teenage girl? Do you know a teenage girl? Because if so, Iota may be your favorite place in the universe, a barn-size K-town coffeehouse where K-pop booms from giant screens, the air is permeated with caffeine, the walls pop with color, the menu groans wit ... More >>

CLOSED: Pal Cabron (& Natura Oaxacan Juice Bar)

Guzzle & NoshOne of the paintings on the wall inside Pal Cabron.​ If you've driven past Pal Cabron in Koreatown this week and wondered why the doors are closed and the gate is locked, it's official: the Oaxacan cemita and clayuda shop has closed, along with its next-door neighbor Natura, a Oax ... More >>

Your Counter Intelligence Preview: In Which Mr. Gold Visits Eighth Street Soondae

Anne FishbeinSoondae​ This week, Jonathan Gold visits Koreatown, the soondae restaurant, and specifically Eighth Street Soondae, one of the oldest and most respected of its genre. Soondae, for example, Korean blood sausage, is a popular dish, and you proably could have led a friend to two or ... More >>

Midnight Ridazz, in Group of 100 L.A. Cyclists, Plowed Over by Young Female DUI Suspect in Culver City; Some in Critical Condition

Midnight RidazzFrom a past Koreatown Wednesday​Updated after the jump: Christine Elizabeth Dahab, 27, was booked on suspicion of driving under the influence. One Midnight Rida calls her a "drunk bitch." Originally posted at 8:50 a.m. The famed Midnight Ridazz took a hard hit in the wee hours ... More >>

GYM RATTING

Sun Ha Jang: Addicted to Quack

Koreatown's pleasure palace of duck

Cold as a Kudzu Vine in Winter

Yu Chun's naengmyon for a hot summer's day

Clippers Owner Allegedly Didn't Like To Rent To Blacks, Latinos; Pays Record Settlement

Tenants at some of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald T. Sterling's more-recently acquired Koreatown properties allege that the basketball magnate weeded out black and Latino residents in favor of Koreans who were perceived as being people who don't "complain" as much, according to one fair-housing ... More >>

The Morning After: At Koreatown's Bon Juk and Mountain, Porridge Is the Cure

Sometimes rice gruel with abalone is just what your roiling insides need

Sorry, Fugu: Japan's blowfish may be exquisite, but Korea's take at Dae Bok packs a garlicky punch

There hasn't been a blowfish fatality in a restaurant since the '60s, but eating it for many is still heightened by danger

Chunju Han-il Kwan Draws Hungry Night Crawlers With Its Budae Jjigae

Fusion reaction

Park's Barbecue: Prime Time

A cut above in the fleshpots of Koreatown

Koreatown: Glitter Babies Vs. Thugs

Stylish throngs with dough pour into the area. So do muggers and killers

Live, from Koreatown

Koreatown's Top 40

Eat, Like, a Pig

Heart and Seoul

Strange and wondrous kimchi in Koreatown

Korean Comfort Food

Gook Soo is more than just a noodle