Showing posts with label ktown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ktown. Show all posts

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Ktown's Caffe Concerto Gets New Chef and Tasting Menu

Caffe Concerto in Koreatown has been around for a while, serving Italian food with Korean inflections (you can read my previous review here of their pasta including a kimchi carbonara).
They recently hired a new head chef, Terry Kim, and have added a tasting menu component (the rest of the a la carte menu remains the same).
Concerto Tasting
After the amuse bouche we started off with some beautifully plated Tuna tartar and Granny Smith apples
Concerto Tasting
This was a good rendition of a classic, with the sweet apples juxtaposing the fatty tuna nicely.

The tuna was followed by a Tomato salad, persimon dressing, cherry tomatoes, tomato sorbet, parsley oil, olive crumbs
Concerto Tasting

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Korean-Italian Fusion at Concerto (Koreatown, Los Angeles)

Concerto in Koreatown has been open for a while now serving pastries and Italian food. It's the type of Italian restaurant you might see in Korea. I haven't visited Concerto until recently, but a friend of mine posted about their kimchi carbonara and I was intrigued by the Korean-Italian fusion, so when I was invited to check it out, I accepted.

Concerto was pretty busy on a Friday night. They have at least three separate dining areas including one upstairs. Our dinner started with their freshly baked focaccia bread with a whole head of roasted garlic Yes, a whole garlic!
Concerto
For appetizer we ordered the Pico de Gallo squid. This is kind of like calamari except it's only the fried tentacles and none of the body/mantle.
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Thursday, June 27, 2019

FREE Hot Flamin Cheetos Pork Belly at EIGHT Korean BBQ

Remember the eight flavors of pork belly at EIGHT Korean BBQ I wrote about here? Well, they've added a ninth flavor: Flamin' Hot Cheetos! And guess what, it's free with a purchase of the eight flavors of pork belly!
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For the Flamin' Hot Cheetos pork belly, they marinate the pork belly in a spicy sauce, then after grilling top it some cheese and cheetos. When I went they were using Cheetos pieces, although I told them I think it would be better if they grind it to make a Cheetos powder so it can spread more evenly!
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Friday, March 23, 2018

Belly Up to Eight Korean BBQ for 8 Flavors of Pork Belly

Eight Korean BBQ focuses on pork belly, and has locations in Buena Park, Koreatown, and Singapore. The main attraction here is the eight flavors of pork belly. If the concept sounds familiar to you, that would be because the Koreatown location was Palsaik which also served eight flavors of pork belly. Palsaik is now rebranded (and with much much better service!) and with new menu items.

We got the Combo A, which comes with the eight flavors of pork belly plus a seafood stew and mozarella kimchi fried rice for $56.99. It was plenty of food for 2 people and probably would feed 3-4 depending on how much you eat.
Eight Korean BBQ
The eight flavors were: hot, miso, curry, herb (mostly rosemary), garlic, black sesame, original, and wine. The black sesame one is a new addition (it replaced the ginseng) and I'm pleasantly surprised how well the sesame flavor worked with pork belly. I think the sesame was my favorite this time around, but the garlic and hot flavors are also great.
Eight kbbq
We also ordered the Flower Pork Belly ($22), because it looked so cool! Although we thought it looked more like a hedgehog than flower, but either way it made for a great photo and more fatty pork belly for us to eat.
Eight kbbq

Friday, September 19, 2014

Roy Choi's Commissary at The Line Hotel (Koreatown)

First of all, the new Commissary is beautiful. Situated in a green house complete with hanging pots of greenery next to the pool at The Line Hotel in Koreatown, diners can enjoy the LA sunshine all year long. You already kind of feel like you're on vacation when you step in.

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The menu at Commissary can be a tad confusing at first. You get two pieces of paper. One is the picture menu that shows you the price and main ingredients. The little numbers lead you to the second piece, the "cheat sheet" which tells you how it's prepared ("grilled") and what sauces go on that dish ("lemon, green sauce" - for example).

Now, the setting is a green house, and there are a lot of vegetable and produce-focused items, but it's not a vegetarian restaurant. There are a number of vegetable-focused and vegetarian dishes, though.

There's grilled corn with red sauce, chili, garlic, onion
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This is Roy Choi after all, so don't expect bland vegetable dishes. Just like the things he's known for, these are full of spices and flavors.

The original cocktails were created with the help of Matthew Biancaniello, although he won't be behind the bar. Served in deli cups, you'll find cocktails made with seasonal produce and unusual ingredients like pisco, white peach and anise hyssop; or mojito with zebra tomatoes.
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Friday, August 22, 2014

Saint Martha: An Ode to the Patron Saint in Koreatown

An unexpected wine bar has opened in the heart of Koreatown with Tart's Chef Nick Erven (formerly Messhall) and sommelier Mary Thompson (formerly Rivera). The warm gougeres is just an amuse of the surprising and delectable dishes to come.

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The appetizer puts almost all that is good on one plate - and it worked with the steak and oyster tartare and champagne sabayon, served with hot bone marrow beignets ($13)
Steak Oyster Tartare
Steak and oyster tartare: the combination of these two raw delicacies  was one of those "why didn't I think of that before?" moment.

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Sommelier Mary Thompson has done a wonderful job with the wine list, and the servers know their stuff, too. I told my waitress what I liked and she recommended a lovely, crisp, 2012 Wagner Stempel Weissburgunder, Rheinhessen from Germany. This is one of the best new whites I've tried lately.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Dishcrawl Hits K-Town, with a Giveaway!

Dishcrawl is the newest walking food tour in town (they're actually nationwide), and next Wednesday on May 21 they are hitting Koreatown. The tour will visit 3 different restaurants, but the itinerary is kept a secret. The only one I can tell you is that they will be visiting Escala, the new Colombian gastropub from Chef Chris Oh of Seoul Sausage! It's not your typical Koreatown restaurant, for sure, and it already garnered many good reviews with dishes like pork skin guacamole and pork belly tamale. 
To promote the Koreatown tour, they've offered to give away one ticket to the crawl! The tour takes place next Wednesday, May 21 at 7pm. The meeting location will be disclosed 2 days before the event. Note that the giveaway is only for 1 ticket (valued at $45), though, not a pair, but I'm sure you'll meet some cool people there. For more information about the Ktown crawl, check here.

To enter the giveaway, follow the instructions below. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Eat Here Now: Roy Choi's POT in Koreatown

Pot from Kogi BBQ's Roy Choi was one of the most anticipated restaurant openings recently, and it does not disappoint. The restaurant inside Koreatown's Line Hotel showcases Roy's Korean heritage with hot pot dishes, other Korean favorites, along with some of his unique creations.
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We had a really hard time choosing, but finally we ordered one that had almost everything. We tried the Fisherman's Wharf ($39 for the pot pictured above, plenty of food for 2 people) which comes with rock cod, crab, sardine, clams, mussels, fish roe, shrimp, tofu, daikon, scallion, sesame, spicy paste, and herbs. Each of the hot pot can also be served as individual portions - this one would cost $17.
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It's chock full of seafood and packs quite the flavor punch. Not that I'm Korean but this tasted "authentic" to me and just as good if not better than what I've had around K-town. In fact, I prefer eating this than the crab soup at Ondal. The crab is still in the shell, so be ready to get down and dirty. That's part of the fun and they hand you a whole roll of paper towel, so you'll be set.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Piedmontese Beef for Korean BBQ at Star King BBQ

There's a new star of Korean BBQ in Koreatown. Star King BBQ has actually been open for a while, but a recent change of ownership led to the kbbq joint being the only Korean restaurant and one of the few places in Los Angeles offering Piedmontese beef. The new owner Jackie Yoo is the daughter of a meat distributor, so she knows where to get the good stuff.

Not just the Piedmontese, but Star King is possibly also the only place in town serving the tomahawk rib eye of the Piedmontese. This is what put the restaurant on the heat map, and you have to admit, the presentation is rather impressive!

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All the bbq is cooked over charcoal grill, and you'll find plenty of banchans, from the typical to the more unusual.
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Instead of the potato salad, you'll find sweet potato salad along with pancakes.
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Saturday, February 15, 2014

Grainivore: A Tiny Singaporean Join in Koreatown

The name Grainivore certainly doesn't sound like a Singaporean restaurant and who knows why they decided to open up in Koreatown, but there it was. Grainivore is a tiny joint (there is extra seating in a back room, which is connected by an alleyway) serving up combo Singaporean meals on paper plates.

You first choose between steamed rice, chicken rice, or coconut rice. Then, there are four protein choices: Hainan chicken, barbecue pork, shrimp paste chicken, and beef rendang. All the combos are $6.99 except beef rendang costs $2 extra.

The place closes at 8pm and when I came around 7pm they were out of the pork and Hainan chicken, so I ordered the beef rendang on coconut rice. All the combos come with a salad with peanut dressing.

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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Korean Royal Cuisine at YongSuSan (Koreatown, Los Angeles)

I've always wanted to try Korean "royal cuisine" ever since I stayed up all night for weeks watching Dae Jang Geum, so YongSuSan has long been on my radar, but I never actually went until very recently. 

Their prices have increased from what they listed on the website, but since this was a long anticipated visit, I went with the most expensive tasting menu, the Royal Court Table D'Hote for $49.99 ("table d'hote" means a prix fixe set menu, a phrase that is rarely used in the US)
YongSuSan is one of the fanciest Korean restaurants we have in town, as you can see from the entrance.
There's no grand dining room inside though, as they have several private rooms and a small dining area for those not requiring a private room. The dining room is not particularly "fancy" compared to restaurants in West Hollywood, but I like its quietness and the service.
The Royal Court menu changes seasonally. For mine, it starts with a "soft creamy porridge".

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