Categories: Adventure & Sports; Local & Entertainment

A Night Out in Los Angeles' K-town

By chubbuni13
updated about 1 month ago

One of the great things about Los Angeles is its myriad of ethnic enclaves. Outside of the motherland, LA houses the largest population of Koreans on the globe and I make sure to take advantage of this. If you're adventurous, you've probably tried venturing into Koreatown, but I bet your token Korean friends gave you the "foreigners tour". Well, I'm here to give you the inside scoop on LA's Koreatown. We Koreans are all members of a Confucian society that highly regard mutual respect, integrity and filial responsibility. But all that shite flies out the door when it comes to rampant alcohol consumption and flashy displays of conspicuous consumption. We're like the Irish of the East!

Killer Korean Cars

Much like a pub-crawl that goes from place to place, Koreans like to number their destinations on a night out on the town by giving them numeric designations, almost as if they’re on a train. So, 1st car will almost always be a restaurant where you consume copious amounts of Korean food along with a liberal dose of alcohol. 2nd car is invariably a bar or a nightclub where you can see some of the unique aspects of Korean nightlife. 3rd cars are afterhour spots such as karaoke rooms and for the lack of a better word, illegal speakeasies that cater to drinkers after the 2AM cutoff.

Kobawoo House

698 S VERMONT AVE LOS ANGELES, CA 90005

Human beings are strange animals. While growing up my father would regale me with stories how he would daily walk barefoot to school in the snow 6 miles uphill both ways. He would invariably make sure to relate his intense suffering over dinner and would constantly make me feel guilty for avoiding the ravages of childhood malnutrition. But when he goes to Kobawoo House and orders his favorite dishes he waxes poetic about how much he misses his existence as a boy in poverty stricken post WWII Korea. Known for their Korean comfort food, Kobawoo House’s variety of soups, casseroles and traditional Korean dishes evince pangs of nostalgia for older diners… and feelings of guilt for their spoiled Korean American offspring. Indeed, something for everyone.

Mazinga Z

3054 W 8TH ST LOS ANGELES, CA 90005

A theme bar based on its Japanese anime namesake, Mazinga Z is quite possibly my most favorite bar in K-town. I’m quite fond of the reasonable prices and wide selection of traditional and fusion bar food. I’m partial to how the owners encourage patrons to add their own graffito to the wall, although reading “Call xxx for a good time” repeatedly throughout the night gets kinda old. But the shining jewel in Mazinga Z’s crown is their deep fried chicken gizzard appetizer. I’m sure many of you are cringing and are thinking that nothing could be worse than eating deep fried chicken innards. But then again, the literal transliteration of the dish in Korean is “chicken shit-house appetizer”, so of course, you’d be wrong. Goddamn robot mans a mean fryer.

Le Cercle

721 Western Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90005

The newest incarnation of one of LA’s biggest night clubs, Le Cercle has gone through many name changes. Chief among the reasons for this is their blatant disregard for refusing entrance to underage patrons, and I will be the first to admit that I’ve definitely seen girls there that looked a lot like my 16 year old cousin. Also, their flagrant flouting of LA’s smoking ban indoors could be another consideration for their invariable closures. But at the same time, you have to give them credit for just totally doing what they want to do, the law be damned! Scantily clad women shaking it to trashy Korean techno never hurt my estimation of the place either. Table service is pretty much mandatory @ minimum $100 a head unless you’re an attractive girl with a group of likewise good looking women.

Manna Korean Bbq

3377 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90019

You know that girl you hung out with in high school that was kinda dorky and a little overweight? The one that wasn’t popular but was always there for you when you needed a friend? Manna Korean BBQ is that kind of joint to me. $17 per person gets you all you can eat Korean BBQ. The meat quality is definitely not top-notch, the service is utilitarian at best and the food quality grading of “C” hidden artfully behind the iron working detracts some of the more squeamish, but you can’t get more food for less money. Nowadays, the secret seems to be out as fully half of the restaurant’s patrons are non Korean.

Park's Bbq

955 S Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90006

On the other end of the high school metaphor spectrum, if Manna BBQ is the dorky girl that you hung out with mainly because she let you feel her up, Park’s BBQ is the head cheerleader, prom queen and teenage sex goddess rolled up into one delicious package. They have a special strain of pork that is specifically bred for their restaurant! Even noted food critic Jonathan Gold gave it his thumbs up. Service is spot on, the interior looks like a freakin’ nightclub and the prices while not Koreatown’s most expensive, definitely brook some restraint. ”$30 for an order of bacon?? This better be the most delicious bacon in the world!” pops bacon into mouth “OK, you got lucky!”

Soju: Don't ask, don't tell

As some can probably infer from my guides, I am a great lover of most alcoholic beverages. I am not alone in this trend as South Korea has the highest level of alcoholism in the world second to Ireland. One of the main reasons for this alarming (and yet strangely satisfying) trend is soju, Korean vodka. Harbinger of drunken hook ups, back alley brawls and wretched hangovers, soju is the beverage of choice in all Korean restaurants, bars and nightclubs in K-town. Just don’t ask what it’s made of… I went around asking everybody I knew and the only solid response I received was, “chemicals”.

Blink

3377 Wilshire Blvd Ste 200, Los Angeles, CA 90010

Placed neatly on the corner of Alexandria and Wilshire, Cafe Blink offers lots of things: good looking bartenders to ogle, a sleek and modern interior and a slew of menu items ranging from haute couture to bohemian chic. What they don’t offer apparently is a modicum of restraint because I’ve seen the wildest stuff happen here. Wannabe thugs getting clocked by security guards, lesbian make out scenes on several different instances, a couple of drive by shootings and I swear to God, a guy walking around with a monkey on a leash. It’s almost like it’s worth paying $150 for a bottle of Glenlivet 12 just to stay and see the floor show.

Parao

3680 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90010

In the same vein as Cafe Blink, Parao has the same blend of modern design and attractive barkeeps that inevitably separate fools (me and my friends) from their money. However, the main draw of this bar is its extreme proximity of buddy’s house across the street. This allows us to get trashed without worrying about the consequences of drunk driving. And ask anybody in the know, if you ever come in contact with a drunk Korean man, you’d better damn well expect some off key singing. This was after the five of us drank two bottles of Crown Royale in a span of two hours. I think the bill was originally around $400 but one of the servers took mercy on us and cut $50 off the tab. Somewhere in heaven Baby Jesus is crying right now.

Booking: A Unique Aspect of Korean Clubbing

Like their Occidental counterparts in most respects, Korean clubs set themselves apart by the unique process of booking. For the uninitiated, booking involves waiters accosting girls from tables and sometimes the dance floor, and promptly grabbing them by the hand and plopping them down at tables filled with male patrons. Then, presumably the men offer the women alcohol to drink, conversations are started and the whole issue of approach anxiety is negated… Men know that their precious alcohol is at risk, so they try to make the most of every $200 bottle of whiskey by drinking very little, and trying to sauce up the girls. However, the majority of female participants know exactly what is going on, and chances are if they don’t really like the guy, they’re just going to drink and then make some lame excuse to leave. It’s kinda like Social Security, no one knows how it manages to work, but it does… (for now)

Karnak

3319 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90010

The Burger King to Le Cercle’s McDonalds, Karnak provides an alternative for a slightly older crowd of clubgoers in Koreatown. Still, despite (or maybe because of) the fact that the demographic is skewed towards older patrons, usually more recently arrived from Korea, altercations happen here at this club with alarming frequency. I remember a time where my friend accidentally bumped into a girl on the dance floor. He apologized and she refused his apology, along with unsolicited comments about his weight and physical appearance. Annoyed by her response, he retracted said apology, also with choice insults and what resulted from fifteen minutes of yelling over the music was the biggest bar brawl I’ve ever seen in my life. The ensuing mass of fighting was so great, that security was soon engulfed and the conflict swelled out of the doors and burst out onto the street until the police arrived and calmed everyone down. Definitely not for the faint of heart, but then again most of Koreatown isn’t. Table service is mandatory like Le Cercle and expect to pay the same, around $100 per person.