Spanning humble eateries and fine dining, Korean cuisine now mirrors a community fully woven into the city’s culinary mainstream




Baroo, a Korean fine dining restaurant in Downtown Los Angeles (Hong Yoo/ The Korea Herald)


LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles has 릴게임꽁머니 long been a second home to Korean food, but the spectrum is widening. From neighborhood tofu houses and tiny banchan specialists to modern tasting-menu destinations, Korean cuisine now occupies every 황금성게임랜드 tier of the city’s dining hierarchy.
The shift is visible in The Los Angeles Times’ annual “101 Best Restaurants” list, where multiple Korean restaurants have earned spots. Baroo placed as 릴게임손오공 high as No. 3, while Perilla ranked No. 18 — a sign that what was once niche is now central to the city’s culinary identity.



Banchan and dosirak sold in 10원야마토게임 Perilla (Instagram, @_perilla.la)


Perilla: A 200-square-foot ode to banchan
On the border of Echo Park and Chinatown, Perilla is barely 200 square feet. Yet 바다이야기디시 chef Kim Ji-hee’s permanent storefront has become a pilgrimage site for fans who first discovered her seasonal banchan, or side dishes, during lockdown pop-ups.
Inside the Alpine Street retail complex, the mood is casual and sunlit. Patio tables spill into a courtyard, evoking a friend’s backyard more than a commercial strip mall.
Kim from Busan brings the intuitive, hand-seasoned touch of Korean home cooking to dishes such as gyeranmari, spinach muchim and kimchi. A small display case allows customers to assemble custom banchan plates, alongside dosirak (lunch boxes), marinated beef over rice and vegetable-forward bowls.
What stands out is how seamlessly the Korean word “banchan” has entered the local vocabulary. Born-and-raised Angelenos use it without translation. The rise in recognition mirrors the broader acceptance of Korean food in the city’s mainstream dining culture.



LA Galbi Combo in BCD Tofu House (Hong Yoo/ The Korea Herald)


BCD Tofu House: The enduring anchor of Koreatown
If Perilla represents the intimate side of Korean dining, BCD Tofu House embodies its scale. The Koreatown institution has operated for nearly three decades, drawing crowds from early lunch to late night.
On a recent Super Bowl Sunday at 5 p.m., the dining room was packed — families, groups of friends, regulars and delivery drivers weaving through the aisles. Founded in 1996 by Lee Hee-sook and named after Seoul’s Bukchang-dong district, BCD now operates more than 11 branches across Los Angeles.
The LA Galbi Combo ($32.99) remains the most popular order: well-marinated barbecue short ribs paired with a personal-size soon tofu stew of your choice. Diners can adjust spice levels from plain to “danger,” though some customers may find even the spicy tier relatively tame.
Before the main dish arrives, the table fills with banchan: kimchi, seasoned bean sprouts, fish cake, squid jeotgal, potato and egg salad. A grilled croaker lands beside a bowl of rice served in a sizzling stone pot. After transferring the rice to a separate bowl, hot water is poured into the stone pot to create nurungji — toasted rice tea enjoyed as a soothing finale.
“I love Korean food, but I especially like Korean restaurants that give a lot of good banchan. That is BCD Tofu House for me. I love their mashed potato and egg salad banchan,” said Kasey Stein, a Los Angeles resident.
The restaurant recently received a shout-out from Blackpink’s Rose during a talk at the Grammy Museum when she was asked to name a favorite LA spot.



Appetizers from Baroo's tasting menu (Hong Yoo/ The Korea Herald)


Baroo: Korean fine dining takes center stage
Across town, Baroo presents Korean cuisine in an entirely different register. Despite operating only for dinner, the dining room was full on a recent weekday evening, largely with non-Korean diners curious about contemporary interpretations of the cuisine.
The $125 tasting menu unfolds in measured, seasonal courses. Guests seated at the bar can watch chefs plate dishes in the open kitchen.
The meal began with a fragrant sunchoke and pine foam soup, followed by jokpyeon (pork trotter jelly) made exclusively from collagen-rich cuts, resulting in a delicate, supple texture without gaminess. Black sesame sool bbang, topped with goat cheese and cherry tomatoes, evoked a savory slice, while a yukhoe tartelette delivered a tangy, nutty profile rather than the straightforward sweetness of classic Korean beef tartare.
A course of jaetbangeo (amberjack) with pear and gooseberry layered crisp textures and bright acidity, while a seafood stew combining sole, scallop, crab and prawn arrived in a warmed bowl, its tomato base dusted with paprika and enriched with sea urchin. The flavors were concentrated and briny, though at moments the seaweed sauce accompanying the fish skewed slightly salty when combined in a single bite.



Deulgireum noodle, a vegetarian option in Baroo (Hong Yoo/ The Korea Herald)


One of the evening’s highlights, however, arrived off-menu. The chef sent out a vegetarian dish — perilla oil noodles — as a gesture of hospitality, underscoring that Baroo offers thoughtful vegetarian options upon request. The noodles were glossy and supple, coated in nutty deulgireum (perilla oil) and topped with crisp gamtae bugak (fried seaweed). The seaweed’s deep umami amplified the dish’s savoriness, while the strands themselves were tender and moist.
The main savory course featured Brandt beef short rib with burdock jus, accompanied by wild mountain green rice, perilla jangajji and gamtae bugak. Diners were encouraged to wrap the first bite in greens before pairing the remaining meat with the aromatic rice. The beef was cooked precisely, its richness balanced by the earthy notes of the jus.
Optional pairings range from a $55 nonalcoholic selection to an $80 Korean sool and wine pairing.
Dessert — strawberry sorbet with pistachio cream, hazelnut croustillant and makgeolli accents — delivered brightness and nutty depth in equal measure.
From Perilla’s compact banchan counter to BCD’s bustling Koreatown dining room and Baroo’s polished tasting menu, Korean cuisine in Los Angeles no longer occupies a single lane. It moves fluidly between comfort and craft, tradition and reinvention.